Archive of Our Own

"You touched it, didn't you?" Obi-Wan asked in an exasperated tone of voice that never failed to make Anakin defensive.

“It was shaking! I thought it was about to fall!” Anakin flushed.

Rex fondly rolled his eyes at the two, still getting over his slight vertigo from… whatever just happened. He scanned their surroundings, very aware that they were not in the old decrepit temple they had just been in. They appeared to be in an alleyway on Coruscant, or maybe on another core planet city.

Rex turned to his jetii to see if they had anything to say about where they were, but the two were still bickering playfully. Rex coughed, getting their attention.

They both looked up at him instantly, eyes deliberately innocent, as if they hadn’t been metaphorically tugging on each other's pigtails.

“I don’t know if you two had noticed, but I’m pretty sure this isn’t where we were just a moment ago.”

The two finally looked around, and Rex could see them coming to the same conclusions that he just had.

“We appear to be on Coruscant, but it feels…” Obi-Wan started.

“Different.” Anakin finished, looking confused.

“I don’t feel everything you two do, so how does it feel different?” Rex asked.

“It feels more full, there’s more life here. It almost feels peaceful, like it was before the war.” Obi-Wan said, looking around with almost a look of wonder.

Anakin then jumped, like he had just seen something, and quickly grabbed both Rex and Obi-Wan, dragging them deeper into the alleyway and into the shadows.

“Anakin-!”

Anakin shut Obi-Wan up with a finger to his lips, pointing to an area not too far from where they were not hiding. Peering over there, Rex could see two men with their backs to them, one of them slightly taller, both wearing long robes with the hoods pulled over their heads.

Rex didn’t understand what was so significant about the two until they had turned enough for the three men to see their faces.

“Is that-?” Rex whispered, doing a double take at the men in front of them, and the men besides him.

“That’s us. I remember this evening, it was about 2 years before the war started. Why are we here?” Obi-Wan said breathlessly.

“Force shit?” Rex offered, shrugging. Anakin snorted, and Obi-Wan tried to hide his smile, failing miserably as he looked at Rex with fond eyes.

“What do we do?” Anakin asked, “We should probably go to the temple, right? The council might know what to do.”

“Anakin Skywalker? Suggesting we talk to the council? I never thought I would see the day!” Obi-Wan exclaimed sarcastically, earning a glare from Anakin and a laugh from Rex.

“If we’re going to go to the temple, which I think we might have to in order to do proper research in the archives, we’ll need to get there mostly undetected. We don’t want the public to know about us being here.” Obi-Wan said, stroking his beard thoughtfully as he always did.

“That shouldn’t be a problem!” Anakin said confidently.

Obi-Wan and Rex shared a look, one that Anakin did not appreciate at all, evident by the elbows to the ribs that the two men received. They didn’t actually hurt, but it was the principle of the matter.

-

Quite surprisingly, there were no issues getting to the temple. Rex thought it was strange to be there without seeing any of his fellow vode along the way, but they hadn’t been discovered just yet. Obi-Wan and Anakin made it a priority to get Rex a cloak to cover his armour, and told him to keep his helmet on, but to keep his head down.

They actually made it inside the temple before any of them were stopped. Rex was also shocked by the lack of security, but they weren’t the ones in the middle of a war so maybe it shouldn’t be that surprising.

“Can I help you with something?”

All three men froze at the voice that called from behind them. It was Mace Windu. Anakin and Obi-Wan glanced at each other, communicating in a way that Rex wished he could, before eventually coming to a decision.

They both turned around at once, and Rex moved to their other side, still defending their backs. They took their hoods off in unison, Obi-Wan greeting Windu with a bright but tired smile, and Anakin looking like he was about to laugh.

“Actually there is something you could help us with, see I don’t think we’re where we’re supposed to be.”

Windu blinked, and Rex could tell that Anakin wanted to laugh at the look of shock on the master's face.

“Kenobi? Skywalker?”

“Master Windu.” Anakin said, bowing slightly, his long hair getting in his eyes.

They stood there in tense silence for a moment while Windu seemed to process everything.

“I think you should follow me. I’ll call the council.” Windu finally said, turning to lead them to the council chambers.

-

Obi-Wan and Anakin stood in front of the whole council. It was strange to see them all in the flesh, in the same room. That rarely happened during the war. Rex stood by the door, still in his cloak. He was stressed at the fact that he had to protect so many jetiise at once, but he was vigilant.

“The same jedi we know, you two are not.” Yoda finally said, breaking the stunned silence.

“No we are not, Master Yoda. If I am correct, we are from about four, almost five years in the future.” Obi-Wan replied diligently.

“The future?” Windu asked, incredulous.

“Yes, Master Windu. Master Kenobi and I were investigating an old jedi temple and we seem to have been thrown into the past somehow.”

Anakin left out the part where he touched the glowing orb that Obi-Wan told him not to. He also wasn’t very subtle about using Obi-Wan’s title, informing the council of his promotion to master.

“And your guest?” Master Tiin asked, gesturing towards Rex.

If Rex hadn’t already been tense before, he certainly was now with the attention of the whole jedi council on him.

“Ah, Captain Rex, would you join us for a moment?” Obi-Wan asked, gesturing for him to come forward.

“Of course, General.” Rex replied, finally taking off the hood, though keeping the helmet, and stepping to join his jetii.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but general?” Master Billaba asked, eyebrows raised, her surprised expression mirrored by many others in the room.

Only now did they seem to notice the armour that Obi-Wan and Anakin were wearing. They were not in traditional jedi robes, they couldn’t be with how often they were on the front lines. After experiencing how careless the jetii were about their own personal wellbeing, they were practically forced into armour by their men.

“Oh that,” Anakin said hesitantly, “I don’t know how best to say this, but we’re currently in the middle of a war. Obi-Wan and I are generals in the army, as are most other jedi.”

“War?” Master Mundi gasped, murmurs breaking out across the room, silenced by the thunk of Yoda’s stick.

“More about your companion, you shall tell us.”

Rex looked to Obi-Wan and Anakin for what he should do, but the looks they gave him didn’t really say much. So, he did what any good soldier would do, he stood at attention and saluted.

“Sirs, CT-7567, I am Captain Rex of the 501st Battalion serving under General Skywalker.”

He only fell to ease when Yoda raised a hand for him to do so.

“Your armour, it looks almost Mandalorian, why is that?” Master Koon asked, looking as interested as the man could.

“Ah, well, it’s standard issue. All of the men wear the same armour.”

“Hmm, would you be alright taking off your helmet for us?” Master Koon asked.

It showed what he already knew about Mandalorian culture that he asked in the first place, no wonder the wolfpack adored him so much.

Rex took off his helmet, placing it under his arm. It was a natural and fluid movement, something that he had done thousands of times. If only he hadn’t almost dropped his helmet, surprised at the gasps he heard from some members of the council.

“Kenobi, Skywalker, why is Jango Fett in our council room right now?” Windu asked angrily.

Obi-Wan blinked, “Oh, I had forgotten about that.”

Anakin laughed softly, “No no, masters, you don’t understand. Captain Rex and Jango Fett are not the same person. Rex is a clone engineered from the DNA of Fett.”

“A clone?” Master Ti asked, leaning forwards slightly, studying Rex, who stood as still as ever.

“Are these clones… common?” Master Gallia asked.

“More than common, they comprise almost the whole army.” Obi-Wan replied. Rex could hear the hesitancy in his voice, as he knew some of the members of the council had not had the best initial reactions to the clones, they didn’t really see them as… people, as sad as that sounded.

“An entire army of clones, how did that happen?” Windu asked.

The three men all looked at each other, “I’m not sure I should say. We don’t know how much we’ve already affected your future, of it what we’ve done will affect our time.” Obi-Wan replied reluctantly.

“Oh man,” Anakin groaned suddenly, “I gotta get back to Snips. I left her alone with Hardcase, Echo, and Fives.”

Rex turned sharply to his general, “Why would you do that? You know how much trouble those three get into even without her help.”

There were a couple soft gasps, and Rex realized too late that they probably wouldn’t understand how Rex, Anakin, and Obi-Wan talked to each other. Rex almost wanted to turn to them and promise that this wasn’t insubordination.

“I thought we’d get back quick! Kix should be with them, but you know that Jesse has a broken rib right now.”

“Members of your battalion, these people are?” Yoda asked.

“Most of them, yeah. Snips is my padawan though.”

“A padawan? You?” Windu asked, probably not meaning to sound so rude. Actually, maybe he did.

“I am a jedi knight, I have a padawan.” Anakin said haughtily and offended.

“You’re a jedi knight? But you said you were only from 5 years into the future?” Master Piell said, like the math wasn’t working out.

“Yes, and I was knighted 3 years ago. In 2 years for your time.” Anakin explained, and Rex could see Obi-Wan roll his eyes fondly at Anakin’s pride.

“I do not know of any initiates named Snips.” Master Koon commented.

“Oh that’s just a nickname, my padawan is Ahsoka Tano.”

Rex could see Plo Koon perk up at the name, and if he remembered correctly, General Koon was the one who had found Commander Tano and brought her to the temple when she was still very young. They were pretty close, if the wolfpack was correct.

“Little ‘Soka?” Master Koon clarified.

Oh man , Rex was definitely going to use that nickname next time he saw the commander, it was too good.

“Yeah!” Anakin said, smiling brightly, “She’s the best padawan anyone could ask for. She and the boys get along really well.”

“And these padawans are sent out to the front lines? That’s rather dangerous, yes?” Master Ti said.

Out of the corner of his eyes, Rex could see Anakin’s eyes light up. He had heard both of his jetii rant many times about the downfallings of the council and how they always hated how carelessly padawans and young knights were put in danger constantly by sending them to fight a war they had not been trained for.

“Oh yes, it is very dangerous. I tried to bring it up with the council before but, what did you all say again? Ah, I remember,” Anakin said, venom sharp in his tone, “I was told that padawans were meant to fight. I was also told that if I ever brought up my concerns again, I would have my padawan taken from me.”

The council looked shocked, looking to Obi-Wan for some sort of defense or confirmation that they had really been the ones to say that. Obi-Wan didn’t give any of them a reassuring look, he kept his gaze stony. That was confirmation enough.

The three have had many conversations about what they were going to do once the war was over. Those long nights in their tent, huddled together and hands entwined, they would pretend that they weren’t two jedi and clone, but instead just three men in love, their entire futures laid out in front of them. Anakin and Obi-Wan had plans on leaving the order the moment the war was over. They’ve also already been working with Padmé on bills and future laws to ensure the rights of clones after the war ended.

It was during those nights that Rex confessed all the things that he and his brothers had to endure on Kamino, how he was almost killed as a child for his hair colour, how he had known of some earlier batches of his vode to be killed because one of them had a strange birthmark. Objects in their tent were floating by the end, the air palpable with rage from Anakin, sorrow from Obi-Wan.

They would end the war, leave the order, free the clones, stop the Kaminoans from hurting any more people, end the reign of the Hutt family in the outer rim, and then maybe, finally, they would know peace.

“Talk about this later, we will. Your presence here, continue it cannot.” Yoda said, distracting the others from their own shock.

“That’s why we came here, we were hoping to have access to the archives so we could research the artifact that sent us here.” Obi-Wan said, his voice deceivingly calm. Rex knew he was probably fuming on the inside, frustrated with Yoda for being so blasé about everything they’d revealed.

“Of course. What would you have us do about the other jedi in the temple? Would you like us to keep your presence here secret?” Windu asked.

The three men looked at each other, communicating with just a couple facial expressions. Rex didn’t need to be force sensitive to communicate with his jetii without words.

Obi-Wan sighed, “I don’t think there should be an announcement made on anything, but I think it would be impossible to truly keep it a secret.”

If it weren’t for his training, Rex would have laughed. No matter how the jedi chose to portray themselves, Rex was very aware of their penchant for gossip.

“Very well. Visit Madame Jocasta, you now should.” Yoda said, finally dismissing them.

The three bowed, and left the room. As soon as the doors closed behind them, they all relaxed, the tension draining out of their bodies.

“Is that what it’s like every time?” Rex asked. He had felt more on edge in that room, standing in front of the entire council, then he did when he was going up against an entire squad of clankers.

“Mostly, yes. I would say you get used to it after a while, but even now that I’m on the council, I still find it hard to relax.”

“You wouldn’t guess it though, the way you spread out across your seat.” Anakin teased, making Obi-Wan flush slightly.

“Oh I would love to see exactly how he looks spread out across one of those chairs.” Rex joined in the teasing, making the flush on Obi-Wan’s face spread to his ears adorably.

“Behave you two, we are in the jedi temple and you never know who is listening. At least show a little respect.”

“I don’t think respect has ever been in Anakin’s vocabulary.”

Obi-Wan shook his head, “Apparently not, no matter how hard I tried to drill the idea into him.”

“Aww, Obi-Wan, you know you love me!” Anakin said, smiling brightly.

“Sometimes I do question how.”

Rex and Obi-Wan laughed at the pout on Anakin’s face at that.

“I am surprised that that only lasted a few minutes, council meetings can go on for hours and hours sometimes.” Obi-Wan shrugged.

Rex shivered at the idea of it.

They had made their way to the archives without running into almost anyone. When Rex sent a confused look at the two jedi, they just shrugged and said something about classes.

There were almost no people in the archives when they entered, which seemed normal enough to Rex. There was an older woman in there who almost had an aura of intelligence surrounding her.

When Obi-Wan and Anakin bowed to her, Rex followed along.

“Madame Jocasta, it’s lovely to see you.” Obi-Wan said, flattery in his tone.

Jocasta blinked at them, confused for a moment.

“Kenobi?”

Obi-Wan smiled and nodded, “I was hoping to do some research about time travel, specifically at the hands of artifacts, could you point me in the direction of where I would find that information?”

“Well… time travel certainly explains your appearance.”

She led them to a section of the archives and pointed out some specific stuff that Anakin and Obi-Wan could use. Rex wasn’t really paying attention though, he was more so trying to figure out how to best protect his jetii in such a wide open area by himself.

Anakin put a hand on Rex’s arm, drawing him out of his thoughts. “It’s alright, Rex. We’re safe here. I think Jocasta would rather die than have any of the records damaged. You can stand down for a bit.” Anakin and Obi-Wan both gave him a reassuring smile, and Rex finally relaxed.

He sat down next to the two men, and they all distributed the datapads to go through, seeing if there were any artifacts that matched the one they had found. The circular table they were sitting at had a pile of datapads on one side closer to Anakin, and once they had gone through it, it was added to a pile closer to Rex.

A little less than an hour later, they heard the sound of someone approaching their location. Rex had his blasters in hand in a moment, and both of his jetii had their lightsabers in hand, though not activated, in the same amount of time.

From behind a bookcase walked Plo Koon, who froze when he saw the three men, weapons in hand.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I did not mean to startle you.” He said, his hands raised.

Their weapons were out of their hands and put away quickly.

“No no, it’s not your fault at all. We were just, uh, playing it safe.” Anakin placated.

“You really have been at war, haven’t you?” Plo Koon asked wearily. They couldn’t see his eyes, but they could feel the sympathy radiating off of him.

“Better safe than sorry, sir.” Rex said, finally sitting back down, picking up the datapad he had dropped in his haste, slight adrenaline rush fading.

“I was actually hoping to ask you a few questions, if that is alright?”

“Of course, though I can’t promise that we can answer them.” Obi-Wan asked with a charming smile, gesturing for him to sit.

Plo Koon sat there for a moment, seemingly getting his thoughts in order. “This war… when does it begin? How?”

The three looked at each other, eventually allowing Obi-Wan to answer, “It starts in about 2 years, and it began, and still is, under the control of a sith lord. We have suspicions as to who this mastermind is, but we are still collecting evidence to prove it.”

Master Koon sat there, shocked at the information, as up until this point, the jedi still believed that the sith were practically non-existent. After Obi-Wan had presumably killed Maul, they chose to believe that was it. They chose not to consider that Maul was just the apprentice.

They didn’t know that, if their theory was correct, the sith could possibly be as close as the senate building.

They were quiet for a little longer, allowing Master Koon the time he needed to process.

“Am I also a general?”

Anakin almost smiled, “Yeah, you’re one of the best of us.”

Master Koon turned to look at Rex, “Am I good to my men?”

Rex did smile at this, “Oh your men adore you.”

“Can you tell me about them?”

Rex and Master Koon spent the next half hour talking about the 104th, the wolfpack, and all of the stories that Rex had heard from them about their time under General Koon.

Eventually, Master Koon got a call on his comm and had to leave. The three men then got back to their research.

Only about 45 minutes later, they were interrupted again. They flinched at the sudden disruption, going for their weapons like they had before, but stood down when Madame Jocasta came around the corner to inform them that dinner was currently being served and that their research would still be there when they got back. She practically shoved them out of the archives, despite their protests.

On their way to the eating hall, they discussed what they were going to do when they got there.

“Do you think we’ll run into ourselves?” Anakin asked excitedly.

“I think it’s highly probable, though part of me hopes we do not.”

“Why’s that?” Anakin asked, an adorably confused look on his face.

“Imagine the questions they would ask us! Think about it, at this point in our lives we are still master and padawan, you’ve yet to lose your hand or gain your scar. I was still so emotionally repressed that I was certainly not helping you get a good grip on your own emotions.”

“I mean true, but isn’t that what makes it so fun? You can try to convince yourself to actually let yourself have emotions sometimes and I can convince myself to put less trust in the chancellor.”

Obi-Wan stroked his beard, “You may actually be onto something.”

They entered the eating hall a moment later. It wasn’t very full yet, as many people were still in classes that were running long, or showering in the gyms after training, but it was still more full than Anakin and Obi-Wan had seen it in a long time. It was rare for one to see so many jedi in one place during the war, and Rex could see tears in Obi-Wan and Anakin’s eyes as they saw friends that have died, younglings with innocence still in their eyes, the force in the room so full of life.

Some people looked up as they entered, looking at them curiously, whispering amongst themselves. Obi-Wan and Anakin were still frozen, so Rex put a hand on either of their backs, pushing them slightly. That brought them back to reality and sent them walking towards the line to get food.

Master Windu came and stood next to them, “I wasn’t expecting to see you so quickly, knowing you Kenobi, I was sure you’d get caught up in your research.”

“Ah well we may have, but Madame Jocasta kicked us out.”

Anakin chuckled, “And she doesn’t even hate you yet!”

Windu got a confused look on his face, “Why would Madame Jocasta hate you?”

Obi-Wan rubbed the back of his neck, “Ah well, you see I once insinuated that the records in the archives were incomplete and had the displeasure of proving her wrong when she disagreed.”

Windu nodded sagely, “Yeah, that’ll do it. Would you like me to stay with you and redirect any questions you may receive? People are already talking, as I’m sure you’ve noticed.”

“We’ve noticed, but I think we’re alright.” Obi-Wan assuaged.

“After going against Grievous and his army of clankers, I only know of a couple things that scares these two anymore.” Rex joked.

“Aren’t I the ‘Hero with No Fear’? I thought I wasn’t supposed to be scared of anything?”

“And yet…” Rex said with a look.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Anakin asked, jokingly incredulous.

“I’ve seen the way you react the second Obi-Wan begins to do his krayt dragon impression! We could be in the middle of hyperspace and you’d still jump at the slightest growl!”

Obi-Wan smirked, taking an exaggerated breath as if he were about to do the impression.

“Ah ah! Don’t even try it!” Anakin hit Obi-Wan, “That doesn’t count, that’s a totally rational fear to have!”

Rex and Obi-Wan both snorted, but Windu just looked at the three confused.

“Well I’ll leave you three to be now.”

He walked away, leaving the three still giggling, with Anakin still trying to defend the rationality of his fear. It was easy to ignore their surroundings when they knew they were safe and they had each other. Rex could see Anakin’s fingers twitching as he caught himself about to lace his fingers with Obi-Wan’s and his own. They were safe, but maybe not that safe.

The room quieted suddenly, and the three men looked up to see what had happened. Across the hall, they could see the shock-still figures of young Obi-Wan and Anakin, staring at their future selves.

Rex gasped, “Ke'pare! Is that you two? Wow, look at that hair!”

“Hey!” Anakin defended, “I didn’t have a choice, it’s dresscode for padawans! I don’t know what Obi-Wan’s excuse is.”

“I thought my hair looked just fine, thank you.”

The three bickered amongst themselves for a minute, the attention of most of the hall on them.

A moment later, they noticed that their young counterparts had gotten closed. ‘I’ll just call them Kenobi and Skywalker.’ Rex thought.

“I’m sorry, but what’s going on right now?” Kenobi asked, looking flustered. Skywalker was looking at the three, a look of wonder on his face. He looked… innocent. It was strange.

“We’re you, can’t you tell?” Anakin said, smirking.

“Anakin,” Obi-Wan scolded, “He’s not incorrect, we are you from the future. Anakin touched something he shouldn’t have and now we are here, do not worry, we won’t be here long.”

Skywalker and Kenobi looked like they had a million questions to ask them.

“You can ask questions later, but we are rather hungry, so if you’ll excuse us.” Obi-Wan said with a smile, dragging Rex and Anakin to where the line had progressed.

Obi-Wan and Anakin were getting looks from everyone, but the more confused looks were shot at Rex, who many of them probably assumed was Jango Fett. Rex had to stop his jetii from sending harsh glares to the people who gave Rex more hostile looks.

Anakin froze and his whole body tensed, and Rex and Obi-Wan had to look around to see what made him react like that. Anakin made a low, almost growling noise and that’s when they saw why. Pong Krell.

Obi-Wan and Rex both grabbed Anakin at the same time, almost dropping their food, to keep him from lunging at the jedi master.

“Let me go.” Anakin hissed.

“Anakin no, you can’t. He’s not that man yet, he hasn’t done anything yet.” Obi-Wan whispered, trying to keep the attention off of them, a rather fruitless effort.

“But he will!” Anakin yelled, struggling in their arms.

Rex stepped in front of Anakin, blocking his view of the besilisk, “Anakin, trust me, I would know that better than any of us. We can’t do anything right now, maybe we could tell the council, but we can’t just attack him right now.”

Anakin looked Rex in the eye and he could see the pain in those beautiful blue eyes. He knew that Anakin blamed himself for what happened on Umbara, for what happened to the 501st and 212th. They were so lucky that so few people had died, but not lucky enough that nobody left the ordeal without a healthy scoop of trauma.

Hardcase and Waxer had both almost lost their lives because of what Krell had done, they probably would have if Rex hadn’t found a way to send a transmission to Obi-Wan about the information Krell had given both battalions.

That was the day that the rest of the 501st found out that their captain was in a relationship with the two men. The jetii had almost lept off the transport they had come on together, looking around frantically for any trace of the blond clone.

They had found him in a small room, surrounded by his brothers, eyes red and dried tear tracks running down his face. He had cried so much in the past few hours, he didn’t know if he even had more in him.

But when the two found him, leaping over and pulling him into their arms, peppering his face with kisses and reassurances that he was okay, they were okay, tears fell once again. The others looked shocked at the blatant display of affection from the two toward their captain, but didn’t say anything until later when they were all back on the Resolute.

“Captain! What the kriff?” Echo whined, “I had to give Fives 50 credits because I thought there was no way you were dating both of the generals!”

Rex blinked slowly, “I’m sorry, were you guys betting on this?”

Jesse rolled his eyes, “Of course we were, we had to find something to do.”

“Commander Tano and I were the only two who bet on you dating both of the generals.” Fives spoke up, smiling widely at the credits in his hand.

Rex snorted, “Then why did any of you bet against Commander Tano? She knows them better than you guys do.”

The other grumbled, making excuses, and Rex smiled. He was glad there was at least the smallest amount of good coming from this.

“So how long have you three been together? How the hell did it even happen?” Hardcase asked. The bruises and cuts over his face and body were being covered and bandaged with bacta by Kix, who was hissing at him to sit still.

Rex sighed, “Remember when I was injured on Saleucami?”

“IT’S BEEN THAT LONG?!” Echo yelled, many others yelling over him similar statements of shock.

Rex shrugged, “After we got back to the Resolute and Kix looked me over, I was on my way back to the barracks to get some rest and the two cornered me. Without telling me what they were really doing, they brought me back to Anakin’s room and looked me over. They said that they were worried about me, then they kissed me. We’ve been together since.”

“Aww,” Tup said smiling, “That’s actually really sweet!”

Rex flushed, “Yeah yeah, stop grilling me about my personal life, don’t you have anything better to do?”

“No.” They all responded in creepy unison before laughing.

-

They ate their meal mostly in peace, people were still staring at them, but they mostly ignored it. Obi-Wan or Anakin would sometimes see someone that kept their gaze for a few moments, their eyes full of grief at their friends who were gone in their time.

After a few minutes of eating though, Anakin saw something and gasped, getting the attention of Obi-Wan and Rex.

“Look!” Anakin whisper-yelled, pointing towards the door, where a group of young initiates had just entered.

There, walking between a young human and rodian, was a small togruta girl. Her blue eyes seemed to take up the majority of her face, warm orange skin almost glowing with youthful energy, her lekku nothing more than short stubs.

“Woah, the commander was so young!” Rex whispered in awe.

“Yes, she should be just about 12 years old right now.” Obi-Wan smiled. 

As if she could feel their gaze, the young Ahsoka looked up and over at them. She blinked a few times, shocked to see them watching her, before smiling and bowing slightly. Anakin raised a hand and waved at her. She waved back excitedly before running off to talk to her friends.

“Adorable. What happened to that?” Anakin sighed.

“Don’t be rude!” Obi-Wan scolded.

“I can’t wait to see her again, this will all be very good blackmail. I wonder why she’s never let us call her Little ‘Soka?”

Obi-Wan gave Rex a glare too, but the three just ended up laughing after a beat of silence.

They finished their meals rather quickly, used to having to eat quickly to get back to the action. They never had the luxury to savour their meals, and now it was just habit to eat what they could quickly.

They left the eating hall and started their way back to the archives. As they made their way through the winding halls that were so foreign to Rex, but so familiar to his jetii, they pointed out all of the little secrets and told stories about their time in the temple. It was nice to see them so lighthearted and comfortable, the war had taken a toll on all of them and seeing them like this, Rex couldn’t help but be excited for their future together.

They made their way back to the archives, only taking a couple short detours on their way there. They bowed to Madame Jocasta as they passed her, and went back to the table they had commandeered with their research.

They were interrupted about 20 minutes later, hearing the unmistakable sound of someone, maybe even multiple people, walking towards them slowly, as if they didn’t want to alert them to their presence. The three glanced at each other for a split second before leaping out of their seats and pulling their weapons, two lightsabers activating in unison.

“I would suggest you show yourselves before anything drastic happens.” Obi-Wan said calmly, ever the negotiator.

After a beat of silence, they saw two very familiar heads poke around the corner. They blinked and raised their hands when they saw the weapons being pointed at them.

“Oh, it’s just you guys.” Anakin said, putting his lightsaber away.

Rex looked at the younger versions of his jetii with awe, they were so different! Obi-Wan’s hair was almost to his shoulders, and Anakin had his buzzed pretty short with the exclusion of his long padawan braid. They both had a more calm energy to them, the stress of war practically unknown to them.

“People really should stop sneaking up on us.” Obi-Wan sighed, sitting down after putting away his lightsaber. Rex followed suit, but only when he knew there would be no more surprises.

“Why did you assume we were going to attack you?” Skywalker asked, adorable in his innocence.

Anakin snorted, “It’s sort of our default, we always have to be prepared for a fight.”

That got a weird look from Kenobi and Skywalker.

“You haven’t talked to the council, have you?” Anakin asked, “Well you know we’re from the future, but we’re also in the middle of a war, so you know, we’re used to people attacking us wherever we are.”

Kenobi and Skywalker looked shocked, “War?” Kenobi asked, a hand stroking his beard in an action familiar to Rex.

“Aww, you already have that habit!” Rex said excitedly to Obi-Wan.

“What habit?” Obi-Wan asked, looking confused.

Rex and Anakin looked at eachother, laughing slightly before, in unison, stroking their chins, “Hello there!” they said simultaneously before dissolving into a fit of giggles.

Obi-Wan rolled his eyes fondly, and Kenobi and Skywalker just looked at them confused.

“I apologize for these two, they don’t know how to behave.”

“Isn’t that Jango Fett?” Kenobi asked, pointing hesitantly at Rex.

“No! This is Captain Rex, he looks like Fett because he’s a clone made out of his DNA.” Anakin defended.

Rex nodded at them, not caring enough to actually salute, “Sirs.”

“A clone? What’s the story behind that?” Skywalker asked, looking intrigued.

“The story is a very long one that I believe you two will live out at a later date.” Obi-Wan said vaguely.

“I assume you two came because you have questions? Go ahead and ask them, I was getting bored anyway.” Anakin said, dropping the datapad he was holding and leaning back in his chair casually.

“Anakin! We’ve only been at this for 20 minutes!”

“Yeah and then like 2 hours before that!” Anakin huffed, “Rex agrees with me, don’t you Rex?” Anakin turned to Rex with his puppy eyes in full affect.

“It’s cute that you think those eyes do anything to me, general.” Rex teased.

Anakin huffed and crossed his arms indignantly.

“Woah, I’m a general?” Skywalker asked breathlessly.

“We both are,” Obi-Wan replied, “It comes with being a jedi during the war.”

“You get so many titles it gets annoying. Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, High Jedi General over the Third Systems Army and 212th Attack Battalion of the Grand Army of the Republic. Member of the Jedi High Council. The Negotiator. However does he do it!” Anakin teased, sounding like one of the breathless groupies they sometimes ran into when they went out in public.

Obi-Wan rolled his eyes, “Says you! Knight Anakin Skywalker, General of the 501st Battalion in the Grand Army of the Republic. The Chosen One of Prophecy, The Hero with No Fear . I especially like that last one.”

“Yeah yeah, you two are both very impressive, we understand.” Rex said, waving a hand.

Obi-Wan raised an eyebrow at him, “Is that insubordination I hear, Captain?”

Rex smirked, “Would you like it to be, sir?”

“Please keep it in your pants, there are children present.” Anakin voiced, pulling Rex and Obi-Wan out of stupor, blushing furiously as they met the shocked gaze of Kenobi and Skywalker.

“Um, may we sit?” Kenobi asked, promptly ignoring everything he just saw.

“Ah yes, of course.” Obi-Wan replied, gesturing to the open seats on the other side of the round table. The two sat down and stared at the three men across from them. Nobody said anything for a good 30 seconds and Rex was starting to get uncomfortable with the silence.

“So what’s the future like?” Skywalker asked suddenly, finally breaking the silence.

“You did hear that we’re in the middle of a war, didn’t you?” Anakin replied sarcastically, causing Skywalker to flush a little bit.

“Don’t be rude, Anakin,” Obi-Wan chided, “There are actually many things in the future that are good. I’ve met some of my best friends in the last couple years and reconnected with some old ones.”

“Oh yeah, I can’t be too mad about everything, the war gave us the guys. I don’t know what I would do without Rex and his brothers.” Anakin said happily.

“What sort of old friends?” Kenobi asked.

“Well Padmé, or Senator Amidala, is a close friend, as is Duchess Satine, Bail Organa and I talk a lot more now.” Obi-Wan lists off.

“Padmé?” Skywalker asked excitedly, and Anakin almost laughed. Rex had heard all about how, at one point in his life, Anakin was sure that he was going to marry Senator Amidala if they ever met again.

At the same time, Rex had also heard Anakin whine about how he had a crush on his master for the longest time and was sure that the man would never return those feelings.

“Oh yeah, Padmé is one of my best friends! She’s taught me more about politics than I ever wanted to know, but she listens to me complain, so I guess it’s only fair.” Anakin said excitedly.

“I feel like she’s taught the commander more about politics than you, but that’s probably because she actually listens.” Rex teased.

“Oh the two of them are going to take over the universe together, I’m sure of it. Add Satine to it and we won’t even have a chance.” Anakin sighed.

“The commander?” Kenobi asked, latching onto the unknown person who was mentioned in that.

“My padawan, Commander Ahsoka Tano.” Anakin’s response practically dripped in pride at the mention of her.

“I’m going to have a padawan?” Skywalker asked, his expression evident that he was displeased at the notion.

“Oh that’s exactly how you reacted when you first found out. She was assigned to you, but once you found out she was just as reckless as you, you two practically became connected at the hip.” Obi-Wan laughed.

“Snips is like a little sister to me, I love having her around. She’s going to be a better jedi then I am someday.”

Both Kenobi and Skywalker looked surprised at the sentiment. Rex had known both of them in the early days of the war, so he wasn’t too surprised at the shock. Even the boys had been cautious of Commander Tano at first, but now they really did treat her like their vod'ika.

“I’m not sure if you’ll be able to answer this,” Kenobi started hesitantly, “but is there anything you can tell us to maybe avoid some trouble?”

The three were quiet for a moment.

“If I am correct, and what we do here does not affect our timeline, there is plenty of advice that I would give to the two of you.” Obi-Wan stated.

Anakin nodded, “There are a lot of things that went wrong for us, and if we can at least change some of that for you guys, it would be nice to know that it’s better in another version of our lives.”

“Are you suggesting there’s a multiverse?” Kenobi asked, leaning forwards with interest.

Obi-Wan shrugged, “I’m suggesting that I certainly do not remember meeting myself and the fact that we can exist here without time itself getting destroyed says a lot.”

They sat in silence again for a minute. Rex watched Kenobi and Skywalker, the wheels turning in their heads. It was so familiar but still so foreign at the same time. There were the men he knew and loved, but at the same time they weren’t at all.

“Should I go first?” Anakin joked, but they could all hear the weight in his tone.

“By all means.” Obi-Wan said, waving a hand.

“First of all,” Anakin said, turning to Kenobi, “When I start talking about the dreams or nightmares about my mother, take them very seriously.”

Rex could see Obi-Wan wince slightly, he knew that the man considered that whole mess his own fault. If he had dismissed Anakin’s fears one more time, Shmi may not have survived. To Obi-Wan, it was too close a call and obviously his own fault. That wasn’t very surprising though, both of his jetii had the worst guilt complexes he’d ever seen.

Anakin turned to look Skywalker in the eye, “And you, stop trusting the chancellor so much.”

Skywalker blinked, his confusion slowly turning into defensiveness, “Wait, Palpatine? Why shouldn’t I trust him, he’s always been so good to me!”

Anakin rolled his eyes, “Yeah because it’s totally not weird when a much older man takes such keen interest in a 9 year old kid. It’s also totally not weird that he seems to be so interested in the force and yet takes every opportunity to shit on the jedi. But no my boy, you’re different and special and nobody really cares about you but me!”

Skywalker and Kenobi were silent. Anakin’s face was a little red, but Rex grabbed at his hand under the table and a quick squeeze assured him that his jetii was alright. One look to the other side of Anakin showed that Obi-Wan had taken Anakin’s other hand.

“Does he really say things like that?” Kenobi asked, looking at Skywalker who flushed at his gaze.

“I mean I guess? It sounds bad when you say it like that, but I guess he does?” Skywalker said hesitantly.

“He’s tried really hard to destroy any bond I’ve had with Obi-Wan, he hates that I trust anyone that isn’t him, or that I can go to anyone else for some different perspective on my problems. I’m telling you this early because it will save you so much pain and doubt in the future.”

“We said that we’re in the middle of a war, but really we’re reaching the end. There are just a few more things we have to get into place before we can end it.” Obi-Wan said.

“What does that mean?” Skywalker asked.

“Well Palpatine doesn’t know we’re onto him, he still believes that his plans will come to pass. In reality, we’ve been slowly dismantling them for a while now. We just need more time,” Anakin explained, “He’s still betting on me not having anyone to turn to when I’m confused or scared.”

“Are you insinuating that Chancellor Palpatine is behind the war? That he what, fabricated the entire thing?” Kenobi asked incredulously.

“That’s certainly what our evidence is pointing to. There is much more to it, plans that he has been setting up for many many years. He is not who he appears to be.” Obi-Wan replied, purposefully vague about details.

They were quiet for a moment, allowing Kenobi and Skywalker to think.

“Anakin,” Kenobi broke the silence, looking towards Skywalker, “You know you can trust me with anything, right? I never want you to think that I won’t be there for you.”

Obi-Wan snorted, “You’re me, so I know you the best out of anyone, right now you still have so many issues you need to sort out. I’m not saying you can’t be there for Anakin of course, but you don’t have to force yourself to be the support someone needs when you can’t even support yourself.”

Kenobi and Skywalker both looked surprised at that, “What’s that supposed to mean?” Kenobi asked, almost indignant.

“You have never grieved over the loss of Qui-Gon, you’ve never allowed yourself to be happy, you’ve chosen to believe that love, real love , somehow leads to corruption. You blindly believe everything the council says to be true and have rarely ever allowed yourself to form your own opinions. Especially after the council told you that if you acted up again they would take Anakin from you. We both know that your worst fear is losing him.”

Obi-Wan explained this casually, as if he weren’t picking apart at the armour that Kenobi had so deliberately put up over the years.

“You are human, allow yourself to be.”

It was quiet again, but it lasted longer this time. Based on how Kenobi and Skywalker were looking at each other and how their faces were twitching slightly, Rex could tell that they were having some sort of silent conversation through the force. He’s seen his own jetii do this countless times, and it never failed to impress him.

Once he was sure they were done, Rex spoke, “Could I share my own thoughts on the matter?”

“Oh, right, of course.” Kenobi startled.

“I would say I know the two of you better than almost anyone else,” Rex looked to his jetii, who nodded in agreement, “I can tell how you’re different now compared to the men I know. You are both so scared that you’re going to disappoint each other that you can’t even see that you could never do that. You talk about no attachments and about how jedi are above emotion, but we all know how unhealthy that is.”

Obi-Wan and Anakin nodded sagely, having learned this lesson slowly over the past couple of years.

“But the Jedi Code-” Kenobi attempted to say before being cut off by himself.

“Was created thousands of years ago. Times change and people change. Love is not bad, it’s obsession that corrupts people. Love is good, love is the most pure thing I’ve ever seen, it’s made of light.”

“The war has changed us a lot,” Anakin said somberly, “I’ve lost too many people I care about to stop myself from cherishing the time I have left with the ones who are still alive. Every time I go out into battle may be the last. I want to be happy with what I left behind, and I’m not going to give up the people I love just because the code tells me what I’m feeling is somehow wrong.”

“The love that they feel for me and my brothers is the reason many of us are alive. They care about us, and we know that. We feel safe talking to them about battle plans, about how we’re feeling, about if we think they’re wrong.

“I know too many vode who have been lost because their jetii didn’t care enough about them or they didn’t think they were allowed to criticize the plans they made.”

It was quiet again, Skywalker was just looking at his hands, and Kenobi at the table.

“I believe,” Kenobi paused, “I believe we have much to think about.”

They both took their leave after that, looking far more somber than they had coming in.

Anakin sighed, “I hope we at least helped a little bit.”

“Oh I’m sure you did.” Rex smiled at him.

“That was a very interesting conversation, but we should probably get back to researching before we get back to find that Ahsoka and Hardcase burned down the camp together while we were gone.”

Anakin and Rex picked up their datapads so fast that Obi-Wan almost laughed.

It was a number of hours later when they were next interrupted. So late in fact that they had almost totally lost track of how long they had been sitting there. This time, they had heard familiar voices leading towards them, so they made no attempt to draw their weapons.

“Ah, there you three are,” Master Windu said, “is the research going well?”

Obi-Wan nodded, “Yes, we believe that we’ve identified the artifact that caused this whole thing, but we’re still trying to figure out how to reverse the effect.”

Windu nodded, “That’s very good, but you’re all too tired to do this right now. We’ve set up quarters for you, I hope you don’t mind sharing a room?”

Anakin laughed, “You get used to sharing stuff when you’re stuck on an outer rim planet after crashing.”

“I hate to be the one to say it, but you’re usually the one who crashes the ship.” Rex teased.

Anakin sniffed, “I don’t know what you mean, I’ve only ever performed graceful landings thank you very much.”

Obi-Wan rolled his eyes at the two of them, “We don’t mind sharing at all, thank you.”

Windu gave them the same weird, confused look that he gave them when they were in line for dinner earlier that day.

“Alright, if the three of you will follow me, I can show you where you’ll be sleeping tonight. Hopefully only for tonight though.”

Obi-Wan nodded, “Yes, we would like to be back to our own time as quickly as possible if it’s all the same to you.”

Rex and Anakin walked behind Obi-Wan and Windu as they made their way through the winding halls. Obi-Wan glanced back at them a couple times as they walked, smiling at them softly.

After a minute, Obi-Wan spoke up, “Mace, could I give you a couple pieces of advice?”

Windu startled slightly, a slight stutter in his step, before he composed himself. “Of course, Kenobi.”

“In a few years, you’ll find yourself on Geonosis in the middle of one of the first battles in the war. Please try not to kill Jango Fett while you’re there.”

Rex and Anakin almost snorted at the incredulous look Windu gave Obi-Wan.

“Is that really the most important advice you can give me?”

“Oh it matters much more than you’d think. Jango was the only one who knew the truth behind the commission of the clones, apart from those who made them. That information could potentially have ended the war years ago. Not only that, but his son ends up having a vendetta against you and tries to kill you many times.”

Rex pipes in, “Boba is aliit, of course he is, but he’s annoying at the best of times and downright dangerous at the worst.”

“Oh yes, he threatened me while I was in prison and he didn’t even know it was me.” Obi-Wan sighed.

Windu blinked, “I’m sorry, prision?”

“Don’t worry, it was an undercover mission. As I was saying, simply try to incapacitate him rather than decapitating him. Oh, and also keep an eye on Pong Krell.”

Windu sighed, “Alright, I’ll keep that in mind. This will be your room for the night, let us know if there’s anything that’s missing.”

They were shown the door, and Windu turned his heel and left as soon as they had all entered.

They all looked at each other for a moment before breaking out laughing. Strange how that was Mace Windu when he wasn’t in a bad mood.

Rex checked around the room, something that had also become a habit for all of them, safety measures. He swept for listening devices, bombs, weapons, or really anything out of place.

When Rex turned back to his jetii, satisfied with the room, they were both looking at him with such affection in their gazes that it caught him off guard. “What is it?”

Obi-Wan grinned and shook his head, “You’re simply amazing.”

Anakin smiled lovingly, “We’re in the temple and you still swept the room, it’s just so sweet.”

Rex flushed, suddenly embarrassed, shifting on his feet.

In a moment, both men were on either side of him, gently grabbing his hands and holding them up. Rex went red, visible even through his darker skin. He felt like he was being pampered in this position.

“Don’t get embarrassed, it’s adorable!” Anakin exclaimed before kissing his gloved fingertips, which did not help the blush that overtook his face.

“I’m not adorable.” Rex said incredulously.

“I disagree dear one, I think you’re rather delightful.” Obi-Wan grinned, kissing his knuckles as if he were a royal dignitary that he was attempting to charm.

“You are both so dramatic.” Rex said flatly.

That finally got them to step away, laughing.

The three then went about undressing, and changing into the sleepwear that they had been provided. It took quite a bit of time to remove the plastoid armour with its many hidden clasps. It apparently took less time to remove the modified jedi robes and armour that Obi-Wan and Anakin wore, because when Rex was finally down to his blacks, the two were already done and staring at him from one of the three beds in the room.

“Don’t you two have anything else to do?” Rex asked, reaching for the zipper to take off the black jumpsuit.

“Absolutely not.” “Nope!” They both answered at the same time, staring shamelessly. Rex rolled his eyes.

Rex changed into the sleep pants that they had provided, but decided against wearing the shirt, knowing that he would likely get too warm for it during the night. Looking over, he noted that Anakin had foregone the pants and Obi-Wan stuck with the whole ensemble. That also wasn’t surprising as Anakin also ran very warm while Obi-Wan tended to get cold. Obi-Wan liked to joke that they were his own personal heaters.

They turned to look at the three beds that had been provided. They were relatively small, but not as small as the cots they slept on most of the time.

“Could we just… push them together?” Anakin asked, pushing the bed closest to him to see if it would move, satisfied when it shifted.

“All three?” Obi-Wan asked.

“We could fit on just two of them.” Rex chimed in.

Anakin smiled, “Yeah, but we don’t actually have to! Come on, how often do we actually get the chance to sleep on a big comfy bed together?”

Rex thought about it, not actually coming up with any time that had happened, as even the beds that the generals had on the Resolute or on the Negotiator were pretty small and not nearly as comfortable as these beds looked.

“Alright,” Obi-Wan shrugged, “We need to be careful to move them back tomorrow morning though.”

“Not an issue!” Anakin responded, already pushing the beds together.

Rex moved to the bed furthest from the door, pushing it towards the middle one as Anakin pushed the one opposite of him. Obi-Wan pulled out the blankets from the cracks before they were totally pushed together so they didn’t get stuck.

“Wait,” Rex paused, “Couldn’t you have just used the force to do that?”

Obi-Wan and Anakin froze. There was a beat of silence.

“No that’s-” Anakin started

“That would be a misuse of the force. Generally frowned upon.” Obi-Wan finished.

Rex raised an eyebrow, “Uh huh, and all those times I’ve seen you turn off the lights or put your dishes in the wash? What were those?”

“The will of the force.” Obi-Wan said dully, causing Rex and Anakin to laugh. Obi-Wan cracked only a moment later, laughing with them.

Obi-Wan sat on the edge of the bed, looking up at Anakin and Rex, both so much taller than him at this angle. Not that they weren’t already taller than him, annoyingly so sometimes. He delicately grabbed Anakin’s right hand and Rex’s left, bringing them closer to his face before kissing each of their palms.

“I love you both so much.” Obi-Wan whispered, as if speaking too loud would spook them away.

Rex could practically feel Anakin melt beside him, and he knew he had reacted in much of the same way. He moved to kneel on the bed next to Obi-Wan, leaning down enough to brush a kiss against Obi-Wan’s forehead, then his temple, then his cheek.

On the other side of him, Anakin was kissing up Obi-Wan’s neck, smiling into every brush of lips against skin. Obi-Wan signed contentedly, an almost blinding grin spread across his face as the force settled around them into something bright and happy.

“I claim middle.” Obi-Wan said, still smiling.

Anakin lept back as if he had just been burnt, and Rex groaned, burying his head into Obi-Wan’s neck. He knew that Obi-Wan had done that on purpose, he could feel the other man restraining himself from laughing.

“What the hell, I wanted to be in the middle!” Anakin whined.

“No now Anakin, don’t whine, you sound like a child.” Obi-Wan teased, smugness peaking through in his tone.

“B-but you got to sleep in the middle last time!” The taller man retorted.

Obi-Wan raised an eyebrow, “Last time? And when was that?”

Anakin got a look on his face that showed that he was thinking very hard about the question he had been asked.

“Last time was after Naboo,” Rex mumbled into Obi-Wan’s neck, “I was in the middle that time because I thought Obi-Wan was dead.”

Obi-Wan and Anakin both winced at that. That had been after the whole Rako Hardeen debacle, they had sent an encrypted message to Rex to warn him that Obi-Wan was faking his death, but it didn’t reach him until it was already too late. They both felt horrible for it, but Rex forgave them easily.

“And the time before that was after the mess with those Zygerrians, and Anakin was in the middle that time.”

They remembered that well, it was a horrible night for all of them, Anakin had been forced to take the role of the very thing he hated most, and Rex and Obi-Wan had suffered the reality that far too many throughout the galaxy faced every day. What Anakin had suffered through for almost a decade of his life.

That night was spent comforting each other, wiping tears from faces, reassuring each other of their survival, holding each other through short fits of sleep, a deeper sleep never finding them.

After they had been forced to part ways, Anakin and Rex going back to the Resolute, Obi-Wan going back to the Negotiator, Rex had contacted Cody.

“Rex? What is it?” Cody had asked, picking up Rex’s holo call. They hadn’t even left Coruscant’s airspace yet, so he was confused as to what was so urgent that he called so quickly, but not urgent enough that Rex hadn’t told him when they had seen each other just hours before.

“Cody, has Ob- uh, has General Kenobi talked to you about our last mission yet?”

“No, actually General Kenobi hasn’t really talked much at all.”

Rex was silent, and Cody could see the clear worried line between Rex’s eyebrows even through the small hologram.

“What is it, vod?”

“I can trust you, right Cody?” Rex asked suddenly.

Cody blinked, “Of course you can vod, we’re brothers, nothing could change that.”

“What if I told you that I had gone against regs. Seriously against regs.”

“Rex, you know that I just push those so the shinies think I’m serious. Most of them are bantha crap anyways. What did you do?”

Rex still hesitated.

“Rex,” Cody said softly, “I promise that I won’t report you, I don’t care what it is you did.”

Rex sighed, “Even if I told you that I was, uh, involved with a superior officer?”

Cody paused, not expecting that, “That’s alright, I know plenty of troopers who do that, but what does this have to do with Gener- Rex. Rex tell me you didn’t.”

Rex winced, “What if I told you I was involved with two superior officers?”

“Two?! Who the kriff else? Wait you don’t mean General Skywalker, do you?” Cody asked incredulously.

Rex rubbed the back of his neck nervously, shrugging helplessly.

“You just broke a lot of hearts in the 212th. I swear, the number of troopers I hear talking about muscular they think Kenobi is under those robes is absurd.”

“Wait, so you’re not mad?” Rex asked.

“Why would I be mad? Do they make you happy?”

“Happier than anything.”

Cody shrugged, “Then what right do I have to get in between the three of you? Why did you call though, I know this wasn’t just about you telling me about your relationship.”

“Oh, right,” Rex sighed, “Our last mission was very… hard on the three of us. Anakin and I are worried about how Obi-Wan is really doing. He’s been trying to play it down like he always does, but we know that he’s still suffering.”

“What do you need me to do?” Cody asked, prepared for anything. He and General Kenobi were close, and Cody cared very much for his safety and wellbeing. The fact that he was dating Rex only made the general more like family.

“I need you first to talk to him, tell him that you know about us and that you talked to me,” Rex hesitated then, “I also need you to comfort him. He’ll never tell you this, but he loves physical affection. In short, I need you to hug or cuddle him as much as possible for the next couple weeks.”

Cody was silent for a moment, “You want me to cuddle your cyar'ika?”

Rex shrugged, “I’m not kidding when I say he does well with physical affection. I’m taking care of Anakin, and I’m trusting you to take care of Obi-Wan. I know neither of you would ever do anything.”

Cody rubbed a hand against his face, “How the hell do you expect me to bring this up with him? It’s not exactly a normal topic.”

“That’s really up to you. He’s going to get defensive about it though, you should expect him to tell you he’s fine about 50 times before he even considers that he’s not.”

Cody rolled his eyes, “Oh I am very aware of that, he is still my general. I swear I don’t remember the last time he went to medical willingly.”

Rex snorted, “Yeah that certainly sounds like him. I have to go, I’m pretty sure I heard Hardcase say something about pranks earlier and I need to make sure he doesn’t blow up the ship. Let me know how it goes with Obi-Wan.”

“Of course. Though I still think it’s strange that you get to call them by their first names.”

Cody immediately regretted saying that when a smirk graced Rex’s face, “Well I certainly can’t be calling them General Kenobi and General Skywalker in bed now can I?”

Cody froze, and Rex’s smirk slowly turned into a full-blown grin, “I hate you so much, I never want to think about that again. I’m hanging up on you.”

Rex’s laughter was cut off as Cody made true to his word and hung up.

Cody sighed, sitting down on his bed. He cradled his head in his hands, sighing again before rolling his eyes, “What the hell did you set me up for, vod.”

The commander spent another couple minutes in his room, contemplating what his life had become and if he really cared so much about Rex that he would actually do this for him. After he was done with his short existential crisis and reaffirmed that he did in fact love his vod, he stood up, put on his helmet, and marched out of his room like a man on a mission.

He found General Kenobi on the deck talking to Waxer and Boil, but Cody could tell that the conversation was interruptible because of the way his vode were ribbing each other, Kenobi laughing softly along with them.

Upon closer inspection, Cody could tell that Rex had been telling the truth, he hid it well, but Kenobi looked like shit. The usual gleam of mischief in his eyes was gone and it appeared that he had lost some weight in the past couple weeks that he had been separated from the 212th. That just wouldn’t do.

“General Kenobi, a word please? In private?”

General Kenobi glanced at Waxer and Boil, both of whom just smiled and walked away, likely towards Crys who was working on something not far from them.

“Of course, Commander, lead the way.”

Cody led Obi-Wan off the deck, walking with a confidence that he didn’t really feel, mentally preparing himself for what would probably be a very awkward conversation. He stopped when they reached the door to a room that functioned almost as a rec room for the higher level officers. Nobody really used it, but Cody had caught Kenobi meditating in there a handful of times. He knew that nobody would interrupt their conversation here.

Once they had both entered, Cody took off his bucket and sighed.

“Is everything alright, Cody?” Obi-Wan asked, concerned.

“Of course, General. Though there is something that I uh, would like to talk to you about.”

“Nothing bad, I hope?” Obi-Wan tilted his head slightly.

“No,” Cody sighed, “Not bad, it’s just… unusual I guess.”

Obi-Wan stayed quiet, encouraging Cody to speak.

“I just received a call from Captain Rex.” Cody said bluntly.

Obi-Wan blinked, stiffening very slightly. The only reason Cody even noticed was due to his extensive training in reading body language.

“Ah, and what did the Captain have to say?” Obi-Wan asked, playing dumb, trying to work out what Cody knew.

Cody sighed for what felt like the millionth time that hour, “General please, this will be much easier if you stop acting like you don’t know what I’m referring to. He was worried about you.”

“Ah he must have been referring to our last mission. He has nothing to worry about, frankly it’s strange that he called you.” Obi-Wan deflected poorly.

“Obi-Wan,” Cody said flatly, the sudden use of his first name making Obi-Wan blink in surprise, “Aliit ori'shya tal'din, I assume you know what that means?”

Obi-Wan nodded slowly, “Yes, family is more than blood.”

“Rex chose you as his cyar'ika, you and Skywalker both, you are family now.”

“Oh.” Obi-Wan said softly, blinking away sudden tears.

“As we’re family, I feel it necessary to tell you that you’re acting like an idiot and that you need to stop pretending you’re okay when you’re not. I can tell you’ve lost weight, and I don’t know any specifics but I also know that whatever happened on Kadavo left the three of you shaken up,” Cody stepped forwards and wrapped his arms around Obi-Wan, “Let us take care of you.”

Rex was absolutely correct when he said that Obi-Wan responded well to touch, he melted into Cody’s arms and Cody could have sworn that he heard the man purr like a tooka for a moment.

Over the next couple of weeks, more and more members of the 212th started talking about their General’s relationship with the leader and co-leader of the 501st. It started with Threepwood who was unfortunate enough to hear the tailend of a rather inappropriate call between the three. He ended up talking to Waxer and Boil about it, who ended up talking to many others about it. The shinies, of course, still had no clue. They were carefully kept out of the rumour mill for discussions like these, but Cody got clued in on it very quickly.

He called a secretive meeting between Ghost Company and other higher-ranking troopers. Really those who had heard the rumours and could be trusted with this secret.

“Tell me what you’ve heard.” Cody said plainly, less of a question and more of an order.

That opened a floodgate of rumours and accusations that Cody knew were false, though some that were far closer to the truth also came up in conversation. Cody just watched the whole thing happen and took mental notes on which assumptions to correct. He let them talk for nearly 10 minutes before holding up a hand, shutting them all up.

“I don’t know where half of those came from, but it is true that General Kenobi, General Skywalker, and Captain Rex are all in a relationship,” Some people gasped, though no one spoke, “I only found out about this a couple weeks ago, but they’ve been together for some time before this. Much of the 501st is also aware of this.”

“And they didn’t tell us?!” Boil exclaimed loudly.

Cody raised an eyebrow, “It wasn’t for them to tell and you know that. I’m only telling you because they’re letting me. I was also only told because something happened on their last mission that left our General in a very fragile state. Rex asked me to look after him.

“Now that you all know, I’m going to ask you to do the same. I’m asking you to hug the general when you can, make sure he’s actually eating and sleeping, watch his hands. If he’s shaking, then he needs to be pulled away from the situation and given time to meditate and calm down. I’m warning you now, he is very affectionate and will latch onto you if given the change. I swear I wouldn’t be surprised to find out his people had some feline in their blood.”

They came up with a system after that to look after their General. It also amazed them to find out that he was much more willing to go to medical if he knew there would be someone there to hold his hand and pet his hair.

If nothing else, they took care of their family.

-

Obi-Wan ended up happily squished between Anakin and Rex. Rex spooned him from behind, a line of comforting heat from shoulder to feet, legs tangled together. Anakin curled up in front of him, his crown of golden curls tucked under Obi-Wan’s chin as he nuzzled into the older man’s collarbone.

They spent a few minutes whispering to each other, casual conversation to calm their minds and bodies into a more peaceful sleep after a very stressful day.

None of them could identify who fell asleep first, nor could they tell who woke up first. The morning light filtered in through their windows, the three were content to just spend time together, curled together. It was peaceful in a way that they hadn’t felt in a very long time.

That was until Anakin’s stomach growled loudly.

Anakin groaned and buried his head into Obi-Wan’s neck as the two other men laughed at him.

“Are you hungry, Anakin?” Obi-Wan teased lightly.

“How could you tell?” Anakin responded blandly.

Anakin groaned again as he untangled himself and sat on the edge of the bed, “Breakfast should be set out by now, yeah?”

Obi-Wan hummed, scooting backward into Rex’s body heat.

The younger jedi snorted, “Are you two planning on joining me?”

“Give us a few more minutes.” Obi-Wan mumbled.

Anakin stood, and started getting dressed. Rex and Obi-Wan both watched, admiring the view. He paused though, before he put on his armour.

“Do you two want to trade?” Anakin asked, holding up his gauntlet piece.

Rex inhaled sharply, his grip around Obi-Wan tightening. It was an important tradition for the vode to trade armour pieces with the people they most cared about. It was sometimes platonic, but more often than not it was a romantic gesture. An intimate gesture.

The three had traded pieces a few times, but they all knew that they couldn’t keep each other’s armour. Their relationship was forbidden by many different standards, it was against not only military regs, but strictly against the jedi code.

Now though, now there wouldn’t be anyone who would know the significance of the three wearing each other's armour, at least nobody who would say anything about it. Rex would almost bet credits on General Koon knowing something, as the traditions of the vode were often mirrored in Mandalorian culture.

The two sat up in bed as Anakin gathered all of their armour pieces so they could choose which ones to trade. In the end, Anakin ended up with a gauntlet piece for his left arm from Rex and a shoulder bell on the right side from Obi-Wan. Rex would be wearing Obi-Wan’s gauntlet piece and Anakin’s shoulder bell, and Obi-Wan got Anakin’s gauntlet piece and Rex’s shoulder bell.

It warmed Rex to see Anakin dressed in his typical dark colours with splashes of white, blue, and gold from himself and Obi-Wan. Anakin himself grinned brightly when he saw himself in the mirror, a flush high on his cheeks.

The first time they had traded armour, it was preceded by a very long conversation about why they were doing it, what it meant, and what it didn’t mean. At first Anakin was very cautious, because to him it almost felt like a claim on him, as if he belonged to anyone. But after that conversation, and after seeing himself wearing the armour of the two men he loved the most, he found that he didn’t mind the type of claim they were making. It wasn’t just them showing they owned Anakin, it was the three of them promising themselves to each other.

It was a promise that, at the end of the day, no harm would come to the pieces of their soul that they lent each other, that they would return intact.

Anakin left the room with a bounce in his step and a smile on his face, the other two promising to join him the moment they could actually drag themselves out of bed and into some real clothes.

It was still very early when Anakin entered the eating hall, so the line was relatively short and all the best food was still up for grabs. He got in line quickly, enjoying the peaceful atmosphere and the happy feeling the force had in the room. When he got his tray, he filled it with fresh fruit and sweet pastries, snagging some meats and eggs for Obi-Wan, who didn’t have as much of a sweet tooth as he and Rex did. He also got two cups of caf for himself and Rex, and tea for Obi-Wan.

When he looked around for a place to sit, he noticed a young togruta initiate sitting by herself at a small table near the door, poking at her food dejectedly. Anakin immediately rushed over to sit with her.

“Hello,” Anakin said, large blue eyes snapping to him, “May I sit here?” he asked, gesturing to the empty seats next to her.

The much younger Ahsoka nodded silently, staring at him with a silent awe. Anakin remembered being her age and how all of the knights and masters seemed so intimidating, almost all-powerful.

“My name is Anakin, what’s yours?” Anakin smiled softly.

“I-I’m Ahsoka Tano.” She answered, almost a whisper.

“Well it’s very nice to meet you Ahsoka Tano, where are all of your friends? I saw you with them yesterday?”

Ahsoka looked surprised that Anakin seemed to remember her from the day before, before a little pout grew on her face and she folded her arms.

“They all had an early class that I can’t attend.” She said bitterly.

Anakin tilted his head, picking up a piece of muja fruit, “Why can’t you attend the class?”

Ahsoka huffed, “They don’t trust me around the endor rabbits.” Her tone was almost ashamed.

“What?! Why?”

“Because I’m, you know…” Ahsoka poked at the meat on her plate.

“Oh, because Togruta are carnivorous? That’s a terrible reason. Have you ever attacked any of the animals?”

Ahsoka sighed, “Once, but I was still a baby then! There was some sort of bird flying around while I was being taught how to meditate, and I was already frustrated! But it wasn’t my fault! And that was years ago now, I don’t get why they won’t let me around them.”

“Well that’s a load of bantha crap in my opinion.” Anakin said plainly.

Ahsoka shot her head up, staring at him with wide eyes.

“Language, Anakin.” A voice behind them said teasingly, and a moment later Obi-Wan and Rex sat down next to him. Rex immediately took the cup of caf and a pastry from the tray, and Obi-Wan grabbed the tea, meat, and eggs that Anakin had saved for him.

“Now, what’s the issue?” Obi-Wan asked, sipping at his tea.

“They don’t trust Ahsoka around the rabbits because her species is carnivorous!” Anakin exclaimed.

Obi-Wan and Rex both had matching faces of surprise that quickly morphed into concern.

“Well that doesn’t make any sense. Ahsoka, can you tell me about the others in your clan?” Obi-Wan asked. Anakin recognized the look in his eye, it was the look he got when he knew he was about to make a very good point.

Ahsoka rattled off some names, many of which Anakin vaguely recognized, and short descriptions of each person in her clan. When she was done, Obi-Wan nodded firmly.

“See that’s what I thought. You said that Marim is a zabrak, yes? And that Tyvun is pau’an?”

Ahsoka nodded, confused at the train of thought.

“Well zabrak’s and pau’an’s are both a carnivorous species, so why have you been excluded while Marim and Tyvun have not?” Obi-Wan said softly.

Ahsoka got a little furrow between her brow.

“Have either of them ever attacked the rabbits?” Rex asked, ripping off a piece of his pastry before eating it.

“No! They haven’t! So why is Master Thess excluding me but not them! None of us should be excluded from lessons!” Ahsoka said indignantly, getting to her feet.

She turned to the three and bowed hastily, “Thank you for helping me, masters, I’m going to go talk to someone about this.”

“I wish you the best of luck, Initiate Tano.” Obi-Wan grinned, Rex and Anakin smiled at her as well, waving as she ran off.

The three eat breakfast slowly after that, content to just sit and talk for a few minutes before getting back to their research. Obi-Wan teased Anakin and Rex for their sweet tooths, the two teased him for his tea addiction.

Then, they got back to their research in the archives. Their tedious, monotonous research.

They had been in the archives for about an hour when Rex spoke up.

“So, I think I found something? But there’s one small issue…”

Obi-Wan and Anakin exchanged a look at his hesitancy.

“I’m not sure if I’m reading this right or if it’s a mistranslation or something, but according to this, the orb misplaced us once randomly, but needs to misplace us one more time before it can apparently send us back to our own time.”

Obi-Wan and Anakin both blinked at that, before Anakin groaned dramatically and Obi-Wan sighed, running a gloved hand through his hair before holding out his hand so he could read the datapad.

Anakin and Rex waited in bated breath as Obi-Wan’s eyes flicked through the text quickly.

Obi-Wan placed the datapad down gently, “It appears that we’re going on another adventure before we get back to our own time.”

Now both Rex and Anakin groaned dramatically, Anakin going so far as to slide off his seat and onto the ground.

Of course, as if it was projected into the force that they had a breakthrough, Master Ti rounded the corner only a moment later.

“How is it going, you three?” She asked, a serene smile on her face.

The three stood up, Anakin and Rex gathering the datapads to return to their respective places as Obi-Wan moved to talk to Master Ti.

“We believe we have found the solution to our problem, but we will need to go back to the ruins where the artifact in question is being stored.”

Master Ti nodded, “I will gather the council so you can give us a report before you depart.”

Obi-Wan and Master Ti bowed to each other in sync before the woman turned to leave.

“So where do you think we’re gonna end up next?” Anakin asked as Obi-Wan joined them in organizing the remaining datapads.

“I would rather not jinx it with a guessing game, Anakin.” Obi-Wan sighed.

“Well I’m hoping to see you as a kid, little Padawan Kenobi? I’ve seen the holos that Master Koon and Master Yoda have.”

Obi-Wan flushed at the reminder, some of the other masters still struggled to see him as anything but the younging they watched grow up. It was occasionally nice, but rather annoying most of the time.

“I just hope we end up on Coruscant again, I can’t imagine what it would have been like if we were on another planet without access to a ship.” Rex sighed.

“Or at least a friendly planet, I shudder to think of what we would have done if we ended up in Hutt space.”

Anakin laughed, “Well no young Anakin for you two then!”

Obi-Wan shoved him, laughing at the indignant squawk he made as he almost dropped the datapad he was holding.

Then ended up back in the council room less than half an hour later, standing in front of mostly full seats.

“Our research has led us to believe that we must first make contact with the same artifact that sent us here, we believe that we will be displaced once more before returning to our own time.” Obi-Wan said simply.

“Alright, what was the name of the planet where you made contact with the artifact?” Windu asked.

“Oh, it was-” Anakin cut in before stopping, “Uh it was called…”

Obi-Wan rolled his eyes and Rex muffled a laugh.

“Force Anakin, you were there for almost 2 weeks before I arrived with the 212th yesterday! How do you not remember the name of the planet?”

“It’s not my fault! I’ve been working on battle plans the entire time, I didn’t really have time to think about anything else!”

Rex laughed again, sure the general had been working on battle plans, but he knew for a fact that Anakin had spent a good 2 days trying to climb the highest tree in the area without use of the force.

Much to Anakin’s chagrin, he couldn’t get as far as Tup could even with his armour on.

“Wait!” Anakin said, smiling, “We don’t have to worry about Ahsoka and the boys burning down camp while we’re gone!”

Obi-Wan gave him a look, “And why is that?”

“Because Commander Cody is with them! There’s no way he’s going to let anything happen.”

Rex felt a part of himself relax that he didn’t even know what tense, it was true that Cody wouldn’t let anything happen. He would sooner tie up Rex’s ARC’s than let them do anything dangerous with Commander Tano.

Obi-Wan snickered and smiled at Anakin before turning back to the council, who were all staring at them with confused or amused looks.

"The planet was called Ukio, in the Abrion sector. We were unaware that there was even a temple on the planet until our mission there, which was likely purposeful."

“You think that this information was hidden in an attempt to conceal the artifact? That makes sense. I assume that you’re going to need transport to Ukio?” Master Koon asked.

Obi-Wan nodded, “That would be much appreciated, yes.”

The various council members present looked at each other, silently communicating in a way that would always be confusing to Rex.

Apparently they made a decision, because Plo Koon stood up, “We will take a ship from the hanger and depart now, if that is agreeable with you?”

Anakin smiled, “Of course! We don’t really have anything we need to grab, so let’s go right now!”

Rex laughed as he watched Anakin excitedly pull Obi-Wan and Master Koon behind him as he marched to the hanger.

“I apologize for him, he’s just really hoping that our next displacement will allow him to see me when I was a padawan. I’m personally hoping to see the sweet young boy from Tatooine again.”

Master Koon chuckled warmly, “You were both very adorable children, have you seen the holos, Captain?”

Rex startled at suddenly being addressed, “Uh, no sir, I’ve only heard of their existence.”

“I can certainly show them to you on our journey there.”

Rex smiled at the matching looks of horror on both Obi-Wan and Anakin’s faces.

They chose one of the fastest ships that the order had that could comfortably fit all of them, Anakin arguing over being allowed to pilot the ship. All the while, Rex looked around the hanger in amazement, he had never seen it this calm. There were no brothers, no jetii in armour that made them instinctively uncomfortable, just a handful of them milling about with little care in the world.

Obi-Wan gently placed a hand on his arm, pulling him out of his thoughts, Obi-Wan then smiled and gestured to the ship, “Ready to go?”

Rex nodded and the two of them followed Anakin and Master Koon.

The trip back to Ukio was quick and uneventful. Once they were in hyperspace, Plo sat next to Rex with a datapad in hand and went through some of his favourite pictures from when Obi-Wan and Anakin were young.

The two men flushed as Rex cooed over their chubby little cheeks and bright smiles, and laughed at the more humorous images, Obi-Wan at age 4 with paint all over his fingers, Anakin at age 11 holding up some sort of animal at an obviously distressed Obi-Wan.

After only a few hours, they had arrived, and with a little help from Obi-Wan and Rex, Master Koon navigated them to the well hidden temple and found a flat grassy area to land.

They chatted as they made their way to the temple, Master Koon following to make sure that they left safely. Rex was paying less attention to what they were saying, more to the areas around them. In the almost 2 weeks the 501st had been there, they hadn’t yet run into anything dangerous, but it was better to stay on guard.

They made their way through the temple, Anakin leading them now. For as much as he sucked at remembering important details like the names of planets, he always seemed to remember the paths he took to get places.

They rounded a corner, flashlights and lightsabers lighting the way, and found the orb again, just as it had been when they last saw it.

“Alright, last time Anakin just touched it, so I believe we should just do that again. Plo, I would recommend that you leave the room, as it brought us all without us touching it.” Obi-Wan said, stroking his beard.

Master Koon nodded, and turned to leave.

“Oh, Master Koon, one more thing!” Anakin said as Master Koon idled in the doorway. Anakin didn’t say anything, just tapped his left gauntlet, the one that belonged to Rex. In quick succession, they could see as the Kel Dor took in the mismatched armour on each person before letting out a soft gasp.

“See ya later, Master.” Anakin winked, touching the orb once more.

The next moment, Rex blinked and he was standing in front of the jedi temple on Coruscant. He staggered, another fresh wave of dizziness passing over him.

“Well it appears that we do not have to worry about making our way to Coruscant again.” Obi-Wan sighed, taking in his surroundings in an attempt to determine what year they had been thrown into.

“Obi-Wan, look.” Anakin said, pointing at a docking platform not far from where they were standing. Obi-Wan froze when he saw the ship that was approaching it and the ships that were already there.

“Well, it appears that we are 13 years out of our time this time around.” Obi-Wan deadpanned.

“At least both of our wishes came true? You’re still a padawan right now and I’m still a kid. And we’re in the same place.”

“I’m sorry,” Rex interrupted, “But what’s going on right now?”

Obi-Wan sighed, “Well right now Anakin is stepping foot on Coruscant for the first time, and later today he will meet with the jedi council for the first time. Oh force, Palpatine is about to be elected as Supreme Chancellor.”

“Oh wow, so a lot happens around this time.” Rex breathed.

Anakin whipped his head around to look at Obi-Wan, “We can save Qui-Gon this time around. We can warn them about Maul.”

The older man froze at that, “Should we… should we be allowed to have that kind of power?”

Anakin rolled his eyes, “It’s not like anything we do here will affect our timeline, why shouldn’t we also set them up for what could be a better future?”

“But we don’t know if it would be better!”

Anakin gave him a look, “There aren’t many ways it could be worse. A sith lord is about to be elected into a very powerful position, and I understand we can’t stop that vote or anything, but we can make sure that the council knows!”

Obi-Wan sighed and looked up at the looming temple.

“Alright, let’s interrupt a council meeting.”

When they entered the temple, they were greeted with a rather familiar face.

“Ah, Knight Fisto, could you bring us to the council chambers, we have some very pressing matters to discuss with them.”

The young Kit Fisto had the look on his face of someone who clearly didn’t recognize the people who were talking to him, but they obviously recognized him so he wasn’t going to be rude.

“Of course, Master.” The nautolan said, quickly leading them through the winding halls.

They passed various jetii on their way there, some that Rex thought he recognized and others that he had never seen before. After only a couple minutes, they were in front of the council chambers.

Kit Fisto peeked his head in, “I’m sorry masters, but there is a master here who said that he had something urgent to speak to you about.”

Someone inside the chambers said something that Rex couldn’t hear, but he saw Knight Fisto shrug helplessly before turning to them, “You can enter.”

Obi-Wan smiled calmly, “Thank you Knight Fisto.”

When they entered, he saw a myriad of jedi that he had never met and some that he had but were much younger than he expected. Masters Windu, Yoda, and Koon all looked exactly the same though.

Then Rex’s eyes landed on the 3 people who were standing in the middle of the room.

“Osik! Look at you little Ob’ika! Ke’pare is that Anakin?!” Rex whisper-yelled, uncaring that the attention of the entire council was on them.

“I forgot you had such a baby face, Obi-Wan, no wonder you grew a beard so quickly after being knighted.” Anakin teased. Obi-Wan’s ears went pink and he glared at the two.

“What is going on?” The tall man standing next to Obi-Wan said. This must be Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan’s late master. The young Kenobi was standing next to him still as a statue, eyes wide.

Obi-Wan stepped forwards, bowing to the council, “I am very sorry to interrupt, but we’re in need of some pretty immediate help.”

“Padawan Kenobi?” Master Windu asked, looking more shocked than Rex had ever seen him before.

“He’s actually Master Kenobi now.” Anakin intoned, smiling brightly.

Master Windu raised an unimpressed brow, a look that was not unfamiliar to Rex in the slightest, having seen the man interact with Anakin many times.

“And you are?”

Anakin bowed politely, “Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker at your service.”

There was a quiet gasp, “You’re me?”

The small blond boy who was standing behind Qui-Gon’s legs walked forward, his sky blue eyes twinkling with amazement.

Anakin grinned and kneeled down, allowing his younger self to walk up to him.

“I am you, I’m you from 13 years in the future.”

“Kenobi received the rank of master in just 13 years?” Master Piell asked.

Anakin snorted, “Oh no, that only took about 10 years, not to mention a seat on the council to go with it.”

Young Anakin was still looking up at his older self in awe, he gently poked at the scar going across his right eye, “What happened here?”

Anakin smiled, “I got in a lightsaber fight with someone very bad. If you think that’s cool, you’re gonna love this!” Anakin said, pulling at his gloved hand to reveal the mech hand underneath.

“Woah, you have a robot hand! How did that happen?”

Anakin chuckled, “Another lightsaber fight, losing my arm was really scary and difficult, but my master helped me through it.”

Rex glanced at Obi-Wan, who was giving Anakin a soft look of pure love. A moment later, Obi-Wan met his eyes and smiled.

“So I’m really going to be a jedi?”

“Yes you are, and your life is going to be so much better because of it.”

“I don’t think that’s your decision to make.” Master Windu spoke up.

Anakin smiled at him, “You’re right, that’s not my decision, it’s yours. One that you’ve already made.”

“Do I truly become your master?” Qui-Gon asked.

Anakin finally looked up at him, and Rex could see his shoulders hunch slightly, “Hello Qui-Gon, it’s nice to see you again.”

Qui-Gon’s brow furrowed, “The two of you look at me like you’ve seen a ghost, why is that?”

Obi-Wan sighed, “In our time, you’ve been dead for many years.”

The air in the council room went cold, grief playing out on everyone’s face in quick succession.

Anakin smiled softly, “Don’t worry though, we can warn you about what happens so you can avoid it!”

Qui-Gon’s brow furrowed, “Will that not affect your own time?”

Obi-Wan shook his head, “No, the second we appeared here, a separate reality was created. Your future stopped being our past already. The changes we make don’t change anything that happened to us.”

Anakin stood up, still holding the small hand of his younger self, the child looking up at him in awe. “For example, Rex isn’t going to stop existing if I mention that there’s an illegal cloning facility on Kamino. My arm won’t magically reappear if I mention that you guys should check in on Yan Dooku more often.”

“Who’s Rex?” “Dooku cut off your arm?” Kenobi and Qui-Gon asked at the same time, glancing at each other briefly before looking back to Obi-Wan and Anakin.

Obi-Wan smiled, “This is Captain Rex!”

Rex stepped forwards and nodded at the others in the rooms, “Sirs.”

Anakin smiled softly at him, “And yeah, Dooku cut off my arm. I wasn’t kidding when I said that you guys should check in on him more often. There’s a red saber in his near future that I’d like to prevent.”

Qui-Gon gasped and Yoda’s ears drooped.

“There is much we want to talk to you about, but I feel it might be easier if we just write it all down. Before long, we’re going to need transport to the planet Ukio in the Abrion sector. There is an artifact there that was responsible for our passage through time.”

Anakin nodded, “Oh but some of the quick things to warn you guys about, some upcoming stuff, Senator Palpatine of Naboo is about to be elected as Supreme Chancellor after a vote of no confidence against Valorum. You cannot trust what he does and, if you can, get him out of power as soon as possible. You may not believe what I’m about to say, but the man is a Sith Lord.”

There were gasps from just about every one of the councilors.

“He’s telling the truth, the being that Master Jinn and myself had an encounter with on Tatooine is his apprentice, Darth Maul. Within the next few days, Maul is going to kill Qui-Gon in the Theed Royal Palace,” Obi-Wan turned to Jinn and Kenobi, “Stick together, do not let him separate you. That is the best advice I could give.”

Rex gasped as he remembered something, “Oh! This isn’t as big, but there’s a jedi by the name of Ky Narec stranded on the planet Rattatak with a young force sensitive girl named Asajj Ventress. Rescue them, it’ll save everyone a lot of pain.”

Qui-Gon blinked, “Ky? He was declared dead years ago, he’s still alive?”

Obi-Wan nodded, “This is all a lot to take in, I’m sure. A lot has happened in the past 13 years. My companions and I can only stay here for a couple hours, so if you’ll allow us time to create a list of future events that should be changed?”

Yoda nodded, and within a few minutes they were in a small study room in the archives with a fresh datapad and a few sheets of flimsi. They began working on a list of events and people that would be significant to the future, Anakin and Rex both rolled their eyes when Obi-Wan insisted that it had to be in chronological order.

It was after their serious conversation on what should be done about Maul that little Anakin knocked hesitantly on the door.

Qui-Gon leaned his head in as Ani clambered towards their table, “Is it alright if he stays with you for the next hour or so? My padawan and I are needed elsewhere currently.”

Anakin remembered this, how he had spent nearly an hour and a half at the training ground, watching other young jedi practicing. He also remembered all of the strange looks he had gotten and how uncomfortable they had made him.

Obi-Wan smiled and nodded, so Qui-Gon left.

Rex took one look at little Ani, who was looking around the room in wonder, and scooted back a little bit. “Would you like to sit with me, Anakin?”

The young boy smiled and bounded towards the man. He stopped in front of Rex, looking up at him expectedly. Rex grinned back, picking him up from his armpits and placing him in his lap. Ani squirmed a little bit until he was comfortable, head pressed against the cool plastoid of Rex’s chestplate.

Looking up, Rex was met with the fierce grins of his two lovers. Anakin looked like he was almost vibrating with suppressed joy, and Obi-Wan looked like he was about to melt out of his seat.

About half an hour later, with Ani close to falling asleep against Rex, there was another knock on the door.  The young Obi-Wan peeked his head in, looking hesitant and bashful.

“Uh, I’m sorry, but could I stay in here for a little bit? Master is um, well I suppose I was annoying him so he sent me off.”

Obi-Wan remembered this as well, he remembered how his constant complaints had worn at Qui-Gon, and how, in his time, he had chosen to sit in the halls of healing with Bant to complain.

Anakin grinned widely and nodded, so he entered the room, the door closing behind him. He looked around for a moment, unsure as to where he should sit.

Rex smiled softly, Ani looking at him with wide eyes, and gestured for Obi to sit next to him.

Obi flushed just slightly, ears going pink, and sat down next to Rex hesitantly.

Anakin and Obi-Wan continued to converse. They were currently talking about stuff that Rex hadn’t been around for, so he couldn’t contribute to the conversation, content with running his gloved hand up and down An’ika’s back.

“Are you a mandalorian?” Obi asked quietly, so not to distract the two men across the table from them.

Ani looked up as well when Obi asked the question, “I’ve heard about mandalorians! The masters always talked about how they had to be careful with the other kids when there were mandalorians around!”

Rex saw both Obi-Wan and Anakin tense slightly across the table, but neither man faltered.

“That’s because children are precious to mandalorians, to answer your question Ob’ika, that’s sort of complicated, it depends on who you ask.”

“Anyone with a brain would say yes,” Anakin piped in, “I don’t care what the Republic or Death Watch say about it.”

“Death Watch is still around?” Obi asked, looked a little put out.

Obi-Wan nodded, “Yes, it’s quite a complicated situation. It should be said, Rex, that Satine respects you and your brothers. I don’t doubt that she would consider you all to be mando’ad.”

“Even though she didn’t care for Prime?”

Obi-Wan smiled, “You’re nothing like Jango, trust me on that.”

“Why wouldn’t you be considered a mandalorian?” Ani asked, looking up at Rex with clear blue eyes.

“Well, I’m a clone, I have no rights or citizenship, and I’m not legally allowed to swear to the Resol'nare as that would be seen as me swearing loyalty to something other than the Republic.”

Obi blinked at him, “I- There are so many things wrong with what you just said. Cloning an entire being has been illegal for a long time.”

Rex shrugged, “The Republic didn’t much care about how illegal it was when it gave them an army to fight a war. To them, my brothers and I are no more than a product.”

Both of the boys looked up at him sadly, distraught with how casually Rex could say all those things.

Obi leaned his head against his shoulder, “I don’t like that.”

Ani nodded along with him, attempting to burrow his head even deeper into Rex’s chest, “I don’t like that either. You’re a person, just like I am.”

Rex could feel the significance of those words, even if he didn’t totally understand where they care from.

It was another 45 minutes later than Qui-Gon came back to pick up his two charges. He blinked at the scene that greeted him, his padawan and his new young friend cuddled up to the clone captain, their older versions sat across from them, nearly in each other's laps with how close they were sitting as they poured over pages of hastily made notes on flimsi.

“Uh, hello. I’m here to pick up Obi-Wan and Anakin? I mean, my Obi-Wan and Anakin.” He was slightly flustered, but he successfully got everyone’s attention.

His Obi-Wan leapt up, stumbling slightly as the legs he had thrown over the captain’s lap got caught under the table, making a loud thumping noise as his knees made contact harshly.

Everyone in the room winced, as that had sounded quite painful.

His Anakin hadn’t even bothered getting out of the captain’s lap, choosing to just sit up and look at Qui-Gon.

“Ah, wonderful timing, we were just finishing up. Do you know if the council has a ship and escort ready for us?” Obi-Wan asked, looking up from the datapad he was holding in his arms.

Qui-Gon nodded, his padawan coming to stand next to him, back straight like he wasn’t just cuddling with Anakin and Rex. Rex stood as well, not losing his grip on Ani for even a second.

“Do I even weigh anything to you?” Ani asked, looking up at him with wide eyes.

Rex grinned, “It’s like holding a couple jogan fruit, An’ika.”

Ani looked at him with awe, and Rex could hear Anakin and Obi-Wan snickering behind him.

“Ah, yes, Master Depa Billaba will be bringing you back to Ukio.”

They nodded, following him back to the council chambers.

Obi-Wan took the lead when they entered. Not all of the council members were there, but most were.

“Masters,” Obi-Wan said, bowing, “I have compiled a comprehensive list of all future events to be wary of with the help of my companions. With every event is not on how it happened, how it went wrong, and how best to avoid it happening. There are some things that will likely not happen if you so choose to use the information on this datapad.”

The council members seemed frozen for a second in surprise, and Rex wanted to laugh. They could always count on Obi-Wan to be an overachiever.

Obi-Wan passed the datapad to Master Windu with a polite smile before turning to Master Billaba, “I hear that you’ll be the one escorting us to Ukio?”

She nodded, standing from her seat.

Rex looked to Ani in his arms, head buried into his neck, still not comfortable around the council members.

“I’m going to have to go now, alright? I know you’ll see me again someday.”

Ani looked up at him with those sweet eyes, “Promise?”

Rex smiled softly, “I may not be the same person, but yeah, I promise.”

Ani nodded firmly before squirming, indicating that he wanted to be let down now. Rex lowered him to the ground, watching him scamper away towards Obi. The young man looked surprised when Ani grabbed at his legs, but smiled softly and brought a hand down to ruffle at the boys hair.

Anakin leaned towards Rex, “You know Obi-Wan and I didn’t have the best relationship starting our. I think you’ve already started changing things.”

They smiled at each other as they left the council chambers and made their way towards the hangers. Obi-Wan and Master Billaba walked in front of them, talking amicably.

“You know Depa,” Obi-Wan said, smiling, “I’m almost certain that your padawan should be brought to the temple sometime within the next year.”

Master Billaba blinked at him, “My padawan?”

“Oh yes, a very sweet boy, he’s charmed your men quite thoroughly.”

“My men?”

Obi-Wan blinked, “Oh, did we never mention that we were at war? I guess that must have slipped my mind.”

Master Billaba stared at him in shock, and Rex could feel Anakin next to him stifling his laughter.

The journey back to Ukio was, once again, quite uneventful. Obi-Wan and Master Billaba spent most of the time talking to each other about this or that.

As they were exiting the ship in the same clearing they had landed at before, Master Billaba turned to Obi-Wan, “You know, Kenobi, I can see how the two of us become friends in your time. You’ve become much less troublesome.”

Anakin laughed, trekking through the trees behind the two, “Oh no he hasn’t, he’s just gotten better at hiding it.”

Rex snorted, “That and he spends most of his time around you, who gets in a lot more trouble.”

“I resent that.” Obi-Wan and Anakin said at the same time, all four of them laughing.

They made their way quickly through the temple, having been through it twice already, before they finally got to the room where the orb was, looking exactly the same as the last two times they had seen it.

“Alright, Depa, I would recommend you stand outside of the room unless you’d like to be transported 13 years into the future.”

Master Billaba threw her hands into the air and exited the room.

“Oh and another thing,” Obi-Wan said as Anakin’s hand hovered over the orb, “Make sure that nobody else comes here. Others may use it as a means of escape from their own time in order to destroy another timeline. The existence of this artifact was kept secret for a reason, it should stay that way.”

Master Billaba nodded, before smiling at them softly and bowing. The other two bowed back, and Rex saluted, then, in a flash, she was gone.

Rex only felt a little dizzy this time, thankfully. As he looked around, not much looked different. It somehow felt different though, more right, so he knew that they were finally in the right place.

“Well wasn’t that quite the adventure, let’s see how long we’ve been gone, shall we!” Obi-Wan said, brushing non-existent dust from his shoulders.

They laughed as they made their way back out of the temple and through the surrounding woods, back towards the campsite.

They first ran into Tup and Dogma, who were on patrol.

Anakin rushed over and hugged the men, and Rex laughed at the looks on their respective faces. Tup excitedly hugged him back while Dogma was almost frozen in shock.

“Oh I missed you guys, how long have we been gone?”

Dogma blinked as he was suddenly let go, “Uh, gone? You left two standard hours ago, sir.”

Obi-Wan shrugged, “For us it was much longer, don’t ask. Let’s go Anakin, we have to go find the others.”

Anakin nodded, waving enthusiastically to the two troopers as they walked away. In a couple minutes they were finally back to camp. They got a couple weary and embarrassed looks from the troopers, which set them all on edge.

When they finally entered the command tent, they realized why. Cody stood in front of Fives, Echo, and Hardcase, all of whom were cowering behind each other simultaneously. Under his arm stood Ahsoka, who was grinning widely.

“Excuse me, should I even ask what’s going on?” Anakin asked, walking forwards.

Ahsoka turned to them, her smile growing impossibly bigger, “We found a mudhorn, and they bet that I couldn’t kill it without my sabers, but I totally did! You should have seen it, master!”

The three men looked at each other, all thinking the same thing at the same time.

They never should have left them alone.