Pausing
a bit, Anakin turned in his harness to peer at Ben, frowning a bit.
“Wait, if this is a life long thing… what did you do on Tatooine
Ben? I know you can’t have gotten a hold of the medication, but…”
He hesitated, glancing towards the bottle in Cody’s hand.

Ben
blinked, looking up from the cat’s cradle he was making with Asajj
with a puzzled expression before smiling. “Oh I chewed roots and
after a while I figured out to how to pulp it with a mortar and eat
the soft remains,” He said with a certain amount of cheer. “I’d
harvest a lot of different things to make alternatives for medication
and keep warm furs for the cold nights where my arthritis became
painful, not that it always helped.” Ben hummed, turning back to
the cradle.

Anakin
stared at him.

A
question was on the tip of his tongue but he couldn’t get himself
to ask.

So
Ahsoka did it instead, a frown on her face. “You harvested and took
care of it all? Weren’t there anyone else there?”  The young
padawan questioned, worried.

Stilling,
Ben stared at the cat cradle between his and Asajj’s pale hands.
“…Everyone else was dead, they all died in the temple and I had
to hide or be wiped out with them. I had to, I had duty, I swore to
uphold my duty and I couldn’t be found…” Ben blinked slowly,
his hands starting to shake, a hiccuping breath escaping him. “I-I
couldn’t be found, I had to fade away even though I never knew how
to, to forsake my own morality and watch Tatooine slave trade…”
He was starting to tremble and with a crude curse, Asajj pulled the
thread off their hands to wrap her arms around the old man, coaching
him through a quick but efficient
breathing
exercise to calm down what must be a racing heart.

Anakin
swallowed heavily, staring at Ben.

The
words echoed in his head.

‘Everyone
was dead.’

Ben
had been lucid when he said that, his eyes far away yes but lucid.

The
implications had been there all along of course but no one had wanted
to examine them too much, all of them wondering if it was the Force
addling adding its own brand of memory.

But
Anakin was sure that Ben just spoke the utter truth.

He
had been alone because something awful happened to the order, because
most of them were dead
or couldn’t be reached by Ben.

Slowly
he meet Obi-Wan’s eyes, watching his master’s pursed lips and
knew the other would be contacting the Jedi temple and the other
Council masters the moment he could to ensure they knew this
information that was now confirmed.

And
that was what they had needed.

Confirmation.

Anakin
was suddenly wondering if Ben becoming lucid and free of the Force
addling was the best thing for him. To face all those painful,
traumatic memories that was in there that hadn’t happened
yet
and might never and yet his experience still rang true and painful
with
no one who could relate to it because what Ben, what Obi-Wan
in the future had gone through was through the genocide
of the Jedi order.

And
now he was resting his head on Ventress shoulder, eyes closed, his
breath calm as she rubbed his upper back and the nape of Ben’s neck
while he relaxed.

Ahsoka
looked up at him with wide eyes and Anakin forced a small smile onto
his face, reaching out to squeeze her wrist in what he hoped was a
comforting motion. “It’s not going to happen, whatever happened
to the future… I won’t let it happen and Ben and you and Obi-Wan
are going to remain safe,
I promise you Snips.” He whispered quietly to her, making sure he
had Ahsoka’s full attention until she relaxed and leaned her head
against his shoulder. Then he raised his eyes to Obi-Wan’s again,
watching the man.

Obi-Wan
nodded, almost imperceptible and then went back to drumming his
fingers on his own gauntlet with a small ponderous frown.

At
least Anakin wasn’t thinking about the wax dildo anymore or the-oh
that sneaky little devil. Anakin turned his eyes on Ben and felt any
burgeoning anger dissipated,
how could he be angry at the old man for distracting him with that
story but at this point being angry at Ben was like being angry at an
old dog for being incontinence.

Something
he was not about to tell the old man cause he could already feel the
glares that would be aimed at him if he did say it.

Wait,
was Ben inc-nope, not going there.

If
that was an issue, the healers would have told them and had them
prepare for such a thing and they had not and there was no need to
embarrass anyone by asking those questions without something
happening.

For
now they would just get out and get some battles against the CIS and
muck up some droids and maybe Anakin could mess up Grievous…or send
Ben at the old droid menace since Ben already got to Ventress.

‘Or
maybe not, I don’t want yet another pet darksider following us
around,’ Anakin shuddered at the thought and smiled at Ahsoka when
she sent him a worried look. ‘Happy thoughts, happy thoughts, Padme
in a beautiful nightgown… there we go… good thoughts.’