Ghost of You - Anakin Skywalker x Reader (BOOK 1)

Chapter 68

"I'll leave you both to it. Take care of them, and each other." Padme says, subtly excusing herself from us.

"Always." Anakin replies.

Padme quickly, but elegantly, walks away from our group. With her gone, Obi Wan encourages us to leave the Senate Building along with a few Jedi Masters. Although neither of us are eager to spend time with the people who turned on our Padawans, we agree to go with them. Afterall, it will be necessary for Cal and Ahsoka to face them again at some point.

We travel as a group back to the Temple with the added presences of Cal and Ahsoka and Masters Plo, Ti, Yoda, and Windu. The Masters walk ahead of the group while the rest of us trail at the back. The walk is silent for the most part, with everyone feeling too uncomfortable to say anything.

Suddenly, Cal starts to veer off from the group without any prior warning. No one else seems to notice, not even Anakin or Ahsoka. I, on the other hand, cannot pretend I didn't see it. I sneak away from the back of the group behind him, careful not to draw attention to myself.

"And where are you going?" I call out to my Padawan.

Cal jumps a little at the sudden sound of my voice. Whatever he was planning to do, he clearly did not want me to know about it. The reasoning behind that is confusing to say the least.

"My quarters. I just need to get something." He says.

"Can't it wait a couple of moments?" I ask.

"No, it can't."

I look at him to study his expressions and quickly notice that something is wrong. His eyes keep darting around, scanning everything in sight but refusing to meet my own eyes. I know Cal, which means I know he is hiding something.

"Is everything okay?" I ask, feeling slightly concerned by his demeanour.

"Yeah," he pauses, "yeah, everything's fine."

Cal has never been the type to lie about anything. Especially not to me. Something certainly is wrong, and it's much deeper than simply the exhaustion of the trial he just endured.

He walks away without continuing any further, leaving me alone to question what is wrong. I know I need to rejoin the group, but I can't yet bring myself to it. I feel wrong leaving him alone.

"You okay?" Anakin's voice says from behind me.

I turn around to see he is standing a few metres away. He must have parted ways with the group when he realised I was gone.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I answer, although I am not entirely sure I believe my own words.

"Come on." He gestures.

I offer him a weak smile before meeting him at his side. We then walk together, slightly behind the group in front of us. I want nothing more than to hold his hand, but I know we can't. It would be too obvious in this setting.

We eventually reach the private room of the Jedi Temple where we plan to meet. We forward in and form a semi circle of sorts around Ahsoka. We've been silent for the most part as we've been waiting for Cal to return. When the silence starts to become awkward, Anakin finally steps forward as he readies himself to speak.

"Ahsoka, I am so sorry about everything." Anakin apologises.

"Anakin and I tried from the start to clear your name. I apologise that it took us so long to find definitive proof." I add, glaring slightly at the Council members in the process.

Ahsoka's blue eyes seem sad and untrusting. This is not a look I am used to seeing in her usually bright and innocent eyes. I knew she wouldn't be feeling great after everything that has happened with the trial, but I didn't think things would become like this.