About ten minutes after Anakin had left the chancellor's office, a holocall was placed through to an anonymous number, deep in the Coruscant undercity, from another anonymous number, somewhere in the senate district.
"Yes?" The Nikto at the end of the line asked, his voice distorted by three different filtering programs before finally reaching the ears of the hooded figure on the other end of the line.
"I have a job for you and the Morgukai." Darth Sidious announced, without preamble. "The Jedi Ahsoka Tano is starting to interfere with my plans. Keep an eye on her, and take any opportunity to see that some harm comes to her."
"The usual fee?"
"Doubled. This isn't a normal contract, although I am sure that you are up to completing it. The credits should be in your Nar Shaddaa numbered account."
The Nikto assassin turned away, calling up a small monitor, which showed green. Lots of it.
"She will not live out the week, Lord Sidious."
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Obi-Wan pushed open the doors of the council chamber, before stepping past Anakin, and taking his own seat.
"Anakin Skywalker." Mace Windu stated, once Obi-Wan was seated, and the chamber doors were closed. "We have approved your appointment to the Council as the Chancellor's personal representative."
Anakin nodded, slightly surprised at the fact that they'd accepted such a blatant imposition.
"I will do my best to uphold the principles of the Jedi Order." He responded.
"Also, Anakin, it is my pleasure to tell you that your padawan, Ahsoka Tano, is to be awarded the rank of Jedi Knight, for her courage and conviction."
You bastard. Anakin thought. You were just as ready as the rest of the council to send her before a firing squad with almost no real proof.
"Thank you, Master Windu." He replied instead. "I'm sure she'll be pleased to hear it."
"Why is she not with you?" Windu asked. "You were both summoned before us."
"She's meditating, Master Windu. She believed that she was about to be granted the rank of Jedi Knight, and was struggling to contain her emotions."
"Anakin, how many times do we all have to apologise to her?" Mace asked. He'd been forced to examine a few uncomfortable facts about his own psyche in the days after her trial. He'd actually managed to apologise for his actions, rather than blaming the Force, in the end.
"I'm not sure that the number can be expressed within the lifespan of this universe, Master Windu. She was so wounded by those allegations, and the lack of faith in her shown by the Order, that I could, ultimately, only convince her to stay as my padawan through bribery."
Mace, not to mention the rest of the council, both those physically present and not, looked at him with surprise.
"What were her terms?" He asked.
"A really large meal at the Manari, and the right to choose at any time except in during combat that she wished to leave both me and the Order behind." He didn't mention the circumstances of the offer, at the departure terminal of Coruscant Spaceport, seconds before she was going step through the immigration checkpoint.
"You got a table at the Manari?" Obi-Wan asked.
"Being the Hero with No Fear does come with a few advantages, Master. The maître-d' was willing to use his discretion to free up a table for us, although I believe that the booking had been cancelled shortly before." The steak had been excellent, although Ahsoka had somewhat overindulged on the wine, and had had to be extracted over one shoulder, giggling, before being poured into bed.
"Interesting." Obi-Wan rubbed his chin, before turning back to Anakin. "Anakin, before you take your seat, is there anything you'd like to say?"
"Am I a Master now?" He asked.
"You've served three years on the front lines of a galactic war. You've successfully trained one of the most unique padawans in the Jedi Order to Knighthood, despite the failures of the council. You are a Master, if you want the title, of course."
Both of them knew that there was a lot more to it than just that. It was what had been agreed, though.
"Take a seat, young Skywalker." Mace said, waving a hand to indicate one of the empty chairs around the perimeter of the chamber.
Anakin chose one, before taking a seat, suddenly looking around the chamber with new eyes. This is... actually happening. I am a Jedi Master.
It wasn't something he'd ever expected. He didn't know if he was up to it, but he had to try.
Then, the council turned to business. Ki-Adi-Mundi, one of the members not physically present, gave his report on the hunt for General Grievous.
"We have surveyed all systems in the Republic, and have found no sign of General Grievous." He reported, looking noticeably frustrated.
"Hiding in the Outer Rim, Grievous is. The outlying systems, you must sweep." Yoda responded, his voice firm.
"It may take some time . . . we do not have many ships to spare." Obi-Wan pointed out.
"We cannot take ships from the front line." Mace Windu commented.
"And yet, it would be fatal for us to allow the droid armies to regroup." Obi-Wan pointed out, seeming to be playing both sides of the argument at once, for a few moments.
"Master Kenobi, our spies contact, you must, and then wait." Yoda instructed him. Obi-Wan replied with a polite nod.
"What about the droid attack on the Wookiees?" Ki-Adi-Mundi asked.
"It is critical we send an attack group there, immediately!" Mace Windu announced.
"He's right, that is a system we cannot afford to lose. It's on the main navigation route for the southwestern quadrant."
"I know that system well. It would take us little time to drive the droids off that planet." Anakin contributed, eagerly.
"Skywalker, we have a role for you on Coruscant. We need someone keeping an eye on the Chancellor. Someone who he trusts."
"He's my friend!" Anakin yelled. "And you want me to take advantage of that to spy on him?"
"Anakin, be careful of your friend Palpatine." Obi-Wan said.
"Be careful of what?" Anakin demanded.
"He has placed you on this council. If we had not intended to seat you today anyway, you would have been imposed upon us."
"He believes that he did impose me upon you."
"Then foster that belief." Mace instructed him. "Allow him to believe himself your friend, and us your enemies."
"I'm not a spy, Masters."
"All of this is unusual, Anakin, and it's making me feel uneasy. You're probably aware that relations between the Council and the Chancellor are stressed."
"He said as much to me."
"Then having a conduit reporting to both sides is a useful way of reducing tensions. Report the truth to him, and to us. Just keep from him that you are reporting on him as well as to him. I do not know how he would react." Obi-Wan said, living up to his nickname as "The Negotiator."
Anakin settled, but he looked uneasy, nonetheless.
"Master Kenobi, leading the force to seek General Grievous, will be. " Yoda stated, cutting across the impending argument over who got to do some fighting. Go to Kashyyyk, I will. Good relations with the Wookiees, I have."
It is settled then. Yoda will take a battalion of clones to reinforce the Wookiees on Kashyyyk. May the Force be with us all." Mace confirmed, before turning to the rest of the chamber. "Does anyone else have anything to add, or should we move on to the next phase of this meeting?"
Obi-wan spoke up almost immediately. "There was something you wanted to say to us about Padawan Tano, wasn't there, Anakin?" he asked.
"There is..., Master." Anakin replied, struggling, then failing to use the man's first name. "During our last deployment, we became intoxicated, after a near miss."
"I have seen the report you submitted to us on the events on Teiron." Mace growled. "What happened?"
"While we were intoxicated..." Anakin broke off, feeling his face burning. "We slept together, while we were drunk. We have not shared a bed since." In his mind, Anakin was referring to additional intercourse, rather than literally sharing a bed at night. He was also thankful that he wasn't being brought to task for throttling a tabloid journalist.
"Tell us this before you did not. Hmmmmmm." Yoda remarked. "Foolish, all young Jedi are."
"I... feel embarrassed that it happened, Masters." Anakin said. "I should have been in more control." That was truthful, at least. He didn't regret it, but the fact that he'd ended up in bed with her was more than slightly embarrassing.
"We have all made mistakes, Anakin." Obi-wan said. "But I know that there is more to this. My feelings tell me as much. And I think that we, as your peers, deserve to know the rest."
Oh, Sithspit. "Masters, I will be returning my saber to you, then." He said, resignedly, standing up, and moving into the centre of the circle of chairs again. "Since that night... I've come to realise how much I care for Ahsoka. I love her. And she feels the same way about me."
"Anakin!" Mace burst out. "Do you honestly think that you are the first Jedi in history that has come before the council with a similar story?"
Anakin just looked at him, almost speechless.
"We've had Jedi declare their love in front of us almost more times than I can count, in the last three years. Sometimes, there has even been an additional reason on the way." Obi-wan signalled something, at a location Anakin knew to conceal a holocam. Shortly afterwards, he discovered that a fifty-seven kilogram Togruta, moving at around seven metres per second, could develop considerable kinetic energy, particularly when arriving airborne.
He just caught her, spinning her around, and forgot about everything except her scent and the taste of her lips on his.
"Anakin." Mace said, far more firmly. "If you had attempted to conceal this from us..."
"I understand, Master Windu." He replied.
"There is a difference between passion and love. This is something deeper than emotion." Anakin suddenly realised that this had been the final test.
"Ahsoka." Yoda said. "Time, it is."
Anakin took a step back, joining the rest of the Masters of the council, as they ignited their lightsabers, holding them vertically.
"We are all Jedi. The Force speaks through us. Through our actions, the Force proclaims itself and what is real. Today we are here to acknowledge what the Force has proclaimed." Yoda announced. "Kneel, Padawan Ahsoka Tano."
Ahsoka dropped to her knees almost faster than gravity could have pulled her there.
"By the right of the Council, by the will of the Force, I dub thee Jedi, Knight of the Republic." Yoda announced, formally almost tapping her on each shoulder, before using his lightsaber to sever her braid of silka beads. It rattled to the floor behind her. "Arise, Ahsoka Tano, Jedi Knight of the Republic."
Ahsoka stood, before turning on her heel, following the ritual, and exiting the chamber.
"Anakin." Obi-wan said, cheerfully. "Go."
"As you insist, Master." Anakin replied, following the highly exuberant Force presence of his now former Padawan.