Anakin could swear he could feel Kanan shrinking into his skin beside him. He understood it, he did, even if it wasn't preferable. Even with the abolishment of the Jedi Order Anakin was still Kanan's superior. In their past, superiors were supposed to be revered and casual relationships were seen as disrespectful. Anakin didn't want that though. If it was at all possible to change that tradition, he intended to.

"Are you okay?"

The question startled Kanan, and he nodded quickly to try and regain his composure. "Yeah, yeah I'm all right, I just..." he sighed, looking back at the floor. "I never imagined that there were other survivors, I thought for sure I was the only one."

He nodded, slowing so they were walking side by side. "I'm partially to blame for that. I could have reached out much sooner and didn't."

"Why?" asked Kanan, almost immediately regretting asking but not losing his resolve. "I get it if you couldn't for some reason, but you've been in contact with Hera for months at least. I've been with her for years, so..."

"Safety was the biggest reason," Anakin admitted, remembering the first time he had heard about him. "Even though I thought I recognized you from her reports, the Empire hadn't at the time. I didn't want to be the reason your identity was compromised. I wouldn't exactly be helping you if my involvement led to your capture."

"Which happened anyway," reminded Kanan, and Anakin laughed quietly. "Were there other reasons?"

"Protocol, mostly. As Hera said, your crew wasn't supposed to be a rebel cell. As a rebel agent, any contact could have resulted in an intelligence leak." He said most of this in an unconcerned voice. As ever, Anakin wasn't as concerned about protocols as other people were. "That was more of a decision made by Rebellion leadership. The other reason I didn't reach out to you was that I didn't think you needed me."

"Why wouldn't I need you?" he wondered, pausing in the hallway and confronting the Jedi Knight. He gestured down the hall to the command center where the rest of his crew still was. "It's not like I had a chance to finish my training and most of them don't know that. And then there's Ezra, it's not like I'm supposed to be teaching him either."

The corner of Anakin's mouth turned up. "Then how was he able to rescue from the Empire?"

Snorting, Kanan had an answer ready. "Luck. There's no way I should be alive right now."

"Yet here you are," Anakin mused, "and in no small part to him and the rest of your family. For someone who's 'not supposed to be teaching him', you've done a pretty good job."

Kanan could tell Anakin was trying to compliment him, but his confidence in his abilities was limited. "I wasn't even close to Knighthood when the Order fell. I don't know how to be a good teacher when I never stopped feeling like a student."

It was taking a lot of control for Anakin to not laugh. He wasn't laughing at Kanan, but more at himself for finding himself repeating the words his master had once told him. "There's always more to learn, even for a Master. You can go your entire life always feeling like a student, but that doesn't mean other people can't still learn from you. Your rank has nothing to do with that, and your Padawan certainly doesn't seem to care."

"My Pada-are you saying that...?"

"I think you should continue to train Ezra," he confirmed, saying it out loud in case Kanan still doubted him. "Knight or not, you've shown that you can guide him in the Force. As long as he wants to be your apprentice, I believe he should be."

His words nearly overwhelmed Kanan. When he had seen Anakin, he had planned to hand Ezra's training over to the Knight to continue. He didn't expect to receive his blessing to remain his teacher. Kanan didn't realize that a Padawan could take an apprentice, but what he didn't realize is that Anakin had once been the apprentice in a very similar situation. If Obi-Wan could train Anakin at age twenty, he was sure Kanan could learn to do the same for Ezra at an older age.

"Will you at least help me?" He asked, accepting the task. "I don't know how to train a Padawan, I've been making it up as I go."

"Don't we all," Anakin laughed, but kindly. He knew the feeling. "I will. I'd like to see what he has already learned in person, so I was hoping I could sit in on a few lessons. This may work out easier, though. For the record, I'm not sure any teacher ever knows how to train a student, at least not at first."

"You seemed to do all right," Kanan remembered.

Flashes of the Clone War passed in front of Anakin's eyes, particularly all the times he had no idea what he was supposed to do with a Padawan. Not to mention the time he had outright told Ahsoka she wouldn't be his apprentice. "I was nineteen, Kanan. I knew about as much about what I was doing as you do now. I've been told you learn as you go," he recited, quoting Obi-Wan.

After a tense moment, Kanan ventured into another question, this one of the more personal type. "What happened to her? I saw a news report that she had died, but..."

Anakin had a feeling this question would come. He was ready to answer it, though, now that he had come to terms with it himself. "How much do remember about the Jedi Purge? The specific details, not what happened generally?"

"Not much," he admitted, shaking his head. "When the clones turned, I went back to the Temple to figure out what was going on. The clones were attacking there too, though, so I left and went into hiding. Everything I know after that, I got from the HoloNet. There wasn't much I learned afterward."

"Leave it to the press to tell you nothing," grumbled Anakin, in a less-than-fond voice. "You never got an explanation for why they turned?"

Again, Kanan shook his head. In other circumstances, Anakin would have expressed his frustration. He should have gotten the truth, everyone should have, and it was thanks to people like Dooku that lies had been fed to Imperial systems. Still, the only way to fix that was to give Kanan the explanation he had been denied.

"Do you remember that Chancellor Palpatine was a Sith?" he asked, starting from the beginning. When Kanan nodded, he went on. "Before the start of the Clone War, he secretly ordered for the creation of the clone army. He gave the Kaminoins orders to insert chips in the head of each soldier in the early stages of development. Nearly all clones never knew the chips even existed. Those chips were programmed with orders, one of which was Order 66. If any of these were activated by the Chancellor, the clones would have no choice but to execute the order."

"Wait..." Kanan paused him, the information beginning to process. "So the Jedi Purge...it was an order? Order 66? And the Chancellor, why would she...?"

"She wouldn't, I hope," he explained, referring to Chancellor Kanai. "It was Palpatine, or Sideous, who wanted to wipe out the Jedi Order."

Internally, Kanan was starting to feel the confusion and horror of the whole mess. "Why activate it then? What did the Jedi do that she would try to kill us?"

Absolutely nothing, he thought to himself, but he gave a more detailed answer out loud. "I don't believe she did. Minutes after the order was activated, Chancellor Kanai was found dead, believed to have been shot by a clone."

"I remember, the entire Republic was in an uproar afterward."

"Exactly. It is just what was needed to plunge the Republic into chaos, and give Dooku a chance to win the Clone War. The timing of it all was too perfect to be coincidental."

The subtext of his statement made itself clear in Kanan's mind, after a moment. "Dooku? Dooku did this?"

Realization dawned on his face, and Anakin went on. "Indirectly, I think, but yes. I believe it was Barriss Offee who carried out the task, but that it was on his orders. All of this to say: the reason Ahsoka died during Order 66 was that Offee ordered the clone troopers to target her specifically."

It was a very long, roundabout way of answering the original question, but it achieved what Anakin was hoping to accomplish. Kanan's mind was reeling with the righting of history he didn't even know was skewed. "So the entire Jedi Purge was just to make the Republic look bad, so Dooku could take over as Emperor? That's the reason for all of this?"

"The political reason, yes. I'm sure Dooku had his motives as well, but I couldn't tell you what they were. I haven't seen him since the day his master was killed."

To have been a pawn in such a grand scheme and not know it for so long, it was a humbling and humiliating thought. Kanan didn't think he would ever truly get closure on what had happened fifteen years ago, much less that he thought it was possible. It hadn't been the universe that hated him badly enough to rip his life away from him, but the Sith. Dooku had been to blame the whole time. "And Barriss Offee? What happened to her?"

"If I had to guess, I'd assume she is still in Dooku's service as his apprentice," Anakin told him, sharing his suspicions. "She has kept a much lower profile since Order 66, though. If I've heard anything about her in the past fifteen years, it must have been under a new name because I haven't recognized it yet."

"Are there any other survivors?" he asked, letting himself hope. If Anakin had made it, and he had made it...

Crossing his arms, Anakin told him the truth. "There are, but none of them are in the Rebellion. Those that I have found have managed to create a new life for themselves, one that is relatively peaceful compared to our day-to-day schedule. None of them have reached out to Rebel leadership or tried to find trouble on their own. As long as they can remain in hiding peacefully, I imagine it's best for everyone if it stays that way."

That made sense, it did, but Kanan couldn't just move on from it. Shouldn't all Jedi come together as he and Anakin had? Already he had learned so much about what had happened and he felt so much safer! Why not share this opportunity with every Jedi? "Shouldn't they know what happened?"

"If I could reach out to them without risking their safety, I would," Anakin assured him, having argued with himself about this very same point. "I would tell every survivor exactly what happened and why. Unfortunately, ever since I've become Fulcrum I've made myself a target of the Empire. Even sending a recording to them is a risk. If the Empire finds any evidence of Rebel activity or Jedi activity for that matter, it will put them in danger. I understand that they want to live in peace and I will not be the one to take that away from them."

To live in peace, to not be on the run every second of every day, it was unthinkable for Kanan. How is peace an option for any Jedi now? he wondered. After everything that's happened, after everything we knew was destroyed? He tried to imagine himself living on some planet, working an actual job, and blending in as a civilian. Try as he might, he couldn't see it.

As his face fell, Anakin watched carefully and wondered if he should ask any further about what happened. He knew it was a sensitive topic but now was probably the best time. There was no telling when the chance would come again, especially since his missions were random and spontaneous. The Rebellion could call for Agent Fulcrum at any second. "After the Purge, I was able to access the Republic reports of the fallen. I heard about Depa," he admitted, softening his voice. "I'm sorry."

Kanan nodded, his expression hardening. "Attachments are forbidden," he recited, having had the phrase drilled into him his whole life. "Fear of loss can lead to the Dark Side. Every member of the Order must separate themself from-"

"Do you see the Order anywhere?" Anakin asked, interrupting him. He had long since abandoned that particular notion of the Jedi Order and did not intend to hold Kanan to the same notion. "Depa was a friend, much like Ahsoka was mine. If losing her hasn't turned you to the Dark Side yet, I don't think it will now."

It was right then that Kanan remembered exactly who he was talking to. This was Anakin Skywalker, the Hero with No Fear and the biggest pain in the neck the Jedi Council ever tolerated. Even his hairstyle resembled that of Qui-Gon Jinn, the only Jedi to equal his tendency to disregard the wishes of the Council. Of all the people to cling to the Jedi Code, Anakin was the least likely, second only to Ahsoka Tano herself. He may be much older than the last time Kanan had seen him but he hadn't changed that much.

Anakin recognized that Kanan had, though. Not only was he taller, lankier, and with more facial hair than before, but the Empire had forced Kanan Jarrus to lock up Caleb Dume inside him and hide him from everyone else. Anakin respected Kanan, but he knew Caleb wasn't completely gone either and he could see remnants of the young Padawan. He could still see the optimistic, inquisitive teenager that had befriended Ahsoka. On behalf of her and Depa, Anakin felt responsible to keep an eye on him from now on. Ezra may need a Jedi to look out for him but so did Kanan.

That was the one thing he had not regained with Hera and the others. Kanan was constantly protecting his friends but he had no one to watch over him. Maybe he didn't need a master or a superior to give him orders anymore, but leadership came with a heavy burden that Kanan had never prepared for. Some days he didn't want to carry it, and those were the days he felt most alone. There was no mentor to vent to, no master to seek advice from, no Council to follow.

"I think that's what I miss most from the Order," Kanan confessed, looking down. "With them, I never felt like I was alone. There was always someone a call away."

The Jedi Knight nodded, as he missed the strength of the Republic Era as much as Kanan did. In its absence, though, he had learned one thing: A Jedi was never alone. That was a lesson Kanan had to learn himself though, it wasn't something that could be taught, so Anakin didn't say that. "You're not alone anymore. Your crew refused to abandon you to the Empire, despite all the risk the mission entailed. Even your droid was adamant that we come to help you. If that isn't a family, I don't know what is."

"So you think it's okay now?" Kanan asked one more time, glancing up. "Attachment is okay?"

"My attachments are what saved me from Order 66, and I think yours did too," he responded, resting one hand on Kanan's shoulder. "Love is not a weakness, it never has been. There is a time and place for it, and it's usually not on the battlefield, but it's possible to learn how to turn love into strength."

Maybe it was how open he was being, maybe it was just the stress from the rest of the day, but that little bit of reassurance was what Kanan needed at that moment. He sunk into Anakin, showing vulnerability for one moment. Despite knowing he wasn't nearly as close to Kanan as Depa or Ahsoka had been, he didn't resist the hug. Sometimes people needed to tough it out, and sometimes they just needed someone to tell them things were going to be okay.

"Get some rest," suggested Anakin, once they had pulled away. "You've earned it."

"Thank you, Master," Kanan told him, grateful for it. After hours of torture, sleep sounded nice. Some old habit woke up in him, and he bowed his head ever so slightly that it was only noticeable if you looked for it.

Smiling, Anakin watched as Kanan walked off, probably to head back to the Ghost. He didn't know how to respond to Kanan calling him 'Master' as he had never been one, certainly not to Kanan. Sure, as far as rank went Kanan was still a Padawan, but he was an adult now and probably ought to be a Knight as Anakin was. The only thing keeping Anakin from correcting him was the words of an old friend: In my book, experience outranks everything.