After the evening meal, Ahsoka and the Padawans took the Younglings downstairs to bathe. It was difficult, but they managed to develop a system. It was almost like an assembly line, but instead of making machines, they were washing people. After an hour of nonstop work, everyone was finally clean.

The Younglings went to sleep at sundown, but the Padawans normally stayed up later to finish their studies or meditate. After putting the Younglings to sleep, they all decided to walk to the main training room to relax.

O-Mer, Jinx, Caleb, and Ahsoka all began walking down in a group, and Ahsoka finally began to talk a little bit more specifically about her life underground.

"Is it as dangerous as they say?" O-Mer asked. "Master Plo always warns me to be careful before I go down for a mission."

Ahsoka smirked. "Any Jedi will tell you to be careful in the Lower Levels. You aren't always received kindly amongst residents."

Jinx cocked his head. "Then how did you live down there? Doesn't everyone know about your trial?"

"They've forgotten. Besides, they're more concerned about the fact that I can fix their ships."

"So you work as a mechanic?" O-Mer asked. "Like some of the clones on the cruisers?"

She nearly laughed. "Sort of, but I actually get paid to do it. The clones don't really have a choice in the matter."

O-Mer snorted. "Fair point."

Jinx crossed his arms as he walked. "It is still a little...weird..to feel you like this. Your Force signature really stands out here."

O-Mer nodded in agreement. "Not in a bad way, just..."

"Unfamiliar?" Ahsoka suggested, understanding that it probably did feel a little bit Dark. She knew they would never admit it in the Temple, though.

"That's probably the best word for it," Jinx affirmed. "It's really mature, too. Kind of dangerous actually. If I was a bounty hunter or something, I would be a little scared of you now."

Ahsoka laughed with the two of them, but she heard Caleb walk away from the group and down the hall, to one of the small training rooms. They didn't stop walking, but all of them noticed.

When they thought he was out of earshot, O-Mer lowered his voice and commented, "He's been really shaken without Master Billaba. When you weren't here yet, he was taking charge and he seemed fine, but now..."

"He's worried," Jinx explained. "We all are, but him especially. Maybe you should talk to him, Ahsoka. Alone, probably."

She agreed with them, but she had a feeling that wasn't the only thing bothering Caleb. "You guys go on. I'll speak with you later, I promise."

The two men turned and kept going to the main training hall, while Ahsoka followed him around corners and through hallways. When she caught up with him, he was sitting down, leaning against the wall in a quiet hallway. Silently, she sat next to him, and they stared out the window for a few moments.

"Why did you go?" Caleb asked quietly, not looking at her.

Ahsoka could have given him the obvious answer, but she knew that wasn't the one he was looking for. He deserves a real explanation, she thought, so she thought back to when she left and, for the very first time in over a year, began to talk to him.

"After my trial, I...I was so confused, so hurt. I had thought that I could trust the people around me, but Barriss had framed me, the Council had expelled me, and the Republic tried to execute me. I couldn't trust them, not after that. They, the Council, tried to ask me back, but I said no."

"Because they betrayed you?" he asked, but he didn't let her answer. "I didn't even see you after you left to go to the detention center. You never..." he didn't finish, but Ahsoka knew what he wanted to say. You never said goodbye.

She turned to face him, but Caleb was still refusing to look at her and his eyes were trained on the wall across from them. "Do you remember what the Code says about attachments?"

Caleb nodded. "'A Jedi shall not know hate, nor anger, nor love,'" he quoted.

"I wanted to stay," she told him, even though she had a feeling he wouldn't believe her. "I knew I could still trust Anakin, and there were Jedi like you that didn't expel me, but I couldn't trust the Council and I doubted they trust me. They probably still don't. My better judgment was telling me to go, even though my emotions were telling me to stay."

He didn't respond to her confession, but he drew his knees up to his chin and crossed his arms over them. He knew just as well as she did that emotions were not supposed to cloud judgment. Right now, though, he didn't like it.

She smiled weakly. "I guess that should have been a clue. I shouldn't have been so attached that I had to fight off emotions in the first place. Maybe I should have known I would end up leaving."

Caleb wanted to say that she was wrong, that Ahsoka belonged in the Jedi Order more than he did, that the Council had been wrong, not her, but he couldn't. Not when he was held to the same code that she had once been. Instead, he whispered almost inaudibly: "Where were you when the Inquisitor was attacking?"

Ahsoka felt her heart pound. If there was anyone in the Order other than Anakin that she would trust to tell, it would have been Caleb, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. "I was visiting Separatist systems," she lied.

He looked away from her, to the other side, of his body. "They said you might be her."

"I know," she admitted. "I know."

"People started arguing. After Depa told me, the Council started having really long meetings and she would always be frustrated afterward. Then everyone else did it too, and people kept getting into arguments. When Master Ti lost her memory, it got even worse. Depa would forget to train me because she was so...mad at the others. She was angry, Ahsoka. I've never seen her like that. She started avoiding people, and then I had to avoid them too."

She realized that Caleb wasn't mad that she had left; he was hurting, badly. How long had he been holding in his worry, his pain, with no one else to turn to? His master had been...well, preoccupied, and Ahsoka had left.

"I tried to help with the Younglings, especially after Master Ti went insane, but I didn't know what to say. They kept asking me what was happening, and what they should do, but how-I didn't know, so I couldn't say anything. I couldn't even talk about their vision, because I thought someone else would get hurt!"

Caleb finally turned to look at Ahsoka, and she could see him fighting off tears.

"I tried to figure it out, Ahsoka, I tried to help them, but I can't do what you did. I was so scared, I thought that any day, someone would...would feel too much and everything would fall apart, I thought we would lose the Order. Nothing felt safe anymore, not even the Temple, and I just wanted to run, and I wanted-I wanted to hide from the Darkness, but I couldn't, and-"

He couldn't go on. He couldn't stop the tears anymore, and he hid his face so Ahsoka couldn't see them. Ahsoka, though, no longer held any reserves about emotions, and she pulled him close so she could wrap both arms around him. He clung to her shoulders, and he finally released the pain he had been holding in for so long.

The worst part about it? Ahsoka realized that this was Sideous' plan all along. Sure, she had known about it, but she had never seen the effects of it. He had wanted to tear the Order apart from the inside out, and he also tore some of the people apart too. How many other of the Younglings and Padawans had felt the lash of his cruelty? How many others had suffered the consequences for things they couldn't understand?

Ahsoka was no longer a Jedi, that much was certain, but at that moment it was clear that she had never stopped being Caleb's mentor. Maybe it was more than that, which was probably wrong for Caleb, but Mortis knew he needed a shoulder to lean on right now and that he had needed it for months. Ahsoka closed her eyes, and her own tears spilled out from the corners of her eyes.

"It wasn't your job," she told him, hoping he would believe her. "It was never your job to fix that. It wasn't your fault, it shouldn't have affected you, but you were, and that's not your fault."

Caleb pulled back just enough so he could see Ahsoka's face. Ahsoka rested one hand on his shoulder and kept the other one wrapped around him.

"It was what he wanted, Caleb," she told him. "Sideous was trying to divide the Jedi. You should have never been put under the pressure to take care of the Younglings, not after he twisted their minds. One Jedi Padawan isn't going to be able to fight of a Sith Lord."

He laughed weakly, and she joined him because they both knew it was true. "You tried to, though," she reminded him, and she brought her thumb up to wipe away his tears. "You tried to help them because that's what you do. It's who you are, and it has been as long as I've known you, Caleb. You will always try to save everyone you can, even if you have to move a mountain to do so."

"Yeah," he admitted, smiling just a little bit and sniffling. "I guess that wasn't very smart. I was never going to be able to save them."

"Listen to me," she told him, and she held his head in her hands. "That is not a bad thing. One day, you will be able to help people, millions of them, just like those Younglings. I don't know how, or when, but you will save millions of people one day and I hope I'm there to see it."

Caleb smiled gratefully at Ahsoka, hope filling his eyes for the first time in a long time. He held on to her wrist, and she clasped his hand.

"You can try to stop helping people, but if I know you, then you won't be able to stop yourself from doing what you know is right," she insisted. "So promise me that you will never try to stop. The world is going to need you one day, Caleb. It will always need people like you."

He nodded, breathing deeply and swallowed. "I promise," he swore, and Ahsoka smiled. She knew it didn't matter if he promised or not, he would have done it anyway. She pulled him back in for a hug, and she hoped that she would be with him when her prediction came true.

The Padawan finally rested next to his mentor, grateful that she wasn't all the way gone. He trusted Depa, but he just didn't feel as comfortable around her, especially after the Inquisitor's death. Deep in his mind, he was always scared that she would be angry at him the way she was at others during those long weeks. With Ahsoka, though? She always had his back, even if she was on the other side of the galaxy.

They might have stayed there the whole night, but Caleb's comlink went off. "Caleb? Are you there?" It was Jinx.

"I'm here," he answered, standing up. Ahsoka did the same while he continued. "Is something wrong?"

"Master Secura just called everyone to the dining hall for a meeting."