I do not own Star Wars: The Clone Wars. As much as I hate to say it, it belongs to Disney.
Rain.
Anakin hated rain. He hated the way it seeped through everything, and everything and chilled him to the core no matter what he was wearing, and turned everything into a muddy disaster.
Ahsoka used to tease him, saying that no matter what the weather was, he was never satisfied. She joked that they could have been on the nicest resort in the galaxy and he would still be complaining.
Ahsoka had liked the rain. She had been cheerful, no matter what. She had made the war a little more bearable. They had been an unbeatable team, sometimes arguing, but Anakin had known he could always count on her.
And then she had walked away.
Anakin shook his head, his wet hair flopping in his face.
Now is not the time, he told himself as blasterfire nearly seared his left ear. He gripped his lightsaber a little more firmly and toppled four droids that had sneaked up behind him. There was no where to hide in the open fields, besides the ditches that lined the roads. This part of Rugon III was very much just fields and dirt. The soil held a rare substance that could be used in a number of medicines. Right now, however, it only made for slippery footing for his men and Anakin knew they were currently at a disadvantage.
Rex raced up to his side, firing rapidly at the droids. "Our forces are getting overrun, sir!" the clone reported. "We have no cover and the droids are tearing us apart!"
Anakin glanced to the side. "Where are our reinforcements?"
Rex shook his head. "I don't know, General," he said. "We sent a distress call out but the transmission may not have gotten through. It's impossible to say how much longer we'll be stuck out here."
Anakin thought quickly. They wouldn't be able to hold their position for much longer. The separatist mining base they had been assigned to destroy was just beyond the battalions of droids, but with all the droids guarding it, it might as well have been on the other side of the planet.
For the hundredth time, he wished Ahsoka were there. Sneaking into and destroying a separatist base undetected would have been an easy task for her, and one he would have entrusted only to her. The clones were skilled, but they lacked the force sense that was needed to navigate alone through separatist space.
'A Padawan would just slow me down...' you're eating your words now, aren't you, Skywalker? he thought to himself bitterly.
At first, he had been numb with shock. He and his apprentice had been separated many times during the war, and each time they had fought their way back to each other. It didn't matter if it was hunters, war generals, Sith lords or even death, they had beat it all.
But then an obstacle came along and drove them apart and even Anakin couldn't overcome it.
It had been a choice of her own free will and he had been forced to step aside and watch her leave.
He realized that Rex was still waiting for a reply. "Pull the men back to the trenches and bring in the heavy cannons, that's the best we can do for now," he ordered.
The captain nodded, then turned away to relay the orders.
Anakin didn't fall back with the rest of the men. He remained up front, right in the thick of things. The rain made it difficult for him to see, but he also knew that it affected the battle droids' circuits. They moved slower and their thought process was slower than usual and Anakin was confident that he could hold out.
It was not in his nature to give up.
The battle became almost predictable to him- block a few shots there, duck here, flip over a few droids there. They never changed their tactics and they never came close to getting the best of him.
And then the ground in front of him exploded in a shower of mud and flames.
The explosion threw Anakin to the ground. He spat out muddy water and drew himself up to his hands and knees. Dragging the back of his hand across his eyes to clear his gaze, he looked up.
A tank was crawling slowly toward him, but it was unlike any other tank he had ever seen. It was a dull grey, with treads for handling rough terrain. It seemed to have only one weapon, but, as Anakin glanced at the flames and large hole in the ground, he figured that one weapon was more than enough.
The tank advanced on his men, constantly firing. Suddenly the tables had turned and the troopers where dying by the dozen. Smoke drifted over the fields, making it even harder to see and they seemed to come alive with the cries of the wounded.
Anakin raced back to the ditches. "Riser!" he barked into his comlink, "time to use the heavy cannons!"
"Yes, sir!" the clone replied, and a few seconds later, several blasts echoes out through the fields. Heavy fire rained down on the separatist tank, but it withstood the assault, sustaining only some scorch marks.
Anakin frowned. It's got impenetrable shields. Now what?
The reasonable answer would be a full-scale retreat. The separatists clearly had the upper hand in this battle. Anakin could see no clear way of winning, unless...
The Jedi Knight carefully studied the tank. It had a hatch on the roof that wouldn't take much to open. Did he dare make a run for it and try to seize control of the machine?
Before he could even consider any other options, he took off across the battlefield, using both the Force and his lightsaber to keep the droids off of him. A few blaster bolts flew unnervingly close to his head, one singeing his hair, but he was not hit and made it safely to the tank.
A quick twist in the Force popped open the hatch and Anakin vaulted inside, demolishing the three droids who controlled the tank with a quick slice of his lightsaber.
The tank's cockpit was very small, with three chairs and a control panel that wrapped halfway around the small space. The only lights came from the glowing screens and buttons on the panel. Quickly, Anakin scanned the controls, memorizing them and familiarizing himself with them. Then, he sat down and gripped the controls, sending the tank into a wide circle and swinging the cannon around to face the separatists. He could hear the crunch of droids being crushed beneath the tank and the dull thuds of lasers hitting the hull. Out the viewport he could see his men racing forward, overtaking the droids. With the new weapon on their side, the tide had turned in their favour. He smiled slightly. Now, the separatists' advanced technology would work against them.
Anakin's mind raced as the tank rumbled toward the separatist base. Did the machine have enough firepower to destroy the base? It wasn't terribly big, but he only had one tank.
If I can't destroy it, maybe I can at least cause some damage, he thought, focusing the cannon on the building ahead.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Laser after laser slammed into the building, smoke rising and mingling with the rain. Anakin squinted, trying to gauge the level of damage he was causing. Not only was the base still standing, it appeared to be relatively in one piece.
"Sir!" Rex's voice came through his comlink, sounding only slightly winded. "It looks like the separatists are sending out a new wave of droids!"
Sure enough, skeletal shapes began to march out of the smoky gloom that hung about the base. The blasterfire flying through the air intensified and the tank rocked with the force of it. Anakin grimaced, still firing at the mining base.
"Rex, I think this is a good time for a retreat!" he yelled into comm.
"Retreat?" Rex echoed incredulously.
"There's nothing more we can do. I'll try to cause as much damage to the base as possible, but we can't bring it down with the firepower we have."
There was a short silence and Anakin assumed Rex was sizing up the fight. "All right, General," he said at last, "good luck."
It was only a short time later that several screens began flashing red. Anakin frowned, checking the readouts. The tank's shields were holding, but the systems were overheating. If he kept pushing it, they would shut down. He fired three more lasers at the base, then activated his lightsaber and prepared to destroy the control panel and jump out of the tank.
A loud roar from above made him pause. He looked up through the viewport to see three republic gunships circling over the separatist mining base, repeatedly firing at the building. He sighed in relief, climbing out of the tank.
Reinforcements had arrived at last.
After destroying the last of the droids and the base itself, the gunships brought Anakin and his remaining men up to the Jedi cruiser orbiting the planet. He stepped out into the hangar, just as a clone came up beside him.
"Sir, the Jedi Council is waiting to speak with you."
Anakin raised his eyebrows. Another mission already? Or am I in trouble again?
"Thank you, trooper," he said, "I'll be right there."
Anakin was still getting used to the fact that he didn't have a Padawan to check up on anymore. She had stuck with him like a second shadow and it felt almost... strange to walk through the corridors without her trailing behind him.
A month had passed since Ahsoka had left and Anakin, in an attempt to stop thinking about his failure to protect his Padawan, had thrown himself into mission after mission. He hadn't been on Coruscant in almost four weeks. He wasn't willing to leave the Order, but he found that he couldn't stay in the Temple where Ahsoka had been let down so badly.
Anakin bowed slightly as he entered the war room, where holograms of the Council members waited for him.
"A success, your mission was," Master Yoda stated.
"Yes, Master," Anakin replied. "But we lost... a lot of men."
"This is happening more and more frequently," Master Windu intoned severely. "The Council is concerned about your growing recklessness."
"Seek thrills, a Jedi should not," Yoda told him. "Be conscious of the lives around him, he should."
Anakin stiffened. They thought he was fighting harder, becoming more daring in battle because he was looking for thrills?
This war needs to be over soon, he thought, and we need to do what it takes to win. I have to know that all this fighting isn't for nothing.
Of course, the Council wouldn't listen to him. He simply clenched his fists and jerkily inclined his head to show that he had recognized the lesson they had given him.
"We have a new assignment for you, Skywalker," Shaak Ti spoke up. "You will be deployed to the Sluis sector to assist Senator Ludar with some unrest among the planets."
Anakin fought to keep a grimace on his face. Politics? Politics bored him, they were nothing compared to the challenge of fighting. "You want me on a diplomatic mission? And isn't the Sluis sector separatist space?"
"The Council believes it would do you good to be away from the fighting," Ki-Adi Mundi said. "Diplomacy is a useful skill to have, and one that gets stronger only when you use it. While Sluis is indeed separatist space, they have requested a cease-fire if a Jedi will go and help them."
"May the Force be with you," Yoda said. Anakin bowed as the holograms flickered out, then raised his head to stare at the empty table.
He normally stayed as far away from missions involving politics as it was, but this time, the Force was shifting around him. Was it a warning to stay away? Or a prompting to go? Anakin couldn't tell. He remained still a moment longer, trying to make sense of the currents of the Force, but it seemed unwilling to tell him anything.
So the Council wanted him off the field. He shouldn't have been surprised that they didn't trust him on missions anymore. Things had been rocky between the Council and himself every since Ahsoka had first gone on the run.
There had been a flickering urge to join his former Padawan, to leave the Order and live a life without lies. To be open about his marriage to Padme. To be free.
But the Jedi Order was his life. Without it, he had no purpose, and he knew it would kill him to stand back and watch others die. So he would stay, because saving people was what he had been born to do.
You couldn't save your Padawan, a voice in his head reminded him. You may have saved her from death, but you couldn't save her from the cruelty of a galaxy that will turn on anyone.
Anakin spun sharply on his heel and quickly left the war room to prepare for his mission. Maybe, if he walked fast enough, he could leave the sickening feeling of failure behind.
So... yeah. I've decided to try writing fanfiction again. We'll see how that turns out. I know everyone is writing a post-finale fic right now, but I'm hoping mine will be a little different. Leave a review, tell me what you think. :)