Chapter Three

Jynn

I hated telling him that. I hated it. I hated when his face flushed of any color that was there before, mostly red from frustration, I hated when Ahsoka turned to look at me, and I hated when I felt he was going to yell at me. I felt guilty for not telling them that. They deserved to know sooner but, Obi Wan was worried about how they would take it. Barriss was the former padawan of Master Luminara Unduli, and the council believed that she had gone rouge. Barriss was like a sister to Ahsoka, and was a good friend of Anakin's.

"Why-Why Barriss?" Ahsoka asked, her voice shaking a little.

"The council has reason to believe that Dooku has gotten a hold of Barriss and trained her to be his new assassin." I replied, my heart breaking a little by little every word.

"Since when did you listen to the council?" Anakin bitterly commented. I glared at him, and just as I was about to shoot him down (verbally) Cable charged in, with Rex at his side.

"Excuse the interruption, but the ships are ready for retreat. I suggest we leave immediately." Cable said, straightening up. I nodded and when I was beginning to walk out the door, Anakin grabbed my arm.

"You can't be serious Jynn. We can't retreat." He said, longing and sadness in his eyes.

"You can stay and get obliterated if you would like to, but I am not sacrificing our men just to do something that is not vital to the war." I said bitterly, my eyes still fixed on him. I could tell my words stung, and I pulled my arm away and followed Cable to the hangar. Anakin was still calling after me, and I soon heard three pairs of footsteps trailing behind us. Rex, Ahsoka, and Anakin. I guess they had made up their minds and were coming with us to retreat. But, little did they know, we weren't actually retreating. We were just using our smaller ships to get down to the planet, as a big ship would bring to much attention. Plus, I knew if I had told him that he would never leave, and then he actually would be killed. He would've said that the bigger ships have better defenses, or something like that and then his plan would have failed, and we would all die. But, lucky for him, I was smarter than that.

We climbed into the gunships, the ones modified for space, and each ship turned on its cloaking device. This was relatively new technology, but if we didn't shoot it would work. When all of the troopers were packed into the ships, we took off into the inky black sky, speckled with shining white stars down towards whatever secrets about Barriss lay on Vardos. I swore and oath to myself then and there. However terrifying, I would uncover them. And if they led me to be forced to kill a young, scared, confused girl, then so be it.

Chapter Four

Anakin

The gunships glided across space like some sort of graceful bird. I was actually surprised when the ships landed on ground. Usually, if we had landed on a ship, you would hear all of the other troops running. But, there was silence. Ahsoka looked at me, cheeks reddened, and I shrugged my shoulders. Jynn opened the door, and glanced at me. She had lied. She led her troops out, Cable right by her side. I pushed past Rex and the others and ran to her. We looked each other in the eye for a moment and then she continued to walk with Cable and the rest of her men. I didn't know what to say to her and, I assumed, she didn't know what to say to me either. Why had she lied? Rex approached me, with the rest of his men and Ahsoka following. For the first time since we landed, I took a look around. Vardos was a heavily populated planet, with towers that looked to be 500 feet tall. I couldn't imagine a fall from the top of one. I soon figured out that I didn't know where we were going, so I directed Rex to follow Jynn, with me and Ahsoka following close behind.

"Why would she lie to us?" Ahsoka asked once I was by her side. I shook my head.

"I guess that we'll have to trust that she had a good reason too, Snips." Was the only thing I could say. I trusted Jynn and, I thought she trusted me too. Perhaps I was wrong.

We followed her into a tall temple looking building. After we were through the door, we stopped in the large, and quite luxurious, corridor. It was an odd tactic, being out in the open like that. Wouldn't there be cameras? She split up her men, pointing left and right, which was also odd, why would she have her men go down separate corridors?

"Rex, I need you and your men to sneak through this corridor until you get to a small, heavily guarded room." She commanded as she walked towards us. He nodded and led his men down the corridor.

"I thought we were retreating," I said, anger in my voice. "Why did you lie to us?"

"I knew that you would say that we should stay on the bigger ship, because it has better defenses but, Anakin, those gunships were the only ships that had cloaking technology that worked if we didn't come under fire or shoot. Even if the Dauntless did, the Separatists would still know we were there, and we would all go down in flames." She replied sternly. I just scoffed at her and started to follow Rex down the corridor. I heard her murmur to Ahsoka that they would follow Cable, since I was obviously frustrated.

After we were to the heavily guarded door, Rex threw a smoke bomb to get the droids' attention. After the smoke cleared, I was standing in front of them, lightsaber in hand, in the most threatening pose that I could think of. They started shooting, a lame attempt, and I sliced through them one by one, until they were all in pieces on the floor.

"Well that's one way to get the job done sir." Rex said behind me. I cut through the door, and once I was inside, Jynn, Ahsoka, Cable and the rest of the troopers came up behind me. I stepped in the room first, with Jynn closely behind me.

"There is nothing in here!" I said, looking around. I turned to look back at her, but she was gone. Rex and Cable were yelling something in audible, and shooting blindly into smoke. I heard Ahsoka calling out to me.

"MASTER! HELP US!" I heard her yell. But, I couldn't move. I heard a lightsaber humming behind me, and when I turned to look, it was Preelis, Jynn's padawan. She had Padme in a force choke, and her lightsaber about to impale her. I saw Jynn dead on the floor in a pool of blood. I was in shock, and tears began to stream down my face. This wasn't happening.

"This one has made you weak." Preelis spoke with a dark tone.

"Anakin...please...help." Padme said weekly. Preelis' face darkened, and there was an eerie smile upon her face.

"Perhaps I should kill her so you can fulfill your destiny Master." Master? I was not her Master.

Her lightsaber thrust into Padme's gut, a motion which made Padme scream in pain and then fall silent.

"NO!" Everything went silent around me. I fell to the floor, and Rex and Cable fell dead at my side. As Preelis vanished into a cloud of inky black smoke, I cried over my dead wife's body. What had I done?