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Chapter 18

When the Senate meeting let out early, all Anakin could do was thank the Force and sigh with relief. One more to go, he thought, dragging himself from his chair and up the steps to meet Padme. Just one more.

As relieved as he was that the torture of tedium would soon end, his mental respite didn't last. Another feeling nagged at him, one of incompletion, of failure. Nothing bad had happened during the meetings. In fact, in Anakin's opinion, nothing had happened at all. He'd sat at the computers and stared till his eyes felt drier than a sand dune, then kept right on staring because there was nothing else he could do. He even began to wonder if his Force-sensitivity had dulled; after all the action that past week, things couldn't just stop like this.

But because Padme remained safe (one upside to the endless monotony), Anakin knew his senses weren't wrong. On the dark side, he wasn't any closer to catching the spy than he'd been when they landed on Coruscant. Each day they went to bed and nothing had happened, a sort of relief blossomed, but it was soon choked by fear. Fear that he'd missed something, fear that, tomorrow, everything would change. Fear that he wouldn't see his mistake until a second too late.

Now the same feeling arose, stronger than ever. As Anakin crested the steps, met his wife's eyes, and forced the tiniest of smiles, he half-wished something would blow up already. At least then he'd have a situation to deal with and a culprit to chase.

But no such thing happened, and inwardly, Anakin admitted that he didn't really want it to. But what if they went through the meeting tomorrow and nothing happened? What if they had to return home with the spy still among them? What then?

The scariest part of all: he had no idea.

On the way back to the house, Anakin remembered what he used to do whenever he had a problem: fix something. Force, a few times he even broke something just so he could have the chance to fix it.

Well, lucky him, there was a large ship nearby that still required repair. Anakin never thought he'd be so grateful for an assassination attempt.

Besides that, he needed to check on Acacia. He'd decided not to confront her unless he was absolutely sure something was wrong or unless the not-knowing got to be too much for him. Still, he'd wanted to keep an eye on her whenever possible. But with her always at the hangar and him always at the Senate, that had been somewhat difficult.

The only downside to going was that he'd have to see Ferus. But for his sister and his own sanity, he would endure.

"Anakin!" His sister popped out of the ship with a grin. "I didn't know you were gonna come out today."

He shrugged. "I wasn't planning on it. But the Senate let out early, so I thought I'd come down and see how you were doing." He examined the ship for the first time. "Wow."

"Yeah." Acacia climbed down to stand beside her brother, beaming up at the work. "Not bad, if I do say so myself."

"Well, I probably could've done it better." Anakin smirked. "But you know, this is pretty good." He swallowed back the bitter taste when he realized he'd complimented Ferus as well. "Thanks." Anakin nodded at his former rival as he climbed out of the cockpit. "You've uh," He coughed, covered it by clearing his throat, then realized that only made it more conspicuous. "You've done great work, Ferus."

The other man smiled, which for him meant the corners of his mouth twitched up for half a second. "Thank you. I'm glad I was able to assist. Acacia" – He nodded at her as if they needed a reminder of whom they were talking about – "is really quite capable."

Anakin nodded again. He didn't know what else to say, so for once, he chose nothing. Instead, his eyes surveyed the ship, combing over every detail. From what he could see, almost everything was fixed; they had another day's work tops.

And he'd hardly done a thing.

"It's kind of amazing, though, isn't it?" Acacia bubbled. "I mean, I had no idea Ferus was any good with ships, much less that he could teach me about them."

"Yes," Ferus agreed, giving Acacia another tiny smile. "The strange part is, Anakin, you were always better than me at things like this. Who knew you'd come to me one day for mechanical repairs?"

Anakin's anger flared, but he tamped it back down. He knew better than to let Ferus get to him. He did. So he replied as smoothly as he could through gritted teeth. "Weird, right? But it's not that I can't fix it. I just don't have the time or materials at the moment."

Ferus nodded. "Of course." And though there was nothing in his tone to suggest sarcasm, something about the way the other man spoke still made Anakin bristle with annoyance.

"So." Acacia acted oblivious, but Anakin had a feeling his sister sensed what was going on. "You here to help, Ani?"

"Yes." He forced a smile and turned his back on his old rival. "Hand me a wrench, and tell me what's left to do."

Watching Anakin and Ferus attempt to work together would've been funny – if it wasn't so childish and if they didn't have way bigger things to deal with. Granted, Anakin caused more problems than Ferus did. He seemed to take offense at everything, hunting through Ferus' every word for insult, anger and darkness and almost-fear constantly simmering in his ForceMark. Acacia wondered what it was about the former Jedi that made her brother so insecure.

Still, Ferus didn't exactly help. After his failed attempt at a joke, he seemed even more uptight than usual, almost edgy around Anakin. It wasn't insecurity she sensed coming off of Ferus, but something deeper, more sensitive, and much more painful.

She wanted the chance to weasel it out of one of them. To understand what had happened between the two most talented padawans of their time. In the Order, that alone should not have been enough to make them enemies, and she wanted to uncover the full reason why Ferus and her brother had always been rivals.

That, though, would have to wait until she got one of them alone. Right now, she was too busy making sure neither one "accidentally" stabbed the other through.

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