Chapter 9 In Pursuit

Kitch saw the smoke from the Temple and ran as fast as he could in that direction. When a squad of clone troopers opened fire on him, he nearly dropped from shock. Once his adversaries were taken care of, he continued on his way, dread mounting in his throat with every heartbeat.

> > > >

Jesse and Kimmy ran as fast as they could to the entrance of 500 Republica, the official residence of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine. Kimmy didn't stop to ask why they were going there instead of the Temple; she just trusted Jesse's instincts.

Just a little farther. Jesse told himself, Kimmy right behind him.

They had closed half of the distance when a metal cylinder fell out of the sky, right at his feet. Jesse walked over and picked it up. When he saw what it was, his blood turned to ice and his heart stopped. It was a lightsaber. But it wasn't any old lightsaber. This was the lightsaber that belonged to his old master, Mace Windu.

"Jesse, look!"

Jesse looked to where Kimmy was pointing, almost 100 stories up. He was in time to see bursts of eerie blue lightning shooting out of the window. Then, to end the show, a body flew into the air. Jesse and Kimmy both watched it sail through the air until hit the ground.

Without hesitating, Jesse took off, Kimmy almost killing herself to keep up. Eventually, they arrived to see Mace Windu, dead on the ground. The strongest and toughest Jedi the galaxy had known after Master Yoda, Jesse's master, the one man who was more of a father to him than anyone, was dead. Jesse fell to his knees and wept.

Kimmy fought back tears, but something inside her told her that there would be more tears later on. Many more.

Be strong. She told herself. Don't give in.

She touched Jesse's arm, but she couldn't bring herself to speak. It didn't matter. Jesse stood. In his eyes there was no hatred, no anger. Just a deadly determination that made Kimmy almost take a step back.

"To the Temple." he said.

> > > >

Time was short as they ran to the Temple. Kimmy could almost see it slipping away. As they entered and ran up the stairs, the feel and smell of death was all around. Soon they found bodies littering the hall and rooms. Jesse took a deep breath and closed his eyes at the sight of faces he knew. His childhood friends were all there. Mon had had his legs cut out from underneath him, Gala's neck was broken, and Jesse could only see Ko'arn's body. He turned his head and kept going.

Screams came from the youngling's nursery that only made Jesse's fire grow brighter. They hurried there and attacked the clone troopers slaughtering the babies and toddlers. But they were too late. All were dead. Jesse looked at Kimmy in defeat.

"Not all." She said, picking up a small infant. A blaster bolt had grazed him, and he was too weak from loss of blood to cry, which probably had saved his life. Kimmy immediately applied pressure to the wound.

"Go to the hangar and get a ship, so he'll be safe. And grab a lightsaber on your way out. I'll be right there." Jesse wanted to know if Anakin was still around. Vivid memories of them standing in the middle of a Tatooine desert played before his mind, but he doubted there would be any remorse or regret on Anakin's part. Him? He had enough already to last a lifetime.

> > > >

Kitch stumbled over countless corpses in his haste to get to the lab. When he did, he was unprepared for the sight that waited him. Clenching his jaw, he covered his dead master's face before dropping to the bloodstained floor. He was too late.

Standing up, he went back to the Senate building. Anakin would be there, and he would kill him.

> > > >

Hours of searching only revealed one thing: Anakin wasn't here. A beep made Kitch leap for cover. No good getting caught now when he'd already survived the mass destruction.

Recognizing the droid that rolled down the hallway, Kitch stepped forward again.

"R2." He called softly.

The little droid beeped and turned around.

"I'm looking for Anakin." Kitch explained. "Do you know where he is?"

R2 gave an affirmative beep.

"Where?"

R2 quickly played a hologram.

Kitch watched Anakin say a final farewell to Padme, but the one thing that stuck in his mind was what was said at the beginning of the recording: Mustufar. That was where Kitch was going.

He snuck out of the building and into the hangar. Clone troopers guarded every single ship in sight. This wasn't going to be easy.

Hiding in the shadows, Kitch snuck over to a small ship with only three clone troopers. He didn't want to alert the whole hangar of his presence, but he also hated to stab someone in the back. He cleared his throat and fell upon the troopers as they turned. Luck was with him; no one had noticed the exchange. He grabbed one of the clones' commlink, boarded the ship, and started it up. The commlink buzzed to life.

"What's going on over there?"

"I got a call, we're needed on the other side of this sector. Permission to leave?" Kitch quickly accessed the Force.

"Permission granted. Out."

As the doors opened, Kitch piloted the ship out of the hangar and into the skies, not looking back.

> > > >

Kimmy booted up the ship, took care of theyoungling's wound,and waited for Jesse, glad that the hangar was empty. She had had to sneak around a few troopers at the entrance, but other than that had met with no trouble.

"Nothing." Jesse said when he climbed on board. "He's disappeared."

"Maybe Obi-Wan knows where he is."

"I doubt it." Jesse didn't even know if Obi-Wan was alive.

Kimmy looked up, tears she'd been valiantly fighting shining in her eyes. "We don't know if Anakin did it." She whispered.

Jesse swallowed the lump in his throat, feeling an irrepressible urge to hug her. "He did." He whispered into her shoulder, feeling the same mixture of shock, horror, and agony at the fact that one of their own had created such mass destruction.

"That we should live to see such times." He murmured.

Kimmy melted into his strong embrace, resisting the urge to just curl up in a corner and scream. They had to find Anakin. But how? They didn't even know where to look?

"Padme." She said, sitting up.

"What?"

"Padme. Anakin would have told her where he was going."

"You're sure?"

Kimmy nodded. "Trust me."

Jesse immediately took the ship's controls. "We'll just go over there and see her."

"It's dangerous. Maybe we should walk."

"Don't worry; I'm not a Jedi."

Kimmy was staggered by the simple truth of that statement. Still…

"But you were one. Padme might…"

"She won't turn me in. My guess is Anakin hasn't told her the whole story anyway." Jesse said as the ship took flight. He smiled at Kimmy reassuringly. "Trust me."

This is getting very depressing...