Depa couldn't run back to the base, not right away. She was still a General after all, and she had to act like one.

The last of the Separatist ships finally left. Many droids were left behind, and it was Depa's job to round them up. The whole time, though, she was focused on her Padawan.

The Inquisitor had definitely run from the base to the gunships, but Depa never saw her run from the gunships to the base. She tried to think of how she could have slipped past the action in time to plant a bomb but she was so distracted that she couldn't focus.

Then there was Caleb. He had been in the base, or at least on top of it, the last she had seen. Was he too close to the bomb when it had gone off? Or maybe he met the Inquisitor while she had visited? Depa felt her stomach churn at the thought. She had thought long and hard about the Inquisitor ever since Kenobi had come back from his and Skywalker's mission. If it was Ahsoka Tano, would she have spared Caleb, given their history together? Had she fallen so far that she killed him? Was that what that stare had been about? Depa's blood ran cold.

And what if it wasn't Ahsoka? She definitely would have killed Caleb, then. Why would any Separatist, let alone the Sister, spare a Padawan? Why hadn't he come out to help with the fight when the siren had sounded? It wasn't like him to skive off a battle. Maybe the Inquisitor had already killed him by then, or hurt him at the very least. Had she tortured him before she killed him? What had he said, what did the Inquisitor now know because of her ignorance of her Padawan? All of these thoughts and more ran through Depa's head as she finished off the battle droids.

When the last one had fallen, the clones started to clean up the mess from the battle. They tended to their wounded and hauled the broken parts of the Separatist army off to who knew where. Depa turned and began to walk towards the base, resisting the urge to run. She activated her comlink. "Caleb, where are you? I want a status update."

No response, only static came through.

"Caleb, answer me! Where are you?"

Still nothing.

"...Caleb?"

Depa's heart began to race. He always answered his comlink. Always. She waited, hoping that his voice would break through soon, but it never did. If she walked in and saw tha-

"Coms are down, General."

"What?" She turned and saw a medic clone kneeling by a wounded, but living soldier.

"Coms were knocked out a while ago. We have no communication between command or the rest of the base."

Depa, although somewhat concerned for the overall damage to the base, breathed a little bit easier. There was still a chance, then.

"Thank you," she told the clone and ran off back to the base. Commander Wall could handle this, and she needed to find her apprentice.

She looked back up at the smoking base. The whole building seemed to be offline, and she realized that everything except the shields was down. That was good, at least the shield generators were undamaged. Something must have happened to the main generators, then.

The explosion, she thought. Was Caleb in there?

There was no telling until she had seen it for herself. She passed the shield and sprinted to the side of the building. Instead of using the doors, and having to find her way through the congested hallways, she opted to jump to the roof, and work her way down.

The first things she saw were the antenna, or what was left of them. The dishes had been severed from the poles that held them up, and the inner wiring was damaged. It wasn't a messy job, though. The cuts in the system were very clean and had recently cooled. Lightsaber work, she realized. This Inquisitor is smarter than we realized.

Depa abandoned the antenna and ran to the door before she saw the holes that had also been burned into the roof. She fingered them lightly. This was made by a lightsaber, too. This person had been very surgical about her mission.

She jumped through the hole, following the past that the Inquisitor had taken down. She made quick progress down until she reached the last level before the generator room. This time, the floor had been cut, but someone had wedged it back, and hastily welded it in place. Caleb.

Drawing her own lightsaber, she recut the circle to examine the damage done. Smoke rose immediately after the piece fell, and she coughed the smoke out of her windpipe. She tried to see past it, but it was impossible. She reached out into the Force and felt for her Padawan inside. Please don't be here.

He wasn't, and Depa sighed before coughing again. She shifted her focus and searched for her Padawan in the whole building. He was in the command center, and thankfully alive. She jumped back the way she had come and ran towards him.

He wasn't in the command center, necessarily, but outside it talking with a group of clones. He saw his master and politely excused himself from the conversation. The clones turned and saw the Jedi Master and realized what was happening, and walked quickly away. It was always best to let the Jedi do their thing and not interfere.

"Are you hurt?" She asked immediately, holding his shoulders so he stood a foot or two away from her.

"No Master, I'm fine," he told her. "I wanted to warn you about the bomb, the Inquisitor took out the coms before I realized."

"It's alright, Caleb. I'm just glad she didn't kill you." She tried to control her heartbeat, now that she had inspected her apprentice for herself and concluded that he actually hadn't been hurt.

"Is everything okay out there? It looked chaotic from the command center."

"The gunships have left, and the cruiser should soon afterward. Once we clean up a little bit here, we can go back to the Temple."

Caleb nodded, but his face was hardened somewhat. Depa noticed. "What is it?"

He looked up at Depa. "Master, why do you think the Inquisitor is Ahsoka? She's nothing like her."

"You MET her?" She asked, amazed that he was still in one piece.

"Sort of. We talked for a little bit, and then she left. I couldn't stop her from activating the bomb, but-"

"What did she say?"

"Not much, really. She said that I was the only person who believed she wasn't Ahsoka, and then she said she would try not to kill me because I 'seemed decent'."

"What else?"

"Nothing, really. We fought for a little bit, but she kept pushing me away, instead of actually dueling. She set off the bomb and told me that I had 60 seconds before it went off. I couldn't get it out, I didn't think so anyway, so I just left it and ran. I don't think anyone got hurt though."

Depa was silent for a moment after Caleb finished speaking. Thoughts raced through her head before she managed to get a sentence out. "Go ahead and help the clones with damage control. We'll talk about this on the ship."

Caleb nodded. She could see his master was a tad shaken and figured now was a time to not ask questions. He walked away and made his way outside. If he could find Commander Wall, he could start helping shift some debris.

Depa leaned against the wall and rubbed her temple with her fingers. She had spared him. Depa almost couldn't believe it. Of all the things that she imagined of the Inquisitor, mercy was not one of them. Everything Caleb had said contradicted what she thought of when she looked at that...that girl, if she could even be called that.

There was a correlation, though. Caleb didn't think she was Ahsoka, and the Inquisitor spared him. There had to be something to that.

But that stare. What else would it be for? She was on the Council, and they had expelled her. If she was Ahsoka, it would explain the hatred in her eyes for that second.

This Togruta is smarter than us, Depa thought. She isn't just tooling with Skywalker, she's tooling with all of us. She's doing this on purpose. For what?

Depa's thoughts were interrupted by a clone coming out of the command center. He had to push the sliding door open since the power was out. "Sir, it's your cruiser."

"What?" She asked, and she slid into the command center sideways. She looked up and out at the sky, where her cruiser should have been, as the clone continued.

"The Separatist cruiser destroyed yours before leaving the system. It's gone, sir."

Caleb had chosen to help move the fallen clones onto stretchers instead of dealing with the piles of severed droid parts. It was always easier for him to move past the guilt and the pain of their deaths if he felt that he had at least made sure that their bodies were cared for afterward. It was like a final sentiment. One last act of kindness before he never saw them again.

His master had been confused by this at first, but she saw how much it helped him after battles, and never asked about it afterward. The troopers, on the other hand, admired his courage to tend to the fallen, and always seemed more willing to help him.

Commander Wall was directing traffic on the battlefield, but when he saw Commander Dume using the Force to carefully and delicately lift his men onto the medical stretchers, his respect for him climbed. It wasn't often that Jedi helped out with these sorts of things. The last Jedi to do so were...well, General Skywalker and ex-Commander Tano. It was nice to see a third.

"Commander," he called out to Caleb, and he turned after laying a trooper down. "We have a couple of wounded over here, but they're having trouble getting them onto stretchers."

"Where are they?" Caleb asked, and Wall walked him over to Fist and Foot, who were badly injured, but alive.

"Right there, sir." he pointed to the troopers.

"Thanks, Commander," Caleb told him, and he jumped next to the two of them. Medic soldiers were already on their way with stretchers, and Caleb started talking to the troopers.

"How was your first battle, shinies?" He asked jokingly, trying to lighten the mood.

"Not bad, sir," said Fist. "Just got a little banged up."

"A little?" snorted Foot. "You're side is bleeding out."

"So is yours."

"Alright, guys," Caleb said, laughing. "Calm down, the stretchers are here."

"This is gonna hurt," moaned Foot, but Caleb started to lift both of them without altering their position. Without the shifting of wounded muscles and organs, the process was actually quite painless.

"You guys got them?" Caleb asked the medics, and they nodded as they strapped the troopers down. "You two rest up. You did well today."

"Thanks, Commander," both of them said, and they were whisked away back to the base.

Wall smiled. This kid really had heart.

Caleb jumped back up to where Wall was standing. "What else can I do, Commander?"

"We still have plenty of wounded," he told the Jedi. "Probably would be nice for them if you helped them onto stretchers."

They started jogging to various soldiers, and Caleb lifted them effortlessly, as many as he could. They all thanked him and found a smile inside themselves despite being injured. Caleb's heart sank when he saw clones with severed limbs or serious wounds. They would never be seen on the battlefield again. He had seen lots of his own, or Depa's own, troopers disappear after such injuries.

After a half-hour of clearing soldiers, Wall took off his helmet and spoke to Caleb. "You've been at this for a while now, haven't you?"

Caleb turned to face Wall. He thought for a moment, then responded quietly. "Almost two years now."

"I can see it. You're a youngin', but you definitely are not a shiny."

Caleb snickered softly at the use of clone slang on a Padawan. It was true, though. If he wore armor, it would not be shiny.

"I started a bit earlier than most people," he told Wall. "Most Jedi start fighting at fifteen or sixteen, and I started a month or two before I turned fourteen."

Wall nodded. "I met Captain Rex a few times, from the 501st. He said their commander was about the same age when she started a few years ago."

Caleb smiled at the mention of Ahsoka. The real Ahsoka. "Commander Tano was one of the best. Did you meet her?"

"I did. You remind me of her, in a few ways, actually."

Caleb grinned. It was the best compliment Wall could have given him, in his own opinion.

"Is it true, that Tano is the Inquisitor?"

His smile dropped. "No, it's not." He looked up at Wall. "I just had a run-in with the Inquisitor. She is a Togruta, but she's definitely not Ahsoka."

Wall nodded. "Makes sense. I doubt anyone like her would join the Separatists."

"So do I, but the Jedi Council doesn't agree." Caleb looked back at the base, where his Master was probably ordering around other troopers. "Don't worry, though. Soon, someone will prove it wrong."

Author's Note: A dm made me realize this, but this story so far covers a little less than 2 weeks. To give you some perspective, this whole story is probably going to cover about 3 months.