A shuttle picked up Anakin's destroyed fighter and brought it back to the cruiser, but they didn't go anywhere. Somehow, without anyone else noticing, the Inquisitor had not only destroyed but actually removed all of the hyperdrives from the three Republic cruisers. If they were damaged, there was a chance that it could have been fixed, but there was nothing to fix.

They sent out a distress signal to Coruscant which immediately sent a large retrieval team out to them, but they were hours away. It would be up to the oxygen recyclers and the rations they had to keep them sustained until then.

A few inventory checks told Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Mace that they would be able to make it long enough for help to come, but it was unnerving to be floating in the middle of nowhere. There were no stars, no planets, or even moons to keep them company. Just three damaged cruisers amidst a field of debris.

Obi-Wan went to the cruiser without a Jedi, and Mace stayed on the one he had been manning during the battle. The two, along with Anakin once he returned, gathered in the command centers, and talked alone over hologram.

"How did the Separatists manage to take them without us noticing?" Mace Windu asked. "I check with the clones, no alarm went off during the battle. We should have been alerted as soon as it was removed."

"I wouldn't be surprised if it's another one of the Inquisitor's tricks," Obi-Wan stated, stroking his beard. "She had more than a few when I last caught a glimpse of her."

"This might be what we're looking for," Anakin said, dragging a still of the battle across the hologram projector and enlarging it so the Jedi Masters could see it clearly. "I crossed-referenced the ships and droids scanned in the fight with everything we have in the Republic database. This droid," he tapped on the image and the projector zoomed in on it, "Doesn't appear anywhere in it. It's new."

Master Windu crossed his arms. "What can you tell from the scan, Skywalker?"

"It has a self-destruct feature, and it has a lot of fine motor mechanics that aren't devoted to flying or weapons. I think it's what took out our hyperdrives without us noticing."

Obi-Wan walked closer to get a better look. "It definitely looks new, and it suits the Inquisitor's style, from the looks of her ship." He turned to Anakin. "Have you already submitted an entry for the database?"

"Just now. I put everything on there, about the Inquisitor, and the hyperdrives. Now, when our ships pick up these things, it will warn the bridge to keep a close eye on them. Hopefully, it will give us an edge next time."

Master Windu nodded. "Thank you, Skywalker."

Anakin returned the nod and closed down the projection.

Obi-Wan sighed and rubbed his chin. "So much for a trap. That was the plan, wasn't it?" He turned to the older Jedi.

"We were supposed to corner them, not to get cornered by them. I don't know how our coordinates leaked, but somehow they got them."

"It wasn't just that," interrupted Anakin. The other Jedi looked at him. "They had you surrounded on all sides. That wasn't just leaked coordinates, Master. They had to have sent out a ship, to find you and plan the ambush."

Windu looked at him quizzically. "You're saying they sent out a scout and we didn't pick up on it? But the clones would have noticed a ship that big, even if it did have shields and cloaking mechanisms, and smaller ships don't have that."

Obi-Wan and Anakin stole glances at each other. They both remembered the mission years ago when Anakin had flown a stealth ship.

"Not normally," mused Anakin, "but we had a ship like that a while ago. It's not impossible that the Separatist would have figured out the same thing. It was probably the Inquisitor herself who found you."

Windu stared even harder at the Chosen One. "Are you sure?"

"No," answered Anakin, "but she's smart enough that it could have been her. We need to keep our options open."

Obi-Wan stared at his apprentice. Weeks ago, Anakin had been willing to spare the Inquisitor, in the hope that she was Ahsoka. Now, he seemed to have lost that hope. He certainly didn't seem very merciful towards her now.

Windu, who hadn't been with the other two on Bespin, simply shook his head. "We'll need a full report later to the Council. I'll let you two be until then."

They nodded, and he disconnected from the conversation. Obi-Wan turned to talk to Anakin, but his apprentice severed their connection before Obi-Wan could get a word out.

Obi-Wan sighed. He had wanted to ask about his flight from the battle, one-on-one, but it looked like he would have to wait until later. He shut down the system and went to check on the rest of the ship.

Mace Windu leaned sat on the floor of his quarters and retreated into the depths of his mind. He had been very rattled by the ambush and he needed to clear his head.

Skywalker had abandoned the Inquisitor, that much was certain. If he was willing to blame the hyperdrives on the girl, then he had given up on her and there was little hope of saving her.

Mace didn't want to see the Togruta end up like Ventress, abandoned by her masters, and left to die. That was a cruel ending, even for a Sith. He had wanted to take her in and help her, but if Skywalker thought it was no use, then Mace wasn't about to waste his time. Better to kill her sooner rather than later to spare everyone, including her, from as much pain and death as possible.

The question was how to go about doing it. Baiting her obviously wasn't going to work, the past hour had proved as much. Mace had been so sure that his plan wouldn't fail and that he would be able to capture her, or at least a part of her ship. He hadn't anticipated for the Separatists to scout out their cruisers and corner them. Kenobi had been right, she was smart.

If he was going to attack her, or even fight her at all, it would be on her terms. She had the upper hand in this little dance of death, not the Jedi. She had ways of getting intel and finding small chinks in their armor that were exposed. If he or anyone else wanted to get close to her, it would have to be when she wasn't expecting it. Unfortunately, she wasn't supposed to expect a trap, and yet she had played them like a game of Dejarik.

Anakin walked back to the hangar. Nearly all of the clones were out of this hangar as the ships they had used were in the other ones. No more fighting today, hopefully.

It was the night shift so most everyone was asleep in their bunks. The only movement in the echoey room was the buzz of mouse droids, and a few other maintenance keepers. If anyone on the ship noticed he was in there, they didn't say anything.

The sound of Anakin's footsteps bounced around the hangar as he walked next to his broken starfighter. He fingered the damaged wing, tracing where the shot had torn it off.

He had been extremely lucky. If the shot had been a few centimeters to the right, it would have shattered the cockpit, killing him. If it had been on the other wing, it would have hurt R2-D2. The Sister had hit one of the only places on the fighter that wasn't fatal to the flyer.

Ahsoka wouldn't have tried to kill him. She would have let him fly off, then start chasing him again. Keep him occupied, mostly. It was enough for Anakin. The Sister and Ahsoka were separate entities.

It was enough for him, but Anakin doubted it would be enough to get rid of the thread.

He would just have to ignore it until it went away. There was probably some other reason he was connected to her, but until he figured it out he would just have to make do with it. End of story.

Still, it was disappointing, knowing that the Sister wasn't Ahsoka. He didn't want her to turn to the Dark Side, but at least he would have known where she was and how to find her. Now he was back to having no idea whatsoever.

Anakin turned away from his fighter and opened the hatch to Ahsoka's old one. It was unveiled by its compartment, and Anakin studied the paint job again.

It was beautiful, really, seeing how much the troopers had all rallied behind her in secret. Anakin wouldn't have been surprised if every one of their men had left her a message, or sprayed a sentimental image on the surface of the paint job. You could barely tell that it was supposed to be burgundy anymore.

He brushed a hand over the blue and orange, reading some of the messages left there. He found Rex's, placed right where she had normally climbed in from. It wasn't too long, but it was powerful all the same: 'In my book, experience outranks everything. We'll miss you, Commander Tano'.

Anakin stared at the message, wishing that Ahsoka could see it. If he ever found her, he promised himself he would bring her on board and show her this. She deserved to see it.

He climbed into the empty cockpit and sat there, not moving for a long time.

The Inquisitor had to hold herself back from cackling. It had been too easy! Because of her new toys, the Republic cruisers would be stuck there for hours, maybe days! So much for a trap.

She sat in her quarters on her ship, reassembled from the fight earlier. She had quarters on the cruiser if she wanted them, but her ship was slightly more comfortable and more private.

She relaxed on her bed and smiled. This had been the first military mission she had been given on her own. All of her other missions had either been with Grievous, or solo missions. She had jumped from flying her own ship to controlling three cruisers overnight. It was a big step-up, but it was so much more rewarding.

The plan had gone perfectly, too. She had stranded them in the middle of literally nowhere, she had woven her way out of the Jedi's trap, and she hadn't even killed Skywalker.

The Sister sat up and thought deeply. She knew about Darth Sideous' plan to turn Skywalker. It had been one of the reasons she had decided to help him: they both knew she would be useful in influencing his fall to the Darkness. The Sister suspected that Tyrannus didn't even know as it was him that Skywalker would supplant.

It had been tricky, finding a way to render Skywalker out without killing him, but she had used the Force to aim her blaster fire perfectly so he was still in one piece. Better yet, he probably had forgotten all about Tano, and she was finally done dealing with her identity crisis.

That wasn't even the best part. Now, Sideous was sure to trust her at least a little bit more, and the more trust she had, the closer she was to reaching her real goal, one she had managed to twist out of Sideous' grasp. In time, she would finally fulfill it. Two months, she thought. Two months.

The Inquisitor took off her headdress and sat cross-legged on her mattress. She retreated into her mind and focused on herself, her emotions, and her Force signature. It was time for her least favorite part of the day, nightly meditation.