In Obi-Wan's absence, Anakin attempted to stand up and move on his own. It was quite a painful experience, but he knew that just because the clones were done attacking the Temple did not mean the fight was over. There was more to do, he was sure of it.
After getting to the holotable and using it to keep himself on his feet, Anakin reached out with his Force connection, looking for Ahsoka. She seemed alright, and a good deal calmer than she had during the Jedi's deaths. Her cruiser had probably already dropped off Maul at the detention center by now, and Ahsoka was back in the Lower Levels. At least she hadn't gotten killed trying to help anyone in the Temple.
Maybe she would be a good place to hide. Anakin knew that they needed to find Jedi survivors before the Republic did, but if they needed a place to lay low for a few hours, Ahsoka was probably their best bet. He didn't feel good about crashing her house, again, but this time he was much more desperate than the last. If Ahsoka had felt what had happened as he had, then she would at least be compassionate enough to support them, if not aid them in their search. Anakin wouldn't have been surprised if she had already found the Younglings he had sent with O-Mer to hide.
Speaking of, Anakin never found Jinx. It wasn't as if he had been given an opportunity to, but he still felt bad for not finding him. If Obi-Wan and Yoda hadn't already found him though, maybe it was already too late. If there were no other survivors in the Temple, Jinx was either in hiding or dead.
Activating the holotable, Anakin started looking through the reports that had come to the Republic from the clones in the past several hours. He was dreading it, but it had to be done. They had to know what had happened to the rest of the Jedi Order, the part that hadn't been slaughtered on Coruscant.
His stomach dropped as the reports started assigning names to the empty holes that had been ripped into Anakin the night before. Plo Koon, Ki-Adi Mundi, Aayla Secura, Agen Kolar, Saesee Tin, Depa Billaba, Stass Allie, and all other Jedi Masters, except for Yoda and Obi-Wan, had been killed by their troopers almost immediately. The one exception was Mace Windu, but he was still reported as dead, although the report suggested that he had been dead when the clones found him rather than by their hand directly.
That was just the Masters. Countless Knights and Padawans had been executed as well, and Anakin had seen the fallen Younglings that were strewn across the Temple. A few escapees were reported to be alive, as well as a few unknowns that had never been confirmed alive or dead. Among these were the Padawans Caleb Dume, O-Mer Daru, and Jinx Majal. The Younglings were not yet in the Republic database, so they were unknown for now, but Anakin knew that was subject to change.
He was still looking through the reports when the doors behind him opened again, and Obi-Wan walked in. His face was blank, and if it weren't for the red blotches around his eyes, Anakin wouldn't have known he had been crying. Anakin knew better than to say anything, and let his master spark conversation.
"Anything?"
Shaking his head, Anakin answered him. "Not enough. The Republic knows a few survivors exist, but they're scattered everywhere and most of them are doing a good job of hiding their movements. This information might be able to give us a start, but I doubt the survivors will stay in one place for long. Wherever they were last reported, they probably won't be when we get there."
Obi-Wan pounded the holotable with a clenched fist, but Anakin didn't comment on it. He didn't know what Yoda had said to his master before he left, and he wasn't about to ask. Not to mention, all emotions were probably very valid right now.
"He's gone," Obi-Wan muttered, not looking at Anakin. "He won't even try to look for them. I don't-" he swallowed, forcing the words out. "I don't think he's coming back."
The news disappointed him, but it didn't surprise him. Yoda's lightsaber was still laying on the ground not far from them, as neither of them had bothered to move it or pick it up. For all the Jedi were concerned, Yoda was effectively as dead as all of the other Jedi whose lightsabers were still dropped throughout the Temple. He certainly wasn't trying to help the living.
The Jedi Master, the last Jedi Master, breathed in, trying to compose himself. Running a hand through his hair, he asked Anakin, "At least tell me you've heard from Ahsoka."
"Once, yesterday," he replied, grateful for the subject change. "She sent a report saying she had Maul in custody and was headed back. That was before the attack though, I haven't seen anything from her since." Opening the file he had created for the 332nd Company, he checked to see where their cruiser was. He expected it to be orbiting Coruscant, probably to assist with the Republic's efforts to obliterate the Jedi.
He didn't expect it to be on a moon out in the middle of nowhere. Not orbiting the moon, on it. The cruiser had crashed.
Neither of them understood. Anakin quickly opened the last reports the command center had sent the Republic before the crash, although there weren't many. Ahsoka's report from earlier was there, but afterward there was another: one confirming her death.
"No..." Obi-Wan gasped, and he took control of the holotable, expanding the report. It didn't ease his horror any. Rex himself had confirmed that his men had killed Ahsoka, although they were all currently missing in action due to an engine malfunction. None of them had been confirmed dead or alive, but further investigation led to the discovery of how the cruiser had crashed. Maul had escaped custody and destroyed the hyperdrive himself. Other than that, no more information had been sent from that cruiser since last rotation.
Looking to Anakin, Obi-Wan expected to see pain or guilt, or even anger at this point. He wasn't any of those things, though, just confused. Shaking his head a little, Anakin murmured to himself, "That's not right."
He turned to his master. "Ever since the Sister killed Sideous, I've been able to feel Ahsoka more clearly than ever. Sometimes I can sense her emotions, or where she is, or even what's happening around her sometimes. I don't understand it, not completely, but it's some sort of...bond."
"A Force Bond?" Obi-Wan asked, not sure where this was leading, but willing to take any distraction from the disastrous report in front of them. "Anakin, no one in the Jedi Order has reported to have one for decades, even centuries. Are you sure?"
"Not about that," he told him, "but I am sure of this: Ahsoka is still alive. That report isn't telling the truth."
As desperately as he wanted to believe it, Obi-Wan was doubtful. "How? How can you be sure?"
Anakin gestured to him. "You faked your death, didn't you? Cody reported that you fell off a cliff, the Republic doesn't know that you're alive."
"Well, I did fall off a cliff," he conceded, but he had another question. "Why was she even targeted? Don't they know she's..."
"I don't know," Anakin answered, not needing Obi-Wan to finish the thought. "I don't understand any of this, but I know we need answers."
"If she's alive, then where is she? On that moon?"
"No, Ahsoka wouldn't stay there." Closing his eyes, Anakin focused on Ahsoka. She was very distant, even more so than she usually was. He wasn't going to be able to use their bond to find her, but Anakin was sure that she hadn't forgotten about him. She had to have left something.
So where would she leave it? he asked himself, focusing deeply. Ahsoka must have known that what was happening to her was happening to the Jedi too, so she would know that any communication needed to be hidden somehow. If she expected Anakin to find it, she would have to use something he knew about, but not many other people. That limited the possibilities.
One, in particular, jumped out at him. Shutting down the Republic database, Anakin instead patched into the Fulcrum sub-space frequency. There was no chance that the Republic was going to check there because only Anakin, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, and Saw Gerrera knew of its existence. If she had known to use it to contact him for the Siege of Mandalore, she would think of it now.
Sure enough, a small file had been uploaded to the frequency. Without hesitation, Anakin opened it. The file asked for a passcode to grant access to it, and his fingers punched in his own code on instinct: 8108.
The file opened to reveal a large paragraph of seemingly random numbers. They weren't coordinates, they weren't codes, just digits printed into lines, one after another.
"I'd expect as much from her," Obi-Wan admitted, crossing his arms. "If she is facing the same thing we have, she would want to make sure that only the person she meant to find it could use it to find her." He looked pointedly at Anakin, who stared back at the numbers. This was his clue to solve.
Anakin looked for something that jumped out at him. If Ahsoka really had sent this, she would give him something he would be able to figure out. The first thing he noticed was a large sequence of zeros in the middle line of the paragraph. There were more zeros in the rest of the file, but not as many as there were here. In fact, there weren't many zeros at all, other than these ones.
Using the keyboard controls, Anakin selected all of the zeros in the file and replaced them with blank spaces. When he did, a familiar symbol was made clear by the pattern the spaces formed.
Obi-Wan recognized it too. "Isn't that...?"
"The Inquisitor symbol," Anakin completed, seeing it as well. A full circle, with a horizontal line running through the center. It was the same shape as the Sister's lightsaber had been.
"That still doesn't give us a location, though," he objected, stroking his beard. "Why send this?"
The Sister had only met with Anakin so many times during her year as the Inquisitor. The most recent was on Coruscant, but Ahsoka was too far away to be on the same planet as them. There was Corellia, but it was under Separatist control right now. There was Bespin, but that didn't make sense either. The only other place he had seen her was...
"Xlenia," Anakin realized, the answer dawning on him. "It's completely abandoned, it has been for forty years. It's the first place I ever saw Ahsoka as the Sister, remember?"
"There's no one there to find her," Obi-Wan agreed, his face finally brightening for the first time in hours. "Even the Republic can't find her on a planet they won't check! It might be the last safe place in the galaxy!"
"She's probably already there," he reasoned, powering off the holotable and doing his best to walk out of the room on his own power. "It'll take hours to get to the Outer Rim, and we should leave before more clones show up."
Obi-Wan followed him out, but when he saw the mess that still covered the Temple, he hesitated. "I'm going to collect some things before we go. I doubt we'll be able to return soon."
Limping down the stairs, Anakin nodded. "Meet you in the hangar then," he told him, and Obi-Wan ran ahead to pack a few bags. This would be their last chance to, and whatever they left would probably be destroyed by the Republic within days.
It was a long trip to the hangar, especially with his wounds and the fallen still lying on the ground, but Anakin didn't let his pain distract him. Right now, he and Obi-Wan needed allies, and even if she wasn't a Jedi, Ahsoka was the best start they could hope for given the circumstances. Everything would build from there, Anakin was sure.
He had expected the hangars to take more damage, but they were actually relatively intact. Selecting one of the smaller shuttles, he made to board the ramp and start firing up the engines. When he heard a familiar beeping sound, he paused long enough to find the source.
Of all the possible visitors that might have come, it was R2-D2 who was rolling towards Anakin, almost shrieking at the sight of the Jedi Knight. Anakin kneeled down, grateful for an excuse to take a break from walking. "It's okay, buddy, I'm all right. Just a little banged up is all."
Having been able to move much quicker, Obi-Wan entered the hangar and saw the two reuniting. He smiled, shifting the bags on his shoulder and moving to join them. At least the astromech was still loyal.
Artoo didn't waste any time. He told the Jedi that Senator Amidala had sent him with a message and that he had been looking for them for some time now. Without waiting, he played the message. Padme's figure appeared above the droid.
"Anakin, I don't know when this will find you, but I hope you're still alive. All of the politicians within the Republic are being ordered to return to their systems until we are recalled back to Coruscant. I'll be on Naboo, and if you need a place to hide, you know where to find me.
"I can't say much more, but you have to know this: The chancellor is dead, she was killed yesterday by a clone trooper. At least, that's what we've been told. I don't know if that helps you any, but I'm hoping that anything will help at this point. Just stay safe, please. Artoo can help you get to Naboo once you get this. Good luck."
The recording ended, but neither Jedi spoke. Not only was their Order destroyed, but now Kayla Kanai was dead also. The Republic was falling apart, and there didn't seem to be any way to stop it.
Artoo whistled inquisitively, but Anakin shook his head as he patted the droid, slowly standing up. "Sorry buddy, but we can't head to Naboo yet. We have a stop to make. You coming?"
Of course he was coming, it was Artoo. He, Anakin, and Obi-Wan boarded the shuttle, and the astromech helped them set the coordinates for Xlenia. In a matter of minutes, they were racing out of the Jedi Temple and out of the atmosphere. The last living people abandoned the sacred place, leaving it in the hands of the Republic. There was nothing more they could do for it now.
In the copilot's seat, Obi-Wan rubbed his forehead. "Even killing the Jedi is understandable compared to this. The chancellor...what has come over the clones?"
"I don't know," Anakin admitted, preparing to jump to lightspeed, "but Padme is right, we need all the answers we can get. Maybe Ahsoka will have some," he hoped, putting faith in his old apprentice. He wasn't sure how any sense could come from all of this chaos, but Anakin believed in the Light. As long as they held true to it, not even the Dark Side would be able to snuff it out.