Anakin had a restless night, he kept waking up from strange dreams. Finally, he gave up and just laid in his bunk thinking. He kept thinking about what Donovan said, about how people in power tend to have skeletons in their closets. And then he began thinking about the chancellor. How well did he actually know the Chancellor? He really didn't. The Chancellor would always let Anakin talk about his emotions and his troubles, but the chancellor has never actually told Anakin a story about himself. This troubled Anakin. Padme would always vent about the Chancellor or she would try. Anakin would usually stop it by saying he was a good guy, and then Padme would get sad and say that she feared that the Chancellor didn't care about the Republic as much as he would say.
Padme, Anakin missed Padme. He thought about her, about how she was so cold to him when he left. He still couldn't figure out what bothered her, they were completely fine. Maybe he did something that he didn't realize he did. Maybe she was just stressed. He wondered if she missed him. They have been gone for a while now and haven't been able to contact anyone. Was she worried? He sighed and rolled over. He looked across the room at Ahsoka, who was lying asleep in her bunk. His dream was about her. It was the same dream he has been having since he almost lost her at Mortis. It went like this:
He would open his eyes to some weird red room. Out of the left corner of the room see a man, a very tall man dressed in all black with some kind of breathing device. The man was clearly sith and it scared him. Then from the other corner of the room, he would see two green lightsabers be drawn. It was Ahsoka, she was facing this Sith alone. The two would begin talking, Anakin would always try to hear what they were saying but he could never make it out. He just heard the loud raspy mummers from the sith and the hurt aggressive familiar mummers of his padawan. He couldn't make out their words but by Ahsoka's face and tone, he could tell she was in pain. She had so much anger towards this man but also much sadness. Then they would begin dueling and Anakin could tell how much pain Ahsoka was holding in. He would then feel her loneliness and then realize that he had to help her, but he couldn't. He couldn't move.
"I will avenge him then." Ahsoka's harsh words would echo through the room and Anakin would somehow know that he was talking about him.
Anakin would then begin to cry out. "Ahsoka! NO! I'm right here!" But neither would hear him and they would just keep fighting. Ahsoka would hold her ground for a while but eventually, the man would get the upper hand and right before the Sith would strike Ahsoka down he would wake up.
He looked at Ahsoka as she slept on her bunk. Her breathing was steady and calm, she looked so young when she slept. Like the fifteen-year-old, she was, instead of some commander forced to fight in a war. A sudden burst of regret bubbled up in Anakin's stomach. She looked so hurt earlier. He wanted to tell her, to be honest, she was the one person who would most likely understand, but he was afraid and he hated that he was afraid because he could tell it was driving a wedge between them. He sighed and then watched as Ahsoka slowly shuffled and then opened her eyes and sat up. She made a face that indicated to Anakin that she was listening for something.
"Snips?" Anakin whispered to her.
She didn't respond, she just kept listening.
"Snips, what is it?" He asked again.
This time Ahsoka put a finger to her lips. "Shhh." She stated.
Anakin went quiet and began listening as well. In one instant, all too quickly for Anakin, Ahsoka got out of her bunk, put on her clothes over what she was wearing, put on her boots, grabbed her mask, and began quickly and quietly walking to the bunker ladder.
"Ahsoka wait!" Anakin whispered as quietly as he could trying to get out from the entanglements of the covers without waking anyone up. He grabbed his boots, mask, and his clothes and began putting them on while making his way to the ladder.
Once he got to the base of the ladder, Ahsoka had already made her way out of the bunker. Anakin then as quickly as he could climb out of the bunk and into the night, it had to be almost morning because the air was damp and cold.
Immediately he searched the area for his young apprentice. He caught sight of her climbing one of the tall destroyed buildings, making her way quickly to the top. When did she get so fast? Anakin thought to himself as he began climbing the building after her. He wasn't gonna lie, climbing the building without the force was not only hard but scary. With the force, he always had the safety net of the force if he needed land properly, but without it, he knew one wrong move meant the end of him. He finally reached the top to see Ahsoka crotched behind a vent, but peeking out from behind it looking at something.
Anakin walked up to her. "Ahsoka!" He whispered as softly as he could with his mask. "What are you doing!"
Ahsoka jumped at his sudden voice. "Oh hey Master, look what I found."
Anakin looked over to where she was looking to see the dark outline of three dark ships, but not just any ships but separatist ships, one of which was the trademark ship of Count Dooku himself. "Oh, that's not good," Anakin stated.
"What are they doing here!" Ahsoka stated.
"I don't know," Anakin stated squinting his eyes trying to get a better look. "He can't sense us though so let's just see if we can figure out what he is up to."
They watched as count Dooku walked out from his ship to a battalion of droids. Some of the droids stood at their normal position, but some of them seemed slow like they were lagging. Count Dooku walked up to one of the lagging droids and said something. The droid didn't respond. A puzzled look spread across his face. Then he spoke to one of the other ships and a large white robotic droid marched out.
"Grievous," Ahsoka grunted.
"Oh, so that's General Grievous?" Anakin stated.
"Yep, he is ugly isn't he?" Ahsoka replied.
"Yeah but not as tall as I imagined," Anakin smirked.
Ahsoka rolled her eyes and watched as Grievous marched to the lagging droid and then began yelling at it, Grievous then shoved its blaster out of its hands. The droid then slowly and painfully bent over to grab it. Grievous, is clearly fed up with the lag of the droid kicked it harshly so it broke apart.
"It's the Radiation," Anakin stated.
"What?" Ahsoka asked.
"The radiation, it's really strong here, it must be messing with the droids functioning." Anakin stated, "Piper said that any kind of machine wouldn't work."
"Your arm still works," Ahsoka stated.
"Yeah but it's been lagging since we got into the city," Anakin stated.
"Halt!" Came a harsh metallic voice from behind them. They turned around to see two assassin droids looking at them.
Anakin and Ahsoka were taken to the lagging droid army and brought to their knees in front of the Count and Grievous.
"And who might you two scavengers be?" The Count stated in his dark voice.
Anakin and Ahsoka were both taken back for a moment that the Count didn't recognize them, but then they remembered that there was no access to the force so he couldn't sense them and their faces were covered by the mask. Because neither of them wanted their identity uncovered they both stayed quiet.
"No answer?" The Count stated.
Ahsoka looked around at Count Dooku, to be honest, he didn't look so good, his skin was paler than usual, his face was sweaty and he looked very clammy. Since they have no connection to the force Count Dooku should be as powerless as they are. She then looked at all the droids with their blasters, they couldn't use their lightsabers so she really doubted that their blaster would work. She then looked over to the side and saw a long rusty pole and got an idea.
"Well then, tell us about this planet at least?" The Count smiled.
Again neither replied.
"Tell us what we want to know or we will kill you!" Grievous coughed.
"Silence Grievous, don't share our new friends." The Count started smiling. "Talk to our friends, tell us who you are." But his smile began to disappear as he began coughing.
It doesn't matter who you are, where you came from there are some things in this universe no one can escape. Piper's words echoed in Anakin's mind. It starts with nausea like you just ate something bad, but eventually, it takes over your whole body and destroys you from the inside making you decompose while still alive.
The count began coughing violently.
"My lord are you okay?" Grievous asked.
"Yes, I….cough... Am… cough…" The count then leaned over and began throwing up.
Ahsoka, seeing her opportunity, did a somersault to the pole and stabbed the nearest droid with it. And the sound of blasters clicking proved her theory. Anakin then kicked Grievous out from under his feet and stepped really hard on his leg, making a crushing sound.
Ahsoka then yanked the pole out of the droid and used it to smash the droids closest to her, making a clearing for her and Anakin to escape.
"Time to go!" Anakin told Ahsoka as they both began running out of the area.
"Go after them!" The Count stated weakly.
Grievous then began running after them.
"This is gonna get interesting!" Anakin yelled as they were nearing the bunker.
Once they got in sight of the bunker, they saw four figures insight.
"Anakin there you are…" Obi-wan was interrupted by A large group of droids and Grievous chasing after them. "WHAT IN THE BLAZEN GALAXY DID YOU DO!"
"Run! Grievous is after us!" Anakin shouted as the two met up with the group.
"Oh, dear!" Obi-wan yelled as he began running, "What is Grievous doing here!"
"Who is Grievous!" Rats yelled while running.
"This angry robot man who really hates us!" Ahsoka told Rats while yelling.
Just then a loud hissing noise was heard from overhead as one of the ships the separatist were in began to follow them.
"Take cover!" Anakin yelled. The group ran to an old destroyed building to hide in, but just before the group got in it exploded as the ship managed to blow it up.
"We need to separate!" Obi-wan stated. "Ahsoka, Rats and Donnavan distract the ship while Piper, Anakin, and I will take out the droids."
"I don't like that plan!" Anakin protested.
"Well, I'm open to suggestions!" Obi-wan yelled.
Anakin fell quiet, "Fine."
"Don't worry Master, we'll be fine!" Ahsoka shouted.
"Rats, Donovan, Ahsoka try to take the ship down with the bombs!" Piper stated.
Rats and Donovan nodded and then the two groups then separated through an alleyway.
The droids we're running very fast, but the three managed to run faster. Anakin turned his face around to see how far away they were, they were pretty far away, but Grievous was no longer behind them. Before Anakin could mention it to anyone. Grievous immediately jumped in front of them causing all three of them to fall on the ground.
"Ha ha ha!" Grievous laughed. "Where do you scum think you're going…GAH" Grievous was cut off by a metal bullet piercing his arm.
Piper, wasting no time, was shooting him with one of her handguns. She shot three shots and then did a backflip to get back on her feet.
"Gah!" Grievous yelled as he felt his metal arm get pierced with a bullet.
Piper then ran out of bullets and took her stance eyeing his exposed chest. Realizing that that is where she should have aimed. He angrily marched up to her but before they could crash into a physical battle, Obi-wan spoke up.
"Hello there!" Obi-wan stated taking his mask off.
"General Kenobi, you are a bold one!" Grievous started turning around. His Magna guards had caught up to them by now and ignited their electrical staff.
Anakin who was getting off the ground saw Pipers glance back at those droids and their staff and saw an all too familiar look on her face, she wanted one of those staff.
"It is such a pleasure to see you General," Kenobi thought. "This planet was getting kind of boring."
"Hahaha, I was thinking the same thing!" Grievous then glanced at Anakin and Piper, "Who are you two! Take off your mask! Or my guards will kill you!"
Piper and Anakin slowly took off their masks. Piper took note of the time on her watch, trying to do the math in her head of how long they had, remembering the morning's radiation levels. She concluded about an hour before they started feeling the effects.
"Skywalker!" Grievous stated.
"General Grievous, we meet at last!" Anakin smirked.
"Anakin Skywalker. I was expecting someone with your reputation to be a bit... older." Anakin" General Grievous stated.
"General Grievous. You're shorter than I expected." Anakin sassed.
Piper rolled her eyes, she looked around. She had no bullets. She knew that the radiation would affect the speed of the droids, to be honest, she thought the droids would be smarter, like the robots they used to have on Sagittaria's Sister Planet Caprica, but they just seemed like cheap killers, they probably had like three attack moves, if she could figure it out she could outsmart them and get that electrical staff, which is what she wanted.
"Come now Anakin doesn't insult the General at this hour of the day," Obi-wan smirked.
"And who are you," Grievous asked, getting way too close to Piper.
Piper smirked. "I'm sorry, what are you supposed to be!" "Are you like a half droid, half-man kinda thing? Like a Cyborg?"
"Don't insult me, girl!" Grievous yelled in her face.
"I'm sorry General are you gonna keep us here all day?" Kenobi stated. "I mean we could because right now we have a special force task infiltrating your ship!" "You won't be going anywhere!"
Just then as if on cue a loud banging noise was heard as the separatist ship began spinning and falling out of the sky. Anakin watched with a horrid expression as it fell a few miles south then went off of sight.
"Hahaha." Grievous laughed. "I can see that! Grievous looked at his droids. "Back away I will deal with these Jedi scum myself!"
Piper rolled her eyes again as she saw him take out two lightsabers. "Those won't work!" She shouted.
"Your move!" Obi-wan stated.
Grievous then tried to light his lightsabers, but a look of frustration came upon him when he couldn't light them. "What the!"
"This is getting old," Piper muttered to herself. Taking her chance she immediately turned aggressively as she could so the droid would attack. It did. And Piper immediately knew what she had to do to destroy it. She did a somersault under the droid's legs which caused the other droid to attempt to attack her, but instead of attacking her it hit the Magna droid she did a somersault under. The droid then began violently shaking as it short-circuited and fell to the ground. Piper then grabbed the staff from it and shoved it as hard as she could into the other droid, causing it to short circuit.
The other droids around them were of course trying to blast them but couldn't because the radiation blocked their blasters. Anakin jumped onto one of the assassin droids knocking it over. Anakin landed on top of it and with his mechanical hand, wrapped his metal fingers around its throat and ripped its head off. He then threw the head as hard as he could at the other assassin droid who jumped over it and then lunged at him. Piper who had grabbed the other staff, from the droid she just destroyed, threw it to Anakin who caught it just in time for him to short circuit the assassin droid pouncing at him. Both he and Piper both then started hitting the droids around them, causing them to one by one short circuit.
General Grievous took his foot, grabbed Obi-wan by the throat, and smashed him onto the ground. "I don't need a lightsaber to destroy you!" Grievous yelled. He began clenching his foot around Obi-wan's neck making it harder and harder for Obi-wan to breathe. "You will die! By my hand, not even in battle! You Jedi Scum! I am going to destr….GAHHHH!" Grievous was then cut off by an electrical staff piercing through his heart, causing it to catch fire. He then began painfully screaming as fire began to shoot from his eyes and he then exploded.
Obi-wan who had covered his face pushed what was left of Grievous off of him to reveal Anakin who was the one who had killed Grievous.
"Anakin!" Obi-wan yelled.
"What he was going to kill you!" Anakin shouted.
"I had it under control!" Obi-wan stated.
"No, you didn't!" Anakin stated.
Piper watched as the Jedi began to lose it. "Guys there's no time for this!" She yelled trying to break it up before it got too heated. "Ahsoka, Rats, and Donovan are gonna press on to the Rondevu point, we have to meet them there!"
"You could have just knocked him out!" Obi-wan yelled at Anakin completely ignoring Piper. "The republic needed him for information!" "Imagine all the info you just lost."
"I just saved your life!" Anakin yelled as he felt anger boiling inside him.
"What you did was compromise vital information! I have had multiple chances to kill him! Why do you think I haven't! It's because we need him captured!" Obi-wan yelled with much anger.
"Well, why did I not know about this!" Anakin yelled. "Is that another lie the council keeps from me!"
"Yes! The reason why is because you always take the chance to kill the first chance you get!" Obi-wan yelled.
"Are you calling me a killer!" Anakin shouted back.
"NO! But you're an impatient, reckless boy who's barely worthy to be a Jedi Knight. Qui Gon should have left you on that planet!" Obi-wan stated almost immediately regretting his words as he saw the look of anger completely leave Anakin's face and be replaced with a look of despair.
"I… I…" Anakin's eyes began to drop. He dropped the staff and his face turned pale as he backed away. "I...I."
Obi-wan has never lost his cool that much, he had no idea what just washed over him. "Anakin. I didn't mean that." "I lost my patients." He watched helplessly as panic arose over Anakin. "Anakin please say something?"
"Your right." Anakin started looking up.
If Obi-wan didn't know better he would have thought he was going to cry. "What, no I'm not. This planet is really hard to connect to the force I lost my patients."
"Guys we need to get focused! We decided that if we get separated to meet at the tower, towards the button of the Hill." "If we want to reach the hill by nightfall, we have to press on," Piper stated.
"But what about Ahsoka, Rats, and Donovan?" Anakin began panicking "What if something happens to them, like what if one of them is hurt, what if the Seppartist or the Calvary come after them." Anakin stated he felt panic begin to arise in his gut. He thought about Ahsoka, he couldn't lose her again, not now.
Piper however had a calm face. "Look I am worried too. But Rats and Donovan know where to go and what to do, they will be there. And Ahsoka seems like she can handle herself. The Calvary won't come out here again. They may be bad dudes, but they know the troubles of radiation. They aren't stupid." "The only thing we can do is press on to the rendezvous point and hope that they make it."
Anakin nodded, she was right.
"Separatist involvement changes everything. We will have to contact the council to inform them of their presence." Obi-wan stated scratching his beard.
"How are we going to do that!" Anakin stated.
"There was an old beacon in the bunker, we can try to contact them."
"With all due respect we don't have time for that," Piper stated. "We have to get through the city before nightfall. Especially since we are separated."
"She's right!" Anakin yelled.
"Anakin we have a duty to the council," Obi-wan stated.
"You know what! Go to the council. Tell them about every bad thing I've done, that's what you're good at." Anakin stated.
Obi-wan looked at Anakin. He could tell that Anakin was in deep pain, but he decided it was best to ignore it. "You two press on to the rendezvous point and I will meet you two there, I travel very quickly on my own."
Piper was taken off guard. She thought that surely Obi-wan would at least try to apologize for saying what he did, but instead, he pretended like it never happened. "I really don't think that is the wisest decision," Piper stated.
"Most likely not, but we may need reinforcements if the separatists' forces continue," Obi-wan stated.
Anakin sighed, "Fine!" Anakin stated.
"Good luck to both of you." Obi-wan picked up his mask, and placed it back on, and started walking back to the bunker.
"Good luck Obi-wan." Piper started grabbing her mask.
The three then departed.