Chapter 44 – Crisis on Utapau
Author's Note: In which the Crystal Crisis begins. ^-^
To Guest: Well if Order 66 happens, and if Theseus is on Coruscant, one of two things would happen. Either he would Fall with Anakin and help him, or neither of them would Fall. They would never fight each other, so you don't need to worry about Theseus' dueling abilities not being as good as Anakin's. :) Also, I did not know that the future Grand Inquisitor killed the Temple Guards. It's horrible, but it also makes sense. ;-; Thanks for reviewing! :D
~ Amina Gila
"She was the first Jedi to visit Utapau in many years. This is precisely the way we found her," the Utapauan Inspector tells them.
Theseus glances between her and the dead Jedi lying in front of them. This is by far one of the stranger missions he's had. Jedi Master Tu-Anh mysteriously died here, and no one has any idea how it happened. Or even what she was doing here in the first place. He's here with Anakin and his master to investigate the incident.
"No obvious external wounds," Obi-Wan observes with a frown. That's the most puzzling part. There doesn't even appear to be a reason that she died.
Anakin holds a hand over her head, a look of concentration on his face as he reaches out with the Force. "I'm picking up unusual neurological activity," the Knight reports.
"Can you be more specific?" Obi-Wan asks.
"It's as if her mind was left unsettled."
"Since I'm pretty sure she was murdered, it would be odd if that wasn't the case, right?" Theseus asks.
"Yes," Obi-Wan agrees, "But there are still no signs of any external damage." He runs a hand over her arm, as he checks her over for any more signs of injury. "She never reported her whereabouts to the Jedi Council. I'm afraid she was something of a maverick, like my own master Qui-Gon Jinn. She would disappear for long periods conducting rogue investigations, her activities often unknown to even the Council."
Somehow that reminds Theseus again of Athea, of how she's disappeared without a trace. No one can find her anywhere, and he can't shake the feeling that it's intentional, whatever happened. She doesn't want to be found, but he can't understand why. What's happening with her? Is she alright? He doesn't know when they're even going to find out. Or if. He ignores that thought.
"If there was something here worth a Jedi's attention, I should like to know what it was," the inspector murmurs.
"You and I both, Inspector. You and I both," Obi-Wan agrees, reaching down to close Tu-Anh's eyes before they turn to leave. Time to get started on the actual investigation.
**w**
It doesn't take them long to find another lead. "That's quite a shot even with a precision laser dart," Anakin observes, as the three stand by a large window overlooking the spot where the Jedi was killed. There's the tiniest hole in the glass which could easily have been from a laser, and everything else lines up indicating that that's what could have killed Tu-Anh.
"Which means whoever was in this room had to have the sophistication to use it," Obi-Wan declares.
"Someone who wasn't sophisticated enough to use it probably wouldn't have been shooting at Jedi in the first place," Theseus points out.
"It could have been a droid," Anakin suggests.
Theseus looks up sharply at the sound of beating wings right behind them. The Toydarian who let them in managed to fly up right behind them. Seriously, have they never heard of privacy before? "Do you mind?" Anakin almost snaps.
It retreats to the other side of the room again, but Theseus keeps an eye on it, anyway. "I sense our fellow Jedi stumbled onto a rather formidable gathering," Obi-Wan continues after a moment of contemplation.
"A plot of some kind," Anakin agrees.
Theseus scans the room again, eyes falling on a strange purple substance on the floor. "What's that?"
The other two immediately cross the room over to it. "Whatever it is, it's recent," Obi-Wan observes.
"Perhaps residue of some kind?" Anakin suggests, reaching down and promptly sticking his hand right into it.
"You might not want to do that –" Theseus warns.
"Don't touch it!" Obi-Wan exclaims.
"Uh, too late!" Anakin announces cheerfully, "I touched it."
"So we can see," Theseus grumbles, "Now we can hope that it isn't poisonous or something. I don't want to be dragging you back to the ship."
"I would have sensed it, if it was," he insists.
They take a sample of the substance for a test later on, before Obi-Wan turns to the Toydarian. "Who was in this room when the Jedi was killed?"
"I told you I know nothing about any meeting," the Toydarian objects.
Meeting? That literally had nothing to do with the question. Theseus narrows his eyes suspiciously. He definitely knows something that he isn't saying.
"Who said anything about a meeting?"
Anakin's expression abruptly darkens with anger, and he stalks across the room, grabbing the Toydarian by the neck and shoving him up against the wall, igniting his lightsaber with his other hand, holding it inches away from his neck. What the...? Okay, maybe a bit of violence is necessary, but this is something too extreme, too personal.
"Anakin!" Obi-Wan protests, above the Knight snarling something at the Toydarian that Theseus doesn't catch.
"I know Toydarians," he growls. "Nothing goes on under their watch without them noticing. Now start talking." What happened? It's clearly something very personal, relating to someone of the same species.
"I tell you the truth!" the Toydarian insists frantically, "I swear!"
Anakin finally releases him, and he flies a short distance away from them before he starts to ramble. "Okay, all I know is two or three days ago, a droid gives me 20 drogas to leave the building open and tells me not to ask any questions."
"What kind of droid?" Theseus asks, eyes narrowing. He suspected as much already.
"A droid!" it repeats, as though that explains everything, "A big scary one with a low voice and red eyes." It only occurs to him now that not everyone even knows what Separatist droids are called. Great.
"Red eyes?" Obi-Wan repeats, "Could be a MagnaGuard."
"There are hundreds of droids with red eyes," Anakin objects.
"Yeah, but how many of them would actually want to kill a Jedi?" Theseus asks.
"Yes, and how many droids would actually be able to?" Obi-Wan agrees.
**w**
They've only just managed to find out that the slime is from the skin of an Almani, somewhere from the plains of Utapau, when they're called to meet with the Governor. "The death of a Jedi has upset the people here on Utapau," he tells them.
"It's disturbed us as well, I assure you," Obi-Wan replies.
"I am sensitive to your desire to find answers, but my responsibilities are to my constituents. The presence of two Jedi poking around, strong-arming citizens –"
"We didn't strong-arm anyone!" Anakin snaps back, leaning forwards.
"Anakin," Obi-Wan retorts, reproachfully.
Anakin settles back in his seat, something dark and angry in his expression. "Maybe I should strong-arm you," he mutters. This is... it's wrong. It never happened before Ahsoka left, but Theseus is suddenly hit by the sharp realization that this isn't about him. This isn't about Hardeen. This isn't about Ahsoka. It's about... everything.
Everything that makes Anakin, Anakin and everything that makes Obi-Wan, Obi-Wan is having a full-blown clash, the way all that's dark about one is light in the other. Once, Theseus thought they could forever balance each other out. He was wrong.
The way Anakin glares at his former master sends a shiver down his spine, with years of buried pain and resentment and rage. Obi-Wan glares back with every bit of the icy fire he always does, and Theseus is instantly struck by the knowledge that this is going to blow up. One day, it will, and he can only hope he won't be caught in the crossfire.
"The latest development in this case has made it more imperative that we stay," Obi-Wan adds, returning his attention to the governor.
"Oh really?" the governor asks, "And what development is that?"
"The possible involvement of the Separatists."
"There is no Separatist involvement on Utapau." The denial comes much too quickly for Theseus' liking, and it makes him wonder.
"Maybe not now, but there might be soon," he speaks up, watching him intently.
"We have evidence that General Grievous is involved in whatever is going on here," Anakin adds.
"And what would he be doing here?"
"That's what we're trying to find out," Obi-Wan replies, "Utapau has long been a target of the Separatists. Grievous and Dooku haven't been able to do much as of yet, but if they could enlist the Almani to revolt from within, this could cause dangerous civil unrest."
"Thank you," the Governor responds, standing and moving to stare out the window in front of him, "But I can manage the internal affairs here on my own."
"You don't want our help?"
"No, I want you to leave. I thought I made that clear. And take the deceased Jedi with you. That will be all."
"Does anyone else think this seems a little suspicious?" Theseus asks, as the three of them slip out the door.
"Maybe he knows something we don't," Anakin suggests.
"Something or someone," Obi-Wan agrees.
"We are planning to keep investigating this anyway, right?" Theseus queries.
"Yes, but we must remember that we are still guests on his planet."
**w**
Danger is nagging at the edge of Theseus' senses as he follows the other two into the dark cave. The sound of splashing water from the stream running between the walls of the cave is drowning out most other noise.
An outcast Almani was recently spotted right around here with some Magna Guards, so whatever trail Tu-Anh was following, they should be able to pick it up from here. Hopefully. "Smells perfectly safe," Anakin mutters under his breath as they walk.
"Well, that wouldn't bother the droids," Obi-Wan points out.
"Well, it sure is bothering me!"
"We should request them to be more considerate," Theseus suggests dryly. "I'm sure they'd be happy to agree."
"I wonder if Dooku's would be happy to agree," Anakin mutters, which about zaps the humor out of everything.
"Just as we thought," Obi-Wan interrupts, coming to an abrupt stop, "MagnaGuards."
Sure enough, right up ahead Theseus can make out two MagnaGuards up on a platform, a distance above the water. Exactly what they were looking for. "What's our next move?" Anakin wonders.
"We ask them if they can pick less hostile hideouts."
"We'll have to capture one of them," Obi-Wan replies, ignoring Theseus, "So we can download their information, so don't go chopping off all their heads at once."
"It looks like we – have someone else's head to cut off?!" he finishes with a yelp, spinning around at leaping to his feet as the sight of the creature towering over them. Where did that appear from?! All three of them instantly whip out their lightsabers, and the thing roars, slamming its front legs down on the ground in front of them.
"Get our rides up here!" Anakin yells. Theseus whistles to summon their rides, and then lunges at the creature.
The MagnaGuards spot them instantly, of course, jumping onto speeders and zooming away. Great. Just what they needed.
Anakin's blade slashes through one of the creature's legs, and it snarls, spinning and throwing him into the cave wall. Theseus flips through the air, landing below its gaping mouth and stabbing his blade up through its head. He dives out of the way as it collapses to the ground with a final snarl. Anakin is climbing to his feet again by the time their rides fly into view, and they immediately go in chase of the MagnaGuards.
They catch up with the droids by the time they've reached a higher level in the city. "Now," Obi-Wan calls, and Anakin promptly jumps off and bodily tackles the nearest droid.
Theseus attacks the other one, above the commotion of clashing lightsabers and electrostaffs just managing to make out Obi-Wan yelling at them not to destroy the droids.
"Tell them that!" Theseus hollers back, ducking the end of the electrostaff that nearly hits him in the face, and then swinging it for it again, right as Obi-Wan runs to join him.
"There's two!" Anakin yells back, "Make it yours!"
The fight doesn't last long, not with both him and Obi-Wan fighting it on either side. He's just managed to knock it to the ground when he hears Anakin let out a very loud, unapologetic "Oops!" as he smashes his droid into another part of the walkway they've turned into a fighting platform, and it explodes.
They've only begun downloading the information from the second droid before it promptly implements a circuit overload, but at least they got what they needed.
**w**
"It looks as though there's a village up ahead," Anakin observes, as they fly through the sky over the plains of Utapau, looking for the Almani who were making deals with the MagnaGuards in the first place.
"Let's hope it's the right one," Obi-Wan replies.
"I think we're about to find out," Theseus quips, right as the first of the Almani notices them. They instantly call a warning to the others in the small camp, and all of them run out into the open, brandishing spears.
"This seems to be the place," Obi-Wan agrees dryly.
"Yeah, and if they're trying to hide, they're doing a really bad job. The Separatists should've chosen more intelligent allies."
"At least they have primitive weapons," Anakin offers optimistically. "We can take them easily." He directs his creature down for the camp, and right on cue one of the Almani withdraws a blaster. Oh great.
Theseus doesn't have more than a few seconds to yell in warning – not that it would have made a difference anyway – before the creature fires, the blasts striking the wings of each of their rides.
"You were saying?" puffs Theseus, leaping off his falling creature and landing on the ground with the Force.
Anakin catches a spear thrown by one of the Almani, igniting his lightsaber. One of the others starts shooting at Obi-Wan with their blasters, and Theseus pulls out his own lightsaber, charging it.
The creatures instantly scatter, dropping the blaster in their haste to flee away into the surrounding grass. Anakin crosses the clearing, picking up the fallen blaster. "Precision laser darts," he observes.
"It's what we were expecting," Theseus states.
"Yes, I was about to tell you that if these are the Armani that killed Master Tu-Anh, they might have precision laser darts, but as usual, you went rushing in," Obi-Wan grumbles.
"Well, at least we know we're on the right track," Anakin offers.
It doesn't take long to figure out where they need to go, since one of the tracks is a lot deeper than the others, and probably the most important, according to Obi-Wan. It's their best shot anyway, Theseus supposes, especially if they're going to find these arms dealers on time.
"That's gonna be a lot of walking," Anakin grumbles.
"Since you rushed in and got our mounts killed, yes, it is going to be a lot of walking," Obi-Wan concurs grumpily.
"Think of it as... good exercise!" Theseus offers cheerfully. He is really not looking forward to how far they'll have to go by foot, but they don't have a better option. And they've had to do worse things before. At least it's only walking they have to deal with right now.
He has no idea how long they've been following the tracks, but it's got to have been several hours by now. The sun was high in the sky before, and now it's after sunset. Dusk is rapidly spreading across the surface, and soon it will be hard to see.
"They slowed to a walk here," Obi-Wan observes suddenly, stopping and crouching down to inspect the tracks, "Their base must be close by."
"Well, it's about time," Theseus huffs, "So nice of them to be considerate enough to stop running after exhausting us."
"I'll contact Ahsoka. Maybe she can –" Anakin blurts out, then cuts himself off mid-sentence. Theseus stills. They haven't mentioned her name in a long time, and... and for a brief moment, Anakin had gotten lost in the past. It's the clearest statement of how he's dealing that Theseus has ever gotten.
"Anakin..." Obi-Wan begins slowly, standing up.
"Forget about it," he replies stiffly, and pointedly keeps walking, "She's gone." The words manage to strike a cord deep inside again, bringing all the unwanted emotions over Ahsoka leaving back to the surface. He doesn't have time to get lost in emotions right now, but suddenly he can't help but remember.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Obi-Wan asks after a moment.
"What's there to talk about?" It won't change what happened. Nothing can. Nothing will change that his best friend in his entire life is gone, and he may well never see her again. Theseus can tell even more clearly now that Anakin is doing worse than he thought, but he doesn't know what he can even do about it.
"Nothing, I suppose," Obi-Wan replies, before thankfully changing the topic, "Perhaps we should set up camp. Sound like a plan?"
"We probably should. It's late," Theseus agrees.
Though now that the topic has come it, he can't shake Ahsoka to the back of his mind again, and from the stiff and only half-present way Anakin is moving, he's pretty sure the Knight is no better off. The three sit around the small campfire, Theseus silently watching the flames, though his mind is a million light years away.
"Dwelling on Ahsoka's decision won't bring her back," Obi-Wan finally speaks up, breaking the solemn silence that had settled over them.
"I miss her, okay?!" Anakin snaps. "Is that what you wanted me to say?" He looks up, finally. "I still can't understand how she could have left the Order!"
"It was a surprise decision to all of us."
Not to me, Theseus wants to say, because really... it wasn't. He was confused and hurt, but it's easy to understand why she did it. How couldn't she? He would have, too, and sometimes, he still thinks he wants to. Anakin had said he did, too, but Theseus wonders if he'd even be capable.
"It was wrong!" He throws another stick into the fire, maybe with a bit more force than necessary. "She's a Jedi! She belongs with us!" Anakin jumps up and walks a few paces away, turning his back on them. Theseus finds himself wondering, idly, what his expression is. "She's one of us," he adds, quieter, an undertone of despair ringing in his voice.
"She made the decision, Anakin," Obi-Wan reminds.
"Well, what choice did we give her?!" Anakin snaps back, before Theseus has a chance to retaliate with the same. "The moment there were any suspicions about her loyalty, the Council turned their back on her!"
"I will grant you mistakes were made," Obi-Wan answers after a moment, seeming completely unruffled.
Theseus bristles instantly. "That's it?" he retaliates. "The Council failed her. All you have to say about it is 'mistakes were made'?"
"She chose to leave," he replies, "Part of the Jedi's way is not let your emotions cloud your better judgment and that's precisely what Ahsoka did, even in her most critical moment."
What, he's blaming Ahsoka's decision on her? Yes, it was her choice, but it's something anyone would have done in her place. "The Council betrayed her," Theseus snaps, "Why would she want to come back to the Order after that?" He can understand why she did it, even if it hurts, even her leaving still left a gaping hole in him that he knows will never be filled.
"The Council isn't always right," he concedes. "Mistakes were made, but we took the choice we thought best, at the time."
Theseus really, really wants to slam his head on the rocks or something right about now, because of all the responses he was hoping for, that was not one of them. It doesn't really matter, though. Obi-Wan doesn't apologize, he knows that. It wouldn't change what happened, even if he did sincerely regret it, and... Theseus suspects he does, somewhere. It irks him, anyway, because it feels like the perfect attempt to absolve the Council of their responsibility in what they did.
"Why don't you get some rest?" Obi-Wan suggests, changing the topic.
"Fine," Theseus mumbles, moving from his perch on a rock to sit on the ground.
"I'm not tired," Anakin says stubbornly, straightening. "You can rest, Master. I'll keep first watch." There's still traces of bitterness in his voice, and Theseus is certain it's because his mind is far too preoccupied to begin thinking about sleeping. It isn't the best news right now, when after this they don't know when they'll sleep again, but there isn't anything he can do about it.
"Then I will accept your kind offer," Obi-Wan decides, moving to lay down.
There's a heartbeat of silence, with nothing but the crackling fire, before the Jedi Master speaks again. "You can't take responsibility for Ahsoka's decision, Anakin."
"How would you feel if I turned into a major disappointment?" Anakin demands.
"It's not the same." ... how isn't it?
"It's precisely the same. You took me under your wing and practically raised me. I'm your padawan, just like Ahsoka was mine." His voice drops before he continues. "How well would you sleep, knowing I failed you?"
"Not very well, I imagine," Obi-Wan replies, "Luckily, that isn't true, and never will be."
Theseus stays silent, in part because the conversation is too emotional for his liking, in part because there isn't anything he could say. He has no idea what it would be like to lose a padawan. When he nearly lost Caleb, it had eaten up all sense of focus, and it didn't help that he had been so preoccupied with Ahsoka's loss.
Sleep takes a while to come, and when it finally settles in, he's still thinking of Ahsoka.
He jolts awake abruptly as something grabs his arm. He looks right up into the face of one of the Amani, bright morning sunlight streaming across the grassy plains beyond them. Great. How did this happen? He's about to fight back, except he sees the number of blasters pointed at them. It would be useless.
"Anakin!" Obi-Wan calls urgently, and Theseus twists around to see that he's literally still sleeping. Wait, then who was on watch?! Why didn't whoever it was wake them up? For that matter, why was he never woken up to stay on watch at some point?
"Don't bother me," Anakin says grumpily, waving a hand in apparent annoyance, apparently oblivious to the danger surrounding them. One of the Amani rudely shoves him with a blaster, and Anakin jumps, looking up, releasing a startled exclamation.
"Don't tell me you decided to stay on watch all night by yourself," Theseus groans, as he's dragged to his feet and put in binders alongside Obi-Wan.
"Actually... I thought this would be an effective way to draw them in!" Anakin insists, and from the tone it sounds like he pulled that off the top of his head or is frantically remembering whatever plan he came up with before he dozed off. Theseus isn't sure which, but they don't have time to argue about it right now.
"Oh, so this is your idea of a plan?" Obi-Wan asks, clearly very unimpressed, "You intentionally fell asleep and let us get captured?"
"At least we didn't have to do any more walking," Theseus offers with feigned cheerfulness.
"It's working, isn't it?" agrees Anakin.
"Yeah, but on second thought, I think we'll be doing a lot more walking," he adds under his breath, as moments later, the three are being led away surrounded by the creatures on all sides.
The walk goes without incident... until Anakin gets mad one of the Almani is 'playing with his lightsaber' and ignites it through his head. Theseus would have laughed, but it really wasn't funny. On the bright side, at the end of the fiasco, they did manage to figure out where they're headed. It's not much, but it's something.
"I changed my mind," Anakin grumbles. "I thought being captured would be a good idea, but maybe we can act now." Theseus has his doubts, which he doesn't voice. He won't call Anakin out on his maybe-lie in front of their master.
"Patience," Obi-Wan insists, "I admit that this was a good plan, you just need to wait a little longer."
"I'd rather act in these situations, you know that."
"Hey, we might be able to get more information if we wait a little bit longer," Theseus points out. Anakin huffs but doesn't argue.
Their leader, the so-called "Big Man" who's actually very tiny, was completely fooled and outright told them that apparently, they're selling Grievous a crystal. Frankly, Theseus doesn't want to know what they're planning to do with it. He knows they can theoretically be turned into weapons, and he doubts it would be such a big deal unless this was a rather large crystal.
Theseus has no idea how long they've been walking, but it's got to have been hours again. Are they ever going to get to where they're going? Now he's beginning to feel decidedly cranky, mostly because of being stuck in binders for this long.
"Are we almost there yet?" Anakin grumbles.
"You're tired?" Obi-Wan asks, teasingly.
"Tired of walking? No. Tired of being a prisoner? Yes!"
"If it helps, I am too," Theseus offers.
"Oh, look, another mound!" Anakin exclaims in response, "The thrills never stop!"
Obi-Wan sighs in response.
"No, I mean, really! Look at all this grass? Have you ever been so excited?"
"No! I can't remember the last time I've had something enjoyable to do. We should make a hobby out of it!"
"That's enough, padawans," Obi-Wan sighs.
"You're right," Anakin agrees lightly, "I prefer the mounds to the grass. They really stand out."
"Speaking of mounds," Theseus says, eyes narrowing, on the structure steadily growing larger as they approach, "I don't think that is a mound. It looks like a spaceship,"
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