Thanks for the reveiws! They keep me writing!
Anakin forced himself to calm down. He had an apprentice and a clone captain to find.
"You three, come with me," he ordered three troopers.
The clawdite probably knocked Rex out and assumed his identity. But how do you hide a clone trooper wearing all white?
They were nearing the republic camp when Anakin caught sight of a flash of white. It was almost invisible under the green plant life.
Clone armour? Anakin cautiously pushed aside the foliage to reveal a clone trooper lying facedown. Looking at the blue markings, Anakin could tell it was Rex.
"Sir, is he...?" one of the troopers trailed off.
"No, he's alive." Anakin turned back to to the trio of troopers. "Sketch, go find me a medic." The trooper nodded and hurried off.
Rex was coming around. He blinked once, then sat up abruptly.
"Sir! Commander Tano- there's a clawdite bounty hunter- she's going to be kidnapped!"
"I'm afraid you've been out of it for a while, Rex," Anakin said, then filled him in on what he had missed.
The Captain's eyes went wide, then his expression went grim. "I've got some news of my own, General," he said. "I was looking for the kid like you had instructed, then I came across a ship. It wasn't a republic model and there were voices from inside, so I went to check it out. A hologram was instructing the clawdite, who he called Recko Mindar, to capture Ahsoka without drawing attention to himself, then get off this planet as fast as possible. The changeling came out of his ship and saw me, then before I had a chance to react, he used a stun blaster on me. I couldn't see who the hologram was."
"Wait," Anakin said. "Did you say he had a ship? A non-republic one?"
"Yes, sir."
"And yet, he escaped on a republic gunship," Anakin said thoughtfully. "Either his ship was destroyed in the blast of the factory, or he had to abandon it to get away."
"General, his ship was close to the republic camp," Rex supplied. "It couldn't have been destroyed with the factory."
"Good work Captain," Anakin said. Just then, Sketch arrived with a medic.
"Are you all right, Captain?" Sketch asked.
"I'll be back," Anakin said. "The bounty hunter's ship may be useful to us." Leaving Rex in the hands of the medic, Anakin set off the find the ship.
Anakin didn't see the ship until he actually ran into it. The small shuttle was covered in leaves and branches and was a dark green. It looked to Anakin like it had been stolen, then modified, as a shuttle of this size normally didn't have so many weapons.
Anakin entered the ship and made his way to the cockpit. The first thing he did was check the holodisk for recent messages, but it had been wiped. The same thing had happened to the records. This bounty hunter took no chances.
But no bounty hunter has no records on any of their missions. There has got to be something somewhere.
Anakin combed the cockpit for a stray datapad, holodisk, anything, but there was nothing.
Well, the first place he'd expect me to check would be the cockpit. Lets try somewhere else.
The room immediately behind the cockpit was the prisoner's hold, and Anakin was sure Mindar wouldn't keep something valuable where his captives could get it.
The last room in the ship was a small room at the very back. It contained little, just spare armour and some trophies the bounty hunter had taken from his captives. But Anakin felt that what he was looking for was in here.
Anakin's attention was drawn to a single horn that looked like it was taken from a reek, or some other large creature.
I didn't think that bounty hunters would be hired to take out reeks. Those things aren't intelligent enough to be considered more than animals, and bounty hunters don't hunt animals.
Anakin approached the horn and twisted it slightly. The wall behind it came away to reveal a small vault containing a datapad.
Gotcha.
Anakin retrieved the datapad and studied it.
Passcode required flashed on the screen.
Anakin frowned. He had never heard of this bounty hunter before and didn't know anything about him. If he got the passcode wrong, all information on the datapad would erase itself.
Target? Too obvious. Captive? No.
How about the ship's name? What was it again? The Red Midnight? Holding his breath, Anakin keyed in the ship's name.
Passcode correct. Anakin grinned and pulled up the most recent entry.
Mission: capture Jedi Padawan by the name of Ahsoka Tano. Target not to be killed, for now. Rendezvous with employer on world of Agamar in capital of Calna Muun. Shape-shifting skills required.
Anakin frowned. That wasn't a lot of information, but it was all he had. Agamar? That was a world controlled by the separatists. It wouldn't be easy to get on.
Anakin left the bounty hunter's shuttle and went back to the republic camp. A clone trooper came up to him.
"Sir, the Jedi Council wishes to know of your progress."
Anakin clenched his fists. The Council would most likely want a long detailed report, taking away the time he could be using going after Ahsoka. And when they heard that Ahsoka had been captured, they would probably make him stay on Gavern while a Jedi Master went out after her, a job Anakin trusted no one but himself to do.
He looked up at the trooper. "Tell them they'll have to wait for my report. I'm going after Ahsoka."
"Yes, General," the clone said rather nervously.
Anakin strode back to the bounty hunter's ship. It would attract less attention on Agamar than a Jedi starfighter.
Anakin was in the atmosphere when he received a transmission from the Jedi Temple.
That came faster then I thought it would. I'm impressed.
A dry voice came from his comlink. "Anakin, what happened this time?"
"Good to hear from you, too, Obi-Wan," Anakin said sarcastically. "Ahsoka has been captured by a bounty hunter and I'm going after them. It is kind of a long story."
"What!" Obi-Wan sounded shocked. "Anakin, I'm sorry about your Padawan, but it isn't wise to rush into things. Take this slowly-"
"That's what you said before," Anakin said, anger seeping into his voice. "And look what happened!"
There was a slight pause, then Obi-Wan said, "Anakin, what happened before isn't relevant to this conver-"
Anakin cut the transmission and turned back to the controls. The ship cleared the blockade without much trouble and hyperspace arrived in a rush of stars.
He pondered his vision again. Fate frowned upon the girl the day you took her as your Padawan. If you continue to train her, Ahsoka Tano will not live to become a Jedi Knight.
How much of this was his fault?
Please reveiw!