Chapter 111: Good Soldiers Follow Orders
It had felt wrong to Captain Rex from the very beginning. He didn't want to question General Skywalker's order, but something about taking an entire company of the 501st elite soldiers down to the surface of rocky Colstev in search of one little girl seemed...off. And this wasn't just one girl, this was Ahsoka Tano, a former Jedi Padawan that he had served with on several occasions. Skywalker had been upset, devastated when he found out that the girl had left the Jedi, and when Rex had seen her after a battle working with the Mandalorians to secure the borders of a peaceful civilian village, he had been overjoyed to see her not just well, but happy to be doing some real good. So when General Skywalker returned from his attack on the Enigma with none of the clones he left with and demanded they send their best to Colstev to hunt for Ahsoka, Rex had some concerns.
Not that he voiced them. Nobody wanted to be the next Shadow Legion, and Skywalker had become even more zealous in his hunt for Separatist commanders since the Battle of Coruscant. With Dooku's death and the end of the war just out of reach, Skywalker had become relentless, which was fine by Rex. The war needed to be brought to a swift end, and Skywalker's ruthlessness was proving to be very effective. But Rex couldn't believe that Ahsoka was a Separatist...
They had been at it for days, and the combined efforts of Skywalker and Tarkin had put them on the trail of the cunning Togruta several times, but she continued to elude them, and the longer they stayed at the task, the harder it was for Rex. The appearance of the droid army on the sixth day of their search made things easier, though. This was what he had been made for. Destroying droids was an easy thing to do, even when the droids were as advanced as these ones were, and Anakin Skywalker tore through them like a furious storm. He had Ahsoka's scent once again, and he was not going to lose it again. This time, the girl would be found. Thousands of escape pods and all the rocky caves that Colstev had to offer wouldn't be enough to keep the girl from Anakin's focused rage.
Rex ducked behind one of the escape pods for cover, his clone brother Fives at his side as the air was filled with the burning, acrid smell of plasma bolts as they shot through the air. This particular wave of droids was relentless, and even General Skywalker and Admiral Tarkin had to take cover behind a rock formation nearby, Tarkin's swift, sharp hand movements conveying the changing plan to the raptly attentive Skywalker. The General pointed to Rex and held his hand up, and the clone nudged his companion and waited for Skywalker's signal to follow him. Beside him, Fives groaned, which was...highly unusual.
"Hey," Rex said softly. "You alright?"
"Y-yeah," the clone stammered, his hand to his helmet as he shook his head. "I just don't...feel like myself."
"What does that even mean!" Rex cried. He had no idea what to do with that. Perhaps he was just strained and stressed, as they all had been. Skywalker had been pushing them hard since they hit the surface, and they hadn't let up for a moment since the hunt began. It was taking its toll on everyone, it seemed, not just Rex. Skywalker raised his hand higher, the signal to be at the ready, and Rex raised his blaster, ready to rush forward. He felt Fives look over at Skywalker as well, his blaster raised.
"Jedi..." The growl was soft, quiet, feral, but Rex had heard it, he was sure of it, and was about to say something when Skywalker indicated forward, and both he and the Admiral sprinted out of their cover. Rex drove an elbow into Fives' side, and the two clones rushed out of their cover, running to catch up to their commanders, and a moment later, the four of them were leading the charge on the front lines.
Droids fell by the hundreds as Skywalker's lightsaber bit through them, supported by the heavy fire of his soldiers, but they were outnumbered nearly five to one, and one Jedi, no matter how talented, couldn't make up the difference. Their quick and vicious assault gained them some ground, though, pushing them forward far enough to get to a narrowing of the rock formations around them, a strategic point that Tarkin said must be taken if the fight was to be won. When the droids fell back to regroup, Anakin quickly set to using the Force to move several escape pods from their places of impact and set them between the large, stone outcroppings to serve as cover.
"We are wasting our time!" Anakin snarled as he dropped behind their wall of cover, eyes closed as he listened to the sounds of the rapidly approaching battle droids.
"We'll get her," Tarkin said calmly, craning his neck to look over the wall. "Don't forget that she is injured. Each time we lose her, we pick up the trail faster than the time before." The Admiral hissed and ducked back below the cover. "They're sending in commando droids."
"Oh, kriffing hell!" Anakin snapped, jumping up on their cover and holding his lightsaber out in front of him. "Alright, look alive, boys, and hold this position." Rex and Fives climbed up next to the Jedi, kneeling beside him and firing at the droids while he covered them, batting away any shot that came to close and sending them hurling back at the droids. They got into a beautiful rhythm, the clones keeping the pressure on the advancing army, and the more the droids shot at the intensely focused Jedi, the more of them fell. They could hold this defendable position for as long as necessary. The droids weren't getting past, and they were falling so quickly under the suppressing fire in the narrowed valley. It would be over soon enough.
Occasionally, Fives would hesitate, stop for a moment to shake his head or bang on his helmet, groaning softly in what sounded to Rex like pain of fatigue or effort. It was...concerning, to be sure. Fives was steadfast and strong, a constant and faithful companion since the beginning of the war. He had never acted like this. Ever. Rex brushed it off, focusing instead on the fight at hand. They were coming in greater numbers now, more focused, more furious in their assault as the tactical droid that commanded them began working out their strategy and finding the best way to combat it. They would have to move soon, but Rex knew they would. Tarkin and Skywalker were always thinking ahead.
"Good soldiers follow orders..."
It was soft, monotone, almost as if it was chanted in some kind of trance, and Rex looked over just in time to see Fives raise his heavy blaster, take aim, and fire one shot right into Anakin Skywalker's side.
The force of the shot sent the shocked General falling sideways, and Rex dropped his weapon and caught the Jedi, swiftly bringing him behind cover as Tarkin grabbed hold of Fives and dropped him to the ground, a dozen of their fellow soldiers rushing in to detain their brother that had suddenly lost his senses and turned against their General. Tarkin kneeled beside Anakin, swiftly turning the groaning, gasping man over and examining the smoking, bleeding wound in his side, hissing when he saw how bad it was. The Admiral grabbed Rex's hands and put them over the wound and pressed down hard, and Skywalker screamed in pain.
"Keep the pressure on, understand?" Tarkin tersely commanded to Rex, and the clone nodded, pressing down hard, but withdrew slightly when Anakin began writhing in pain. "No matter how badly he is hurting, Captain!" he snapped, and Rex nodded and did as he was told while Tarkin called for the men to secure the line and prepare for immediate evacuation. Clones rushed to do as the Admiral commanded, but Anakin's prosthetic hand grabbed at the rocky ground so hard, he left deep gouges in the stone beneath him.
"We are not evacuating!" he snarled, flinging Rex away with the Force and rising to shaky, unsteady legs, his hand extended and calling his lightsaber back to him. Tarkin glared and faced the General, his arms crossed over his chest.
"We are here," Tarkin calmly reminded him, "to chase a single little girl. Do not be undone in your obsession, Skywalker. If she's the threat you seem to think, she will surface again, but her life isn't worth yours, General, and you will die if you don't get emergency care immediately." Pain tore through Anakin, and he dropped to one knee, his teeth grit tightly as he glared at Fives, the clone looking dazed and confused.
"Why," the Jedi snarled, trying again to rise to his feet, but he was unable.
"That is the question, isn't it..." Tarkin muttered, leaning in toward the clone and observing him carefully, only looking away from his frantically darting eyes when he heard their shuttles arrive to take them back to the Vigilance. "We need to return to Coruscant. The clone needs to be turned over to the proper authorities for investigation."
"I am not going back to Coruscant!" Anakin shouted, his tension making blood seep through his fingers that were tightly covering the hole in his side. The Jedi began to sway on his feet from the rapid loss of blood. "He is infected," Skywalker spat. "Like Kenobi's clones, he has gotten to this one too! Kill him."
"Ignore that directive," Tarkin said cooly, and the clones that had raised their weapons to follow Skywalker's orders suddenly lowered them. "General Skywalker is injured and in no state for command. Load him onto the carrier and bring him directly to the med bay. He will get full medical attention when we reach Coruscant." Anakin began to protest, started to make for the Admiral that questioned him, and was immediately hit with a wave of dizziness that sent him stumbling back to be caught by Rex. There was blood, lots of it, and when Anakin focused inwards, he found that the plasma bolt had ripped a tattered gash right through him. He had to fight with everything he had to stave off unconsciousness, and through the pain, he forgot about Ahsoka Tano as the clones brought him swiftly to the transport.
"What do we do with Fives, sir?" Rex asked, creeping closer to his friend and comrade and silently wondering what had happened.
"Keep him under supervision in the brig," Tarkin said slowly, measuredly, as if each word required careful selection. "The Chancellor will want to see this."
The nightmares were so real, so vivid, so terrifying that they had pushed through Anakin's medically induced coma and woke him prematurely. He could see Padmé before him, his little wife screaming and crying, her stomach full and round with the child she carried, and Obi-Wan Kenobi stood above her, his red blade in hand and his golden eyes resolute, resolved, blazing with focus. He could feel dry, oppressive heat surrounding him, could smell the sharp tang of burning plasma, his mouth filled with the acrid taste of ash, and the longer he looked at them, the more he could feel his fear grow, his skin crawling and burning as that fear turned to hateful wrath. He could stop this from happening. He was so close to Kenobi now. It wouldn't be long until the Sith Lord came for his revenge in a blaze of loathing, and Anakin would strike him down. That was all it took. One angry man, driven mad by grief, made powerful by hate but made weak by recklessness.
Anakin had thought that Kenobi would find him on Colstev. He was certain of it. But when the droids attacked instead of the Shadow Legion, he knew Kenobi wasn't there. The man had an irrational hatred of droids and rarely, if ever, fought with them. Still, they needed to find Ahsoka Tano, so Skywalker had stayed, hoping the droids served as a diversion while Kenobi searched for the Togruta, but he felt that was unlikely. It was possible that she wasn't Sith, but she still needed to die. She was a witness, a loose end, and not only had she seen what had happened, she may have learned what had happened on Stewjon as well. The Council would never believe her, of course, not when her Master had died in service to a Sith Lord, not when she had claimed to feel the darkness as well. She was serving Obi-Wan as well. She had to be. Why else would she have been on Enigma?
New fury rushed through him, his body tightening in the confines of the bacta tank, the slimy, viscous liquid vibrating under the power of the Force, the tank itself shaking and straining until it shattered, and Anakin fell to the floor in a rush of bacta and glass. He tore off the breathing apparatus and quickly checked his side, the wound badly scarred, but healed over, though he still felt discomfort when he moved, when he walked, when his stomach tightened. He snatched his robes, folded neatly in a pile on a counter and mercifully spared from the shower of bacta as the tank shattered, and dressed quickly, checking the instrumentation on the wall to find out how long he had been there, and how long he was scheduled to be there. He had only arrived the night before, but wasn't scheduled to leave for another three days. Anakin scoffed. Twelve hours was more than enough, the wound was closed and he felt fine. The rest would heal on its own. He could deal with some discomfort, and he found that the pain made him angry, and the anger made him strong. This was nothing.
When he burst from the room, there were medical droids and personnel rushing about to attend to the mess he had made, and Anakin strode past them without a second glance. There was work to do, and he had no time to deal with any of this. He only slowed his pace when he saw Admiral Tarkin striding purposefully toward him, and he quickly fell into step beside the Jedi as they made their way through the hospital.
"Feeling better?" Tarkin asked, a thin smile on his lips, and Anakin nodded.
"I'm fine. What news is there of Fives? Do we know what happened?"
Tarkin became pensive, a hand held thoughtfully to his chin. "Not yet. Palpatine has sent him to a specialist on Kamino for inspection. Captain Rex accompanied him. When I last heard from him, he seemed concerned about something, but was not forthcoming as to why."
Anakin nodded. "I'll talk to him when he returns. If he's worried about something, he'll tell me." He quickened his pace. He needed to get out of that hospital. "We need to get back to work, be prepared to leave by this evening." The Admiral groaned his displeasure and rubbed his temple.
"General, we aren't scheduled to leave Coruscant until the end of the week. Your recovery was supposed to last longer than one night, and the Vigilance needs to undergo maintenance. We have been out for months." Tarkin drew to his confident full height when the Jedi glared at him. "I don't want to lose to Kenobi because he takes better care of his ships, I don't want to die because of a technicality. If you're correct, he will find us, and I don't want to be caught unprepared."
Anakin nodded curtly, but also grunted in irritation. He didn't want to be here long. The longer Kenobi lived, the more dangerous he became, the closer Skywalker's vision appeared, the louder Padmé's screams echoed in his mind. "Tomorrow morning, then," Anakin decided. He needed to see Padmé anyway, and spending the night with her wouldn't be a welcome relief from the tension he had been facing in his hunt for the Sith. The child would be born soon as well, and perhaps now, he'd be able to sense its parentage. He'd have another test done to be certain of that.
"Tomorrow morning..." Tarkin repeated with a sigh. "Fine, I'll have her finished by then. I'll clear the 501st from the ship and get the technicians started right away. Also, General," he said, handing a datapad to the Jedi, "the High Council has requested that you report in immediately. It sounded important."
Anakin hissed in irritation when he looked at the missive and thrust the datapad back at the Admiral. "I'll see them before we leave in the morning," he snarled. "Maybe. If you need me, I'll be seeing my wife."
"Don't do anything stupid, General," Tarkin quietly cautioned. "General Windu already doesn't like you."
"I don't care what General Windu thinks," Anakin growled. "They don't deploy me anyway, the Chancellor does, and with Master Plo Koon now suspected of working with the Separatists, it's become very difficult to trust them. Who knows how deep this treason goes."
"I only ask that you not forget your duty," Tarkin said, the pair walking through the sliding doors of the hospital and out into the morning sun. "I'm going to oversee work on the Vigilance. Do let me know if you need anything."
"Will do, my friend." The two men each gave the other a small, polite bow, and they went their separate ways. Anakin strode through the city streets at a leisurely pace, partially because he had time to spare, and partly because it hurt to walk. He didn't feel injured, the vital wounds had been healed, but the muscle that had been burned and shredded had yet to repair. His destination was the galactic Senate, the large, domed structure visible between the tall buildings of the city. It was early, and the Senate would be in session, which meant Padmé would be there. As he drew closer, he could feel his need and his longing grow. It had been far too long since he had seen his wife, and his duties had kept him so busy, so focused that he didn't realize how badly he ached for her. He would need to kill Kenobi quickly. He was going to be a father soon, and he wanted the war to be over before then.
As suspected, the Senate was in session, and he watched the proceedings from one of the upper balconies. They agreed on very little, as usual, but what they all reached consensus on was the necessity of General Grievous' death. So long as that heap of scrap metal was around, there was someone to lead the Separatist's droid army, and so long as they could fight, they would. With Dooku and Grievous gone, the Confederacy had nothing. Anakin knew, of course, that it wasn't over until Kenobi was dead. The Sith Lord was far too smart to be held back by Grievous' death. He smirked in satisfaction when his hand drifted to the lightsaber of Quinlan Vos, which hung clipped to his belt opposite his own. Perhaps Kenobi was done for. After all, the death of his lover had driven him mad. The death of his best friend could very well have pushed him so far into madness that there was no return. A madman could be dangerous, yes, but it was nothing that Anakin couldn't handle.
When the Senate recessed for lunch, Anakin rushed down to the pod for Naboo's delegation and tightly grasped his wife in his arms, the little woman gasping in surprise, and he smiled, held her at arm's length and...
It wasn't Padmé. Anakin frowned, looked quickly around the surrounding area, but he knew he wouldn't find her. This was one of her handmaidens, a trained bodyguard and decoy, selected in aprt because of their striking resemblance to the Queen. They would fool most people, but they couldn't fool Anakin. He knew his wife from more than just her looks and mannerisms. He could feel her presence in the Force, and while this woman - Sabé, Eirtaé, something, they all looked so alike - was very close to lovely Padmé, it wasn't her. Worry instantly gripped him, cold and biting and it took everything within him to calm his racing heart and follow the handmaiden to Padmé's office, where she was...convinced to tell Anakin of his wife's whereabouts. The girl didn't know, but told him that she had taken a leave of absence due to her pregnancy, and with that, Anakin flew from the Senate and sprinted toward 500 Republica some blocks away.
Her apartment was empty, not just of the woman, but of her clothing, some of her valuable possessions, her droid, all of it, gone, her decoy's things in their place. Each passing moment brought a growing sense of unease, each second his anxiety grew, the feeling that something was terribly wrong gnawing at the back of his mind, her screams ringing loudly in his ears. Anakin tried contacting her on her private comlink, at the Palace of Naboo, at the ancestral Naberrie Estate where she had grown up. He had interrogated the security officers at 500 Republica, but they insisted that she wasn't missing at all, fooled completely by her perfect decoy. He had managed to get inside the security room as well and frantically scanned all the security footage from her apartments, starting from that morning and going back as far as possible, but there was nothing within the past month.
A deeper search into the archived footage found him going back months, to when he had last seen her, and with a snarl of fury, he started going forwards once again, pouring over every little detail in hopes of finding something, anything that could give him a hint to where she had disappeared to. The distance of the camera made distinguishing between Padmé and her handmaidens impossible, and he was left with the task of discovering when this change took place. After hours of searching, he finally found it, just after he had left her. The recording seemed to skip, so imperceptible it could barely be seen, but it was there, and on closer inspection, the shadows marking the position of the sun in the sky had shifted, from night light to late morning. There was footage missing.
Panic seized him, and Anakin bolted from the security room, fear gripping him tightly and the sounds of her screams amplifying in his ears and within his head. She was gone, and there was only one explanation. He ignored the pain in his body as he ran full speed through the city, the streets bathed in moonlight, the entire day spent in frantic search for his wife, and did not stop until he reached the Jedi Temple. He needed Jedi for this. With Padmé gone, with the Senator dedicated to peace kidnaped by Separatists, the Jedi would certainly heed his call to action and unite to go find her. They had to.
With the fall of Pong Krell, of Barriss Offee, of Quinlan Vos, there was beginning to be some question in the Senate about the Jedi Order's dedication to the Republic. This could clear them. They could prove their intentions by helping him save Padmé. They had little other choice, and Anakin needed Jedi to help him with Kenobi, not clones. Not when Obi-Wan could so easily turn them against the Republic, according to Aayla Secura. He could do the same with Jedi as well, but not so easily with a Master. He needed the Masters!
By the time he burst into the Council Chamber, Anakin was panting heavily, a slight wheeze in his breathing caused by the pain in his side, his lungs burning from the exertion. Of all the Masters on the Council, only Mace Windu sat in attendance, and he looked at Skywalker with a mix of surprise, pity and suspicion. "Padmé..." Anakin wheezed. "Padmé..."
Mace steepled his fingers and looked at the Jedi Knight, patiently waiting for the boy to catch his breath. Yoda had been very vague when they had last spoken, had insisted the less he knew about where he was and what he was doing, the safer he would be, but the Grandmaster had left Mace with a set of directives. Anakin Skywalker was to be grounded, pending an investigation of not just the massacre of Stewjon, but of the tragic events aboard the Enigma as well. Skywalker was a loose, if effective cannon, and he was thriving in the war, but the boy was still reckless and emotional, even more so after Qui-Gon's death. Yoda had also mentioned that the Sith Lord was not only very, very close, but dangerous beyond measure, and the Jedi were to make no attempt to discover who he is until the Grandmaster returned. With help, he said. But Skywalker needed to be grounded, that much was clear, and Mace was not going to deny him that.
Several members of the Council had suspected that something had been...off about the events of Stewjon, including the departed Master Plo Koon, who had left for Stewjon to investigate on his own. He never returned. Instead, Anakin had contacted the Council to grimly report that Quinlan Vos had captured and killed the Jedi Master, along with Asajj Ventress, and that seemed to settle the matter for most. But for Yoda and for Luminara, something seemed very wrong, and when Yoda had contacted Mace, the Korun Master didn't question the Grandmaster's orders. There was nothing out of the ordinary about grounding a Jedi while an investigation was taking place, especially not when dealing with the death of a Master as well respected as Plo Koon.
"Padmé's gone!" Anakin wheezed. "She's gone, Master Windu, she's been abducted!"
"...no she hasn't," Windu said firmly. "Luminara met with her just this afternoon."
"No, that's her handmaiden!" the frantic Jedi shouted. "I know Padmé when I see her and that's not her!" Mace arched an eyebrow, but said nothing, and Anakin's temper flared as his panic hit new heights with each second wasted. "Kenobi has taken her, I know he has!"
"And you think a handmaiden would calmly stand in for her if she's been abducted?" Master Windu asked. "I understand those girls are bodyguards. If Senator Amidala was kidnaped. I think the entire city would know about it."
"I know this was Kenobi!" he shouted. "He's targeted her before, this is his work! Maybe he's mind controlling her again, maybe she convinced Padme to tell her bodyguards that she was going on a leave of absence because of the baby and-"
"Kriffing hell, Anakin, is that what they told you?" Mace sighed, resting his cheek on his hand. "That's perfectly legitimate, the last time I saw the girl, she looked uncomfortably large." He observed the Knight closely as the man began to pace the room like a caged animal. "This wouldn't have anything to do with your...personal connection to the Senator, would it? From the way you're speaking, you sound very familiar with her." Anakin clamped his jaw down tight and said nothing, only glared at the weary Master. "You wouldn't happen to know who the father of her child is, would you?"
"How should I know?!" Skywalker shouted, resuming his pacing. "She spread her legs for Obi-Wan Kenobi, so maybe its his!"
"Or yours," Mace said, matter of fact and bored, observing the Jedi Knight as he reddened considerably, and Windu rolled his eyes as Skywalker attempted to mutter a feeble denouncement. But his raging emotions kept him from being able to conceal the truth. "Come now, Anakin, let's have it," Mace said calmly. "Kenobi's been messing with you for a very long time. What use would he have for Padmé Amidala if she weren't somehow connected to you?"
"She's in danger, Mace!" Anakin said frantically. "What she is to me isn't important right now, by doing nothing, we are condemning a Senator of the Republic and her child! We can't let this stand!"
Master Windu groaned loudly and covered his eyes with his hand. "I'll have Luminara investigate."
"Forget an investigation!" Skywalker snarled. "We need to act quickly! Send me with a team of Masters and we'll track down this Sith Lord and kill him, once and for all! All are problems will be ended, and the time is now. All of us, all at once. He can't beat us all!"
"He has beaten us all..." Mace droned. "All except Yoda, and he's fighting on Kashyyyk. We are all fighting. Master Billaba's on Kaller, Secura's on Mygeeto-"
"Together, Mace!" Anakin stressed, his panic reaching new levels as the screams seemed to get louder. "He's going to kill her, I know it! I see it!"
"I think your emotions are leading you astray, Anakin," Mace said calmly, and the furious knight was about to respond when lights on the armrest of Mace's chair lit up, indicating a call from one of the Star Destroyers under Jedi command. The blue lights of the hologram lit up and displayed the information of the call, and Anakin's anger faded away. The call was coming from his ship.
"That's Tarkin," Anakin muttered, frowning when he checked his personal com and found no missed calls. "He must need me for something, maybe there's something wrong with the ship..."
Mace nodded and answered the call, the hologram flickering to life to display the caller in the center of the room, and Anakin fell back into one of the empty chairs, both he and Mace leaning forward with jaws slack and hearts pounding out of their chest as they looked at the smug, cruel face of Obi-Wan.
"Hello, Skywalker," Kenobi drawled slowly, each syllable punctuated with his clipped accent driving a spike of dread deeper into Anakin's heart. "Lovely ship you have." He smiled brightly, a devious light shining in his eyes. "I think I'll keep it."
"This is the end of you, Kenobi!" Anakin shouted, rage overtaking him. "You've made a huge mistake coming here, you will never get away! Mace!" Skywalker snapped. "Inform every ship in the fleet that the Vigilance is in the hands of Kenobi, it's to be destroyed on sight!" Anakin grinned maniacally as Mace quickly did as he was told, and an irritated sneer came to Obi-Wan's face. "You will never escape the Core Worlds, Kenobi, the entire Republic Army knows my ship!"
Obi-Wan looked over his shoulder. "Cody, has the ship been disconnected from the Republic's identification channels?"
A grinning clone appeared behind the Sith Lord. "Done, sir, we are off the grid."
"Oh." Kenobi looked back at Skywalker and smiled. "Well, that was easy. And..." he said, leaning over to look at something out of range of the holographic receiver. "We've been out of the Core Worlds for over an hour." He laughed brightly, and Anakin cringed. "I think I'll have to rename her, the Vigilance is a poor name for a ship that was so easily stolen." Skywalker sputtered in rage, unable to formulate sentences at all.
"What do you want, Kenobi?" Mace asked calmly, despite his racing heart.
"I want to talk to Skywalker," Obi-Wan said coldly. "For two things. First, to offer my sympathies for your injury and to wish you a swift recovery." A devious smirk crossed his lips when Skywalker became very still, his face frozen in shock as he thought, then understood the implication, and he began shaking in rage. "Really, it's a terrible thing. These clones are so unreliable..."
"You did this!" Skywalker spat, and Kenobi laid a hand on his chest and looked confused, though the slight smile on his lips showed that he was mocking the Jedi.
"Me? No, I didn't. I couldn't. I didn't get down to Colstev until after you left. We've taken the planet, of course. Does it please you to know that we can't find Ahsoka Tano either?"
"Ahsoka?" Mace muttered, looking at Anakin. "Is that why you were on Colstev?" Anakin said nothing, just focused on the image of the Sith Lord and channeled all his fury toward him, as if the anger could burn away his image. "Why would Ahsoka be on Colstev, and why would you be looking for her?"
"Apparently," Kenobi said softly, the sorrow in his voice clearly genuine, "Ahsoka was aboard the Enigma when Skywalker attacked it." He looked down at the and took a few deep breaths. "I don't know what happened on the Enigma, but it seems like little Lady Tano does, and it looks to me like someone doesn't want her telling anybody. Now, I wonder why that is..."
Mace slowly looked over to Anakin, the Knight's face contorted with rage, his shoulders shaking with tension, and the Master could feel the racing of his heart through the Force. It seemed as though there was something to Yoda's suspicions. The Grandmaster was right. This required investigation. "Anakin..."
"She is Sith!" Skywalker spat. "Just like you, and just like that filthy Master of hers, and the only regret I had when I stabbed Quinlan Vos through the heart was that you weren't there to watch me do it!"
The gold eyes narrowed, and Kenobi's mask of amusement dropped away to reveal the cold, soulless expression underneath. "Which brings me to the second thing I wanted to talk to you about," he said, his voice a flat, even monotone. "I want to make a trade."
"Never!" Anakin hissed. "Not for anything! Everything you have, everything will be mine after I slay you!"
"Oh? I have some of your things in my possession, perhaps I should kill them before you find me." Anakin's rage immediately dropped away into fear so intense he couldn't breathe. He could just hear the screams, only the screams. He had her. He had her!
"What trade?" Mace asked softly, his hands pressed together and his fingers to his lips.
"Allow me to show you," Kenobi drawled softly, whistling quickly and a moment later, the clone had returned, this time to throw Wilhuff Tarkin at the Sith Lord's feat, and Anakin's eyes widened. The man was gasping for breath and clearly in pain, his body covered in bruises and blood, and with a triumphant smirk, Obi-Wan knelt beside him and grabbed the man's hair tightly, lifting the struggling man's head off the ground so the Jedi could clearly see him. "My trade, Skywalker. Quinlan's lightsaber for your bitch Admiral."
"Tarkin," Anakin said, his voice quivering with tension and fear, pain gripping him as he watched his Admiral, his friend suffer. Tarkin was a large part in formulating the plans against Kenobi, he needed him. "I'm coming for you, alright? He won't get away with this!"
"Won't I?" Obi-Wan asked, deadpan as he stood and lifted his hand, and Tarkin rose into the air, gasping and struggling against an invisible hold as he was choked. "Decline my trade, and I will give him back to you piece by piece, starting with his head. Consider this trade...an assembly fee. You give me the lightsaber, and you get your Admiral back in tact." His grip tightened, and Tarkin began struggling harder. "Come now, Skywalker, show me you have it."
Anakin growled deeply and tore the lightsaber from his belt and held it up, and a moment later, Tarkin was dropped to the ground, gasping and coughing and shaking with pain. Obi-Wan walked to stand before Skywalker, his eyes wide and pained and desperate, and the holographic hand reached out to touch it, but Anakin swiftly drew it away. The Sith's eyes flashed with untempered fury, and Anakin found himself dropping to one knee as he felt all his anger, all the darkness that stirred within him disappear, leaving him feeling considerably weakened. In his raw, unguarded emotional state, all his power, all his strength fled from him like leaves caught in a powerful storm. And a moment later, the feeling was gone, his strength returned, and he quickly jumped to his feet, the impact making his still healing wound stab with sharp pain.
"What will it be, Skywalker?" Kenobi asked softly, and Anakin grit his teeth. Tarkin for a lightsaber was an easy trade, even if it was for this lightsaber. He didn't need to actually make the trade anyway. For this exchange to happen, they would have to meet. Anakin would kill him then.
"Fine," he choked, the word rising like bile in his throat and so much harder to say than he thought it would be.
"Excellent!" Kenobi said, a smile once again coming to his face. "I'll be in touch to give you instructions on when and where we will meet."
"What?!" Anakin shouted, getting as close as he could stomach to the Sith's hologram. "No, we make the exchange now."
"Now?" Kenobi laughed. "Oh no, I can't do it now, I'm busy. And I promised Cody I'd give him a fair chance to torture your little friend. It's only fair, given how ruthless he's been with me..." His rage grew, but it was completely without meaning. There was nothing he could do if he wanted to save Tarkin. He was at the mercy of the Sith Lord, and he hated it. "Give me a few days and I'll be ready to trade. It'll also give me a chance to see what else of yours I have on this ship..." Kenobi gasped, his eyes lighting up, and a cruel smirk came to his lips. "Oh, I just thought of the best name for my new ship!" Hands clasped behind his back, he leaned in toward Anakin and softly drawled, "You'll like it. I'll call her the Amidala."
All the anxiety, all the worry, all the fear he felt hit a new high, and just as he thought he would lunge at the Sith Lord in an attempt to strangle the hologram, Kenobi's image disappeared, and all he could hear was Padmé's screams. "He has her!" Anakin shouted at Mace, but the Jedi remained distant. "We need to go and we need to go now. We'll find him, and we'll kill him. He's giving us his location, this is our chance!"
"No." Mace had barely whispered the word, but it may as well have been a scream to Anakin, cold and biting and cruel, but all he could do was stare. "We'll send another Jedi to make the trade," he said softly. "Luminara was his friend, she will go."
"She won't kill him!" he shouted. "She sympathizes with that Sith monster! She is serving him, I know she is!"
"A man's life is at stake, Anakin!" Windu snapped back. "A life for an object, and Kenobi has been more than fair these past few months. I won't have you put everyone at risk by being reckless, and what's more, you no longer have a ship, so it seems to me like you are grounded."
"...grounded?!" Anakin gasped. "I am the most successful Jedi in this war, I've had more victories than anyone! You can't ground me!"
"I can," Mace said firmly. "And I will. Your part in the fight aboard the Enigma requires you to be at hand while we investigate, and based on...new information, it seems like we have lots to investigate."
"I told you what happened!" Anakin gasped. "You would believe a Sith Lord over me?!"
"Nobody was there, Anakin! Nobody alive but you, and maybe Ahsoka Tano. Regardless of if she was there or not, it seems like we need to find her and ask. And before you say it, Anakin," the Master growled, holding his hand up toward the angry Knight when it seemed as though he would speak again, "Ahsoka has been working with Republic relief efforts since she left the Jedi, so no, I don't believe she is Kenobi's pawn."
"You can't do this!" Anakin cried. "Padmé-"
"Will be found and inquired about when Luminara makes the trade for Admiral Tarkin. You, Anakin Skywalker, are confined to Jedi business upon Coruscant while Plo Koon's death is under investigation."
Anakin's eyes narrowed, his hands balling into fists as he shook with rage. "You can't just indefinitely take me from the war, Master Windu," Anakin growled dangerously. "The Chancellor won't stand for it."
"I can," Mace said calmly. "And I will." The Jedi Master watched as Skywalker left the room, his stride long and wrathful, and in his wake, Mace Windu could feel the cold grip of the Dark Side.