Chapter 29 – Departure

Author's Note: Sooo... this is the chapter that bridges the gap between the past arc and the next one. :) I'm always happy to hear your thoughts! Reviews and comments give me motivation. ^-^

~ Amina Gila

With Vos gone, Anakin knows it's time for the Shadow to disappear once more. He signals for Kitster to meet him in the tunnels, going back the way he came. They switch easily, and Anakin leaves Kitster to get back to the palace while he returns to join everyone else. He can feel their exhaustion in the Force before he emerges back into the daylight.

"Kix?" he asks, looking around. He doubletakes when he sees Kix treating the black-clothed bounty hunter. She's still alive. Anakin expected her to die, but… she didn't. Boba is crouched next to her, radiating a sullen stubbornness. He's still here, though. "What's the status?"

The medic glances at him only briefly as he works to stabilize the dying bounty hunter. "Some injured," he answers. "Nothing that won't heal. Boba agreed to work with us as long as I saved Fennec Shand."

Anakin nods, glancing at the young clone again. "That was the right call. He's your responsibility though, Kix. Keep an eye on him."

Boba scowls. "I'm not going to betray you."

"Forgive me for being cautious," Anakin answers dryly, "but you were just fighting us. Kix will treat your companion. We won't deny her medical care, and then… I guess you'll be on your way?"

A hesitation. "Will you feed us to your rancor if I say no?"

Anakin nearly rolls his eyes. "No, kid, I won't. You're welcome to stay here as long as you want if you don't hurt my people. Deal?"

Boba shrugs. "Yeah. Deal."

He will have to keep an eye on Boba Fett and hope he doesn't get himself into too much trouble, but for some reason, the Force is telling him not to worry. It's saying Boba will prove to be useful to them in the future. He is not their enemy.

Anakin might question that a bit more if he didn't have far more pressing matters to worry about. "Kix, can you and Kitster handle the situation here? I need to strategize and figure out what to do next."

Kix glances at him again. "Yes, sir," he replies. "You can go ahead. We got this."

Anakin leaves the building, heading out to wait a distance away for Aayla's return. He knows that they'll need the privacy – he can feel the turbulence of her emotions through their bond. Her skin is pale, and her expression is tight when she flies up to where he's waiting. She climbs off the speeder, and Anakin scans her, closing the distance between them to touch her shoulder. "Are you alright?"

She nods. "Y-yeah," she answers, lekku twitching. "I'm fine."

Physically, yes, but Anakin isn't certain that the same is true emotionally. "What happened?" he asks. He already knows she spoke to Vos. It's written in her posture, and he felt her emotions spiking through their bond. And more than that, he knows her. She would never leave without confronting her master. Aayla might be a Jedi, but she still cares deeply for Vos.

Her shoulders slump. "He's working for Maul," she whispers, glancing around. She withdraws a datastick and hands it to him. "I was able to hack into their communication console. This should have the information we need to trace the transmission."

Anakin looks at it and then back at her. "You mean we can find Maul?"

"Yes," she confirms, "we can find Maul… and we can find out why he's doing this. We can stop this. All of this." She gestures vaguely. "The Pykes, the kyber weapons. We can end it."

The Force tells him it will not be that easy, but all his life, he has taken risks and chosen the path most likely to bring him success. There have never been any certainties in his life, and that is especially true now. Why should it be any different now?

"Agreed," Anakin answers. "This is something we must do." He glances in the direction from which he came, where Kix is still patching up the wounded. "We should go back to the palace," he continues. "I will let Owen and Beru know it is safe, and then, we can locate Maul. We must move quickly before he slips from our grasp."

Aayla bobs her head in agreement, but he can sense that she is still troubled.

"What did Vos say to you?" he asks gently.

For a moment, the Twi'lek doesn't answer. "He… wanted me to join him," she replies quietly. "He said Maul promised him a way to defeat Sidious… and that it involved killing you. I– I–" She stops, breath hitching, and Anakin doesn't hesitate to wrap his arms around her, pulling her into a tight hug.

"We'll locate him," he promises, "and we can find a way to show him that he doesn't have to go down this road."

This is, after all, not the first time Vos has Fallen. He found his way back once, and Anakin believes he may be able to do so again if they can give him a reason. He knows it is inevitable that his path with cross with the Fallen Jedi Master, and when it does, he only hopes that he will not be forced to choose between protecting himself and killing Vos. It would devastate Aayla to lose her former master, just like it would break him to lose Obi-Wan.

They return to the palace together, and Anakin immediately gets to work on breaking the encryption on the information that Aayla downloaded. It takes him several hours before he's broken in, and when he does, he's a bit disappointed to realize that it doesn't have Maul's coordinates. The planet, Daiyu, is merely a bounce-off point for Maul's signal. But it's a good start, at least, so he'll take it. He shouldn't be surprised. Maul has always been crafty. He won't make it easy to track him down, or the Republic would have located him long before Ahsoka and Bo-Katan came to him for help.

He doesn't know what happened on Mandalore. Last he heard, Ahsoka was still working on tracking and capturing Maul. She'd fought him once and lost, but she admitted that Maul wasn't trying to kill her which had allowed her to escape. She was planning to keep searching, and Anakin had hoped to go there to reinforce her.

But then Order 66 happened, and he never got the chance.

He doesn't know where Ahsoka is now, but she must be alive, or he would have felt her die. If he finds that Maul killed her, there is nowhere he can go, nowhere he can hide to escape from Anakin's wrath. He is not a Jedi, not anymore, so revenge is something he can afford to get.

They wait until the next day to act on it, and Anakin gets confirmation from Kix that the bounty hunter Fennec Shand will survive her injury. Good. That means he doesn't need to worry about Boba turning on them in his absence. This will be the first time he's left Tatooine since he came. It's… almost terrifying. He isn't ready to leave on his own, but Aayla has to stay here. Someone has to watch over the planet when he's gone in case the Pykes come back, and Anakin won't ask Kitster to do it alone.

"Are you sure 'bout this, Ani?" Kitster asks, coming to stand at Anakin's side as he stares out at the endless sand dunes outside the window.

Anakin bumps their shoulders together, grateful to have the steady warmth of his best friend at his side. After so many years, here they are, reunited again. He can't say how much it means to him to have Kitster with him again. "I don't have a choice, Kit," he replies. "I– I'm terrified." His voice is barely above a whisper. "But I have to do this. I have to find Maul and stop him. If he's doing this to us, who else is he hurting with these weapons?"

Kitster is quiet for a long moment. "May the Sand and Stars watch over you," he answers, and Anakin can't help but smile wistfully at the familiar phrase. It's the Tatooine version of good luck and may the Force be with you. "Don't worry about us. Aayla, Kix, and I will keep everyone safe and sound until you get back."

Anakin huffs, rolling his eyes. "Yes, I know."

His best friend throws an arm around Anakin's shoulders, pulling him against his side. "You'd better come back, you hear me?"

Anakin turns to hug him. "I will," he vows. "I have to come back to Reva. Take care of her for me."

"Always."

It's comfortable with Kitster, much like it was with Rex, except Rex never got a childhood. Anakin was responsible for Rex. He's not responsible for Kitster, so he can rest assured that if he's too worn to support himself, Kitster will be here to help him. That's what friends do.

Owen and Beru come back with Reva, and they both fuss over him, too. To Anakin, leaving the planet isn't a big deal, except it kind of is. The galaxy is not what it once was, and there is no safe place for Force users, much less one like him. When he leaves, he'll only have himself to rely on.

It's… scary. He's gotten this family, these friends. He's learned how to let them take care of him even while he takes care of them. Leaving the safety and security of his home isn't something he's prepared for, but he doesn't have a choice. This is for them. For Tatooine. For freedom.

And Anakin Skywalker has never backed down from helping those who are unable to help themselves. It was that need to help others that made the little slave boy leave his mother and venture out to the stars.

Reva isn't happy about him leaving. She takes it the worst, but Anakin knows she'll be okay. He'll come back, and she'll understand that he did what had to be done, since there was no one else who could do it.

"I want you to lead while I'm gone," Anakin tells Aayla, his hands on her shoulders. "Take care of the people, and let Kitster and Kix take care of you, okay? I know you can do this."

She forces a smile. It doesn't quite meet her eyes, but he understands it. She's still shaken from her meeting with Vos. He only wishes he had more time to speak to her about it, but he doesn't. This is his duty. He has to protect his people. "I'll be fine. I'm more worried about you." Her gaze is soft, eyes gentle and warm with a deep fondness that Anakin shares. They've come a long way from where they used to be, and she is one of his closest friends. She is the only one who understands what it means to be a Jedi survivor.

"You know I'll come back," Anakin says.

She steps back, nodding. "I know. May the Force be with you."

"And with you," Anakin replies, boarding the shuttle.

He doesn't look back.

He's leaving Tatooine as Jacen Starkiller, but it's the Shadow who will venture into the underworld, crimson blade blazing as he protects his people.

His destination is Daiyu.

Anakin blames his distractedness on the reason he doesn't notice the Force presence until he's already made the jump to hyperspace. It's only then, when he's trying to relax, that he realizes that he can sense someone he should definitely not be sensing.

He closes his eyes, counting down from ten so he doesn't panic or do anything inadvisable before he stands, heading from the cockpit into the back of the shuttle. "You can come out," he says flatly. "I can feel you."

A long pause as the guilty party debates whether or not to follow his directive. Eventually, she settles on stubborn defiance and creeps into view.

Anakin stares down at her. "You shouldn't be here, Reva."

She scowls and then pouts. "I didn't want you to go alone!"

He sighs. He ought to be mad at her, and he is, a little bit, but… he also understands. If she hadn't come, this would have been their first time being separated for an extended period of time. "I have more training than you," he tells her, "and the place I'm going to is not one for children."

"I can protect myself," she insists stubbornly. "You made sure of that."

He can feel the hum of her kyber and her blaster is visible at her side. She didn't come unarmed, and grudgingly, Anakin has to approve. She's clever. She's not the same child he rescued from the Temple over a year ago. She's grown, even if she is still far too young for him to be comfortable taking her to a place such as Daiyu. She's not even thirteen yet.

Anakin sighs. "It's too late to take you back, but you must understand the dangers of coming. I am hunting a Sith, Reva."

She nods. "I know who Maul is."

"Then you know how dangerous he is," Anakin replies. "It will not be safe to leave you on the ship." And not only because he doesn't know for sure that he'll be leaving on the same shuttle he's arriving on. "If you want to come with me, you must do as I tell you. If I tell you to run, you run. Do you understand?"

"I understand," she promises.

"And do not use your lightsaber or the Force unless there is no other choice," he warns.

"I won't." She seems a bit too chipper at being here. She's so young. It reminds him a bit of Ahsoka, but Reva, unlike Ahsoka, understands the risks. She nearly died at the Temple, and though it does not traumatize her like it once did, Anakin knows it still haunts her nightmares sometimes. She is young, but she is not too young to understand the gravity of their situation.

"Alright," he says, sighing again, as he gestures for her to follow him back to the cockpit, "let's go over all the rules."

Reva's unexpected presence has made what would have been a difficult mission into an almost impossible one. Not only does he need to locate Maul somewhere on a planet filled with criminals who could all turn against him in the blink of an eye, but also, he has to defeat him and escape. He needs to find answers, and with the Pykes retreating from Tatooine – Kitster confirmed through the Trail that they've withdrawn off-world – chances are high that he could run into Vos once more. If the Fallen Jedi Master is set on his death, Anakin will have no choice but to defend himself.

Though he knew the mission to Daiyu would be hard, with Reva here, it's shaping up to be even more challenging than he first anticipated.

**w**

Obi-Wan has been searching for months. At first, he'd been confident that he could find Anakin eventually. It seemed like a certainty because the Anakin he knew could never sit still. But as time went on, he began to realize that either he doesn't know Anakin nearly as well as he thought, or Anakin is really that good at staying hidden. Both are options, but he doesn't give up.

Over time, his hunt expands to the… Predator that Sidious accused him of being. The man's identity is an unknown, but Obi-Wan would very much like to find out who he is. He wonders if he's the same blue lightsaber wielding attacker who showed up on Alderaan, the one who wore a helmet he should never have found. He has heard whispers in the underworld. He's heard of a madman with a blue blade who attacks Imperial outposts, leaving nothing but bodies in his wake. He has even seen the aftermath of one of those massacres, and yet, he is no closer to tracking down the elusive shadow.

The Predator.

If that is truly his name, then it is an apt one.

Obi-Wan wants to find him. He wants answers. He wants to know how any Jedi could have fallen so far from his path. Eventually, he begins to wonder if the Predator is also hunting Anakin. He is looking for someone. That much was obvious based on their encounter on Alderaan, but he has heard murmurs, and he has spoken to a couple of the only survivors of the rampage.

It was too late to save them, and in their dying words, told Obi-Wan that the madman had been hunting for someone. Could it be Anakin? He doesn't know. He has no proof that it is Anakin, but his instincts tell him it is. Why else would the Predator have been so certain that the someone would show up on Alderaan when he and Obi-Wan fought?

He has been searching in the underworld, keeping his eyes open for sightings of the Predator or Anakin, or indeed, any surviving Jedi. Bail knows to tell him as well, but Obi-Wan suspects that his contacts extent much further and deeper than do Bail's. Obi-Wan might not have been trained as a Shadow, but he knew Vos. Vos was one of his best friends, and Obi-Wan picked up a lot from him on how to be a Shadow.

And then he overheard the whispers of someone else, someone he has not thought about since the Empire rose.

Maul.

Perhaps Obi-Wan has not been able to find Anakin. Perhaps the Predator will continue to elude him – or indeed, perhaps it is Anakin. That is a reality for which Obi-Wan is unprepared. If Anakin has truly fallen so far, he doesn't know what he would do.

He cannot find them, but maybe… he can find Maul. Maybe he can put an end to a different monster even if it's not the one who destroyed the Jedi Order and Republic in one stroke.

The whispers of Maul have led him here.

To Daiyu.

It is time for the hunt to begin.

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