Betrayal (Star Wars Fanfiction)

Ilum

With shaking hands, Anakin let go of the controls and leaned back in his seat.

The familiar blue and white colors of hyperspace flashed around him as he let Artoo take over his starfighter, carefully guiding it to the coordinates he'd typed in only seconds before he'd made the jump with Obi-Wan and the few Jedi who'd remained in space above Coruscant to wait for them and, if necessary, clear the way for an escape path if Republic cruisers had waited for them.

Thankfully, the Senate apparently had not thought that they would escape the temple alive and had as such disregarded the need for a blockade.

Anakin was no optimist though – he knew that not everyone had made it out. He'd seen bodies on the floors of the temple, unmoving, unbreathing, scorched by blaster shots and flames.

And he hadn't been able to do anything! Wasn't he supposed to be the Chosen One?! Or had his impressive Force abilities receded the moment he'd struck Sidious down? Perhaps it really had abandoned him, had abandoned them all...because they'd been fooled by the Sith Lord for too long. Maybe the Force itself had seen how useless Anakin had been, not ever noticing the slightest hint where the true enemy had hidden all this time despite such close contact throughout three years of war, that it left him the moment he'd truly needed to call upon it again.

And Gods, what about Ahsoka? She had looked so shaken by the aspect that her home was being marched upon and there hadn't been enough time to reassure her before they'd been separated due to their different obligations during the evacuation. The strong bond he shared with her, the one that normally pulsed a warm and comforting presence at the forefront of his mind, had become but a weak tugging at the back of it, inaccessible just like all his other Force-related abilities.

It was enough to know that she was alive, at least. But what if she'd been hurt during the escape? What if she was alone?

"Anakin," came a soft voice over his comms. The Jedi Knight opened his eyes – when had he closed them? He hadn't noticed – and focused on the open channel between him and another starfighter – Obi-Wan's, he realized with relief. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," he answered after a few seconds, "I'm fine. What about you?" He wasn't fine by any means, but that would have to wait until they reached the rendezvous point. As soon as he knew if Ahsoka (and Talon and Aayla and the younglings, Force, the younglings and...everyone) was safe, he'd be able to calm his racing heart, he was sure about it.

Obi-Wan's voice was slightly strained when he answered: "Not a scratch, thankfully. Let's hope the others were as lucky."

Anakin knew better than to mention the dead. Right now, the only goal he had was to meet up with the rest of the order on Ilum – the planet the council had agreed upon as a place for temporary refuge in case of emergencies (like the event of an evacuation of the temple). Every Jedi knew where it was located and how to get there since it had always played a major part in the order's history; furthermore, while the climate was not the best or the most accommodating, it was usually not visited by any other ships, even those that cared little about a planet's inhabitants or, in this case, ownership. Ilum was a Jedi planet, but thankfully for them, while the kyber crystals on it were worth a fortune, it was also not the most likely a place someone would plan a vacation to. They'd be safe there for a while until they formulated a better plan or course of action.

"I've been receiving transmissions from other ships," he said to Obi-Wan while pressing a few buttons to regulate his communication channel. "They're a bit unsteady, so whoever's sending them has probably already landed on Ilum. I definitely heard Aayla though and I think Master Mundi tried to say something as well, that one was mostly static though."