Wartorn

Chapter 24 - No End In Sight

Author's Note: Thoughts or predictions anyone? :)

~ Amina Gila

Even on the other side of the galaxy, Merrin feels it when something with her bond with Maul just changes, like it abruptly wrenched apart and went quiet. Merrin didn't know exactly what it was when she felt it. All she knew was that something was wrong, something... terrible happened.

She didn't understand the feeling of loss until now, when her mother finally joined her on Utapau. Her face is grim, ashen. And more than that, she's alone.

Merrin knew it when she felt it, but seeing it is somehow different. She remembers a time before her parents, yes, but it was them who mattered. It was still them who raised her, and she knew it could happen, with them fighting together in the war and all.

That never prepared her for the reality of one of her parents dying.

Maul is gone. Her father is gone. She's never going to see him again. He's never going to be here with them again. It's a blow to the Separatists, to their war effort, but all she cares about is how her father is gone.

She wants to cry, but the pain is too deep and numbing. "Who was it?" she asks, voice rough. "Who took him, Mother?"

"I wasn't there," Asajj tells her. "We were fighting the Jedi, and we got separated. I felt it happen."

She knew it was the Jedi – of course, it was. Who else would it have been? But in the end, it doesn't matter which of them did it. It was Maul's master who demanded they pull something so risky, so dangerous, and anyone would fight to their end with their home threatened.

It was Sidious who led to her father's death, and Merrin will make sure he feels every bit of it. She knows how to, also, even if it's a risky gamble, and something Asajj herself may not like.

It doesn't really matter.

She will not let Sidious get away with killing her father.

***

Anakin knows something is wrong. He can feel it deep in the Force, the whispering warning that something very, very bad is about to happen.

It feels like there's something going on that he's missing. It started with Luke. It started after the Death Star, roughly, though he can't pinpoint when. At first, Anakin wanted to chalk it up to his son being preoccupied now that they're back on Coruscant and he can finally go home, but he knows better. Something is bothering him, and he's not elaborating. Anakin doesn't want to pressure him for it, because he knows how upsetting that can be – Obi-Wan has done it to him before, and he's done the reverse, too.

It's not normal, though. Luke never holds back from talking about something upsetting him, and he doesn't know why this would be any different. He doesn't want to wait, can't stand the not knowing, but it isn't as though he has another choice.

And then, that sensation that something's off that people aren't telling him spreads to other people.

It's definitely true about Obi-Wan right now, as his master prepares to head to Kashyyyk.

"Well," Anakin says dryly, "Good luck ending the war."

Obi-Wan smiles, but it looks too forced, too fake. He doesn't like it. Something is wrong, and his master isn't telling him. Something's bothering him too, just like Luke, and he's not saying anything. "Don't get in trouble without me here to watch over you," he requests teasingly.

Anakin outright laughs. "Just get it done and come back," he replies, "I don't want to save your skin for the eleventh time."

"Oh, that won't be necessary," Obi-Wan assures, making a move for the ship, and Anakin doesn't know what to make of the sudden desperate longing that crashes over him in that moment.