Destiny (Star Wars)

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Ahsoka hated her new assignment. She hated following Anakin around. She hated lying to him. She hated that the Council had asked her to. She hated that understood why they'd done it. And most of all, she hated that she agreed with them.

She was currently tailing Anakin's speeder as he headed off to meet with the Chancellor. Ahsoka found it ironic that the only reason he hadn't spotted her was that he was the one who had taught her how to tail someone without them realizing it. She had never imagined that she would be using those skills on him.

It had been a few days since Ahsoka had been given her assignment. To be honest, she was surprised that Anakin hadn't realized she was spying on him yet. He seemed distracted. As she thought about it, she realized that ever since they got back from rescuing the Chancellor, Anakin had been distracted.

What if it was about how he had killed Dooku? The Jedi Order never killed if avoidable. Dooku was an unarmed prisoner—literally. He was beaten. There was no reason to kill Dooku. Chancellor Palpatine had unusual knowledge of the Jedi Code, there was no way that he didn't know that killing is not the Jedi way. Ahsoka had never completely trusted the Chancellor, but this? Something didn't add up.

And what about what Palpatine had said about Anakin's mother and the Sand People? Ahsoka knew that Anakin's induction to the Jedi Order was untraditional—he was nearly ten years old when he began his training. The defining traits of a Jedi could not take root in him, they had already been overruled by the values and beliefs his mother had taught him. A Jedi learns to control their emotions in order to stay focused and on task. Anakin grew up as a kid in terrible conditions, undergoing many emotions: happiness, fear, sadness, desperation, hopelessness, exhilaration, and anger. Every Jedi since the beginning of the Order had been trained almost from birth. They were never given the chance to experience any other way of life.

Anakin was known for his anger. Ahsoka had heard the stories from Obi-Wan about how he had changed after visiting his family on Tatooine when he had been protecting Senator Amidala right before the Clone War began. Throughout the course of the war, she had seen his anger first hand. His actions on the Invisible Hand worried her.

Ahsoka was shaken from her thoughts as a particularly angry Dug growled at her in his native language as her speeder nearly crashed into his.

"Sorry!" She yelled as she flew by, although she doubted he heard her.

Ahsoka had a bigger problem. She had lost Anakin.

She knew that he was meeting the Chancellor, but she didn't know where. They had passed the Senate building a while ago, so obviously it wasn't there. She centered herself and reached into the Force, searching for her Master. Within a few moments, she had located him just as his speeder parked outside of the Galaxies Opera House. Ahsoka lowered her own speeder to the ground across the line of traffic so he wouldn't see her, and then trusted the Force to guide her as she leaped the hundred or so feet to reach the Opera House, landing on floating advertisements twice to ensure that she would make it.

Ahsoka ran into the Opera House and followed Anakin's Force signature. She soon found him heading into the Chancellor's box. Ahsoka backtracked a bit and went into the box above them—which was luckily empty. She stood near the edge of the box, close enough to look down at Anakin and the Chancellor, but not too close that they would see her if they looked up. She delved deep into the Force in order to block her presence from Anakin, and she sensed that there was another Force user in the Opera House. She didn't think too much about it, guessing it was an off-duty Jedi.

"You wanted to see me, Chancellor?" Anakin said, drawing Ahsoka's attention to their conversation.

"Yes, Anakin! Come closer. I have good news. Our Clone Intelligence Units have discovered the location of General Grievous. He is hiding in the Utapau system," Palpatine informed Anakin.