When She Was Gone

Chapter 3

"Syren coming in now. Access code is 4-YM0P-99."

There was a pause on the other end of the line. "Copy, Black Leader. Access granted. Please land at bay 6."

Anakin did as he was told. It had been a few days, but thoughts of his dream still flitted across his mind.

"I'm alive."

He'd assured his wife that it was nothing, just a bad dream, but he knew she'd see through it sooner or later.

No matter how hard he tried, Anakin couldn't seem to get over Ahsoka's death. He'd been responsible for her. He'd lost a Padawan, a sister, a friend. He'd be coming to terms with it, starting to feel all right, and then something happened to make the wounds fresh again. Dreams, flashbacks, thinking he saw a glimpse of her lekku going around a corner. But being Black Leader helped. He was up off the ground in his fighter when he was Black Leader. He was in the air, sometimes above the air, where he belonged.

But now this dream...

He refused to believe it. The Force had shown him distorted things before; why believe this was an exception?

Anakin docked the family's ship at Bay 6 as instructed. He was unbuckling himself from the pilot's seat when he heard squeals of delight from his children. He followed the sounds to find Rex dangling Luke upside down. Padmé was belly laughing as Leia taunted her brother. Anakin grinned.

Rex spotted him, smiled, and proceeded to turn Luke right side up and set him down.

"Hey there, commander."

"Hey, Rex."

Rex frowned as he spotted the dark circles under Anakin's eyes. "Sleeping all right, sir?"

Anakin sighed. For a few reasons. He'd tried to get Rex to stop calling him "sir," but it was just hard-wired. He also, in fact, hadn't been sleeping well. "The fight goes on for a night of good sleep." Rex nodded. He wasn't force-sensitive, but Anakin could tell he knew he was talking about Ahsoka. She'd been one of Rex's closest friends despite her Jedi rank. They'd both been haunted by her death, but Anakin had never truly escaped the horrors.

The four of them made their way inside the base. Leia was still laughing at her very red-in-the-face brother. It gave Anakin some solace to know that his children weren't picking up on his Force signature's distress. Or perhaps they were just good at acting like they didn't notice.

Then again, maybe it had always been there and they were just used to it. He grimaced at that thought. Was he really always that stressed?

Padmé noticed his frown and looped her arm through his. She twinkled her eyes at him kindly. He gave her a weak smile.

Admiral Ackbar looked up from the holo-board when they came in. "Good, you're here," he said through his thick Calamarian accent. "We have good news and bad news."

Anakin sighed. "Let's start with the bad news."

An officer who Anakin had yet to meet stepped up to the board and activated a diagram. "This is the Destroyer," she said, gesturing to the large star destroyer that appeared. "It is the largest and, currently, most lethal star destroyer in the Imperial Fleet. It has the highest amount of TIE fighters ever known to be stored on a star destroyer. People who come back from trying to fight that thing never truly recover. We've read between the lines and pieced together that the Emperor's famed assassin is the head of that ship. We have tried to have no contact with it, but now..." she lowered her voice for her next words. "Sources tell us it knows where our base is."

Padmé sucked in a breath.

"What's the good news?" Luke asked tentatively. Anakin had almost forgotten his children were in the room.

This time, Ackbar was the one to reply. "The good news is that the ship is currently undergoing upgrades. If we strike swiftly, we calculate that we can deal some good damage. Then our forces can get the he—" Ackbar glanced at Luke and Leia. "Get out and get to a new base."

"How long until they're here?" Anakin asked. He got his answer more forcefully than he expected; alarms started blaring. The officer blanched.

"About now," Ackbar yelled over the din.

A/N
This chapter and the next chapter were originally going to be one, but it would have been incredibly long and I thought here was a good place to transition. The next chapter will be out by, at the latest, this upcoming Tuesday (10/22/19).
Thanks for understanding!! ;)