The Edge of the Universe

XXI

Anakin's POV

We arrived on the Separatist ship and it was a nightmare, droids were everywhere as soon as we opened the door to out ship they began firing at us. Once we had dealt with the droids in the hanger I addressed the 501st, Rex had been to Kamino had gotten new recruits to make up for the 26 lives that were lost what felt like ages ago. 

"Okay, some of you will stay here and guard the ship, while the rest of you will make your way towards Padawan Tano's signal. I'll meet you there once I deal with something else," I commanded.

"Sir where exactly are you going?" Rex asked.

"You don't need to know that, I'll meet up with everyone afterwards, let's move out now," I replied.

A few clones stayed guarding the ship and the rest of the 501st followed me out of the hanger.

"Is the tracking signal working?" I asked Rex.

"Yes sir," he replied. 

"Good, you'll be in charge for a little bit until I get back. I'll try and be quick," 

Rex nodded and through the force, I noticed that he was slightly confused, I would've asked him about it but that would lead to more questions and I didn't have time for it right now. We left the hanger and I looked at the map and quickly memorised the route to the cockpit where the Separatist leaders would probably be.

"Okay, you all know what you need to do, get to it," I said.

I ran in the opposite direction of the clones and through the hallways and up to the cockpit, I ran into a few hallways filled with droids but I easily crushed them all with the force as soon as I saw them. I slashed the control panel to the cockpit with my lightsaber and walked inside. Like I predicted the Separatist leaders were in there, the droids immediately began firing at me but I easily deflected the bullets back at them and crushed the remaining droids. 

"What do you want, Jedi?" the leader asked.

I ignored them and walked to the control panel, I could tell they wanted to stop me but the warily eyed my lightsaber and stood to the side. I found the button I was looking for a wrapped one hand firmly around a handle on the control panel, I pressed the button and the escape door opened, all the air immediately rushed out of the room and everything that wasn't bolted down flew out the door including the two Separatist leaders. I held onto the handle on the control panel and in my other hand I held my lightsaber, I pulled myself up and pressed the same button again. The door slid shut and I fell to the ground, I pushed myself onto my feet and looked around the room. There were no droids or Separatist leaders left in the room, I quickly ran out and down the hallways towards the clones that had gone in the opposite direction to me in the start.

The clones hadn't gotten far since they encountered a hallway full of super droids and they were currently fighting them off. I ignited my lightsaber and leapt at them and landed in the middle, I sliced down a few whilst also blocking the laser bolts that came towards me. Soon enough they were all cut down and the troops sighed in relief, they followed me down a few more hallways and we encountered another hallway full of the normal stupid battle droids. I swept them two the side easily and crushed them before anyone even fired their gun.  

We reached the cells and we walked down the hallway until we reached the place where Ahsoka's distress signal was coming from. I placed my lightsaber on my hilt and opened the door, two red bullets immediately came towards me but then stopped in mid-air just before hitting me, I sent the bullets back towards the two battle droids hitting them in the chest and they fell to the ground. There were no lights in the room but the clones turned on their torches and I saw the two Jedi Knights and Ahsoka, she seemed a little bit older, she was taller and her horns had grown slightly but other than that she still seemed like she was 14, but it had been two years since I had seen her so she would be 16 now. 

"Who's there?" demanded a Jedi Knight who was kind of blinded by the lights of the clones.

"Anakin Skywalker, we're getting you all out of here, is this everyone?" I asked looking at Plo Koon's squadron of clones.

"No, Plo Koon was taken by Count Dooku a few days ago, we don't know where he is," one of the Jedi Knights replied.

"Well he's not on the ship anymore, okay, we have to go. There are a bunch of blasters on the floor from the battle droids so you can pick one up on the way," I explained to everyone.

We all left the dark room and went back into the hallway, the ones without weapons walked in the middle of the group. We encountered a few more droids that were either shot down immediately or easily swept to the side by the force, we opened the door to the hanger and that's when we saw hundreds of droids crowding the ship and the clones that had stayed behind were doing a good job holding them back. I used the force to push away the small dumb battle droids and leapt at the super droids and began dodging the bullets and easily slicing them down as the clones got on board. The two Jedi Knights and Ahsoka were using the force to send some of them flying away, after a few minutes the ship was ready to leave and all the droids had been dealt with. I put my lightsaber on my hilt and jumped onto the ship and closed the door, the ship took off and I walked to the cockpit. I made sure the ship was in working order as we made the jump to hyperspace, I could sense Ahsoka watching me the whole time and Rex was standing next to her. Since I broke our force bond I didn't know what Ahsoka was feeling or thinking and I didn't want to anyways. 

I went over to the two Jedi Knights and talked to them about what happened to them and how they were captured, Ahsoka was talking to Rex but out of the corner of my eye, I saw her glance over at me every so often and it was beginning to get on my nerves but I didn't show it. 

I knew the logical thing to do was to talk to her but that was about the last thing I wanted to do right now. What was I supposed to say to her? Hey Ahsoka, haven't seen you in 2 years but I'm going to ignore that and act like everythings fine and that I didn't spend ages trying to figure out why you left and who's fault it was, but I came to the conclusion that I was a horrible Master and I'm still angry at you for leaving the Order after I spent ages trying to clear your name but obviously that wasn't enough. Even though I trusted you with my life you couldn't trust me when you went on the run, before you got caught and you thought I didn't do anything to help you even though I broke about half of the Jedi code and almost killed Ventress to clear your name. Anyway, none of that matters, what did you get up to in the past 2 years?

I angrily shook the thought out of my head and focussed back in on what the Jedi Knight was saying. I didn't have time to focus on anything else, we were in the middle of a war and like I keep saying, it doesn't slow down or stop for anyone.