Hiraeth~A Star Wars Story ✔️

Chapter 52: Crying on the Inside

"Rex. It's Anakin. I feel like something terrible has happened," Ahsoka says, repeating what she told me. Rex starts to shake, his helmet falling to the ground from his hands. His back is facing us, but he slowly turns around.

"Rex?" I say uncertainty. Two clones behind us point their blasters at us. What is happening.

"No!" Rex shouts. "I'll do it."

"Rex, what's happening?" Ahsoka asks him, worry and confusion written all over her face. Rex pulls out his blasters and aims them at us, his hands shaking.

"Stay back!" he yells. A tear falls down his face, something I've never seen happen before. "Find him. Find him. Fives. Find him! Fives!"

Both the clones and Rex start to fire at us. I take out my lightsaber and start deflecting the shots while Ahsoka tackles Rex, making him hit his head on the holotable. I jump up onto it with Ahsoka and we go back to back deflecting shots. She ricochets two of the blaster shots back at the two clones, killing them.

I use the Force to close the door Ahsoka and I originally came out of, leaving the room to be just Rex, Ahsoka and I.

What the heck is going on!? Is this how the Empire rises? Making the clones shoot at us. Is this happening everywhere?

"Rex!" Ahsoka yells as he starts to get up. The door in front of me opens and more clones run in, all of them pointing their guns at us. They all start firing. Ahsoka and I switch sides, with me just now deflecting Rex's shots and her deflecting the other clones.

I look up for a second and see that I can cut a way out through the roof. I signal to Ahsoka quickly that we should go up and she nods briefly. While she blocks the shots, I cut the roof open and we both jump up, leaving the clones hopefully confused.

Now I know what Papa meant when he said it was too painful.

Ahsoka and I crawl through the vents together. I can sense her emotions going wild. They're going from confused to worried, and then to sadness. I can't even imagine what's going through her head right now. At least I knew about the Empire forming, but she had no clue.

"We need a distraction," she suddenly speaks up.

"What do you suggest?" I ask. "Wait, you don't mean."

"Maul. It's our only option if we want to take Rex."

"Wait, what do you mean by 'take Rex'?"

"I don't know what's going on. And, Maul knew this was going to happen, right? He has answers, and he can be used as a distraction," she says, ignoring my question. She crawls faster before I can say anything more.

We drop down into the small cell block where Maul is being kept. Ahsoka takes out the two clones who look like they are about to shoot Maul. I walk forward, glaring at Maul as I do so, and stand next to the side of the box he's in's control panel.

Ahsoka holds one of her lightsabers up to Maul's chest.

"Don't make me regret this," she threatens. "Open it."

I press a button that opens the latch to his box and Maul comes falling out.

"You.." he coughs. "You survived."

"Is this your doing?" Ahsoka asks darkly.

"Choose your words carefully," I threaten as Ahsoka holds her lightsaber to his throat.

"No, no. It was not my doing. I do not know what has occurred, but, surely, you have felt it," Maul says. "The voices crying out. The death."

I don't take my eyes off of him but I can now hear screaming within my mind. Screams of death.