Back in the Game (COMPLETE)

9.16.1

"As for Mandalore, Lady Bo-Katan Kryze has taken over leadership of the city and is working to unify her people. Prime Minister Almec has been assassinated by the warrior Gar Saxon, who was loyal to Maul and is currently being held by Lady Kryze and her allies in Sundari. The rest of Maul's leadership either has or will be detained. Lady Kryze has expressed her intent to inform the Republic of any updates of the situation in Sundari as they happen." 

"Is that Ahsoka?" a familiar voice asked behind him. He turned, powering down his comlink, and he saw Padme and one of her friends, Bail Organa, walking up to him. 

Smiling, he answered. "It is. According to her report, Maul is in custody, and on the way to Coruscant."

Padme beamed, happy to hear the good news. She had only returned to Coruscant a few weeks ago, having finally recovered from her pregnancy. Her decoy was finally able to have a break. 

From her side, Bail folded his arms. "Between her, you, and Master Kenobi, we seem to be making quite a few gains, despite the attack this morning. The Senate will be pleased to hear this."

"I hope so," Padme agreed, beginning to walk again with the two men with her. "I only hope they will be as happy about Mandalore, though. They know the nature of its people."

"When Lady Kryze reaches out to the Republic, we will be able to act," Anakin reminded her. "Until then, there's not much to do except to wait."

They strode into the main lobby of the building, and Bail asked Anakin, "Will you be in our midst for long?"

Nodding, he explained, "With the losses that the Jedi Order and the Republic have suffered recently, I've been stationed here for the time being. Until more Jedi return from their missions off world, I won't be leaving soon."

"That sounds somewhat infuriating," Bail noted, picking up on Anakin's slight undertone. "Especially right now, when so much is happening."

"That's the problem, unfortunately," Anakin admitted. "Too many missions and not enough Jedi to facilitate all of them. We're being spread so thin that stationing a Jedi in the Senate Building is necessary."

"I see," the senator realized, tapping a finger against the back of his arm. "I suppose I haven't been made aware of the losses you speak of. I would ask, but I imagine most of that information is classified."

Anakin was about to respond that he was correct, and he would have if he hadn't have heard clone troopers run up behind them. He turned to see what the problem was and saw that all of their weapons were drawn. Commander Fox was leading a squad headed their way.

"Commander, what are you doing here?" he asked, confused. Fox was supposed to be at the detention center, most likely waiting for Maul to show up. Why was he at the Senate Building?

Fox didn't answer him but instead pointed his weapon at the group. "Senators! Step away from the Jedi!!!"

Both Padme and Bail looked confused but slowly backed up a little bit. That wasn't the right direction though, because Fox motioned for them to move to the side. Anakin glanced at Padme, wondering if she knew something about this, but she looked as puzzled as he did.

It was only when they cleared out of the way that Anakin realized all of their blasters weren't pointing at the whole group, but just him. Uh oh.

He barely had enough time to draw his lightsaber and activate it before the troopers started firing. Shouts went up throughout the lobby, and everyone started backing away. Everyone, of course, except for Padme who yelled for the troopers to cease firing. She would have run up and interfered if not for Bail holding her back and out of danger. 

After deflecting the shots for a few seconds, Anakin pushed all of the troopers back with the Force and knocked them off their feet. "Fox, what are you doing?!?" he asked, but the clone didn't seem to be in a talking mood. 

He backed up, holding his lightsaber out in front of him. That wasn't exactly helping him though, because another squadron was running up behind him. 

They had turned on Anakin, that was the only explanation he could come up with. He glanced at Padme, who was still being restrained by Bail. When she saw what was coming, she made fearful eye contact with him and mouthed one word: RUN.

Anakin didn't need telling twice. If the clones were going to try to kill him, he wasn't going to be able to protect the chancellor, so there was no point in staying and trying to fight. He ran towards the front steps and vaulted over the troopers' heads, deflecting the blaster shots that came his way. After that, it was past security and out of there, to....where?

He had to hide, somewhere were the clone troopers would have a hard time finding him. Underground, he thought, darting off towards the nearest shaft. That's what Ahsoka had done when they were chasing her. For now, it was going to have to work.

With the advantage of the Force, Anakin had a pretty good head start, but he needed to get past the detention center if he wanted to get to the Lower Levels, and that was going to be difficult if the clones were trying to kill him.

Why was this even happening? Anakin was sure he hadn't done anything, except for show Bail and Padme the last few seconds of Ahsoka's report, but that wasn't worth trying to kill him, right? He hadn't killed anyone, he hadn't stolen any intel or resources, so what was going on? At least Ahsoka knew what she was getting blamed for, but I don't even know what they think I did!!!

Anakin started noticing more troops chasing him as he passed around the back of the detention center. He could have outrun them if they were all on foot, but some of them were in gunships, which wasn't helpful. He needed cover, quickly. 

The pipes, he remembered, and he started scouting out for the sewage lines Ahsoka had used to escape last time. He didn't wait until he was surrounded to cut his way in, but used his lightsaber to make an opening as soon as he got close enough. Right on time too, because the troopers were already within firing range. 

He really wasn't appreciating the irony of the situation right now. The last time he had been down here, things hadn't ended well. What had happened this time? Deactivating his saber, he kept moving as the water at his feet seeped through his boots. At least I had convinced the clones to set their weapons to stun for Ahsoka.

Behind him, he heard the clones beginning to search for him. Anakin ran faster, putting as much distance between him and Fox's men. Just get to the shaft, he kept telling himself. I just have to lose them. He turned the corner, thinking it would bring him closer, but he was met with more clones, his own men. 

Anakin couldn't take the chance, so he drew his lightsaber and prepared to knock them down. To his surprise, though, they didn't point their blasters at him. They didn't even have them out. All of them raised their hands in surrender, and the leader of the squad, Dogma, called out to stop him. "Easy, General! We're not here to hurt you!" 

To prove it, Dogma took off his helmet so Anakin could see his face in the glow of his lightsaber. He breathed a sigh of relief, but Fox and the others were still chasing him. Lowly, he asked, "Dogma, what's going on?"

"No time, sir, but you need to keep moving," Dogma told him, drawing his blaster and putting his helmet back on. "We'll cover for you. Just get out of here!"

The troopers slipped past him and kept running, hopefully to convince Fox that they hadn't seen him. Anakin didn't waste time questioning it, but put his weapon away and kept running. He was going to take any help he could get right now. 

It wasn't long before he finally made it to the shaft, and he slid to a stop as he approached the mouth of the sewege line. Bracing one arm against the wall of the pipe, he looked down at the ships ascending and descending between the levels of the underground. 

The memory of Ahsoka jumping down floated past him, and Anakin could almost see her looking back up at him while he let her go. This time though, he didn't hesitate to follow her. Backing up a step to get a running start, he jumped out and onto a freighter that was heading down, landing lightly on the roof of the ship. He too looked up, but he didn't see a friendly face watching him disappear. He didn't see a clone helmet looking down at him either, though, which was enough. Anakin was safe, for now.