Shadows of Tomorrow

Chapter 31 - Failures and Family

"Their camp was right here," Ahsoka frowns as she stares out the cockpit window. Anakin flies the ship down a little closer to the surface of the planet so they can get a better look. There's nothing left in the area, except for the burned remains of the town from before they left.

As soon as she got back to Coruscant, Ahsoka had gone straight to Anakin and the Council to get permission to look for Theseus. She is far from impressed with how the Council ordered them to drop by for no more than a "quick look" around and leave immediately if they don't find what they need. They're already supposed to be going on another mission, and with the war and all, the Council simply doesn't have the resources to search for one missing padawan. Ahsoka can't help but remember the way those padawans were left to the Trandoshans because no one was looking for them.

"Well, there's no one around here now," Anakin observes, "They probably already moved elsewhere before someone could come looking."

"And this place isn't even remotely civilized, so there's no way to know where on the planet they are, or if they even are still here," Ahsoka growls.

"There's small villages everywhere. Even if we did a droid scan, we wouldn't be able to find him immediately," Anakin points out quietly, and yes, that's what's driving her crazy. They can't leave him with Death Watch. "We should contact the Council to report what we found."

She really, really doesn't want to, because she knows what they're going to say, but they don't really have a choice. "Find anything, have you?" asks Yoda.

"Their camp is gone," Ahsoka reports.

"We'd have to search the entire planet," Anakin relates. She knows he's upset, but he's hiding it admirably well, as he always does.

"We don't have time for this right now," Windu declares, "You need to rejoin your battalion now."

"But we can't leave him there!" she protests.

"There is no other option right now," he replies, "We cannot risk losing the entire battle and several systems in the hopes of finding one person."

Ahsoka is about to argue back, but Anakin shifts forwards in a way that pointedly reminds her to be quiet and let him handle this. "We will proceed as you instructed, Master," Anakin states monotonously, bowing as the call disconnects.

"We have to find him!" Ahsoka yells, whirling on him. She won't leave Theseus here!

"I'm sorry, Ahsoka," Anakin says quietly, and she can tell he truly is, "The Council gave us a direct order, and we can't disobey it."

"But –"

"Ahsoka, do you trust him?"

The question floors her. "Of course," she answers without a second thought. Theseus will always do what he has to, what he thinks is right, even if she doesn't agree. But, he means best, and that's what matters most.

"When you were gone..." Anakin turns to the controls, slowly bringing the shuttle out of the atmosphere. "Master Plo told me that I have faith you could take care of yourself and find your way back. I guess we'll have to do the same for him."

Well. She didn't know that. There's no way she wants to abandon him like this, but she knows Anakin's right. And she knows that Theseus is more than capable of handling himself, and one way or another, he'll find his way back. She knows it.

***

Theseus isn't sure if being around constant cold like this is making him hate it more, or tolerate it a little better, but he's already been here on Carlac for a week now. He thought the Jedi or someone was going to come back for him soon, but he hasn't seen any signs of it. And he certainly doesn't know enough about the camp to try and stage an escape of his own any time soon. It's simply too well guarded everywhere, and even if he tried, he'd probably be captured before he got very far. And then he'd probably be under even heavier security, and that would make escape impossible for sure. Whenever he tries to escape again, it has to actually work. Realistically, he's pretty sure he's only going to get one more shot at it.