Whirlwind of Chaos

Chapter 44 - The Hunt

Author's Note: Thank you, loldelegate! :)

~ Amina Gila

"We can keep searching tomorrow," Anakin decides, as they settle back in their cave for the night.

"What's it like out there?" Jinx asks. "With the war?"

"I don't know how much you've heard," Anakin muses. With a start, he realizes he has no idea how long it's been that they've been gone. "Did you hear that Master Windu was lost?"

"We did, from the last padawan who came here," Kalifa answers, "They said everything was getting worse. But it doesn't concern us much until we get out of here."

"You will," Anakin promises, "The longer we hide and wait, the more we let them have the advantage." Idly, he wonders if their masters are still alive. It's quite possible they're not. "I was captured at the battle of Felucia."

"I heard there's been fighting there since the beginning of the war," O'mer comments.

"There has been. This is the second time I was there."

They don't talk much more before they lay down to sleep. They need to rest in preparation of the next day. Anakin is accustomed to working through exhaustion, but there's no need push it. The only thing he has concluded, is that he doesn't know the other padawans' masters by name. He can only hope they're still alive. With the recent death counts though, he doubts it. Everything in the Jedi Order has been thrown off. Many padawans are being Knighted before they were ready, including Ahsoka.

The next morning comes much too quickly, Anakin decides, as they climb down from the tree. They start covering the beach area, but there's nothing they haven't already seen. But being out here is making him feel far more lost and alone than he has in his life, trapped and unable to talk to anyone he knows. He has no idea how long it'll be, and the toll it's taking is... exhausting. It's no wonder the other padawans here are already broken.

Much longer, and he could easily see himself giving up, too, but he holds firm, because if nothing else, Anakin has always been a fighter. He had to be, to survive.

They've covered quite a distance when they find a freshly killed body on the ground – it's the same person Anakin had saved the previous day. It was expected, but it still hurts to see he failed to save them. But all they can do now is keep moving.

Predictably, it's right when they pause for a break that O'mer sees the approaching Trandoshans. "I think we've been looking in the wrong place," he says, wide eyed, and Anakin whips around to look skyward.

Oh. Of course. They're flying in. That's why no one has been able to see them yet. "Split up!" Kalifa shouts, and they scatter.

And even beyond that, through the fog, Anakin is certain he can make out the far away shape of a building of some kind. It must be their fortress.

Jinx and O'mer go one way – Anakin can only offer a silent plea into the Force that they be alright – and Anakin and Kalifa go the other, right before the speeder crafts the Trandoshans are in start shooting.

He's used to constant motion, and Anakin lets the Force carry him as he jumps from one tree to another, making his way across a path he can sense, searching ahead for branches to hide behind for shelter. Kalifa is doing likewise, following his trail a few jumps behind. Or at least she was, until one of the branches she lands on slips, and she falls over the edge.

"Kalifa!" he calls, panic flaring. He cannot let her die.

She should never have been left here. Despite the war, despite everything, they should – none of this should've happened. The Order should have come back to find them. And maybe his anger isn't entirely justified, but he can't help feeling it, anyway.