Blurred Sides (COMPLETE)

7.4.4

Depa couldn't run back to the base, not right away. She was still a General after all, and she had to act like one.

The last of the Separatist ships finally left. Many droids were left behind, and it was Depa's job to round them up. The whole time, though, she was focused on her Padawan.

The Inquisitor had definitely run from the base to the gunships, but Depa never saw her run from the gunships to the base. She tried to think of how she could have slipped past the action in time to plant a bomb but she was so distracted that she couldn't focus.

Then there was Caleb. He had been in the base, or at least on top of it, the last she had seen. Was he too close to the bomb when it had gone off? Or maybe he met the Inquisitor while she had visited? Depa felt her stomach churn at the thought. She had thought long and hard about the Inquisitor ever since Kenobi had come back from his and Skywalker's mission. If it was Ahsoka Tano, would she have spared Caleb, given their history together? Had she fallen so far that she killed him? Was that what that stare had been about? Depa's blood ran cold. 

And what if it wasn't Ahsoka? She definitely would have killed Caleb, then. Why would any Separatist, let alone the Sister, spare a Padawan? Why hadn't he come out to help with the fight when the siren had sounded? It wasn't like him to skive off a battle. Maybe the Inquisitor had already killed him by then, or hurt him at the very least. Had she tortured him before she killed him? What had he said, what did the Inquisitor now know because of her ignorance of her Padawan? All of these thoughts and more ran through Depa's head as she finished off the battle droids.

When the last one had fallen, the clones started to clean up the mess from the battle. They tended to their wounded and hauled the broken parts of the Separatist army off to who knew where. Depa turned and began to walk towards the base, resisting the urge to run. She activated her comlink. "Caleb, where are you? I want a status update."

No response, only static came through.

"Caleb, answer me! Where are you?"

Still nothing.

"...Caleb?"

Depa's heart began to race. He always answered his comlink. Always. She waited, hoping that his voice would break through soon, but it never did. If she walked in and saw tha-

"Coms are down, General."

"What?" She turned and saw a medic clone kneeling by a wounded, but living soldier.

"Coms were knocked out a while ago. We have no communication between command or the rest of the base."

Depa, although somewhat concerned for the overall damage to the base, breathed a little bit easier. There was still a chance, then.

"Thank you," she told the clone and ran off back to the base. Commander Wall could handle this, and she needed to find her apprentice.

She looked back up at the smoking base. The whole building seemed to be offline, and she realized that everything except the shields was down. That was good, at least the shield generators were undamaged. Something must have happened to the main generators, then.

The explosion, she thought. Was Caleb in there?

There was no telling until she had seen it for herself. She passed the shield and sprinted to the side of the building. Instead of using the doors, and having to find her way through the congested hallways, she opted to jump to the roof, and work her way down.

The first things she saw were the antenna, or what was left of them. The dishes had been severed from the poles that held them up, and the inner wiring was damaged. It wasn't a messy job, though. The cuts in the system were very clean and had recently cooled. Lightsaber work, she realized. This Inquisitor is smarter than we realized.