Blurred Sides (COMPLETE)

7.7.2

"Still nothing?" asked Obi-Wan as he entered the bridge of the ship. Anakin had come up an hour ago, to 'clear his mind'.

"Nothing," replied Anakin, walking away from the trooper he was talking to. "Almost two full rotations and not a single Separatist ship has shown up on the radar, or any other ship for that matter. Are we sure this plan is going to work?"

"Master Windu seemed very certain that the Inquisitor would come," insisted Obi-Wan. "The galaxy is a big place, Anakin. Give it time. News does take time to travel, and she could be on the other side of the universe for all we know."

"We could be out there defending other systems, and instead we're back on this lifeless rock, waiting for someone who might not even come." Anakin walked with Obi-Wan back out of the bridge, and down the hall towards the command center. "I just saw a report, the Sister just raided a Republic base on Thabeska, only a rotation ago. It's not even that far from here. If she had heard, or cared, she would have come already."

"Well, we're not leaving unless we receive orders to," Obi-Wan paused in the middle of the hallway. "You might as well get comfortable if you're so sure she won't turn up."

Anakin diverted his gaze, staring down the hallway. "She probably knows this whole thing is a trap. We both know she's smarter than she seems."

Obi-Wan focused his stare on his apprentice. It was true, the Republic hardly ever publicized their missions, and they had no business on an abandoned system like Xlenia. If the Inquisitor was as smart as she had shown to be earlier, she could probably tell what they were planning. Either she would come with plenty of reinforcement, or not at all.

The Jedi Master sighed in defeat. "I suppose you have a point, but that doesn't mean there is any use grumbling about it. This will only be as bad as you make it."

Anakin shot a half-hearted glare towards Obi-Wan but didn't say anything. He knew his master wasn't to blame for the mission in the first place.

"I heard you had a chance to see Senator Amidala the other day," Obi-Wan remarked, changing the subject. "How is she these days?"

Suddenly grinning quite wide, he answered. "She's good. She's heard about the issue, but none of the raids have been on Naboo, so her people have been mostly safe." Anakin hoped his face wasn't giving away too much.

Obi-Wan smiled. "That's good to hear. She has a very large circle of influence. I would dare to go as far as to say that the Republic needs her voice of reason now more than ever."

"If only they would listen," commented Anakin, and his master chuckled.

"I'm going to go meditate for a while," declared Obi-Wan. "Care to join me?"

Anakin shook his head. "I'm going to see if I can dig up more on the Sister. I think there might be a pattern to her raids that we haven't realized yet."

Nodding in affirmation, Obi-Wan walked away in silence. Anakin stared after him for a few minutes, before entering the command center he had been walking towards with his master earlier.

Obi-Wan let loose a few chuckles he had been holding during their conversation. Anakin's extremely drastic mood change had not gone unnoticed by the Jedi Master, but that wasn't necessary, as he knew the nature of Anakin and Padme's relationship. There was a certain loyalty between the two of them that suggested that they were more than friends, much more, by Obi-Wan suspicions. He didn't dare say anything, but he couldn't help but poke at the possibility of Anakin slipping and confirming his assumptions by accident.

Anakin pulled up a map on the projector and plotted the locations of every raid or mission that the Inquisitor was present for. When all laid out at the same time, the Jedi noticed that she didn't travel much farther towards the Core than the Inner Rim. Most of her strikes had been in the Outer and Inner Rim, although there were a couple of exceptions, one of them being Christophsis.