the new padawan » anakin skywalker

twelve.

months had past since that day in the medical bay.

since then, we've either been on a mission or anakin was on his own somewhere in the galaxy, while i was at the temple. he was also sent on several "meditative retreats" while i finished some studies at the temple.

i actually joined obi-wan for a mission while anakin was gone and... did i save his life?

yes, yes i did.

saving obi-wan's life constantly is something anakin takes pride in so, at that moment, i did too.

anakin wasn't surprised to hear it when he got back to the temple.

recently, the republic and the jedi council had sent us to the outer rim.

another day, another mission.

master windu, anakin, and i had been on anaxes for weeks. our grip on the planet was slowly slipping away.

we keep losing battles and we just couldn't understand why. at least i didn't.

master skywalker thought we, well he, could bring a swift end to the conflict single-handedly.

that, unfortunately, wasn't what was going on and we were in the outer rim sieges for much longer than we anticipated.

master windu, anakin, and i stared at the war table hologram.

"the droids have overrun our main production facility." master windu says out loud, "it won't be long before the separatists take anaxes, compromising our entire reserve fleet."

i could sense it was troubling the two older jedi.

anakin looked down at me to say something before we noticed rex and cody making their way over.

"pardon the interruption, general," commander cody says, "but rex here has a good theory on why we keep, uh.. losing."

"please, captain." master windu replied, interested in what the clone captain had come up with.

"the droid army uses analytics to predict our strategy. the first time we use a tactic, it's very effective. the next, less so." rex states before continuing. "in fact, the more we use a certain tactic, the less effective it becomes. they learn our tendencies and use that data against us. to counter them, we're constantly working out ways to vary our attack."

"but the losses we are experiencing on anaxes are not commonplace."

"exactly." rex told the jedi general. "the counterattacks are so specific, it's my strategy the droids know, my playbook."

"my concern is that rex is one of our best. if the droids can learn to defeat him, we may all be vulnerable." cody said.

i turned my head to master windu, knowing he would be in charge here.

"what do you propose?"

"let rex and me take a small squad behind enemy lines." cody requested.

that doesn't sound good. i sensed there was something more that could've been going on. i knew master skywalker did too.