Water hides many things, but only if you let it. If you approach it as soon as it tries to take what it has been given, it will not succeed. General Grievous, hiding under the water with the remains of the Sinister One, had already come to terms with his unenviable fate when suddenly something unknown began to pull him up, away from the sinking cabin. Surfacing above the cold surface of the lake on Mandalore, the cyborg, his vision blurred, noticed Dooku standing on the shore, who, stretching his arms forward, was using the Force to pull out the commander of the droid army.
"I see you've been through a lot," said the Sith, without a hint of sympathy, which was not at all characteristic of the Dark Order. "How could you have messed up so badly?
Grivos coughed loudly, apparently the pressure in the cockpit had compressed his armour and his lungs.
"There were many of them, my lord," the general began to justify himself, only to receive a kick in the side.
"Get up quickly and fix your mistake! Otherwise, we'll both lose our heads!" Dooku said sternly, hitting the cyborg again. Grievous struggled to his feet and, glancing obsequiously at the Count, asked briskly,
"What are your orders, commander?"
"Jedi have no attachments," the Sith began from afar. "However, they have a highly developed sense of compassion and will do anything to save the weak or those dependent on them. Do you understand what I'm getting at?
"I understand, my lord," Grivus nodded, coming to his senses completely. "I need to catch someone who works for the Jedi and take them to the ship?
"That's right, you're not so hopeless, my friend," Dooku said with satisfaction, adding, "By the way, you chose an extremely good planet to crash on. I hope you understand what I mean by that?"
***
Duchess Satin, recently the sole and rightful ruler of Mandalore, was heading to the Senate early this morning for another meeting on military operations. She always flew unaccompanied, with only a protocol droid. She did not like security; the presence of strangers annoyed the young woman. However, until now, she had never needed help. Mandalore was a neutral planet and was unlikely to be of interest to the KNS. It wasn't... until today. The woman sat in the co-pilot's seat while the droid slowly guided the ship towards Coruscant. It was flying smoothly, so it was difficult not to notice when it was suddenly shaken violently and pulled sharply to one side. It had clearly been caught in a tractor beam. But by whom? Someone who clearly wanted something not from her personally, but from her people, or from those who needed to know that she was all right. This became clear when the young woman and the droid were immobilised and, bound and helpless, were taken to the cargo hold, where they were left among some boxes and barrels. Satin was not allowed to say a word, and they immediately declared that as soon as Master Kenobi agreed to cooperate with the KNS and, using his friendship with the duchess, allowed them to open a base on Mandalore. General Grievous himself said this, and Count Dooku, appearing in the form of a hologram, confirmed what the commander of the droid army had said.
"That will never happen," Satin said firmly. "Master Kenobi will never agree to that."
"Even for you?" the holographic Dooku smiled incredulously. "I have heard much about your friendly relations. Or are they more than just friendly?
The last phrase almost made the young woman blush, but she quickly regained her composure and replied, trying to speak evenly:
"That has nothing to do with our business, and in any case, you won't get Mandalore, so you can tell your Sith that.
Dooku did not deign to say another word to the duchess, and Grievous merely grunted and sent Kenobi a detailed message with all the conditions. He guessed that after yesterday's destruction of the Sinister One, the Jedi would follow in his footsteps to find out what had happened. There were still three of them — the notorious Kenobi himself and the restless pair of Skywalker and Tano. They were already near the lake on Mandalore, and Dooku had already taken care to leave the necessary clues in the form of a ship and metal debris, even leaving a few droids behind, just so that life wouldn't seem too sweet. In fact, much had become clear to the Jedi, such as the fact that Grievous had survived and was now heading somewhere.
"Here's my plan," said Master Kenobi. "We should split up and head for the three systems closest to Mandalore. They're all loyal to the KNS, and Grievous is most likely headed for one of them. That's where we'll catch him."
"Maybe two would be better?" asked Ahsoka hopefully, looking at the Master and her apprentice.
"Do you dislike my flying that much?" Anakin asked her, ready to start another argument.
"I'm just worried about your love of getting into trouble," replied the mentor, folding her arms across her chest.
"Stop arguing," the Master called out to them. "Everyone head to their own system. There are three ships."
And when everyone had decided where to go, Kenobi received an unexpected message. The enemy knew where to strike. And he knew that he would not fall into their trap, but would simply free the hostages, significantly changing his original plan. However, he clearly couldn't do it alone. He needed the other two to distract the enemy while he climbed into the cargo hold, removed the obstacles, and freed his childhood friend. Everything went according to plan: messages were sent to Ahsoka and Anakin, instructions were given, and... he was unexpectedly caught in a capture beam. Kenobi did not know that Grievous was following him and was aware of all the Master's movements. Realising that he would not cooperate voluntarily, he decided to play it safe so that he would see how serious the KNS's intentions were.
"So we meet, and sooner than I thought," said the droid commander in a hoarse voice. "I hope you'll have something to talk about while you decide whether to open Mandalore. Perhaps you can even discuss how best to do that together?
In this attempt to mock his own feelings, Kenobi noticed an involuntary imitation of Dooku, and he felt even more disgusted. And this despite the fact that Grievous had never evoked particularly warm feelings in him before.
"Never!" he replied firmly and loudly. "I will not become a servant of the Separatists. I would rather die."
"Well, that won't be difficult to arrange," agreed the four-armed general, and, living up to his nickname, he thrust all four limbs forward, swords clenched in them, and activated them, lunging at the Master and attacking him from all sides. Kenobi had only one sword, but he had a sensitivity to the Force that Grievous lacked. And that angered him no less. Kenobi decided to take advantage of this and, deflecting his blows, which rained down in random order, he often used Force techniques: a push and Grievous hit the wall, a jump and Obi-Wan was already behind the cyborg, a sidestep and the KNS general was left with nothing, all four swords slashing at the air. And at the end, the Master used a Force grip and pulled back the general's armour plates, exposing his flesh, and was already preparing to pierce it with his sword, when suddenly someone unknown, or rather, no less than two of them, grabbed Grievous and slammed him several times against the ship's wall, first forcing him to drop all his swords, then jumping up and cutting off two of his four arms. And when he fell to the floor with a crash, to complete the picture, they jumped on him, significantly damaging the cyborg's armour.
"We're cool, huh?" Anakin said with a sense of superiority, rising up before the Magister as if from the ground.
"Well done, Tail, I didn't expect that from you!" Asoka replied happily, standing shoulder to shoulder with the Padawan. "We got there just in time, didn't we?"
"Why? I could have handled it myself," Kenobi reproached them, not out of malice, but simply out of concern for his juniors.
"We saw how you did it yourself!" said Anakin defiantly, clearly borrowing this tone from his mentor. "Did you even look behind you?"
Having said that, Skywalker pointed behind the Master, where no fewer than ten droids had sprung up as if from the ground. How did they all fit there?
"Take care of them, and I'll finish this," Asoka ordered, poking the unconscious Grievous with her boot and raising her sword above him, when she was suddenly stopped by Obi-Wan:
"No, Ahsoka, the Code forbids killing those who do not resist.
"But does it say anything about attacking without reason?" Tano asked angrily, realising that there would be no massacre, which she had been hoping for.
"It does, Ahsoka, the Sith Code expects it," explained Kenobi, turning his attention to the troguts. "But these ones can and should be cut down!
Ahsoka understood the message and accepted it gratefully, seeing an opportunity to vent her pent-up anger, and began swinging her swords left and right, risking hitting her companions, but they were quick to clear the way to the cargo compartment.
"How did you get in here?" Obi-Wan asked belatedly when they were already at the door.
"We tried to contact you, but you didn't answer," explained Ahsoka, trying to pick the lock. "So we decided that something was wrong and came to help. Actually, I wanted to come on my own, but someone, as always, messed things up for me, and I had to bring him along.
The girl looked meaningfully at Anakin, who said nothing in response, just gazed into the sky-blue eyes of his mentor, trying to tell her what he always did.
"Look, I'm doing this all for you, see how hard I'm trying, just love me and I won't ask for anything else," seemed to scream that piercing gaze, but Ahsoka was impervious to feelings at that moment, consumed by her mission. Anakin looked away regretfully and even slapped his thigh in irritation, barely coming out of his trance when he saw death balls rolling out of the open cargo compartment, straight towards them. Grievous had left them there, anticipating this outcome. The two Jedi rushed to fight them off, and Anakin, seizing the moment, decided to do things his way again, already anticipating how pleased the Council would be if everything worked out and, most importantly, what Ahsoka would say. Choosing the right moment, the teenager slipped into the space between the exit and the next ball, deflecting several plasma shots, and in a few jumps reached the hostages. The duchess and her droid sat tied to the posts, waiting for their fate. When Anakin cut the ropes, Satin's first question was:
"How is Obi-Wan? Is he all right?"
"Not as well as you are," replied Anakin, slightly offended by the lack of gratitude. "He's clearing the way to your heart."
"Looks like you've got the hang of it," said the woman, getting up. Her muscles were stiff from sitting in the same position for so long, and her mind jumped from one thought to another, unable to focus on anything specific.
"He'll be fine, don't worry. And so will Ahsoka, together they are the Force," replied the teenager, trying to cheer up the former hostage.
"I see that it's not just my heart that needs to be found," said Kraiz suddenly, his experienced politician's eye noticing the nervous tone in his saviour's voice. "Are you sure she doesn't know about this?"
"How do you know? I didn't tell you," Anakin didn't want to admit it, but the desire to tell someone about his feelings, finally letting them out, won out.
"There's no need to say anything, it's obvious," replied the duchess without a hint of mockery. "But it's pointless to give in to your feelings, you'll be separated anyway. You know what the rules are."
"I understand," Skywalker replied bitterly. "But there's nothing I can do about it. I've tried, but it's stronger than me. Tell me, how did you manage it? You're not indifferent to Obi-Wan either, that's why Grievous captured you."
The question caught Satin off guard, and she didn't know how to respond at first, but apparently deciding that the teenager deserved some compensation for his unwitting revelation, she decided to reveal part of the truth to him:
"It's just an appearance, Anakin. In reality, I'm just like you, struggling with my feelings for many years. To be honest, it's not going very well.
"Have you tried fighting for them? There must be some way out," asked Anakin, not sure who he was talking about more, Satin or himself.
"We found it six months ago, but no one knows about it. He just writes down non-existent tasks for himself, and then he flies over to me," Satin revealed the second part of the truth, obviously brought closer to her by the proximity of death, but he was not destined to learn the details, as Ahsoka called:
"Anakin, where are you? Is the Duchess with you? Is she okay?
"I'm in the cargo hold," he began in the same dissatisfied tone. "The Duchess is here, standing next to me, she's fine. And so am I, by the way. Thanks for asking!" he added sarcastically and hung up, not noticing Satin's reproachful glance. His soul was dark and empty, as it had been before, after yet another failure.
***
Advanced chapters:
patreon.com/posts/star-wars-chosen-144531440