My Unfortunate Fate

chapter 49

Seduction is the path to evil.

We eventually return to our shuttle and start fixing it up to hopefully return to Coruscant. Thinking about it now, I don't know if the Council will be proud or furious of our little escapade. My intuition leads toward the latter.

Anakin and I tinker with the control board as Ahsoka stands behind us. The ship is almost operational, since we've been working on it for well over an hour now. Our efficiency, I must say, is remarkable.

"You know," I say, breaking the momentary silence between the three of us, "we might not be in this situation if you didn't decide to go after Hardeen."

"But he was a threat," Anakin argues. "With Moralo Eval and Cad Bane, they could have attacked the Chancellor."

"And that's why you were sent to protect him," I snap back. "Ahsoka, gimme that." I gesture to a tool nearby and hold my hand out. She gives me the part and I continue to work on the control boards.

"Right, so I was protecting the Chancellor by tracking down the bounty hunters."

"You do know that's just dragging more attention towards us, right?"

"That's why we won't follow them," he adds, raising his voice slightly.

"Well, now they already know we're on their tail."

"Obi-Wan is my friend, all right? I wouldn't let his killer run free if I had the chance to catch him."

"So you're saying this pursuit was all so you could get your revenge? I should've walked away when I had the chance."

"It's what he would've wanted—does want."

"For you to kill someone for him?"

"No, to lock him up for good."

"Anakin, you and I both know we didn't go to Nal Hutta just to arrest some bounty hunter."

He sighs, dropping his tense attitude slightly. This argument isn't over, but his defense seems to be—for now.

"We saw what you did at the saloon," I tell him. "You're letting your emotions control your actions."

"What? No I'm not!"

All right, I was wrong.

"Then why did you have to choke someone to get an answer?" I scold, still angrily fixing the control board.

"We needed answers, didn't we? That was the only way we'd get them!"

The argument rips my attention away from my still-fiddling hands, and I stare at him in angered frustration. "You shouldn't have to hurt someone to get information from them!"

"Ugh!" Ahsoka interrupts us before this debate drags on. "You two fight so much, you're like an old married couple!"

I stay silent and stop what I'm doing. To hear her compare us to anything of that sense—a married couple—is enough to make me freeze in shock. She knows nothing, obviously, but that example sounds... oddly specific.

At my left, Anakin starts chuckling. And not sarcastically—he's somehow amused by what his padawan has just said.

"I didn't know we aged that much, Snips," he says.

My heart drops.

I really did marry an idiot who can't keep his mouth shut, didn't I? The one time I failed to ask him to refrain from making an inappropriate comment, this happens. Just one more person who knows, I suppose.