TO FIGHT YOUR AKUL By Kondoru
Thanks to JP for beating.
Standard Disclaimers.
I let Ashoka, -may her stripes never fade, run with this fic...It's a bit wilder than I intended, I told Luke to contact her...and she insisted on a fight...and something else, but hey...This `is` Ashoka Tano...I hope you like my version of her.
This is another part of my Vader Lives Arc; When I finish it I will take this down and put it in its correct place.
The little Togruta was small with wide eyes that alternated between excitement and nervousness. Her orange limbs still had baby fat on them, and her striped montrals, which in adulthood would grow into a distinctive sensory headdress were still very small.
This was her first fight.
She regarded the noisy crowd with some doubt, though she had attended such establishments since birth. Stood behind her was mother, leaning nonchalantly on her spear. She was a bony creature, her skin much marred by claw marks. Her face bore the characteristic white birthmarks that the Togrutas identified themselves with, and this pattern also spotted her back erratically. Luke noticed her back was free from marks; this woman never retreated from an enemy.
On Leia's advice he had spent most of the day reading up about the Togruta, a race distantly related to the ubiquitous Twi'lek, but only found on their home world of Shili and a few colonies. There was a small community of the striped ones, as the Togruta were colloquially called on Coruscant. They were a race of tribe based predators, well known for their outgoing and fearless natures.
And Leia's contact was one.
Now he was sat up next to the bars in an Akul pit. The place was dimly lit, and stank of wild animal, Togruta and old cooked meat.
There were many Togruta, some Wookies, even a couple of Ewoks who were looking extra fierce to compensate for their small size, a small knot of roughly dressed Twi'leks (who's lekkus had gotten rudely pinched.) As far as Luke could see, he was the only human in the crowd.
It was a quiet evening. So far there had been a Wookie wrestling match. Quite the most alarming thing about the place was the wild and boorish behaviour of the crowd, who pushed, yelled, chucked cans and generally acted like barbarians. They climbed up the bars surrounding the fighting pit (to keep the combatants in or the crowd out; Luke wasn't sure of yet.) Shouting abuse and unhelpful suggestions at the combatants.
Luke had been jostled, had had his feet trod upon, all were trying to scare him or provoke a fight. This was normal with Togruta, a fearless race of predators. Luke did not rise to this. As a human Luke was treading on dangerous ground. The laws had recently been relaxed, to allow Akul fighting pits. Mon Mothma had told him that the Empire as part of their big and much publicised animal welfare campaign had closed them down. Animals being more important than non-humans (and indeed many humans.)
None recognised him for the famed General Skywalker, Hero of the Alliance. But in his experience none recognised an alien face, be it splashed all over the holonet.
The gong rang.
A red furred thing came sliding down the chute, it was an Akul cub. Akuls were the apex predators on the savanna of Shili. They were the Togruta's class enemy, -and nemesis. According to the accounts Luke had read, many a brave Togruta had ended up in the belly of these fearsome beasts.
The youngling turned to her mother for reassurance but was waved urgently away, she attempted to hide behind her, and was given a slight tap from her mother's spear. The crowd booed.
Mum stepped forwards and poked at the Akul. The Akul cub bristled and put out its claws, Luke doubted the little creature would put up a fight, but he knew to baby it must look like a terrifying monster.
Deciding the Akul was a threat, the girl stepped from behind their mother, and they snarled fiercely, baring sharp teeth, montrals flushing bright with emotion. The Akul took a cautious step forwards and was poked with a toy spear. "Get it!" Cheered the crowd
The person sat next to Luke was enveloped in a big grey cloak, but stripped lekkus poking out showed they were also a Togruta. Unlike many here, she spoke good basic.
"On Shili a youth fights an Akul as a right to adulthood." She said. "Two go in, one comes out. There is no other ending."
Luke shuddered.
"Here, our striplings are introduced to young or tame Akul from infanthood." The Togruta gestured at the pit. "Not nearly so scary for them."
The combatant gave the cub a flurry of sharp pokes that drove it into retreat, squealing in dismay. The pitman scooped up the distressed cub and decanted it back into the pen.
"The winner!" he announced to the shouts of the crowd.
The Akul routed, the young Togruta ran up to their mother delightedly, She hugged her little one with warm abandon, pulling her up into the leather sling that hung loose across her chest. Little Togruta cooed cheerily and began to suckle.
"But did you face a wild Akul?" Luke had to ask.
"We all have to face a wild Akul, -each and every one of us," there was deep pain in her blue eyes, "we might not recognise it. But each and every one of us, be they Togruta, Twi'lek or human, has an Akul to face and kill...Or it devours them."
"You speak like one who fights a lot." He observed.
"From girlhood." She gave a shrug, "by the time I fought my Akul I had been killing Seppies two years."
He noted her use of the Clone war colloquialism. "Are you one of the Jedi then?"
"You dare call me a Jedi, huh?" she growled, and Luke went pale at the savage beneath the cultured exterior. "I am no Temple pet!" She slapped her belt. The woman was bearing a lightsabre. Luke pointed to his own in agreement.
Her challenge accepted, the Togruta swarmed up the bars like an Ewok, "Come on, Jedi!" they called as they swung over the spikes, "show us what you are made of!"
Luke followed, he was grinning happily, his contact was indeed who he had suspected.
He dropped onto the sand and lit his lightsabre with a snap-hiss.
The crowd went silent as they realised what they were in for. This was unexpected.
His opponent doffed her cloak. Underneath she wore the generic Togruta vest and embroidered loincloth. Her feet were bare though her ankles were wound around with charms which clinked when she moved. On her head she bore an Akul tooth headdress. Her orange skin was covered in scars, -what looked like blaster marks but there were a few of the thin burn scars Luke knew were characteristic of lightsabre cuts.
And lit, not one, but two lightsabres. Luke had not been expecting this.
The crowd cheered wildly when they saw that the latest combatants were swashbuckling laser swordsmen. Such a contest had not been seen on Coruscant in many a long decade.
"And who might you be?" Luke called, unfazed. "I am General Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight."
The shouting at that raised the roof. The Akul in their cages yowled in fright and rage at the hubbub.
His fearsome opponent brandished her lightsabres which glowed an unholy white above her montrals, "I am Ashoka Tano, of the Jedi Temple and Hero of the Rebellion."
Of course Leia had been right, Ashoka was a Force user, -only a Force user could manipulate a lightsabre safely, -the blades had no mass and so were notoriously hard to handle.
Ashoka leapt at him. Luke managed to block her strike. He slashed back, to only have his blade caught in a cross parry, there was a crash and flash as not two but three lightsabre blades collided. How was he going to best her? Few Jedi were experienced with two blades.
Luke Skywalker was outclassed. She knew it.
Ashoka was playing with him. She would leap back and brandish her lightsabres in a silly way that could cost her her life in a real duel. Luke leapt and slashed.
His only real opponent had been Darth Vader, a cyborg who used his metal armoured body as a battering ram rather than the Lothcat agile leaps and bounds Ashoka Tano was capable of. Luke was game. This might be a friendly bout but he knew he was fighting for both honour and acceptance.
He slashed as she danced around. Luke panted. This was taking a lot out of him. He showed no weakness.
Ashoka made a feint at his legs and he jumped back, missed his footing and fell heavily on his back.
She was on him like an Akul herself, holding her lightsabres crossed at his neck. He could feel their heat, they were that close.
"Yield?" She straddled his thighs. Her body temperature was feverish...To him. By her alien physiology it was normal.
The crowd roared and began to make decidedly indecent suggestions. Luke reddened, and it was not all exertion or the fact he practically had a lightsabre stuck up each nostril.
The pitman rushed forwards, waving his arms frantically, "Stop! You're not on Shili now."
Ashoka turned to him, she was most annoyed. "State the obvious."
"Go further and I will call the police." The pitman said, face as pale as his birthmarks. Luke knew that he would have taken no action over a death in the pit, as technically illegal as it might have been.
Several of the crowd yelled gleefully that they were not going to witness anything. Others shouted "Take him! Take him!"
She turned her nose up in contempt. "I was not going to rape him." She announced. "I was going to carve his heart out and eat it."
"Try me!" Luke gave a massive shove with the Force. Ashoka went flying with a squeal, the pitman scurried for cover.
Luke leapt to his feet, he tossed his lightsabre aside, where it scored a line in the sand before the safety cut out depowered the blade. "I need no lightsabre to beat such a jumped up Michin as you!"(1) He held out a hand and pressed Ashoka firmly to the sand with the Force.
Ashoka struggled, then gestured. A spurt of sand shot up at Luke, He managed to block with his free hand but was nearly blinded. Ashoka took advantage of her distraction to jump up and knock him down. Luke was outclassed again.
Sadly he was right, Ashoka was also a master at unarmed Force fighting. She knew what to do, he had to improvise. They pushed and shoved, like wrestlers who could not touch. Sometimes he was down and at others Ashoka was laid low.
She certainly was as strong in the Force as Leia's reports claimed.
Luke was tiring. He would let her win. The next Force blow he allowed to knock him back down on his back, gasping.
"I win" she stated. Only then did she let him up.
Luke sat up gasping. His eyes were full of sand. Someone handed him a bowl of water and he scooped it into his face. "Thank you."
It was the Togruta mother, baby now peeking out of her place in the sling. She replied something incomprehensible in her own language.
A Wookie stepped forwards with a leather jack of mead. Luke took it and downed it in one, only gagging slightly at the sweet taste. Instead of the outsider he was now the hero of the pit, surrounded by smiling faces.
"Don't get drunk now," chided Ashoka. "He's mine" she announced possessively. "Come with me, General." She grabbed his hand in her strong, unyielding one and dragged him out into the bright lit Coruscant night. "Where are we going?" he asked somewhat unnecessarily.
"I'm inviting you to my place."
"You're abducting me." He glowered, trying to get his hand back. (It was the cybernetic one.)
Ashoka led him down a side alley, into a maze of winding passages, hung with loose cable and the odd flickering light. They dodged bins and scrap aircars.
"After you." She gestured him up a metal stairway.
Up the clanging steps they went. Ashoka placed her hands on a palm pad. "Welcome to my humble abode" She said without irony.
He stepped in. Luke had expected some filthy beast's lair. What he found was rather different. The apartment was bare She gestured him into the bedroom; there was just a sleeping mat and some blankets. A double mat.
Luke Skywalker, Hero of the Rebellion, was defeated. And he didn't care less. He sank down.
She sat down next to him. And quite casually began to pull off her leather vest.
Luke wasn't sure what to think, He had been brought up on Tatoonie, people kept themselves to themselves, on Coruscant this was so much more common. Also the feature of several popular holo soaps. He was about to be subjected to the `Predatory Togruta Femme Fatale` trope. (Version 5.8.)
And he couldn't back down. Luke was no shy virgin; War did that to you. You took your pleasure where and when you could.
But he had never had a non-human female before. He knew this was a test as much as their duel. A Jedi's life was one long test.
"We haven't been introduced yet." He said politely.
Ashoka sighed, fiddling with her belt, "Don't be so formal...we `have` been introduced. We fought, didn't we?" she pointed out. "We are pack mates now." She gave a grin that showed her teeth. "I won so I go on top."
Seemed Luke Skywalker was in for it. "Is this how Togruta get their mates?" Luke asked with a smile. (But he was undoing his own belt.)
She sniffed disdainfully, "get your clothes off before I tear them off your backside with the Force!"
"Is this how Jedi get their mates?" He kicked off his boots.
Ashoka grabbed him too firmly by his waistband "Jedi are celibate, you know."
"I know one Jedi who was not celibate." Luke let her pull his trews down. "He was very close to me." He was going to let her make up her own mind as to the exact nature of `that` relationship.
"I do too." she pushed her hand underneath his pants. "Maybe he is the same Jedi." Her hands were hot and rough. It was exciting, and a bit repulsive, (in that she was no different to any other female...) Ashoka was lithe and strong, and had a strange scent to her. He felt like a domestic Bantha who had broken their ankle chain, and run away into the desert one night to mate with wild Bathas, it was liberating.
He had the feeling that few Jedi lived like `this`. He wanted to take this female, who was covered in scars from many battles (many compared to his few) he wanted to spar with her, not once but many times. He wanted the privilege of friendship with this wild Akul.
But then Luke realised it. His new found friend was not the same as the feral creatures he had witnessed, she was very different.
This Togruta was very familiar with human culture, possibly had been brought up by them. In many ways she was human. "Are you human?" He asked plaintively.
She shook her head, understanding what he meant. "You are quite right. I am no Togruta." She gave a big sigh. "I don't even speak my own language at all well. I grew up using Basic."(2)
"You were raised by the Jedi?" He knew it.
She was angry, "-I am no Jedi!"
"No?" Leia had told him that...
"The Jedi order betrayed me, put me on trial for a crime I hadn't committed." She bared her teeth at the memory. "I turned my backs on them and their teachings."
He nodded.
"I gave my life to them, as my mother must have when she gave me up to the temple for `acquisition`" she flinched at the word. "Yes, you see, I was indeed partially raised by humans and those of many kinds...I'm no true daughter of Shili anymore, even though I killed my Akul." Ashoka sighed. "I'm a Force user...we are a tribe apart."
"And I see you are of my tribe too." Luke said.
She pulled him urgently to her "Togruta don't mate outside their tribes." was all Ashoka said.
They lay together, sated for the moment, him with his head on her sinewy chest, her tugging gently and possessively at his hair. (He had somehow known that bit of him would be fascinating to the bare Togruta.)
"Who taught you?" Ashoka asked eventually.
"Obi wan Kenobi and Yoda."
She nodded thoughtfully, "two of the best." Then looked sad, "and both dead."
Luke nodded sadly. "I was there." He choked. "Vader got him." Ashoka held Luke close. "I only knew the guy two days and yet it seems like a lifetime." He paused. "Is that possible?"
She nodded. "But he gave you a lifetime of teachings, and memories."
"He did. And Yoda. When I first met the little guy I couldn't believe he was a Jedi knight!"
Ashoka laughed. "Yoda was one of the most powerful Force Users in the history of the Order. Mostly I think because he was so small and harmless looking. But he fought Dooku."
"Yoda died some years back." He scratched his metal hand. "Of old age."
Ashoka gave a merry laugh, "I knew the green imp had it in him!" She was most amused. "After his dissolute life of martial practices and meditation. He deserved it."
"They are both One with the Force now."
He did not tell Ashoka he had met Obi-wan Kenobi as a ghost. He had to have some secrets.
Instead Luke changed tack "who taught you?" He thought he knew but had to ask.
"I was Anakin Skywalkers Padawan, he was my big brother and the bestest friend ever!" Ashoka said with happy enthusiasm.
He gave a big smile, "I am Anakin Skywalkers son."
"I thought there was something familiar about you," she mused. "You're an asshole just like him...And if you continuing behaving like him you will come to a sticky end, -just like him."
Luke playfully pushed her down. "Show respect to one who has always fought against the Empire."
Ashoka wrestled back. "Show respect to one who has fought evil since the Clone Wars." She hugged him gleefully.
A sudden thought came to Luke..."Does this make you my Auntie?"
"I don't know, we are close kin...Somehow," Ashoka laughed.
He held her close. "Tell me, Ashoka; did my father ever do this with you?"
"He did."
"And did he do this?" Poke "or this?" Prod.
But the Togruta couldn't answer, she was laughing too much.
Unusually Ashoka had got up early. Luke still slept, twitching in incomprehensible human dreams. Ashoka wanted to share them, as she would have done with Anakin. She shook her head; it was too early in their relationship to form mental bonds.
She wanted to wash, but wondered if cleaning his scent off of her might offend him. (It would have offended a Togruta.)
Her new friend was fast asleep, Ashoka decided to get breakfast.
Luke Skywalker had been dreaming, but he was not the sort to remember dreams. He felt safe and content.
Now he remembered, -and he remembered the events of the night before. He gave a pleased sigh, He had passed the renegades tests...and indeed felt good about it. Luke sat up. He yawned and switched the light on with a soft push of the Force. The room was bare, Ashoka herself was doing something in the kitchenette. His eyes fell on an old ammunition case that served as a bedside table. Her lightsabres were on it, but there was something else, something Luke had not expected to see in the lair of an Ex Jedi. Next to her lightsabres was stood two old and worn action figures. One was a younger Ashoka, and the other...Was Luke himself...Or someone who looked very much like him.
Ashoka stepped in. "He got me for them." She said when she saw Luke looking thoughtfully at the toys.
Ashoka didn't have to tell him just who `He` was.
"When he saw me hugging into my blankets he bought me a soft toy." She paused. "It was my first soft toy. There were few toys in the Temple crèche, and those were held in common."
"That's very sad." Said Luke. He himself had had few toys as his parents were not wealthy. The idea of a wealthy organisation denying toys to their charges made him feel bad inside. Luke had seen many evils in his short life, but to his mind this was wrong on a whole new level.
"He didn't lecture me about attachments or childish things. He never had much money and with what he had he made sure I had toys and treats." she looked sad. "I had killed in battle before I ever got anything to cuddle. A wolf cub." She smiled at the memory, "his name was Blackpaw. Poor Blackpaw, he died in Genosis, or was it Mortis? I have been in so many battles."
"You were one of the great heroines of the Clone wars." Luke said. "Like Kenobi."
"Poster child soldier for the Grand Army of the Republic." She said bitterly. "Risking my scrawny neck against the evil Separatists so that Republic kids could..." She paused as if she wasn't exactly sure what she had fought for.
"...Republic kids could have action figures of you?" Luke offered helpfully, hoping the scarred Togruta wouldn't take offence.
The smile that spread over Ashokas birth marked face was like the sun rising. "Ah, yes that is it, I knew there was a reason I fought! Thank you!" And then Ashoka Tano, brave renegade Jedi began to weep.
Luke, not knowing what to do, rolled over, and locating his clothes, managed to retrieve his handkerchief. He handed it to her without a word.
Ashoka blew her nose with a parp that would have shocked a Hutt. She lay back. "There was us Jedi, their poor little padawans, -not all who were as lucky as me, I must add, and all those clones." She stopped, "None of this enlistment of members of the public. Not like today. No, aside from a few Separatist attacks and higher taxes, all the public saw of the war was cheesy propaganda holos."
"Clone wars, eh?"
"Please don't talk to me about those poor clones." She hung her head. "If making the clones was the only crime the Jedi order ever committed, then they deserved their deaths ten times over!"
"I've heard all sorts of horrible things about making the clones." said Luke.
"And making Jedi wasn't the nicest thing ever" Ashoka said happily. "I have good memories of my life in the Temple...But looking back on it, it was a drab, cheerless place, devoid of material possessions and constantly warned against real proper feelings." she chuckled "and love"
"Anakin was able to love my mother...and you." Luke said.
"And would have risked being kicked out the Order for both. He had to marry Padme in secret, as if their love was dishonourable and shameful. As for me…" Ashoka sighed, "Yes, I was a bit young when I first bedded Anakin...But I was no virgin." She gave a wicked little girls laugh. "I had lots of Clones as boyfriends, after all." She paused "and I was certainly regarded as old enough for the front line."
Luke decided not to pursue the subject. "Is that what my father looked like?" He picked up the figure thoughtfully. "I only remember him as..." He could not say it.
She nodded.
Luke had to smile. "He looked like me!"
"You remind me...It's painful." She looked downcast, "But you have none of his Darkness. I'm afraid that was always there. Don't get me wrong, He was good...nothing but good." She said with a dark look on her face. "But unfortunately good is so easily turned evil. I don't think the Jedi understood that. The Emperor killed him, turned him into something quite the opposite...My Skyguy met his Akul, who is called Darth Vader...And quite failed to defeat him."
"The worst enemy you cannot see." Luke said. "Because you're worst enemy might be you." Luke began pulling his clothes on. "Do you think we can save him?
Ashoka frowned. "Depends...On other people."
"Yeah," he sighed. "Other People. That big problem in the Galaxy. Other People." He groaned. "Everything would be fine if it wasn't for Other People."
Ashoka laughed.
"So, Luke Skywalker," Ashoka said over a greasy protein breakfast, "do you feel up to you and me going and kicking down the gates of Hell and rescuing Anakin?"
"Only if my sister lets me." Luke said meekly.
"Ohho. You're still under the thumb of the Princess? But Jedi don't just follow orders, they do what is `right`." She paused. "What does the Force tell you?"
"The Force tells me to save my father...As he saved me." Luke said. "Darth Vader turned to the Light, he killed the Emperor and surrendered to the Alliance."
"Bringing much resources with him, -like about half the galaxy?" Ashoka said grimly. "And he's being treated like an unrepentant criminal."
Luke sighed. "Much as I love Leia she has it in for him." He shuddered. "Leia won't acknowledge him as her father."
Ashoka nodded at that. "My Skyguy would make a good dad. He's done some awful things but I think he still deserves a second chance."
Luke gave a sad smile. "Do you think he can be saved?" He grinned. "Darth Vader was sentenced to death; a fate he agreed with wholeheartedly as you must have seen in his trial…But Anakin Skywalker will live."
"He's the Hero With No Fear, he's capable of `anything`." She grinned a feral Togruta grin. "As are we."
"Yup, that's me." Luke agreed.
"If we meet Darth Vader on the road to Hell..." She made a gesture of a lightsabre strike. "Deal?"
"Deal." Luke put her hand in hers. "Yoda and Obi-wan told me to kill him. But I will let you do it if you want. Jedi are not selfish. You have as many issues with Darth Vader as I do."
"More." Ashoka said firmly. "I had to see him fall. I cannot tell you how much pain I was in when I discovered it was my Annie under the mask." She sighed sadly at the memory that haunted her nightmares.
Luke stood up. He clipped his lightsabre to his belt. "I'm long overdue." He smiled. "Thanks for the breakfast."
Ashoka stood up. "I'm long overdue pledging my alliance to Princess Red hair."
"Not yet." He waved a hand, "as from now, your place is by Darth Vaders tomb...And don't you go calling her that to her face."
"Do you think he's still alive?" She asked.
"He had better be." Said Luke sulkily. "I made sure that his life support was still working and he was pumped full of water and nutrients." He had checked this personally. "As far as I know, he's in a Force induced coma but if you have had a mental connection to him once..."
Ashoka nodded. "I think I can re-establish it since he's no longer a Sith...I need to see if there's anything left of Anakin Skywalker under that armour."
"Good. He needs to know `you're` here...He needs all the support he can get. May the Force be with the both of you."
"You too, Skyguy junior."
He did not rise to that.
(1) Michin. Female monk. See place names such as Michinhampton, Minack, etc.
(2) Does Ashoka speak her own language? She grew up in the Temple, don't forget. I imagine she does, but not as a native.