The Ahsoka Tano Chronicles Chapter 1: The Aftermath (3 BBY)
The crew runs onto their ship, and Daesha ignites the engines. The battered human, Wookiee, and Nautolan men barely hold themselves together as the ship swiftly makes it into hyperspace. Daesha rushes out of the bridge to check her crew's injuries. As she finishes the last man, she reaches for a fourth person that is absent.
"Where is Ahsoka?" Daesha asks, worry evident in her voice. The three crew members look sadly at one another.
Tanner turns to look at Daesha. "She stayed behind," he says simply.
"What? What do you mean, 'she stayed behind'? You let her stay?" Daesha begins panicking. She knows what this means. She knows what would have happened to the injured girl if she went up against... That.
"I mean exactly what I said. Ahsoka stayed behind. She saved us," Tanner replies calmly. He refuses to remember what he had witnessed, but he silently vows to himself to never lay eyes on a saberstaff again.
"Why?" Daesha murmurs dejectedly. The girl who might as well have been her sister was dead. Sensing his moment, Tanner told the Twi'lek woman how brave Ahsoka had been and how she had fought to let them live. He didn't mention exactly what he had seen when he had turned back. He would inform Daesha later, when they were alone.
"No! No, she didn't. She couldn't. She wouldn't leave us like that!" the normally cool Twi'lek begins sobbing uncontrollably. The others of the crew simply envelope her
"She did. She did it to save all of us, Daesha," Tanner states, sounding worn and old.
/Do you think she's really gone?/ Arribecca grunts, misplaced hope abounding in his voice. /I mean, she's made it through worse, right? She'll be back, right?/ The entire crew looked at the Wookiee who was grunting and moaning with silent tears streaming down his face. Denial never was a good emotion, Tanner thinks sadly.
"No. She's not coming back. Who could come back from that?" Kho asks, pain and grief making his tone sound strained and aggravated. He lets a few tears escape as his head falls heavily in his hands. Arribecca puts his paw on the Nautolan man's shoulder in a rare gesture of comfort as Tanner stands with Daesha in his arms.
"We... We can't let this have been in vain. We can't have just let her die. We need to remember her," Tanner declares, sudden fire and anger in his voice, fueled by his destructive memories. "We need to do something, make something, to remember her by."
"What, Tanner? She's dead. Who is going to lead our little rebellion? She couldn't even go up against that kind of power, much less us!" Daesha shouts, pushing Tanner away from her.
/Come on, Daesha. We can do something for her. She would want us to.../ Arribecca half-heartedly smiles. It quickly fades as Daesha shakes her head and tumbles into a chair. She loses her composure and starts crying again while Arribecca lets a few more tears roll down his furry face. Whether one is crying or not, the grief seems to swallow the small cargo freighter in hyperspace.
While all of this had been going on, Kho had quit crying, picked up a pencil and paper, and started sketching. Tanner looks over and smiles for the first time since arriving on the ship. After looking at the drawing, he lets a solitary tear run down his cheek and turns away for a moment. When Kho is finished, he shows it to the entire group. The crew rushes outside with some paint when the ship next lands.
An hour later, the ship takes off from the planet. On the front of the ship, in the middle, there is a symbol. A silhouette of a Togruta's montrals dominates the symbol, all in black. A green lightsaber stretches in a straight line just above the montrals. A yellowish-green shoto is woven in between the headtails lower down. It, also, is in a straight line and faces the opposite direction from the above lightsaber.
When the ship takes off into hyperspace, Tanner shudders violently as a strange voice enters the back of his mind. May the Force be with you, the voice says: calm, warm, and loving. Tanner stiffens in utter confusion, but when he recognizes the voice, he whispers something only he can hear: "And with you, Ahsoka." Tanner smiles as her bright laughter fills his head. We will miss you. All of us. Be safe on your journey, Tanner thinks as a few unshed tears threaten to spill over. And, as quickly as it had come, the feeling and the voice disappear. Tanner lets out a soft sigh when her presence leaves him for the final time.