Star Wars: The Clone Wars
When bounty hunter, Cad Bane, gets stranded on a desolate, yet toxic, planet, he explains to himself that there is nothing to worry about. Just when things get worse for him, he finds himself (not only becoming homesick) becoming ill in general. Finding a target to destroy for the Separatists on this massively toxic planet, he sees his is quite alone with none to get help from.
(Side-note: The prologue is quick to getting around to certain parts, so don't be surpised that at one moment you find Bane on Mos Eisley, then the next at Ziro the Hutt's hideout...oh, and please don't sue. I just want to get to the plot.)
Disclaimer: The inspiration for this is not mine, I give it directly to DeviantART's own "Master's-Kitty". Most of the ideas are mine, and Star Wars, Cad Bane the Bounty Hunter, are not. The music I listened to this is copyrighted just by "Spiralmouth" for the videogame, "Crash: Twinsanity".
I give to you this (probably short) one-or-twoshot..."Pure to Toxicity"!!
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Pure to Toxicity
(Mos Eisley, afternoon: Bounty Hunters gathered at the Spaceport)
Bounty hunters of all kinds and races, from different planets, gather at the site of spacecrafts in front view. Count Dooku stood before one of the spacecrafts, explaining to individual bounty hunters what they were to be doing. This was only certain issues needing be handled by the best. Few recognized some of the notorious hunters, watching for their names called. Next being called was some oddball bounty hunter with red eyes and a widely rimmed hat.
The Count silently scratched the hunter's name off the list. "Cad Bane," he began, Bane slowly listening in to Count Dooku, "I am about to send you to Ziro the Hutt to retrieve your mission. He did not detail anything of it."
The bounty hunter just blinked at gave a I-am-quite-confused glare at him. He continued, "Just do it, because he wants you where he is in three hours. I do not care of what mission it is, just get the 'high-tail' out of here." Bane turned from Dooku and took off from sight. The next to be called up was the well known hunter, Boba Fett. But Bane long left to see who.
Walking around the bright square and standing in dark spots was the only good thing to do right now. Not that Bane had anything else to consider doing for the next three hours... . What was he to do? He asked himself inquiries like these and whispered to himself, "I might just go and get it over with. How hard can it be?" Walking out of the shade of a cafe, hands to pockets and hat covering sight from everyone.
Cad Bane was unarmed right now, seeing the fact he could've been attacked at any moment of time. Walking across the square was highly risky, people (from all different planets) watching curiously at the bounty hunter from the planet of Duro, but his face was seen not. After passing along the large square (more like a circle...if I know the right planet), a sense of relief almost rushed to him...that is, if General Grievous wasn't in his way. "Hello there, bounty hunter." the droid seeing Cad facepalming himself, seemingly muttering something, Grievous asks a simple question, "A bit edgy today--" a cough interrupts, "--are we?"
Cad glances up to Grievous' droid face, his emotions heralding an expressionless face upon him, he speaks out loud, "Quiet, you overgrown droid general." As passes by, hat below eye level once more. He was certainly being quite dark about this whole predicament with Ziro the Hutt. He better pay handsomely, Cad would think, but there must be a catch. This is quite sudden.
There must be a catch, but what? The question asked was never answered until he saw Ziro the Hutt again, being dug somewhere underground upon a planet in the outer rim of the galaxy. This was making him late on actually finding Ziro's hideout.
But as soon as he found the hole in the ground on the lush and green lands of Destrillion, he leaped inside. The hideout was not much to look at, but it was almost decent. "Oh good, you're here!" Ziro appeared out of nowhere, being very sluggish, per normal, "I thought you would never make it, o' belated bounty hunter."
Cad interrupts, forcefully, "What do you want already?"
"I was taking a leisurely walk one morning and noticed this planet I thought you might like--"
"I don't hold expeditions, Hutt. I am a bounty hunter." Cad Bane had corrected every little mistake Ziro made for the next few moments...and even that began tiring the bounty hunter quite a bit. "I just want to get this job done already."
"I must mention one tiny thing before you go." Ziro added to his long chain of comments, "A republic soldier is on that planet and I want you to take him down."
"Now may I leave?"
"No, no, no! I must bid a farewell to you with a toast."
"Let's wait until after I return, Hutt. I also expect to be paid like you said. Do we have an agreement?" the Hutt only sighed and shook on the agreement with Bane, him turning to leave. Ziro throws a few fruits at Bane, catching them and turning abruptly, "Now what are these for?"
Ziro's answer was not quick, but it was simple, "...you're gonna need them."
"..." Cad glanced with an odd look on his face, and shrugged, "They don't have any explosives, right?" Both were staring, eyes not averting...Ziro starts laughing, tremendously.
"Are you kidding?! You must be out of your mind, bounty hunter!" Cad facepalms himself, lastly remembering to tip his hat as a 'farewell' and move along... not taking the fruits with him. Ziro sees he left them on a table. "He would need them...must've forgotten. Oh well. His loss."
"You do know I can still hear you, Hutt!" Cad screeched when climbing out of the opening in the ground. "Let me just get this over with." He entered his spacecraft and flew into the endless void to reach this gaseous planet, with an unidentified name.
Flying through the atmosphere was hard, but when he reached center of the cloud layers he began thinking over, How can anyone live or have life hospitable for these horrfying conditions? Bane tried to contact Count Dooku for mission status, but because of the dark cloud cover, the signal was not breached. "I must find that Republic soldier and get off of this steaming planet."
Before Cad stepped any further upon the boiling planet, he breathed and began moving along. But having seen his breath black made him begin wondering if his health was rapidly depleting if he was breathing it in. His bare skin was burning as well, the blue turned black (almost), making the tips sizzle like bacon to a frying pan.
He stares down at them, a sad emotion covering him like a curtain to darkness. The heat had surrounded him, the toxicity of the air had him passing out beforehand. He falls to the barren ground and his eyes close slowly, passing out from the excessive heat.
It was a few hours later, parts of his body had been seen by him exposed to the toxic air that surrounded the land of the desolate planet. He slowly awakened to see his fingers could not be discerned from the black fingerless gloves he was wearing. His face was almost black like charcoal (with little blue left to discern). Not only that, but the craggy surface of the barren planet was bellowing black smoke out of geysers that even made the ground, itself, shudder to intensity. The sight was truly quite apocalyptic, even with the gravity higher than that of Duro, as Bane told it, it was hard to fly around with the rocket boosters to get anywhere.
He was almost out of breath by the time he got up to his feet. He moved along slowly, trying to regain his breath and composure, but heat waves signaled a beginning to an ultimate apocalyptic future. But only able to walk correctly on fours, he had to bend. His back was not willing to do that.
The sickening chemicals had eventually gotten to Bane, making him feel very ill. Not only that, but he was also homesick. He enjoyed the fresh, yet clean, air. Not even his breathing plates aided his composure.
Moving along at a slug's pace, Cad began crawling (odd?) across the ground to escape the gravitational force of the planet weighing him down. Darkness had long since strained his line of sight, but the fact that no Duro had lived under conditions as hot as these made everything worse on him. The heat only made him think of a way to get out of there, but he had decided to try a grab a fruit to see if it would help. Bane finally remembers that he thought he was too awesome to keep alive with fruits, but he was the same as every other Duro. His charred black hands covered his head, hat still intact, and kept on telling himself that it was just a horrifying nightmare. He even tried placing metal into the air for lightning to strike down, but that obviously failed (he wanted lightning to strike him so he could awaken back on Mos Eisley).
This unbearable condition means...Ziro the Hutt lied to me!! There is no Republic soldier on this desolate planet. But eventually seeing a sign, this planet did have a name and some kind lived on it. Gaasheon (said 'gash-EE-ahn')...no population? Just as I thought. His eyes against the blazingly dense fog was hardly able to cut through, his line of vision was slighly blurred. He felt a dark sensation creep up upon him, his fingers much darker and yet along with his face and bare neck. He eventually croaked out, "I guess...this is--" he coughs out black dust and soot, "--a mission failure. Failed to...complete mission due to harsh conditions..." But with the heat trying to enrapture him, he bared the fact he was trying to reach his spacecraft. After all, he knew for a fact that he was being messed around with by Ziro the Hutt. He thought he was too cool to understand the fact about it.
Taking it for granted that the days unnumbered, that much later, he would still be okay. Cad seemed to think of himself to often, and not about anyone else to understand.
It would've been days later that someone found he was missing, but in fact...two people. The mysterious newcomers to his eyes were just old enemies. Before anything else, he had the spacecraft in sight. His smirk was imminent, but until the heat then became quite unbearable.
The heat eventually fell upon him as he tried escaping to his spacecraft, and just upon his last steps, he (unfortunately) faints to heat pressure...again...
Around the next time he awoke, he was inside his spacecraft. Cad continued coughing up black soot and dust, so it was living proof that this nightmare is not some kind of twisted dream. It was greatly reality, to even be saying the least. He went unconscious for seven more straight hours, but still, Bane was quite suprised about how he got into his spacecraft. Or was it his spacecraft?
---
On some Republic spacecraft...
Both Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano, his apprentice Padawan, were staring into a screen with five rooms precariously being watched. All five room held the hurt or severely injured. Anakin kept watch on one specific...his Padawan interrupted his thoughts with a simple inquiry.
"Why did we bring someone from the Separatists into our infirmary, Master?" Anakin did not keep her awaiting long for an answer.
"Well, no matter if he's a bounty hunter from the Separatists or not, he was badly injured. No one was ever that much of an idiot to go to Gaasheon. No one lives there...and besides, we can't leave a someone dying out there. It's kind of cruel, Snips." she glanced straight at the screen to watch the bounty hunter and a few Clone troopers. Ahsoka then takes off to the room that holds the bounty hunter inside, and glances in quickly. Blazing red eyes glaring sinisterly at her, she tries calming the Duro down from his enraged state of being. He lying his head on the fresh, yet dark, pillow under.
She begins calmly, trying hard to approach the Duro cautiously, "Um...hello, Bounty Hunter. My name's...uh, Ahsoka Tano." Ahsoka kneels to the bedside, Bane glaring at her with great intensity, "Are you okay? You suffered a lot of tension there on Gaasheon, your skin is charred black, so I can't tell your kind. You kind of remind me of...uh, Viceroy Nute Gunray."
Bane tried to defend himself, but his voice was hardly discernable through the massive amounts of soot in his throat, it was hard for Ahsoka to understand him. His emotion told her what he was trying to say. She would think Bane said to her, "I look nothing like that idiotic Viceroy."
She sat there a moment, but came up with an idea, "Hold on, Bounty Hunter, I've got just the thing." she left the room quickly, coming back a minute later with a glass of water. Setting it at the bedside, Bane immediately takes the glass in hand and guzzles the water like a parched dog to a filled waterbowl. Must've been thirsty, poor hunter...Ahsoka sighs and tries to smile the best she could with a Separatist around. "Good enough?"
"Why am I here?" Bane (still) croaked, placing both hands Ahsoka's thin, orange, shoulders. His mouth was haunting with those terrifying, yellow, teeth.
"Don't hurt me, please. We just HAD to pick you up from Gaasheon, you were almost burnt to a crisp out there. What was the big idea doing that, anyway?"
It was alot of explaining to do, yet with so little time to speak about it. Bane agreed to tell the truth about what exactly happened, and Ahsoka listened in quite well. She began rubbing on his arms lightly, the charred skin flaking to a nice and pure blue. "I know what you are! You're a Duro!"
"How do you know?"
"I can see your bright blue face and red eyes in my visions. I've seen a couple of them around before. By the way, everyone has names. What's yours?"
"Changing subject? How 'bout I say 'General Grievous'?" Bane lied.
"No, Grievous is a droid. You're not a droid."
"Count Dooku."
"You're a Duro. Not a human. Try again."
"...alright, it's Cad Bane." Cad slowly raises himself to a good elevation and glances right to Ahsoka.
She smirked, "That wasn't so hard, was it Mr. Bane?"
"Just call me Bane."
"How about I call you Cad?" Ahsoka was amused with this, Cad was obviously not. Placing a hand to his back, he feels only his vest covering.
He was daringly changing the subject quickly, "Where is my clothing, Miss Tano?" Ahsoka pointed to a chair at one corner of the semi-colorful room, his ensemble neatly folded on the seat of the chair. "Good, at a reachable spot." he mutters, his voice clearing.
Ahsoka edges up to the bed to help Bane walking again. He was out for several hours, before, and woke up to meet Ahsoka Tano, a Padawin whose spirit was getting into everyone's business. This was quite pleasing to Bane that she was calm about this whole predicament, she even noticed he smirked a few times around.
She was in there for a few hours before allowing Bane to rest, but as she exited the doorway, she meets with Anakin again. "So what's with that, Snips? He acts civil towards you? No Separatist does that...that I know of. Alright, we are taking him back to Mos Eisley now."
"How do you know what planet he was at?"
"I heard a few days ago that Bounty Hunters were being assigned missions there that day. I was walking by and saw the Bounty Hunter with my own eyes."
"Well, that might explain where he knows you from."
"What do you mean, Snips?"
"He mentioned your name a few times. I'm kind of suprised he didn't talk about Gaasheon."
"Maybe he lost his memory about it."
"I'm not so sure, Master, I do remember he mentioned Ziro the Hutt giving him that mission... . I'd have to check again...later." Ahsoka left the hallway with Anakin trailing behind her, she occasionally turning to talk. Anakin was willing to speak, but Ahsoka allowed him not...he spoke regardless of his Padawan's gestures.
"You were in there all that time and the Bounty Hunter didn't shoot you? I'm suprised."
"He was unarmed, he couldn't hurt me. He also complained about pain from his 'spinal cord', whatever that means." as the Jedi just sat there in suspended animation, Ahsoka was confused. He was in his thinking position, after all, but thinking of what? "Aren't bounty hunters supposed to be armed?"
Anakin took a moment to catch up to reality, but his answer was sly. One of the clones, around the infirmary, told something to Anakin to come by a room where a clone was going insane over a tiny comment. One name out of everything was said...the name "Cad Bane". They made sure to prevent saying anything about the bounty hunter to the mentally ill clone trooper. But Anakin went ahead and said something about it.
Anakin was inside the specific room of the infirmary for several moments before he caught Ahsoka with Bane again. "Ahsoka!" the Jedi called to his Padawan, she was immediately alerted by the sound of his voice.
"Master! I was, uh--"
"Talking to the enemy?"
"He wasn't hurting me!" Cad was busy trying to correct her, but Ahsoka was busy protecting Bane.
Anakin sighed, "Snips, you don't know WHO he is. He killed many before, you just don't understand."
"But--"
"Your quarters, now. I need to have a word with--" the bounty hunter shoots at Anakin, making his lightsaber fall out of place. "Blasted!"
Bane commented slowly on Anakin to prove he has no use of his lightsaber, but because of the Force, he was able to grasp it again. He can easily be underestimated, but Cad had another idea up his sleeves...he took his clothing and escaped.
"He's getting away, after him, Ahsoka!...Ahsoka? Oh...right." Anakin rushed to chase after the bounty hunter, but Cad was already gone. He appeared by a window and waved, flying into the deep space for Destrillion.
"Where were you, Bounty Hunter? You had me waiting for days!" Ziro the Hutt was not happy at his late arrivals. "What took you so long, and what is that on your face? Did you find the Republic soldier--"
"How dare you cast me onto a planet that horrid! You treacherous Hutt, I was almost dead out there! You lied to me!"
"You don't have to get mad about it. I told you there was a Republic soldier, but he left before you got there. He was on a Republic spaceship. Saying something about, 'Cad Bane's gonna get me'." Bane almost blew his last fuse, but Ziro handed him a fruit. "I told you you'd need it. This fruit, only found here, can give you back health. Pretty nifty, to say the least. And you thought you didn't need them."
Cad glanced at the fruit and took very small bites out of it. He felt nothing different...so he asked, "Is there a bomb in this? I felt something hard and spiked."
Ziro laughed once more, "You're quite positive? No, it's the seed, Bounty Hunter. My, someone is quite paranoid today."
"I was..." Bane sneered, placing the seed into his back messenger bag, thinking he could use it as a weapon for later notice. "May I leave? I must report back to the Count right now."
"Then why did you stop here?" Bane dropped himself into a seat, trying to compromise.
"Alright, Hutt, I needed to tell you if I found that soldier."
"The Count could've reported back to me."
"Well, you had sounded as if--" an alarm interrupts the both of them, Bane and Ziro are directed to the source of the sound. Bane glances oddly at Ziro with one eye. "...you were in a hurry..."
Ziro presses on a button, Count Dooku appears on the holographic projector. "Yes, sir?"
Count Dooku is staring right to Ziro, taking no chances at knowing whether or not Cad Bane was around. He asked nothing of it...except if he knew where he was. "Ziro, have you seen the Bounty Hunter, Cad Bane?" he speaks in his low and scraggly voice. Ziro answers with a simple fact that he's just right there. Bane steps closer and kneels to the table with the hologram was set, glancing straight at the Count's hologram. "Where have you been, Bounty Hunter? We've been searching for you."
"I was caught on a gaseous planet with no way of escaping until Republic soldiers came and found me."
"Get back to Mos Eisley, at this moment. I MUST have a word with you alone."
"..." Both were glaring at Bane with evil eyes, and he muttered to himself. Two bright blue digits to his open mouth, he speaks, "This is something bad, isn't it?"
"Just get here!"
Everything was supposed to be going according to his plans, but he confronted the Count at the darkest moments. His breath was certainly becoming heavy, the suspense was killing him. "...why am I here? Why did you call me back to Mos Eisley?"
Count Dooku said nothing for the next few moments, Cad was shuddering in fear, and came an answer, plain as day. "Cad Bane the Bounty Hunter..."
Bane took off his hat and rubbed around the rim with his fingers in twitching, "Yes, Count?" his voice, not only shaking tremendously, left his yellow teeth chattering uncontrollably. Bane was busy trying keep himself under control, but his fear on the upcoming comment was rising with a great intensity.
"Because you have been late and failed many missions these past months, I have no choice but to let you go." Cad's eyes grew wide in fear, "You are no longer a Bounty Hunter for the Separatists, I shall dismiss you now--" the Duro begged to stay in the force, he complained that it is the only job he has. But even though Count Dooku said it before, he just went back onto a spacecraft and it disappeared from sight. Boba Fett, a bounty hunter, saw Cad kneeling to the ground.
"Alright, Bane, we should get you to a debriefing area. Come on, let's go." he speaks softly, to not arouse any anger. He takes up Bane and leaves with him for a debriefing. Surpisingly enough, Cad never twitched or ended up attacking Fett. Instead, he lies his head on his shoulder.
Soon after being debriefed of his weaponry (and sadly the fruit seed, too...), Cad was set to leave back for Duro, and no one had any objections...he was leaving straight for Duro, until his spacecruiser was blasted and found in ruins near Alderaan, quite far from home.
One of the cruisers of the Republic had soon found the ruins and tried looking for any survivors of the crash. A Jedi listened in to the radio signals, but nothing came in except for warbled speaking. He spoke in his light voice to contact the survivor. "Hello, this is Anakin Skywalker, requesting to ask 'are there any other survivors?' " Anakin listened in as hard as possible to understand what the other was saying. He tried tuning the frequency to hear anything, and the voice was becoming clear. "May I ask for name?"
The other spoke with a serious tone, "Cad Bane. The name's Cad Bane."
"You again?!"
"Listen, Skywalker, you must try and help me. I want to be back at Duro, and someone shot at me. The blast destroyed my spacecraft and I am left stranded here."
"Alright, where are you?"
"Just outside the orbit of Alderaan." Anakin speaks slowly into the radio to confirm the message, he leaves for an X-Wing soon after. Ahsoka comes along with him.
Both were silent along the way, but as they found pieces of scrap metal around a certain part of the atmosphere at Alderaan, Ahsoka comments that she thinks she sees Bane sitting on a piece...cross-legged. Anakin ventures out in a spacesuit to try and retrieve the massively injured Duro.
Upon taking him into the small spacecraft, Ahsoka appears by Anakin and R2D2. Bane is seen lying down on a white sheet, the Padawan curiously glancing back to him intermittenly. "I hope he's alright, Master."
"Here we go again..." the Jedi sighs and continues to steer back to the Republic ship hangar bay.
"He might've been mugged, his weapons are gone and so are his arm bracers. His boosters, pockets, and messenger bag are gone too." Ahsoka was certainly the detective right now. She begins to rub Cad's bare blue face, and his blazing rouge eyes open slowly. He makes no move at all to attack the suspected predator. However, he does realize that he is the Republic's hands again. But he had his reasons for such.
Finally bolting upward to meet the height of Ahsoka, his head turns abruptly to see his new surroundings. But quickly and suddenly after he does so, his bare neck was strained and great pain filled the space. His spinal cord and arms as well. He takes it into consideration he was greatly injured during the sudden attack, so he told himself to lay low a while. After all, he as defenseless now, reaching upon the fact that he was dismissed from the Separatist bounty hunters for good. All of the Republic still thought of him as an enemy...all but one.
Ahsoka Tano.
"Alright, Ahsoka. I'm not in a very good mood today, you know that, so just lay low for a while and don't disturb me until we have a mission. I'll let you stay with Bane until, and ONLY 'until', we get to Duro." Anakin leaves the infirmary, to reach for the cockpit of the Republic cruiser.
Her words were quite soft, "Mr. Bane? You were trying to get home, but why?" He answered with only a croak heard, maybe the blast damaged his vocal cords...but he sounded fine when Anakin contacted him. Ahsoka was busy trying to decode and translate until Cad got to the point where he wrote everything instead. Even his messed-up handwriting was difficult to read. But as educated as Ahsoka is, she could read it just fine.
"Been dismissed as bounty hunter, no occupation left. Must leave for Duro. This day has been rough for you, hasn't it, Mr. Bane?" he sighs, continuing to write. Ahsoka continues reading, and she comments that he should stay on the ship until they find Duro. Little did she know was that it was a far planet from the galactic core. "Speak to them of 'hyperdrive'. They should know I speak of the Duros invention. I don't know if it's your kinds...but I'm not complaining." She glances into the open, yet black, space. The planets flying into the distance, the Republic spacecruiser flies into another system. "You mean...'hyperdrive' is just what we do when we are suddenly inside another system?"
Only one word was translatable, "Obviously." Cad told her that numerous times before, but she must not listen very well--
(Ahsoka: I listen better than you do!)
(Jordanu: Well, I work better than you do.)
--if she doesn't know the fact that Duro's had possibly invented the hyperdrive sequence. He was quite suprised, but he never showed the signs of it. But he was quite sure that any Padawan with 'half a brain would know that Duros invented the hyperdrive'. After all, she was young, Cad got the idea. Ahsoka becomes silent for a few moments, and speaks to Cad as he sits up. She went changing the subject.
"I need to see if you have any scars or bruises from where you were attacked." he refused to removed his clothing in front of her. "I just need to see how much damage was done. It'll only be you shirt removed."
Cad still refused her, Ahsoka went and took his shirt off against his will anyway. "You had no right to do that, Miss Tano!" he literally screeches--wait...he just spoke! I can say his cover was blown, he was trying to act civil by the time they found him. His rage was already boiling, Ahsoka was only making it worse. "Miss Tano, you are hurting me!"
"Hold still! I'm not done."
"Then get done!!" It was quite forceful, but Ahsoka managed to calm his rage after a few moments.
"See? It's not hurting is it?"
"On the inside..." Ahsoka came up with an explanation for such a predicament.
She spoke in her light tone, per normal, and started to rub her hands against Bane's cold fingers. No heat, whatsoever, eminated from them. "You're cold, I need some mittens for you--"
Cad interrupts, quite coldly, "This is not Hoth, Padawan. This is stellar space. I would only need mittens and parka if I was Hoth!" He was used to moderate weather, the sun gleaming down upon the grasses and lands of Duro. If his people were not so wreckless about their world, the condemnation would never have happened. They would've not had to leave their world if they were not becoming industrialized. Their world was once toxic and unhospitable, but the long condemnation allowed the world to become lush again.
Ahsoka was stopped from talking when she heard Anakin saying, "It's about time for us to reach Duro. Bounty Hunter, come with me." Cad does not listen. He told himself he was no longer a Bounty Hunter. In fact, he was no one anymore. Anakin repeated, Cad still refuses to listen. Ahsoka tells him that Bane is no longer a bounty hunter, so it would only be best to call him by his last name.
"So this is Duro?" the Padawan asks to Bane, who silently is seen to glancing around his homeworld. "It's so pretty!" He speaks softly to Ahsoka, and she answers with a comment to change the subject. "I hope I can ever see you again, Mr. Bane. But I don't want to go."
"Your life is for training to be a Jedi. You have about five more years to reach that status, Skywalker's little Padawan."
"I don't want to leave you here, I want to be with you."
"Miss Ahsoka Tano, promise me this. Promise me that you will remember me for the years on, promise that you will become a Jedi, travelling the galaxy. You must become that Jedi, stay with the light. I will always have a dark past behind me. Never become like me, Ahsoka Tano, your life belongs to the Republic and you make the most of it. Never side with the Separatists like I did. Now go back to the Jedi, leave me here." Ahsoka follows Cad to the lush green grass, and he turns abruptly. His blazing red eyes becoming narrow, his bare blue hands attach to her shoulders. She was almost crying, but Cad was embracing her. She heard him whisper, "Leave Duro. Become that Jedi. Just leave me here, Ahsoka Tano."
She ends up crying again. "I'm not leaving you here, all alone."
"I have the other Duros to say I am not alone. I want you to be away from here, becoming the Jedi you want to become."
"But--"
"Leave Duro, Miss Tano, and return when you are a Jedi."
"Well...I'll be expecting to hear from you. I guess I'll...see you." Ahsoka waves, sadly, and returns to the small spacecraft. She turns, just as the stairway rises. "I'm going to miss you! Farewell...Cad Bane... ."
Original Ending:
Taking off, when Bane is still watching, the spacecruiser disappears into the bright skies over Duro. I am already missing Ahsoka. She's been gone a few seconds and she disappears into the darkening horizon. "Farewell, Miss Ahsoka Tano..." He places his elongated rimmed hat back to the height of his metallic head and tips it off to the side. He returns inside the gates of his open land and disappears into the darkness of his home.
Time Span: After five long years...
It was nearing time for Ahsoka to become a Jedi, and Anakin was happy for it. Their cruiser was just passing by Duro until they remembered Cad Bane was on the planet. It had been five years ago they contacted him last, and he was left unknown for the half of the decade.
"Why don't we go visit Bane? It's been awhile, hasn't it, Master?" Ahsoka glanced quickly at Anakin and he agreed that they should find out what he'd been up to doing at late.
Upon landing on the wide, yet grassy, plains of Duro made Ahsoka anxious to find Bane. Only other Duros were present around the opening, but none with a widely rimmed hat...she became overly anxious. But in the dark recesses of a corner near a home on the prarie, there sat a Duro with a hat over his eyes and more than half of his face. She cautiously stepped forward in a anxious desire to see who it was, but she called out, slightly above whispering, "Hey. Hello?" But he refused to open his eyes to see her. Ahsoka had the feeling he was quite at rest (she never had seen an man asleep with a hat over his face...as far as I know...). She repeated, just a bit louder. "Hello?"
He woke to see the darkness of his hat clouding his line of sight. He tipped his hat upward to see an orange Padawan staring at him. He lowered his hat and spoke in a raspy voice, "I don't take visitors..." but as he realized that it was someone he knew, his face shot up in suprise. "Ahsoka Tano?!"
"Yep, it's me, Cad."
"It's been awhile, hasn't it? You certainly haven't changed a day, Miss Tano."
"You neither." Both Ahsoka and Cad ended up embracing, and she never let go until he said that she was constricting him. "So how's work been going? Any luck?"
"Not around to harvesting, yet, been waitin' a couple of months. Nothin' yet. Any luck on becoming that Jedi?"
"I'm going to be a Jedi in a couple of days. The graduation from being a Padawan learner to a Jedi is going to be great. I'd like to see you around--"
"But because I've got work back here, Miss Tano, I don't think I could make it. If any miracle comes around where my crops start growing, I might be able to find time to get to you, but I've got to watch over them cautiously and keep working."
"It's just a day. You could take time out of your work to come and see me." Cad turn to watch the grassy fields, and saw Ahsoka watching it with him. "Do you think you could do that?"
He turned to see her face looking at him, "...no, Miss Tano," and he glances abruptly away, "I cannot."
Ahsoka was placing her hands on his face and turned his head forcefully to her direction. He refused to glance her way with his face, but he looked at her with only his eyes. "You must; you have to be there, Cad. I'm counting on your arrival--"
"I told you I am unable to leave, Miss Tano, can you see that not?"
"I just wanted you to see me get promoted."
"Miss Tano, I won't tell you the same thing repeatedly, it is just not in my power to do what you want me to do. Of course, if I could, I'd love to see you...but I cannot leave my planet until my work is finished around here," he interrupts by sighing, "but I can do one thing for you. Tell me how it went, I wish to hear good things about you, Skywalker's little Padawan. Now then, I don't want you to be kept from doing anything needed out of your missions for the Republic force. I could not enjoy saying the fact that you'd be quite late if I kept you here. Now go to Skywalker, he anticipates you, Miss Tano."
He sends her off with tears left in her eyes. She glances back and waves, "Farewell, Cad Bane!!"
And Bane whispers, his voice stuck raspy, "Farewell, once more, Ahsoka Tano..."
A few days later at the Jedi Temple...
"This is it, you day of triumph has come and we have awaited long for it." Anakin was quite joyous for his Padawan-to-Jedi today, and yet, he anticipated the arrival of all the Jedi: Yoda, Mace Windu, Aayla Secura, Luminara Unduli, and many of the others. Other Padawans are getting promoted as well, they could tell that their apprentices were happy about it. But none more so than Ahsoka Tano.
"Yep, this is it, Master. I wonder who will be coming along this time." she told Anakin, obviously in a joyous mood. As the Jedi glanced backward to a great corridor, it was time she would've heard a few footsteps coming her way. But other Padawan apprentices were just coming around. The other few Jedi and apprentices were quickly followed by the true Jedi. Not everyone was there, but as of yet, she stood awaiting the arrival of the other Padawan.
Long after she awaited the Padawans to socialize with them on their success, when few still did not come, she heard one last set of footsteps. Ahsoka was tired of waiting, so she headed on inside with Anakin.
"Master..."
"I know, Snips, but you'll be fine." As Ahsoka Tano was called after moments of debate, she was gifted the power to fully be called a Jedi. As she almost went back to Anakin, someone appeared at the side of the doorway, half of the body behind the stone wall. The only seeable eye piercing just beyond Skywalker's position. She did notice a bit, but didn't realize who it was. She went and was back with Anakin soon enough.
It was already over with, and the new Jedi, Ahsoka Tano, was being praised by her Master. Few crowds were leaving, but one only came in as a suprise. Not even Anakin noticed there was someone behind her until the man in the hat spoke quickly to Ahsoka.
"Hello there, pretty lady, and how are you today?" she went suprised, only by turning a few inches, and he continued, "Too shocked to speak? That's too bad."
Her mouth was gaping open, she was obviously in awe about the whole predicament and who was saying those words... . She almost fainted...but Ahsoka was quite strong for her feminism.
Alternate Ending:
Bane smiles, just faintly, and turns to walk away. But at the very last moment, just before the opening shuts, Bane turns back and rushes (leaping inside the opening). He fell straight through the opening as if was almost fully closed.
"What happened? Why'd you come back?"
"I can't live without work. I must see that I can work with you." Ahsoka gives a great embrace to Cad Bane, just as he screeches "Skywalker" out of his mechanical voice.
"Now what Ahsoka?" Anakin is calling.
"That's not me. That's him." Skywalker's little Padawan walks to the cockpit and he hears another set of footsteps. He turns abruptly, almost fainting out of pure shock.
"What are you doing here?"
"He says he can't live without work, may he come with us?"
Anakin tried not to agree, but the best came of him. "...oh, fine. From now on, you work with us. And no one else. But maybe you would be able to get everything back from the guy that mugged you of the your things."
"They were taken, not mugged, Skywalker."
"Yeah. Not mugged."
"You're with HIM now?"
"What? I like him!"
So...Cad Bane was inducted as a Padawan to Anakin for unknown reasons and had worked with them since...whenever this story took place... . Tano and Bane are now close friends. Anakin does not like it.