Hello, everyone! Welcome to the final instalment of my Ahsoka series. I've been working on this for about a year (well, it's been a year since I started working on this) and I know that I'm not going to be able to finish it unless I have something to keep me going, so I'm hoping that posting it now will help me to finish! I already have more than 10,000 words written out, which is a third of 'Rebellion's Own', which means this story will probably end up being much longer than that one. Yay!
Updates will be every Saturday evening until I'm finished. Exciting!
(Also, this takes place a few days after the final chapter in 'Rebellion's Own', so if you're lost, read that one real quick)
She was backed into a corner, and no escape route seemed plausible. Her hand rested just above her blaster, just subtle enough so that it wasn't obvious to the buffoon what she was doing, but it was close enough for her to grab it should things turn sour. Perhaps she'd be able to talk her way out of this one. Her companion didn't look too concerned, though. His shoulders were relaxed, and his hands rested lazily on his hips. Ahsoka took in her surroundings again: they were currently in a dive cantina in the under city of coruscant. When she found herself in these places she would long for the open spaces that her ship could bring her to.
"Calm down," her companion whispered. "For this to work, you can't be agitated."
"You'll have to forgive me: I'm not used to not knowing who I am meeting with," Ahsoka snapped back. It had been only a few short days since she was nearly arrested and joined forces with former Imperial officer Krik Danva, who'd been hand chosen by her former master to distract her because of…of what again? Ahsoka let out a sigh of frustration and sent another look at her companion.
Danva couldn't have been much younger than herself, and there was something about him that said he'd seen some horrible things. His jaw was set, and she could sense that while he looked like he was at peace, there was an internal war raging inside. She didn't know his history; he'd just said he wanted to kill Darth Vader, not why. She also didn't know if he knew who Darth Vader had once been, or if he knew that Ahsoka was once the apprentice to the dark Lord. She wasn't sure what the man she was with would even do with that information, and decided that it was probably better that he didn't know, at least for the time being. At least until she was certain he wasn't trying to trap her.
"When is your contact going to be here?" Ahsoka asked.
"That's what's got me," Danva said, looking at a chrono hanging on the cantina wall. "He's always on time. He's never once been late. He should have been here already."
"Could the Empire have discovered about the meeting and taken your contact?" Ahsoka asked, knowing full well that that was a very real possibility, but Danva shook his head.
"No. He's better than that."
That rubbed Ahsoka the wrong way. "Better than what?" She was unable to bite her tongue. "Better than being captured by the Empire? Even the best can get caught."
Danva shook his head. "No, my contact is, was, a Jedi," he insisted.
Ahsoka let out a snort. Well, that answered one of her questions. Danva obviously didn't know who she was. The comment also have her a flicker of hope. Another jedi survived the purge? It had been nearly 20 years since the rise of the empire, and she knew there were little to no Jedi left.
"What was his name?" Ahsoka asked, hoping to keep the eagerness out of her voice. She hoped that maybe the jedi was someone she once knew. The idea of seeing a familiar face-she stopped herself from becoming too hopeful.
Her hopes deflated when Danva shook his head. "He never told me. I just called him by a code name."
"What was it?" Ahsoka asked him.
"Whiplash," Danva replied after a moment's hesitation. The name didn't ring a bell to Ahsoka.
"How long do we wait for him?" Ahsoka asked after a few minutes of silence. Her companion shrugged, and she mentally rolled her eyes. Instead, she ordered another drink and stared into its contents, deciding whether or not it would be best if she were to excuse herself to the privy and just not come back.
Just as she was deciding, a Sullustan sat down at their table. His basic was broken, but he was understandable: "Whiplash captive. Demand credits."
Ahsoka reached out with the force and felt nothing to fear from the newcomer. Danva immediately tensed, however, and Ahsoka felt him about to explode. She put a hand on his forearm to stop him and spoke.
"How do we know you have what we want?"
"Have name. Proof enough," the Sullustan said, obviously insulted at Ahsoka's lack of faith.
Ahsoka nodded slowly, as if she were thinking. "Who has him, exactly?"
The Sullustan faltered, and then slowly replied. "Black…sun…"
Ahsoka shook her head this time. "No one has him, do they? You overheard our conversation and thought you could make some quick credits, hmm?"
The Sullustan started to panic, and Ahsoka felt the force warn her: he was fumbling for his blaster. Ahsoka saw that she had two choices: They could have a shootout, or she could risk someone seeing her use the force on him. She'd rather not have another fight so soon after her run in with the mysterious force user, so she quickly waved her hand in his wave, using the force to influence him.
"You realize you made a mistake, and you want to go home now."
His eyes glazed over and he needed his head. "Made mistake. Want go home." He scooted his chair away from the table and walked away.
Ahsoka looked around the cantina: no one seemed overly interested, and the force wasn't telling her to leave. She glanced towards Danva, who on the other hand, was staring at her.
"You're a-" he began but she shushed him.
"Speak another word and you'll get both of us killed," she said darkly. He still stared at her. "Why again did you think Darth Vader wanted you to…do whatever it was he wanted you to do to me. Which was what, again?"
"He didn't tell me who you were, just that you needed to be distracted for a while. He's going against the Rebellion, and I suppose doesn't want you underfoot." Danva's explanation brought memories to the surface, memories of a man who refused to have a youngling underfoot while he fought in the clone wars. It sent a cold chill through her body. He still thought of her as just a child.
Ahsoka clenched her fists and inhaled sharply. "Well then, forget your contact. We need to make as much trouble for the Empire. Whatever they're planning can't be good."
Danva looked at her like she was crazy. "I came here to warn you, so you wouldn't be killed."
Ahsoka decided to trust him with one more fact about herself. "Do you know who the Chosen One was?"
He nodded. "Yeah. He was Anakin Skywalker, one of the first jedi murdered by Vader. Why?"
Another question answered. He didn't know that his former superior was Skywalker. "Well, I was Skywalker's padawan. I was trained by the Chosen One."
Awe filled Danva's eyes, but then another emotion quickly took place; determination. "You're gonna help me kill him," he said with conviction.
Ahsoka shook her head. "No. I'm not going to kill Vader."
"You hate him as much as I do," Danva said, his voice dark. "I'll make a deal with you. I'll help keep the Empire busy so the Rebellion can do whatever it is they do, but in return, you have to help me kill Darth Vader."
Ahsoka didn't need his help. She'd been on her own for a long time, and honestly worked better by herself. But there was something about the young man before her that begged for her help, and not in the way he was currently asking. He needed guidance. He needed some way to fuel the anger that was threatening to take control of his life. Ahsoka couldn't leave him on his own, or he'd surely fall to the darkside. He was already walking a very delicate line, she could sense that much.
"Do you understand the price that comes with taking someone's life?" she asked. "Have you ever killed anyone before?"
He shook his head. "No, but I know I'd be okay with killing Vader."
"Even if they deserve it, taking someone else's life is a burden not many can carry, and many succumb to that burdern, or worse."
"What's worse?" Danva asked, his tone indicating that he didn't quite believe her.
Ahsoka shut her eyes and felt the weight that had permanently settled on her soul, the weight of every man she had ever killed, a weight that no longer bothered her. "It stops hurting you."
Luke and Han had split up some time ago, deciding that it would be safer that way. They could still communicate via their holocommunicator, but in case their aggression became too much to handle, they'd be too far away from each other to do any damage. Chewy stayed with the ship, and was trying to reassemble Threepio.
"The information on the datapad said that the some of the troops ventured into the woods hoping to find whatever was causing the strife," Luke said into the holocommunicator. "But they never returned."
"You're making it sound like a ghost story, Luke," Han said, a mixture of annoyance and humor in his voice.
Luke chuckled. "Yeah, I suppose it does sound like one. Hopefully we won't run into a ghost on this trip."
Han shared his laugh. "Have you even seen a ghost?"
"Nope."
"Don't. It's not exactly like a walk in the park on a sunny day."
"Thanks for the picture," Luke said, rolling his eyes. Something was off, though. There was something about the planet. He wasn't sure what it was, but it felt like everything inside of him was screaming at him, telling him to get off of this planet and to go far away. But that was just the paranoia acting out again. Surely whatever had caused him to doubt Han was causing him to want to run away. But Luke wasn't a runner; he was going to find out what was causing the aggression and then…what?
"Han, what are we gonna do if we find out who's controlling our emotions?" Luke asked.
"Kill him," was Han's reply. Luke rolled his eyes and didn't reply.
It was getting darker as night approached again. The planet rotation wasn't as long as Tatooine's and Luke suddenly found himself homesick for his home world. Why had he even decided to leave and go with Ben? The reminder of his aunt and uncle's deaths brought another wave of sadness upon him, and Luke forced himself to sit down and finally process the loss of the only family he'd ever had. He didn't know what he was going to do without them. He didn't even have Ben to guide him.
"Luke, don't panic."
Fear shot through Luke's heart when he heard the voice. He jumped up and had his blaster out. "Who's there?"
"You can't see me, Luke. Your emotions are too clouded. But I'm here. I will always be with you."
That voice was his voice. "Ben?" he asked timidly. "Is that you?"
"Calm your mind, Luke. Take control of your emotions; don't let them cloud your judgment."
Not understanding, Luke looked all around him. Maybe this was just the planet playing another trick on him? But Luke didn't hear the voice again, which only brought on more confusion. He carefully bit his lip and focused on what the voice had said. Obi-Wan or not, whoever had spoken to him was actually on the right track. Whoever was trying to control them did so through emotions. If Luke had a good hold on what was going on inside, then perhaps he wouldn't fall so easily to the constant nagging inside.
He went over in his mind a thousand times what Ben had taught him on the Falcon while they were on their way to Alderaan. Focus. Don't think. Let the force guide your actions. Granted, he was practicing with his lightsaber when he was given those instructions, but he supposed he could probably apply those same ideals to almost every aspect of his life.
Sitting down once more, Luke shut his eyes and imagined himself in a room. Outside of the room was the forest he was in, and he shut the door, essentially shutting everything else out. Inside the room, there were no forces trying to kill him, no dead relatives, and no emotions. Just peace. Luke let the peace fill up inside of him, and suddenly he wasn't alone in the room. There was a spirit of some kind, though it was in the shape of a man, but seemed to be made up of an ethereal light.
"Who are you?" Luke asked.
I am destruction. A cold feeling entered Luke, and something inside of him shifted. The room began to close in on him, and monsters were outside, clawing their way in.
Fear wrapped itself around Luke's brain, and suddenly he found himself alone and in a dark forest again. His heart was beating fast, and he could feel the presence of something else in the forest with him, very close by. He grabbed his holocommunicator.
"Han, are you there?"
There was static on the other end, and Luke was suddenly terrified that his friend was dead. There was another crack of static, and then Han's voice broke the silence.
"Well, I was sleeping, but yeah. I'm here." The frustration was more than evident in Han's voice.
Relief spilled into Luke, and he let out the breath he didn't know he was holding. "Han, I don't think we're dealing with a real person here."
"What?" Luke could almost see the confusion on Han's face.
"I had a…a vision, I guess. We're dealing with a spirit, or a ghost, or something. And it's evil Han. It's so very evil."
"Did you have a nightmare, Lukey?" Han mocked.
Anger flared inside of Luke. "Really Han? Not a nightmare, a vision. This spirit called itself 'destruction'."
There was silence for a few seconds. "What're you gonna do about it?"
Luke suddenly had the sinking feeling that Han expected him to take care of it. And he supposed perhaps he should; he was the force user, after all. Although, the term force user should be applied very liberally in this case.
"I dunno, Han. I'm…I don't know." Luke felt fear creep up his spine once more before gripping at his heart.
"Hey, don't freak out on me Luke. You're an incredibly brave person. Why don't we try to meet up? Do you see any recognizable landmarks?"
Luke looked around, but it was too dark for him to see anything more than just shapes. He heaved a sigh and rolled his eyes. "No, Han. It's too dark."
"Okay, at first light we agree on a place to meet, and then head there. We'll deal with everything else together, okay?"
"Okay Han. First light. Don't back out of this, now," Luke said, honestly afraid that his friend would leave him to fend for himself.
"Never Luke. I never leave a friend behind."
Those few words brought a sense of peace to Luke's soul, and he nodded to himself. "Okay Luke," he whispered. "It's only a few hours. Nothing to be too worried about. You can handle this. Remember that time that Biggs made you sleep out in beggar's canyon? And you heard those sandpeople out? That was way worse than right now. Just…just stay calm." But despite the reassuring words he told himself, Luke felt the cold sting of fear all night.