Chapter Two
The rain continued to patter outside the house. The grey light outside made the inside of the house poorly lit, but Ahsoka Tano didn't need much light to tell what happened here. The walls were covered in streaks of burn marks. Broken and burned furniture laid scattered about. The smell of burnt flesh filled the air.
Ahsoka made her way through the house back towards the entrance. There was nothing else she could do. She kept her eyes forward, not glancing back down at the three mutilated corpses in the room. The bodies had been torn apart by a lightsaber. An arm laid casted aside in a corner. Some blood was cast about on the floor when the fight had gone beyond lightsabers.
Ahsoka cursed herself. Her intelligence had been too slow. She had come to Cilpar in attempt to save a Jedi and padawan who were in hiding on the planet. Ahsoka's sources had informed her that the Empire had discovered the hiding Jedi. Ahsoka had hoped to be one step ahead of the Imperials, but she was too late. It appeared as if the Imperial Inquisitors got there first. They killed the Jedi, the padawan, and the homeowner. The lightsabers were missing, but the bodies remained as warning to all who came upon them.
The pain and fear from the fallen still stained the Force. Ahsoka couldn't help her own pain and grief from growing within her. She wanted to give them a proper burial, but knew she couldn't stay. The battle was too fresh. It had happened within the last day. Imperial agents could still be watching. Ahsoka needed to leave.
As she left the house, she pulled the hood of her cloak over her head to shield herself from the rain and any prying eyes. She reached out into the Force but found no one near by, but that didn't mean she wasn't being watched. The house had been situated on the side of a forested mountain. The terrain had made it hard to see and access from the air. Ahsoka had a bit of a walk back to where she had hid her ship.
She made her way through the forest and the rain. Her mind kept circling back to the house, the bodies, and her own failure to get there fast enough. The Jedi were being hunted down to extinction. Every lost was heartbreaking. Ashoka had been working with a few groups in efforts to save any Jedi they could.
Suddenly she felt a warning through the Force. She stopped and instantly took a step back, just barely missing the red blade that slashed at the spot where she previously stood. Ahsoka immediately took several small leaps backwards while she pulled out her two lightsabers and activating them.
She got a good look at her attacker. The attacker wore all black, a mixture of robes and armor. A box was attached above the belted waist with lights and switches. The head was covered by a helmet and mask, both black and shiny. The mask was skull like with two large eye lenses and a triangular mouth.
Yet the attacker was also small. About the same size of Ahsoka. Yet size didn't matter. Ahsoka could feel the dark side from the attacker. Hatred snaked out from them in tendrils through the Force. This was no Inquisitor. This was a Sith.
The Sith had given Ahsoka only a small moment before it went on the offensive again. It dashed towards the Jedi, bringing down its red lightsaber with fast strikes. At first Ahsoka was on the defensive, but quickly found the movement of the Sith a bit predictable. This Sith didn't seem all that experienced Ahsoka noted. She changed her stance and went on the offense.
The battle switched pace as the two continued their duel through the rainy forest. Now Ahsoka was pressing the Sith back. However, it wasn't to last long. The Sith did seem inexperienced, but it was a fast learner. Already the Sith was improving on its own stances. Its strikes were becoming more honed as it got used to Ahsoka's own style.
Ahsoka knew that this duel would not go in her favor if it went on for much longer. The Sith didn't seem to tire, in fact the blows seemed to have gotten stronger. Ahsoka went in for a strike, feinting with her right blade to bring her left blade up from below to strike the Sith unguarded. Yet the blade never made contact, instead Ahsoka was suddenly thrown through the branches from a strong Force blow.
She slammed into a massive tree. The wind was knocked out of her. Her sabers fell to her side as she struggled to catch herself from slamming into the ground. She had barely any time to collect herself before she could feel the heat of a lightsaber near her head. She glanced up to see the Sith holding the red blade mere inches from her face.
"Tell me, Jedi, where are the rest of your kind hiding?" a deep voice mechanical and distinctly female voice said.
This pause in the fighting was all Ahsoka needed. She collected the Force to her and called forth a force blow towards the Sith. The Sith was only knocked a fraction off balance, but it was all Ahsoka needed to collect her own lightsabers and stand up. The Sith regained herself and turned back towards Ahsoka with a growl coming through the mask.
But suddenly the Sith stopped. Ahsoka could sense the surprise coming off the other. Ahsoka reached out into the Force, especially behind her, to see what had stopped the Sith's attacks. Yet it was still just two of them.
"Ah- Ahsoka?" the Sith said uncertainly.
Ahsoka couldn't help but be surprised as well. She realized her hood had fallen off her montrals, revealing her face. The way the Sith had said Ahsoka's name, it sounded like she knew her. Yet Ahsoka didn't answer.
"Ahsoka?" The Sith asked again. She could feel the slimy feel of the dark side of the Force probing against her. She heard the audible gasp of the Sith. "Ahsoka!" It was not a shout of happiness, but anger. The Sith rushed forward, her blade striking at the Ahsoka.
The former Jedi was surprised. The Sith attacked with a new found speed and power. Ahsoka was forced on the defensive.
"Where is he?" the Sith shouted between strikes. "Where is he? Where is he?" she repeated over and over. Yet Ahsoka wasn't sure who she was talking about. Then Ahsoka found she was too slow in parrying a strike, and the red saber sliced down along her right arm. Ahsoka screamed and fell to one knee, yet she took pride in herself at not dropping either saber. Yet before she could stand, the Sith had come up to her and kicked over with a force-backed kick.
The black clad Sith stood over Ahsoka with one foot pressing down on her chest. Yet it felt like her entire body was being crushed into the ground. The dark side of the Force was all around her. She was finding it hard to breath.
"Tell me where he is?" the Sith angrily demanded.
"I- I don't- don't know- who you are-," Ahsoka said between gasps of air.
"Anakin! Anakin Skywalker! Your master! Where is he?" the mechanical voice shouted.
Ahsoka was suddenly breathless. She tried her best to take in deep breaths of air, but could only seem to get small breaths in. They were too small.
"Ana- Anakin is dead!" she managed to spit out.
"No!" The pressure on top of Ahsoka pushed down harder. She opened her mouth to scream as her body was crushed, but no sound came out. The Sith continued, "He is not dead! Now tell me where he is!"
Ahsoka's body heavied in attempts to get in more air. Yet through all of this she could once again feel the probes of the Sith entering her mind. Ahsoka at first tried to push it away, but then decided not to. The Sith was looking for Anakin Skywalker, so Ahsoka threw everything she knew about the man out at the Sith. What did it matter? Her former master had been dead for seven years now.
The pressure suddenly disappeared. The Sith had taken a step back.
"What?" the deep voice said. "So you don't know where he is?"
Ahsoka didn't wait for the Sith to finish. She pulled the Force to her and lashed out at the creature. With a powerful Force blow, the Sith went flying into the forest. Ahsoka didn't stop channeling the Force, as she called upon it to fell a large nearby tree. It crashed into the Sith. Ahsoka took the opportunity to make it back to her ship.
As the ship took off, Ahsoka looked back down into the rainy forest. At the edge of the clearing where her ship had been, stood the masked Sith. Her cloak flapped in the wind and the red saber was still ignited. Suddenly the red light disappeared, and the figured turned around. She disappeared back into the forest.
Two days later Ahsoka sat in her bunk aboard the Restitution, a hammerhead corvette. She was peeling off the bacta patches from her right arm where the Sith's lightsaber had burned her. A pale scar was still noticeable running down her arm. Ahsoka ran her left hand along the scar. Though the arm was still slimy with bacta, she could feel the raised skin.
It had only been a few months since she had joined Organa's rebellion movement. She hadn't planned on being so physically involved. The original plan was to manage Organa's intelligence network. Yet when Ahsoka heard of the two Jedi being targeted on Cilpar, there were no agents who could act fast enough besides herself.
Over the past two days Ahsoka had spent as much time as she could gathering information on this new Sith. The Sith went by the name of Darth Vader and had only shown up a few months ago. She was a personal agent of Emperor Palpatine. Already she had been dispatched to a few planets to squash any growing rebellions. She had been very successful, and the body count was high.
Ahsoka had to dig for this information and only a few blurry holograms of the new Sith existed. The Empire was being very quiet about their new attack dog so far. Probably not to alert other rebel cells or hiding Jedi. Though that wasn't the detail that bothered Ahsoka the most. It was the fact the Sith had wanted to know about Anakin Skywalker, Ahsoka's former Jedi master.
When Ahsoka had reported this detail to Senator Bail Organa, he grew quiet. He finally mentioned it was indeed a troubling detail, but then he turned the conversation. It was clear he didn't want to talk about it. Ahsoka wasn't satisfied with that answer. She knew she shouldn't have hacked into Organa's personal communications. Yet one outgoing message caught her eye. It used her rebel cell's frequencies and codes. The call went out to Senator Mon Mothma.
Why send a message to another senator via coded Rebel frequencies? Ahsoka wondered. She rationalized with herself that she was only doing her job as the intelligence manager to look into this message. Was there more to this rebellion cell than Organa was letting on? She opened the call and listened to the recording. There was no holograms to go with it, only the audio.
It became clear that Mothma was also working with her own rebellion cell. The two talked about Ahsoka's visit to Cilpar and her run in with Darth Vader.
"The Sith asked about Skywalker?" Mothma asked. "What do you think that means?"
"I'm afraid it's another ploy of the Emperor," Organa replied. Ploy? Ahsoka asked herself. "I had hoped he had given up on trying to find Skywalker. It's been seven years. However, as long as the Emperor thinks Skywalker is still alive, he won't give up."
Mothma sighed. "So what game is the Palpatine playing at this time? Use a Sith to lure Skywalker out?"
"What?!" Ahsoka shouted aloud. She jumped up. Anakin was alive? How could that be? Her thoughts raced. At first she thought perhaps the Emperor still thought Anakin was alive, but it was clear Mothma and Organa thought the same as well. She realized she had missed some of the recording, so she rewound it back.
"Possibly," Organa said. "It's clear this new Sith is targeting Jedi. Ahsoka was questioned by the Sith about Skywalker's whereabouts. So it's possible this Darth Vader is trying to hunt down Skywalker. Hoping another Jedi knows where he is."
"Perhaps we should warn Kenobi and Yoda," Mothma suggested. Obi-Wan and Yoda? She knew the two Jedi masters were still alive and hiding. Both each had a substantial bounty of their heads. Yet Ahsoka herself had no idea where the two were hiding.
"No," Organa quickly dismissed the suggestion.
"They need to be alerted. If you don't want to risk any of your agents, you could always tell me their location-"
"No," Organa said much more sternly. "I'm sorry Mothma but I won't give away the location where they are hiding. Plus this is probably what Palpatine and that Darth Vader are waiting for. They're probably watching for the rebel cells to make their move. Kenobi and Yoda are smart. They've stayed hidden for seven years. It's best we just let them stay hiding with Skywalker."
Mothma agreed and the two went on to talk about the movements of Darth Vader and the Empire. Ahsoka turned the recording off. Her head was spinning. What did this all mean? She had thought for the past seven years that Anakin had died, but now it turns out he hadn't. Organa knew this but didn't tell her. Why?
On the birth of the Empire, Order 66 had been carried out due to the claims of the Jedi wanting to take over the Senate. There had been assassination attempt on Palpatine by the Jedi. It was reported that it was Anakin Skywalker who saved the soon-to-be Emperor. The reports went on to say that it was Skywalker who led troops into the Jedi Temple on Coruscant to purge the new-found Empire of the evil Jedi.
Ahsoka couldn't believe the news when she heard it. There was no way her master would have betrayed the Order like that. Yet as Ahsoka had joined Organa, she heard reports from surviving Jedi of the purge. They said they had indeed witnessed Skywalker killing off the Jedi in the temple including younglings.
The reports went on to say that Skywalker, the one true loyal Jedi, went to Mustafar and killed the Separatists leaders. He had officially and finally ended the war. However, it was there that Skywalker met with his old master Kenobi. The two dueled, Skywalker was killed and Kenobi escaped. The new Emperor publicly mourned the loss of Skywalker, calling him a great ally to the Empire.
Ahsoka could clearly recalled watching the hologram of the robed Emperor standing on a balcony in Coruscant giving the speech. The Emperor then called forth for not only the head of Kenobi, but for all Jedi. He said the Jedi were corrupted and no longer to be trusted after killing off the beloved hero who had ended the war and saved the Emperor's life.
If Anakin was still alive, then he could clear his name! From what Ahsoka had gathered from the message between Organa and Mothma, Anakin was in hiding with Master Obi-Wan and Yoda. Clearly Obi-Wan hadn't killed Anakin. A great sense of relief spread through Ahsoka. She always knew it had been lies of the Empire about Anakin.
So why was this Darth Vader hunting down Anakin? Ahsoka thought. Well if he shows up alive, and against the Empire that might not look all that good. He was the posterboy hero and martyr of the Empire. The Emperor can't put a public bounty on his head.
Ahsoka couldn't help but wondering why Anakin was still in hiding. Why wasn't he working with Organa in his rebel cells? He was an ace pilot and commander. Even if he was under disguise, his talents would be very useful. Ahsoka wondered if there was a piece to all of this she was missing. What had actually happened to Anakin on the birth of the Empire?
Regardless Ahsoka found a new reason to delve into her job. When Anakin was ready to come out of hiding, she would be ready. If he was to come back out publicly, she would be there with him to reveal the lies of the Empire.