Chapter 2

Meanwhile on the star destroyers:

"Admiral, we've lost the hunting vessel." Said an imperial officer.

"I can see that captain. I am displeased with this and the Emperor will not be so pleased either."

"I don't see why he's so determined to catch that refugee anyway. Why is she so significant?" the captain asked.

The admiral turned to face the captain. "He has reason to believe she's force sensitive; and quite strong with the force at that. He had a minor encounter with her when we were installing sectors on Minska. Thanks to your failures captain, I shall have to report to the Emperor and inform him. The admiral went into the communication deck to contact him. Soon a hologram of Emperor Palpatine appeared in front of the admiral.

"Admiral Ducken. I hope your report is much more satisfying this time." The Emperor informed him.

Admiral Ducken swallowed then spoke. "Well our intelligence unit informed us that she boarded a hunting vessel back on Minska. I had all reason to believe that was the vessel. But it took off into light speed and we have no leads as to where it's headed."

"I suggest starting with all of the big game hunting systems in the outer rim. Inform our intelligence unit to keep an eye out for that vessel. Once you've found it, let me know and I shall send one of my trainees out to capture her. Lord Vader must not know about this one Admiral."

"I understand my lord." The admiral bowed to the Emperor and signed off. "Captain, inform our intelligence to keep all eyes and ears out for a hunting vessel that should dock in the big game territories." And with that order, they put in the request.

"Don't worry Admiral, we sent a fighter after it. As long as it was able to keep up, we'll know exactly where it lands." Stated one of the captains.

Meanwhile on Malachor:

The Emperor walked down the corridor of the Sith temple. When he came up to one of the residing chambers, he opened the chamber door; there was a man in a cape sitting on the floor. "Arise Darth Zevann. I have an assignment for you." The Emperor demanded.

Darth Zevann stood up. His skin was as white as snow, his eyes were mostly yellow, he wore deep purple body armor, black pants and a long black cape. "Yes master. Is this the padawan?" He asked. He turned around to face the Emperor and followed him out of the chamber.

"Yes. I feel that Lord Vader must be relieved of this assignment. He will be too close for this one. We must eliminate her before he finds out that she's alive. And she must not find out that he is her former master either.

"How will I find her master?"

"Admiral Ducken's intelligence unit will be searching for a low quality hunting vessel from the days of the clone wars." The Emperor mentioned. "It can't be too hard to find."

"Am I to go out to Admiral Ducken's fleet?"

"Yes. And waste no more time. The balance of the force shall soon be in our hands." The Emperor said with an evil smile on his face.

"Shall I take my apprentice?"

"It's not necessary. Now go Darth Zevann."

And Darth Zevann left Malachor in his shuttle and headed to the coordinates where Admiral Ducken's fleet was residing.

As the shuttle came closer to the ship, the men onboard became a little afraid.

"Admiral, why is Darth Zevann coming here?" men were asking

"I don't know! I don't know!" He said as he was getting frustrated. Darth Zevann went up to the bridge and was approaching Admirla Ducken. "Darth Zevann, what a pleasure it is."

"Spare me the insincere greetings Admiral. I am here to make sure you don't screw this up again. Now send your cadets to fetch me something refreshing." He demanded as he sat down in the control chair.

"Yes sir." Admiral Ducken agreed with fear. Then he nodded to his captain.

"Admiral, there's a transmission coming through from the fighter we sent out." Called an officer.

Darth Zevann stood up and walked over to the receiver where this man was sitting. "Finally! This intelligence unit needs work Admiral."

"Calling from coordinates 32234x44559, it appears they are headed to the Doraff system." Said a trooper from the fighter.

"Which planet?" Admiral Ducken asked.

"Not quite sure Admiral. Shall I follow them?"

"No!" remarked Darth Zevann. "Allow me this time Admiral. This job needs to be done with discretion and you're too messy."

"Very well sir." Admiral Ducken confirmed, it was anything to get Darth Zevann off his bridge.

Jem walked into the comfort quarters where Ahsoka was resting. "So, I'm beginning to think that there's more to you than just being a Jedi although that's still kind of a big deal. Where did you learn to fly like that?" Jem asked

Ahsoka looked at him. "Well I was the padawan of the greatest pilot in the galaxy."

Jem walked over to the table and sat down and crossed his arms. "Really? Do you know if he's still alive?" Jem asked.

At first Ahsoka was a little upset that he even asked that since pretty much all of the Jedi were killed but she lightened up before she spoke. "I… I have no idea. I've tried to reach out to him in the force and couldn't find a connection."

Jem could tell she was a little stressed and upset. He got up and sat beside her and he was possibly going to put his arm around her. But she appeared to resist him at first. He put his hands up and backed away. "Okay, I'm sorry! I've got other things to do anyway, like making sure Borra doesn't fly us into a black hole or something." He pointed at the cockpit and walked away.

Ahsoka felt a little bad that she pushed Jem away the way she did. She thought about Barriss and how she hadn't had anyone to confide in and that is most likely what lead her down a dark path. Also, no one within the order ever reached out to Barriss, to listen to her complaints and answer her questions. Ahsoka got up from the table and headed to the cockpit.

She walked past the kitchen and saw Borra in there cleaning. When she walked into the cockpit, there was Jem at the controls. She slowly approached the copilot position and she sat down. "Look, I'm sorry Jem. I haven't really been able to put my trust in a lot of people lately." She stated.

Jem looked at her but didn't really say anything.

"So, he's your cook then?" Ahsoka asked trying to break the tension.

"Eh, more or less. Right now I got him doing dishes." Jem said jokingly.

Ahsoka smiled and him and he smiled at her. "Hey that looks good." Jem said.

Ahsoka looked confused; "what looks good?" She asked.

"That smile." Jem said. "That's the first time you've smiled at me ever since I met you." Jem stated although he still didn't know her name.

She smiled again and just rolled her eyes. She really didn't want to become attached to anyone at this point. She was trying to work through some of this though.

"Well, we're coming up on Doraff." Jem stated. "By the way, what's your name?"

"Oh, me? I'm A… Ahsoka Tano." She said cautiously.
"Well Ahsoka Tano; you can relax a little, you're among friends now!" Jem implied. He got up out of his seat. "And if you don't mind landing the ship, I need to go have a word with the cook." He said grinning as he walked out of the cockpit.

Ahsoka flawlessly landed the ship on a landing pad. There was so much commotion going on around them; droids, people, speeders driving around and other machinery walking and drifting about the place. Ahsoka took a second to get herself prepared for what could possibly happen. Like so many times before, she put her hands to her hips as if to grab her lightsabers, but of course, they were gone and she hadn't formed new ones.

Jem popped his head in the cockpit door; "Hey, are you coming?" he asked.

Ahsoka shook her head to refocus. "Um… yes, I'll be right out." She answered. She saw three people making their way towards the ship, two darker skinned girls and a guy younger than Jem by several years. He had a little bit of a limp to him. She wondered who they were. At first she felt a little uncomfortable at the idea of meeting new people, but not so bad once she saw Jem run in their direction. He gave all three of them a hug which persuaded her to go down.

"Man, this was an interesting trip for sure! Come over here, you gotta meet someone!" Jem told them with excitement. All four of them rushed over to the ship where Ahsoka was coming off of. "AHSOKA!" Jem called running back in her direction with the three individuals following behind. "This is the rest of my crew, well, sort of. This is Nadoe, he's my cousin who was injured in a hunting accident two years ago."

Nadoe wacked Jem on the shoulder. "Don't worry, I can still hunt and am a much better shot than this guy here!" Nadoe said in reference to Jem. Then he put his arm around the smaller of the two girls. "This is Miara and her sister Kaeden." Nadoe stated finishing the introductions.

"I haven't seen a Togruta in such a long time!" Kaeden declared with excitement.

Ahsoka nodded and smiled at her.

"Well, you guys got back just in time. Ahsoka, you look like you could use a good full meal." Nadoe mentioned. "Follow us, the senator is hosting a feast for all of the intros in flight school. And Miara has just joined up herself." Nadoe stated looking down at Miara.

"You have no idea how good that sounds." Ahsoka mentioned. And with that, Nadoe, Miara, Borra, and Ahsoka headed towards the mess hall.

Jem was watching them as they walked off, primarily Ahsoka. He was fond of her.

Kaeden also stood there waiting for Jem to stop staring off into space. She gave him a light punch on the arm which alerted him.

"Ouch!" Jem yelled and looked at Kaeden. And she just stared at him with wide eyes. "What? I like her!" Jem stated.

"Yeah I can see why!" Kaeden chimed.

"Hey, back off Kaeden." Jem said with a smile and giving Kaeden a gentle shove as he began to follow the others who were a good distance ahead of them. Kaeden ran behind and lightly punched his arm again, then took off to catch up with the others. "Ouch!" He yelled intentionally loud enough for Kaeden to hear. He smiled and ran to catch up with them.

Nadoe led Ahsoka to Kaeden's room to settle into for the moment. "You can stay with Kaeden for now if that's alright." He stated.

"I suppose it's fine." Ahsoka said with a little concern. She didn't really have anything with her but she did leave her muddy cloak on the ship. And she didn't have anything clean to wear to this feast. And she wasn't sure how to feel about being surrounded by so many close nit people again. She had been on her own for about 4 years.

"Knock knock!" came a voice at the door.

"Um, come in?" Ahsoka questioned.

The door opened and it was Kaeden who was holding some sort of garment.

"It's Kaeden right?" Ahsoka asked.

"Yep! Kaeden Larte at your service!"

Ahsoka chuckled, "there's no need for that" She said politely.

Kaeden threw the garment on the bed and looked Ahsoka up and down. "You should get cleaned up for the feast. I have a shower in there." She mentioned pointing to a wash room. "And you can wear this to the feast. The senator told me to give it to you." Kaeden added.

Ahsoka looked a little confused. "The senator knows I'm here?"

"Jem told him and that you were covered in mud. What's that about anyway?" Kaeden questioned.

Ahsoka chuckled, "long story." She said as she grabbed the garment which was a long blue and white skirt and a white top attached. The skirt went all the way down to her feet, it wasn't exactly her style, but it was clean and that's all she cared about at that moment. She looked in a mirror and couldn't believe what she saw. She wasn't dirty, she didn't feel starved, she didn't feel quite as alone as she did just a few hours ago. She looked nice enough in the new clothes. She took a second to take a deep breath and began a meditation. She could feel less and less of her old Jedi comrades through the force. It really made her feel uneasy, but she decided to stay in the here and now. She knew there must be a purpose to her current situation, she just didn't know what it would lead to. She heard a knock on the door.

"Ahsoka? We should go on down." Kaeden stated from the other side of the door.

The two girls met up with Nadoe and Miara in the barracks hallway and headed down a large flight of stairs. The barracks were crawling with people most likely heading to the same place as they.

"You look nice Ahsoka!" Stated Miara.

Ahsoka nodded at her and smiled. "Thanks!" she added. "It's been a long time since I wore clean clothes." The three of them kept walking towards the mess hall where the feast was taking place. "So, who is this senator?"

Nadoe chimed in. "Oh he's not really a senator anymore, he was during the clone wars though. But he formed a bit of a rebellion against the Empire. That's what these barracks are for; this whole base even."

Ahsoka knew many senators in the clone wars and she began to ponder who it might be. None of them really seemed like the type to form any kind of rebellion against anything.

As they approached the mess hall doors, they could see Jem and Borra were there waiting for them. Jem ran over to greet them. "Took you long enough!" He said sarcastically to Nadoe. Then he looked at Ahsoka. "Wow! Don't you look nice!" he said kindly. "anyway, follow me, I have our seats saved."

Ahsoka blushed a little bit at the compliment.

"Oh, I need to go in another door for my class." Miara remembered. She took off running to join her flight classmates.

Ahsoka was a little impressed that this rebellion had an entire school just for learning to become a pilot. It was becoming clear that this was an organized rebellion. She heard of other rumors of rebellions forming but they all but fell apart before they began to do any real damage to the Empire. This was becoming a cause that Ahsoka could support. She was thinking that she might want to become involved but she couldn't bring herself to the idea of more explosions, more shooting, and more trauma. She hadn't even gotten over the clone wars yet. It began to frighten her a little bit. She was sitting next to Jem whom she definitely trusted, she wanted to ask him how she could become involved, but he was currently talking to Nadoe.

"Gosh, does he ever stop talking?" Ahsoka asked Borra who was sitting across from her.

Borra shrugged his shoulders. He could tell Ahsoka wanted to ask Jem something so he picked up a piece of bread and threw it at Jem to get his attention.

Jem turned his head towards Borra and gave him an annoyed look and mouthed 'what' but didn't speak.

Borra just pointed at Ahsoka.

Jem turned to her and said "oh, what?" he was a little confused and felt bad as if he was ignoring Ahsoka.

She began to speak; "How do I become….." She was stopped by a voice coming over a sounding droid.

"Thanks everyone for joining us. Tonight we will introduce our new pilot academy students." Said the voice.

Ahsoka looked up to the front of the room where there was a man standing on a platform. She recognized him immediately. It was Senator Bail Organa. A surprised and excited look came over Ahsoka's face. "Senator Organa!" she muttered to herself.

Jem turned towards Ahsoka. "You know him?" he asked her.

"I do!" She answered with excitement. "He was my friend's mentor. She was also a senator. One of the most respected senators of the time. No telling what happened to her." Ahsoka mentioned as she lowered her head in sadness.

Jem put his arm around Ahsoka to comfort her as he could tell she was upset. They sat and listened to Bail's introduction.

"We are so thrilled to see a new generation of young pilots come into this age of rebellion, if only this rebellion wasn't necessary in the first place. I have no doubt that these new pilots, along with our experienced pilots, we shall overthrow the Empire and bring an end to it!" Bail said this all with utmost confidence. "Now let's introduce the new students."

He introduced all of the new students including Miara. There were so many, and they were so young. A lot of them were younger than Ahsoka. In a way she felt bad for them because she knew that some wouldn't make it. This was a dark place that Ahsoka rarely visited in her mind. But there was a part of her that wanted to be as much help to them as possible.

After the feast, they were all heading back to the barracks. They each entered into their rooms. Jem turned to Ahsoka, and she to him. "I could mention that you're here. I had no idea you were involved in politics at all as Jedi." Jem mentioned to her.

"Oh, I really wasn't, at least not too much." She began to think of Lux Bonteri whom she hadn't seen since the battle of Onderon. "But, I'd really appreciate it!" She said with excitement.

"Alright meet me out here in the hall early at first light." Jem said as he smiled and turned to head towards his room.

Ahsoka smiled back at him and turned to go into Kaeden's room.

Kaeden was sitting up on the bed. "So…. who gets the bed?" she asked.

Ahsoka chuckled, "Oh I can take the floor. Let's just say I'm used to it." She began to make herself comfortable on the floor with blankets and pillows. She put on a night gown that Kaeden had lent her. "So, how do you know Jem?" She asked.

"Well, that's a long story. When my home planet of Raada was being invaded by the empire, Jem, Borra, and Nadoe took us with them. Jem is like a brother to us both. Ya know, that brother who constantly teases you but would never let anything bad happen to you." Kaeden said with a big smile on her face.

Ahsoka smiled. "Yes, I know the type." She thought back again to the clone wars, the first time she ever met her former master. It was more of a happy memory for her despite all that had happened.

"You like him don't you?" Kaeden asked Ahsoka with a suggestive look in her eyes.

"What! Not necessarily." She said defensively.

"MM HMM, sure." Kaeden reacted.

Ahsoka blushed a bit but Kaeden didn't see that. Ahsoka then laid down on the floor and tried to fall asleep. But she couldn't, all she could think about was getting to talk to Bail Organa for the first time in several years. She was excited yet nervous. She had so many questions. Perhaps she could get closure on somethings. But then she began to think about everything she had to do. If she was going to become more involved, then she would probably need new lightsabers, this could be her chance to form new ones. She stared up at the ceiling thinking about how she was going to get back to Illum. So much was going through her mind.

Darth Zevann landed on planet 4 in the Doraff system. This planet had a communication station that was used by the republic during the early days of the Clone wars. The rebellion had control of it for the time being. He drew his lightsaber which was a deeper red than most Sith sabers and it had a low pitch hum. He sliced through the door and rebel officers were alarmed. He force choked one of them while the another tried to run out a different door. Zevann through his lightsaber at him slashing him through the shoulder. He dropped the officer he chocked and caught his saber in his hands and slowly walked toward the last officer who was reaching for his blaster. The officer shot several times and Darth Zevann deflected each shot with his lightsaber. Then with three slashes, he took the officer out. He sat down at the control panel and began adjusting the satellites to look for a signal. He short circuited the waves so they weren't long range as he needed to scan the nearby planets in the system to see which planet Ahsoka was on. He got up and went outside the control station. He released 6 drones. One to each planet in the system except the one he was already on. He went back inside and sat down at the control center. "Alright my old Jedi comrade, I shall find you." He muttered to himself.