POV: Ahsoka Tano
His arms wound around me tightly. This was the exact same hug that he had given me when I woke up on Mortis. He never did tell me what happened then…
I wrapped my arms around him, pulling him closer. Tears began to fall onto my lek and shoulder. He squeezed me tighter as his shoulders shook with his sobs. His had stroked my rear lek lightly. "Master, I'm okay," I whispered.
He pulled back slowly, tears streaking his cheeks. His eyes held so much sadness, but I could see just a hint of happiness. "I thought I lost you," he whispered, his voice breaking as he spoke.
I smiled at him, raising my eye markings. "You didn't honestly think you could get rid of me that easily, did you, Master?"
He laughed, sitting back with one knee bent. He raised his hands to his face, wiping the tears away. He smiled weakly at me, shaking his head. "I don't want to get rid of you."
I moved forward, crawling between his legs. I rested my body against him, laying my head on his shoulder. I threw one arm over his stomach. He circled his arms around me.
I wasn't sure how long we sat like this, but I couldn't keep my eyes off of him. He couldn't either. He smiled and laughed lightly. "I don't want to lose you, Ahsoka…"
More tears rolled down his muddied face. I reached my hand up, stroking his cheek lightly. "I'm sorry for falling into his trap, Master."
All his seriousness returned. "This was not your fault. You have nothing to apologize for. I pushed you into leading the way…"
"The roles would have been reversed, Master. You know that I'd always give my life for you."
He had no idea how much I meant that. If he were in trouble, I'd offer to take his place. He always rescues my life. The moment that I will always remember is when Bane was about to throw me out of the airlock. His expression was so pained as Bane threatened my life. "I can't let you die, Ahsoka…"
"Are you okay?" he whispered, bringing me back to reality.
"I'm fine. The sooner we get away from his body, the better I'll feel."
He chuckled. "Yeah, I agree."
I could see the haunted look in his eyes as he glanced toward the Senator's body. I couldn't bring myself to look with him because it was rather disturbing. He reached out his hands, pulling out lightsabers into them. He hooked his lightsaber onto his belt, handing me mine.
He held onto me as he pushed himself up. "Come on, Snips."
He started to leave the way we had come. He didn't seem as alert as he had been upon our arrival. I ran to catch up with him, gripping his hand. "Don't leave me," I whispered.
He held my hand tighter. "You better keep up if you don't want to be left behind," he said, smirking.
We exited the stronghold without any problems. We stepped out, rain hitting our bodies once more. "We need to find some way off of this planet…"
He glanced around and I followed his gaze. He glanced at a landing platform with a small Separatist ship on it. "And there is our way off. We just need to tell the Admiral that it's us and not a Seppie," he laughed. He pulled me alongside him as we ran to the ship.
He forced the ramp to lower. Several droids were standing at the top, talking. "Jedi!" one screeched, turning towards us.
"You always lead us into something, Skyguy…"
"Zip it, Snips," he sighed, pulling his lightsaber into his hands, igniting it. He sliced through the droids with no problem. "Don't trash the parts," he called back to me as he ran to the cockpit.
I rolled my eyes, smiling. He'd been working on several small projects during our long missions. He hasn't had a chance to continue them as of recently though. He'd actually been trying to build a spare mechanical arm should the current one ever get damaged…
I found a small pack in a storage closet and began to put the smaller – or in his words, 'useful' – parts into it. I carried the pack into the cockpit, taking a seat in the empty seat beside him. "Everything okay, Master?"
"It will be when we get out of here."
The ship rocked through the atmosphere because of the storm, but not as much as our transport had. This ship was meant to fly though such a storm.
We left the atmosphere to see the Resolute hovering above us. He pressed several buttons until he opened a link. "Unidentified ship, please state your name and business."
"This is General Skywalker and Commander Tano. We could like to board, Admiral willing."
"Opening the hatch now, sir."
He closed the link and turned to me, smirking. "What?" I laughed.
"Who gets the first shower?"
"Me," I chuckled. "You take too long most of the time. What do you do that takes that long?"
"I just enjoy the water," he shrugged. "It's nice after a really difficult mission."
He steadily flew into the hangar bay, landing. We stood and he allowed me to head off first. We stepped off of the ship and were met by Admiral Yularen. "Might I ask what happened to your transport ship, sir?"
He frowned. "It blew up." He continued passed the Admiral, dragging me behind him.
"And the Senator?"
My Master stopped in his tracks, his mechanical fingers clenching around my wrist. I bit my lip, trying not to cry out in pain. "He's dead."
"Shall I inform –?"
"I've got it, Admiral. Thank you."
The Admiral nodded, walking away from us. Blood was coming out of my lip now. I whimpered quietly, drawing the unwanted attention of my Master. His expression softened and his grip loosened around my wrist, completely falling away. "I didn't mean to hurt you…"
With my other hand, I wiped the small tears away. "It's okay."
He put his hand on my back, leading me out of the hangar and into a secluded hallway. He gripped my shoulders, bending down slightly to level with my eyes. "Don't tell me it's okay when it's not."
I smiled weakly at him, growing worried though as he inspected my wrist. I bit my lip again. He glanced up at me, raising his eyebrow. "I'm no medical droid, but I think you're just a little too secretive when it comes to injuries. Did you break your wrist?"
I looked away from him. "I can feel the fractures, Ahsoka. Talk to me or I'll be forced to take you to the medbay."
"Master, please… please, promise me that you won't get upset."
His eyebrows rose again. "I promise?" I could hear the question in his voice, but I kind of wanted to tell him. I'd hid this from him for so long…
"You… when you're upset…" I glanced up at him, seeing anger flash through his eyes. "Master, no!" I screamed as his slammed his fist – luckily, the mechanical one – against the durasteel wall.
POV: Anakin Skywalker
My mechanical hand began to vibrate after it hit the wall. "Master!" she screamed again, her voice pleading. She gripped my wrist before I could hurl it at the wall again. "You promised you wouldn't get upset!"
"Why did you keep this from me?" I asked, gripping her shoulder.
"I didn't want you to worry about me…"
I gaped at her. "Ahsoka, you almost died today. You know how much I worry about you regardless of the situation. I believe that telling me that I broke your wrist is important. When did I do this?"
"Almost… almost a year ago, Master…"
"You hid this from me… for a year?" I shouted. "What else aren't you telling me?"
She flinched when I raised my voice, stepping back. I sighed, rubbing the bridge of my nose. "I'm sorry," she whispered. I heard small sobs erupting from her.
I turned quickly, pulling her against my chest. Her hands rested on my chest, tightly gripping my vest.
"I'm sorry for snapping. You were only trying to prevent this, Ahsoka." I pulled back slowly, leveling my eyes with hers. "I'm always worried about you…"
She wiped her eyes, trying to keep herself from crying again. I noticed a little pool of blood on her lip. I raised my hand and, with my thumb, wiped the blood away. Despite her best efforts, she continued to cry. With my other hand, I stroked the side of her face, wiping the tears away as they fell.
"I don't want to hurt you," I whispered. She stared up at me, a small glimmer of hope in her eyes. What was she hoping for? "I never will again."
She smiled as I wiped away the final traces of her tears. "I knew you would worry, so I chose to keep the pain to myself. I was still able to fight to the best of my ability. I also know that you'd never intentionally hurt me. You care too much about the people closest to you."
"I hope you know that you're one of those people," I smiled.
She came closer, pressing her body against mine. "I'm glad to be one of them, Master." Her hands rested on my hips and she gave off such a wave of joy.
"All right, Snips," I chuckled. "Go hit the shower."
I heard her sigh as she let go. "Is there something else that you want to tell me?"
"Not –" she sighed again. "Master, what are we going to tell the Council?"
I rubbed her cheek. "You let me handle that, okay? I'm going to give the report after we settle on Coruscant."
"I'll go with you."
"I'd rather you didn't. Not this time, Snips."
"Why?"
The only reason I didn't want her to come with me was because I could feel the scolding about attachments coming. Obi-Wan always upset me with those talks. I did not need it from the Council. I opened my mouth to speak just as my comlink beeped. I sighed. "Skywalker."
"General," Admiral Yularen's voice boomed. "Shall we set course for Coruscant?"
"Yes, Admiral. Jump to lightspeed and contact me when we arrive."
"Yes, sir."
I closed the connection and looked up to see Ahsoka out of sight. I put my face in my palm, sighing. I began to head down the halls until I reached our shared quarters. I heard the shower water running, so I relaxed onto the floor. I just lay on my back, staring at the ceiling.
I closed my eyes, backtracking to Mortis. "You're growing too attached to her," Obi-Wan whispered to me on the way back.
He was so right…
Fighting Ahsoka had been the hardest thing I've ever done. I didn't want to do it, but I wouldn't just allow her to kill me. It had been so hard to control the anger and sadness that overwhelmed me while fighting her and after the Son stole her life. I felt so satisfied when I ran him through…
I felt so much better about myself when she was resurrected. I had been – "Master?"
I opened my eyes, turning my head to see my Togruti Padawan wrapped in a towel. Her lekku were still dripping. "Yeah, Snips?"
"Why are you on the floor?"
"Just relaxing." I groaned as I stretched my arms. My wrist snapped a bit, but that was normal, I guess.
I pushed myself up off of the floor. "All right, Snips. I'm going to get in. You get dressed."
I passed her and I couldn't help but notice how nice she smelled. It was similar to one of Padme's perfumes.
I smiled, shaking my head as I entered the refresher. I removed my gloves, staring at the wedding ring. "I'll always love you, Ani." I slid it off, placing it beside the gloves.
I stripped the remainder of my clothes, stepping into the shower. I turned the hot water on, moaning as it washed over my body. It never seemed to matter how hot the water got. In fact, the hotter, the better. One time, my skin was almost similar to Ahsoka's…
I smiled, remembering how she almost collapsed when she saw me.
I washed myself, finishing shortly after. I let the water wash over my stiff back, beginning to relax. I heard a knock on the door. "Master, are you almost done?"
"Yeah, one minute, Snips," I called out.
I made sure there was nothing left in my hair before I turned the water off. I stepped out, grabbing the spare towel, wrapping it around my waist. I walked out to see her sitting on my bed, staring down at the floor. She lifted her head, frowning. "Give me a minute to get dressed, and then we'll talk, okay?"
She nodded. I walked over to my pack beside her, pulling my outfit out. I glanced at her shaking legs. "Wow, whatever you have to say is really getting to you."
"Hurry up, Master," she said, growing impatient.
I quickly walked back into the refresher, dressing myself. It only took a minute. I locked my belt around my waist, slid my ring back onto my finger, and pulled both gloves on. Now for those stubborn boots…
Oddly enough, they weren't that difficult today. I walked back out to sit beside her. "What's on your mind?"
She leaned against me. "You've had some close calls in the past. How do you stay so strong and controlled after coming near your end?"
That was a really tough question. "Well," I paused, trying to form something that might explain why I am the way I am. "I push it out of my mind. I know that I have important people to save or protect. I have to keep everyone alive and I can't let something like my own death stop me."
"Would my death stop you?"
She stared up at me, biting her lip again. I closed my eyes. "Your death would kill me. I don't know what I'd do, Ahsoka. You and I have grown so close. Losing you…" I felt tears brimming in my eyes. I pictured her paled face, the blank eyes. "I can't imagine my life without you…"
I opened my eyes, seeing her staring at me with tears in her eyes as well. I wound my arms around her. "You mean the galaxy to me, Ahsoka."
I felt her happiness wash into me as she hugged me. It was such a nice feeling. It was something I rarely felt now. Padme and Ahsoka made up the stars of my universe. They were the beautiful twin suns of Tatooine…
