Chapter 29

Ahsoka's heart raced as she and Witt practically threw themselves down the miles and miles of endless stairs that led down and away from the temple. Kriff. She should've realised this earlier; Briseis should've been the first person she visited; the girl was unpredictable and strange, and that should've been enough of reason to be concerned about her – to want to keep a closer eye on her. Force, she was thick sometimes – how could she have forgotten about her?

The pair had already searched everywhere for her: the library, the canteen, the meditation rooms, even her own room; but she was nowhere. After an hour of fruitless search they had been forced to come to the realisation that she wasn't in the temple anymore and that led them to one conclusion: she'd responded to the call.

Ahsoka cursed again as she nearly tripped over herself in her haste to get down the stairs. This was all her fault – she should've kept an eye on her – she shouldn't have left her. And know she could be anywhere, doing anything because of her.

Could things get any worse?

Apparently so…

Both of the Padawans froze as the icy tsunami of emptiness washed over them – leaving a painful sting in their spines. Ahsoka could put it akin to when your only source of light and warmth, in an otherwise freezing hellhole – like Hoth – was just extinguished, leaving you alone with the deathly elements.

She could liken it to someone turning off the light, when you were in a place so terrifying and horrible.

She could liken it to her Master – the Galaxy's only hope for this war – falling into the horrible depths of the dark side and leaving them with nothing and no-one to save them. Wait a minute…the first bit sounded familiar.

A strangled squeak erupted from her throat as she felt her, once kind and playful, mentor fall further than he ever had before; succumbing to the treacherous pull of the Sith, down in the deep black water. And Ahsoka could feel the dark watery seas of the darkside drowning the little bits of light that were still left in him. Soon, there would be no evidence – nothing to give away – that this thing was once Anakin Skywalker, the good in him was dying…and in was killing her with it.

"What was that?" Witt asked as he stared blankly into the distance, his eyes wide with pain and his brow furrowed. Of course, he couldn't pinpoint where this awful disturbance was coming from, he didn't have the bond with Anakin that she had, and had always treasured…until now. "It feels like somebody has just…dropped me in icy water."

"That's pretty much what has happened." Came Ahsoka's whispered reply. "My Master…he's…I..gone…Sith…echuta…not him, please not him. Not after everything I've gone through...no." Ahsoka was lost for words; she couldn't quite believe it herself. A few months ago, if someone came up to her and told her that Anakin Skywalker would fall to the darkness then she would've punched them in the face and not regretted it. How could the goofy, overbearing idiot that was Anakin Skywalker ever be evil? Sure he had a mean streak – everyone knew that – but he was essentially a good man. How had this happened?

Her legs buckled underneath her as the waves of the darkside washed over her – forcing their way into her still weakened mind - through her bond with her Master. He was calling for her; she could feel it. The call rang through her head like a siren; loud, obnoxious and almost painful; though it grew more painful as he got closer and his call louder. She kept trying to shut herself off from him – to close her end of the bond – but he was too powerful, he just kept opening it, and the effort of closing and having it forced open again was tiring her.

"Leave me alone." Ahsoka shouted, aiming the command at her Master. "Stop it! You're hurting me. Master, please."

She knew he wouldn't stop, not until she answered him, but she dare not out of pure fear of losing herself in the darkness that swamped his end of their connection. She didn't know how well she'd be able to fight of the darkness if she allowed him to open his connection with her fully; it would engulf and drown her in its murky depths.

But…it burned so bad. Her head burned so bad. He was trying to force his way in, and he wouldn't stop, and it hurt. And the pain grew and grew as his attempt to force his way in grew stronger and more powerful.

"Master, please." Ahsoka was aware of nothing but the way he forcefully tried to rip down her mental defences, and she hastily tried to rebuild them but he was too quick and too strong, and he was getting in. "It hurts, it hurts so much…please…stop."

Witt crouched next to the girl who was laid in the foetal position on the floor, with her arms wrapped around her head and her eyes scrunched shut in pain. He didn't know what to do. The boy bit her lip before he shook her a little; his brow furrowing as she didn't even notice his tight grip on her arm. "Tano, what's wrong?"

There was no response to his worried query. Ahsoka was lost within her own mind as she attempted to fight off the invasion – to no avail – and her Master seemed to be oblivious to the pain he was putting her through, he had no idea how his attack was decimating his Padawan's fragile mind.

Anakin was too lost within his own darkness to realise how much his attempts to force himself into her mind was torturing his little Padawan.

Witt put his hands on Ahsoka's temples and attempted to help her push out her invading mentor, but he recoiled as if struck when Anakin lashed out at his mentality and sent him flying out of Ahsoka's mind.

So much for that plan.

He put a shaky hand to his own head as it throbbed slightly from the violent way he was thrown out by Anakin; that was worrying. He didn't really know Anakin Skywalker – only what he'd heard in passing – but he could tell he wasn't the type to strike out at someone, not without good reason. So, when the Knight lashed out at him, he knew something was very wrong.

And the darkness…he shivered a little; the darkness that emancipated from the man's signature was terrifying – it was constricting and it had almost throttled him.

He looked to Ahsoka worriedly. What if Anakin really hurt her? Witt didn't want her dead or permanently damaged! He needed her, or else he'd end up being killed by those banthas in the organisation.

Witt became even more frantic when a trickle of blood streamed down from Ahsoka's nose - dripping rhythmically onto the duracrete steps beneath her, when the little trickle became heavier and erupted into a river of blood he knew he needed to do something.

But what? He was a Padawan, and if he thought he had any chance of going back in there and forcing Anakin Skywalker back then he had best take himself to the medbay now, to get a scan done on his brain in an attempt to locate the damage causing these delusions. But, he couldn't sit by and watch her in so much pain. Sure, he didn't particularly like her but that didn't mean he wanted her to die from blood loss or something.

Ahsoka's eyes widened as images flashed through her mind; the temple burning, clone troopers stomping up the stairs in unison, her Master ruthlessly killing younglings. Her hands dug deeply – though she didn't notice – into her headtails, her fingernails scratching futilely as if she could use her nails to purge her mind of those awful images.

"They're coming." Ahsoka spoke with wide eyes and a glassy look in the blue orbs. "I can feel it. They're coming."

"Who's coming?" Witt was shaking her roughly in attempts to grab her attention.

Ahsoka whimpered as another attack on her mind rocked her, making her whole body spasm and jolt painfully. "Master…he's gonna kill me."

Witt made a scoff chortling sound and stood up, scowling at Ahsoka. "For goodness sake, you had me panicking there. I thought it was actually something important as opposed to whatever issues you two have."

"No. No." Ahsoka spoke quietly. "No, no, no. He will. He has clones. He's gonna k-kill everyone. Death. D-death. Death. I see it all i-in my head"

Witt crouched next to Ahsoka again, this time putting a gentler hand on her shoulder. He watched as she squeezed her eyes shut from the attack her Master relentlessly kept up.

"When?" He asked the twitching girl on the floor.

He grew frantic when he received no response and he shook her a little, his eyes glowing with fear. "When? Ahsoka, when?"

Her eyes flew open and she looked directly at him, though it seemed more like she was staring straight through him, and what was with that look in her eyes; a sort of hateful spark. It took him a few seconds to realise that Ahsoka's force signature had changed completely – it felt like her light had been shoved underneath blankets of darkness and hidden from view. But, what that meant, he did not know.

"When?" He asked her forcefully again, shaking her a little more this time. "When are they coming?"

He looked behind him as if he expected an entire legion to be behind him. When he looked back he jumped; Ahsoka's eyes were yellow. He shook her more, as if hoping he could shake her out of whatever Sith trance had taken her into its watery depths, but she only smiled darkly at him, her predatory teeth gleaming. Weren't they supposed to be poisonous or was that a myth? He couldn't remember "When?" He asked again.

Ahsoka's hand shot out and grabbed his wrist – tight and painful. He let out a hiss of pain as she stared up at him unseeingly, her blank eyes staring straight through him. "Now."

The next thing he became painfully aware of was the synchronised 'stomp-stomp' of feet, echoing loudly off the stone steps that led up to the temple. The young boy slowly twisted his head around and, like something out of a horror holo; Anakin Skywalker was ascending the steps, a murderous glare on his face as he led hundreds of clones into the temple.

"Follow me…" A hand shot out and gripped Witt's shoulder. "…if you want to live, that is."

The Padawan looked around at the figure, he eyes hard and suspicious; this wouldn't be the first time that the dodgy stranger in the hooded cloak was not a nice person.

They were short; that was the first thing to come to mind – not that much over 5 foot – and very gangly, their limbs seemed to hang off of them and, even though they were wearing a billowing cloak, he could tell they were essentially skin and bones. The cloak covered the person's androgynous figure but, judging by their voice, they were female – fairly young if he were to hazard a guess but older than him.

"Who are you?" Witt was horrifically alert to the approaching Sith and accompanying troopers, within seconds they would be in shooting range.

"I'm here to help; that's all I can say. And, if you don't come with me…he will kill you, and probably her too." That wasn't quite as informative an answer as Witt would've liked. Seeing his unwavering mistrust, the hooded person continued. "Look, you're most definitely gonna die here – how much worse could it get by following me?"

The little voice of reason in Witt's head reminded him that when people asked 'how worse it could get', the force took it as a challenge, and not a rhetorical question.

But, Witt couldn't help but agree with her statement. He looked down at Ahsoka – who had stopped thrashing around about the same time as her Master showed up – she was splayed out on the floor with her arms and legs at awkward angles, her breathing was slightly laboured and her eyes had long since closed. She was okay – he hoped – just knocked out.

The teenager knelt down and lifted the Togruta into his arms quickly – only a slight grunt escaping his mouth in protest – she was light but her limbs were in uncomfortable position and hung limply, if it were not for the rise and fall of her chest he would think her dead.

However, despite his calm demeanour, Witt knew that something was terribly wrong with his fellow Padawan – he couldn't help the feeling of unease that crept up on him.

Her Master had gone too far – and it was killing her. The worst part was that Anakin didn't realise the damage he was inflicting upon his student, so he didn't know to stop – or else there wouldn't be any Ahsoka left to save.

Yes, I know; I am the worst person on the planet. My friend has cancer and I had writers block and it's been a sucky few months – no excuse I know, I'm awful. But, it's finished all my exams and my studies are over so I have more time to write – whether I'll utilise it or not is another matter altogether. I'm gonna take my time on the next load of chapters because it's where it gets complicated and things start being explained, and you start getting answers, and I want to make sure I explain it properly without sounding patronising and spoon feeding every detail.

Thankyou for all being patient with me, I can't promise a quick update but I can promise I won't give up!