Chapter 36
Hate
Ahsoka combed through her own mind, trying to separate out her own memories from the Force induced false ones. It didn't take her long to realize just how much this Darth Nadir had been invading her mind, subtly and secretly, long before she hit her head in the crash and became vulnerable to his intrusion.
In fact, when retracing her memories leading up to the crash, she realized that it was him who blanketed her in darkness and caused her to crash the ship into the asteroid. She wandered farther back and found little spots of dark side tampering in her mind. It looked like Nadir had subconsciously helped her pick out the direction to point the ship when it had jumped to hyperspace.
He had planned all of this.
Ahsoka knew that she couldn't simply rip his influence out. It was too deeply ingrained, and too strong. It would damage her mind to do so.
But she could figure out what he did to keep her here in these caves.
She started at the beginning. She was on the ship. She thought she heard Rex's voice, and followed it. She walked along the canyon, dropped down into an opening in the ground...
And there it was. Nadir had made her think that she was merely walking into a cave entrance in the cliff face, when the entrance was actually a hole in the ground. Ahsoka stood up and walked back to where she had thought the entrance was. She looked up.
And saw hints of daylight.
"No!" screamed the voice in her head, "You cannot leave! I forbid it! It is the will of the Force that you are here! I am Darth Nadir, I cannot die!"
The ancient Sith Lord was out of control, and losing his grip on her. He lashed out, and Ahsoka felt immense pain and pressure. She summoned every bit of the Force that she had in her, but his attack broke through her defenses. The entire left side of her body felt like it was on fire, and the right felt like it was freezing.
But she didn't scream in pain. She didn't fall down. She just stood there.
"There is nothing you can do to me other than to play with my senses," she said. "You cannot truly harm me. Not even in this place."
Ignoring the pain, ignoring the pressure in her head, ignoring the fact that she felt like her entire body was going to crumble into dust, she reached into the Force and leapt upwards. She grabbed onto the edges of the hole in the ceiling of the cave and climbed up.
She heard Ylenic's voice, just like in the vision that Nadir had shown her. "I suggest you walk away from this. I will be taking Nat with me."
"I don't think so, Jedi. I may not be a bounty hunter, but I am a hunter of profitable enterprises. And right now, Jedi are one of the most profitable enterprises in the galaxy. Neither of you will be leaving here."
"Nat, stay behind me," Ylenic instructed. Nat used a Force-enhanced leap to land behind Ylenic.
"Does there really need to be all this unnecessary bloodshed?" Hondo said, "I am willing to negotiate a peaceful resolution to all of this. As long as it ends with you and the boy in my cargo hold, I am more than capable of being peaceful. But if you take another step away from here, I am afraid I will have to order my men to open fire."
"Then do what you must, pirate. The boy and I are leaving."
One of the pirates twitched his trigger finger as Ylenic started to step back, and a green blade snapped into existence in front of him, deflecting the bolt into the canyon wall. Immediately another bolt flashed from a vantage point at the top of the canyon, and the pirate fell. A curl of smoke rose from a hole in the pirate's shoulder.
Behind the two Jedi, a second lightsaber blade snapped into existence, this one shimmering silver. "Well, well. How many Jedi are there today?" said Hondo. "Men, blasters are useless against a Jedi. Don't shoot at them."
"A wise decision," said Ahsoka.
Hondo whirled around to face her. "Ah, Ahsoka. So good of you to show up."
"You can't take all of us out quickly enough, Hondo. Even if you aim at the walls." Ahsoka separated her lightsaber hilt into two and lifted them in front of her. "Also, there's this."
She turned the sabers on, and in the illumination he could see a thermal detonator, floating in front of her. "I snagged this from one of your men. Right now it's set on a timer." The detonator floated down a hole at Ahsoka's feet. "There are tunnels under this canyon. I just spent a little bit of time exploring them. One of them runs right under where you landed your ship. That's where the thermal detonator is. As soon as I let go of the trigger, the timer will start. Oh, and there are some nasty unstable crystals there that will explode with a lot of force if they get set off."
Hondo looked at his men and saw one of them with an empty grenade pouch on his belt. "Tek, how long did you have the timer set on your thermal detonator?"
"Um... I think it was thirty seconds, boss."
Hondo threw his hands up in the air. "You Jedi somehow always manage to find a way to make the most profitable of ventures completely unprofitable."
"Then I'll simplify negotiations. You leave. You leave us alone. Jedi aren't profitable. Not for you, not for anyone."
"I give up! You heard the Jedi, men. Everyone back on board. We take off immediately!" The pirates quickly grabbed their equipment, and the one that had been knocked unconscious by Ylenic was dragged onto the ship. As the ship powered up, Hondo stood at the end of the ramp and raised a hand. "You are so right, little Ahsoka. You Jedi continually manage to baffle my bank accounts. I can't say it's been a pleasure. But it is nice to know that you survived the Jedi purges."
Ahsoka gave a wry half-grin, "Yeah, sure. It was nice to know you survived through the Clone Wars too, Hondo. Now get out of here before I lose my Force grip on that explosive."
The ramp closed, and the saucer shaped ship rocketed away.
"Ahsoka!" yelled Nat. "We were so worried about you! Where did you go?"
"It's a long story, Nat. But first... let's get the Whipclaw up and running. I've still got a grip on an explosive that I can't even see right now, and I wasn't kidding about how volatile some of the things underground are."
He nodded and ran up the ship's ramp. A moment later, she heard the engines powering up. "Do you think you two could help speed things up?" she said to Bollux and Ylenic. "I really am worried that I might drop this thing."
While she waited for the ship to finish powering up, the voice of Darth Nadir echoed in her skull. "You can't kill me! You can't destroy my work! I am the beginning and the end. I am the rightful ruler of the entire galaxy! I am Darth Nadir!"
"You are an echo. And you've been around too long."
She walked up the ship's ramp, slowly. Slowly, keeping focus on her Force grip, she made her way to the cockpit. "Lift off as soon as you're ready. Use repulsorlifts only if you have to. I can't hold on much longer."
Ylenic was at the controls, and he lifted the ship up. It floated up, and he guided it over to the small dip in the landscape that the Red Drexl was hidden in. Halfway there, Ahsoka lost her grip on the small detonator.
Twelve seconds later, the earth shook, and the canyon collapsed in on itself. Gouts of blue light squirted up between the rocks, then dissipated. Apparently Hondo's crewman had set a much shorter timer than he had thought.
Through the haze of the dark side that enveloped this world, Ahsoka could feel six souls, finally becoming one with the Force.
Author's note: I'm glad everybody bore with me when I was working on NaNo. So far my book is only 7/8ths done, just finished chapter 14 of 16. I've got two more chapters to try to finish by the end of the week, and I work retail so this week is gonna be NUTS. Still, I hit 71,000 words last night so I'm fairly happy with what I've done so far.