Chapter 55 – Upcoming Travels
This time it's been well over a year since I last updated this story. I just have too many different stories that I want to work on besides my two main ones. Oh well…
Finally back with an update. There won't be much action in this chapter yet, it serves to set up the events that are coming in the later chapters.
Hope you enjoy.
;-
"Alright everyone, that's the end of our lesson for now."
Ahsoka Tano smiled at the reaction she got from her class. After she and Aisha had come back from the younger's Akul hunt, she had decided to look into a promise she had made during the dinner party that her sisters had organized for her as thanks for saving Zaa Vashee from the Separatists. At that dinner, one of the guests had asked her if she could teach his young daughter a few things about the Force. She was Force-sensitive, but him and his wife hadn't wanted the Jedi to take her to the Temple. Now that she was a little older, her Force abilities caused some trouble from time to time. Because his daughter was slightly afraid she might do something bad, he had asked if Ahsoka could maybe teach her a few things.
Back then, she was still working to process everything that had happened to her on Coruscant. Teaching others wasn't something she could have easily done then. Now, things were different, especially since she had Aisha as her apprentice. Organizing it all had been relatively easy. Seeing as she was a princess now herself, something that she still needed to get used to, there were plenty of governmental workers available to help her set everything up. So, once every two weeks, she and Aisha had been teaching several younger children in Corvala the basics of the Force. It wasn't the same level of things that she taught Aisha, but just the basics of controlling their emotions and the Force, so that they won't accidentally send the table flying if they get upset.
Truth be told, her class was a bit bigger than she had expected it would be. There were twelve children in the group, aged from six to ten. Six of them were female Togruta, five were males and the last one was a female Twi'Lek whose family also lived in Corvala. They had quite a little colorful class and they really enjoyed their lessons.
"Now, as I already told you, this was our last lesson in a little while," she said, causing the class to groan and complain slightly. "I know, I know, but you know that we have more to do. As your parents have probably told you, my sisters will be travelling to Coruscant for some important talks in a few weeks and we will be joining them too. I don't know how long everything will take, but after we get back, we can continue our classes again."
Ahsoka and Aisha said their goodbyes to the class as the parents picked up their children. She was set to clean up the room a bit, they were borrowing it from the school after all, when she heard a voice behind her.
"That has to be the first time I've ever heard children complaining that they won't be having any classes for a while."
Ahsoka turned around to face the familiar voice and smiled. "Hello Syrena," she greeted the blue-skinned Togruta. Syrena Tao-Ni was a new friends of theirs, only a couple of months older than she was, and she had made her mother Cira very proud when she became a trainee in the H'Raani M'Kai several months ago. She and Syrena had become good friends during their training. The young warrior used dual weapons as well, a normal sized sword paired with a long dagger that could be combined into a double-bladed weapon. She had joined her and Aisha in their practice as well and her knowledge of the dual blade techniques had helped them a lot as well. The design of her weapon had been useful for Ahsoka as well.
It had been quite the surprise for her two months ago. She hadn't expected to suddenly receive a rather heavily secured package from Anakin. She definitely had not expected to find her old shoto lightsaber inside of it. How and where he had managed to find it, she might never know. However, she certainly wasn't going to complain now. She had been happy to have it back after all.
With some inspiration from her sister's weapons and Syrena's, she had made some adjustments to her main green lightsaber and her shoto, so that both of those weapons could be combined together as well. Combined, they looked similar to Syrena's weapon, a long blade at one end and a shorter blade at the other end. She agreed with Syrena and she could see it herself, it allowed for some effective combinations like this. So, she now carried three lightsabers on her person these days.
"They really enjoy your classes don't they? Then again, I'd probably be really excited to learn about something like the Force as well," Syrena said as she walked into the room, joining in to help them clean up a bit.
Syrena was great company and she was a skilled fighter as well. She had become a good friend of both her and Aisha, though Ahsoka did suspect that her sisters had also instructed Syrena to keep a bit of an eye on her, that she didn't go and get herself into trouble somewhere with her selfless nature. She didn't really mind, but from time to time it was a little fun to mess with her and especially her sisters.
Several weeks ago, Lux had come by to visit her again. She knew that her sisters would have teased them a lot about it, so they had secretly met up in a city on a different continent of Shili. They had a nice quiet week together without the constant teasing of her sisters. Aisha had quite enjoyed messing with sisters, constantly sending them to the wrong places to find the couple. When she told Ahsoka about everything, Aisha had been laughing so hard that she nearly hurt herself.
"It's a lot of fun to teach them. I always enjoy teaching younglings," Ahsoka replied. "By the way, will you be joining us on Coruscant? It'll be nice to have you along so we can also practice a bit more. I just know that the constant politics will bore me to death otherwise."
"I'd be happy too," Syrena said with a smile. "I'm pretty curious to see what Coruscant is like in person. I've lived here on Shili all my life and I've only even been to Kiros. But I have heard a lot of stories about Coruscant. However, seeing as I'm still a trainee in the royal guard, I'm not sure if I'll be allowed to come along."
"Oh, you just leave that to me," Ahsoka replied with a smirk. "I'll handle everything. You just start packing." The three of them shared a laugh and finished up with the classroom.
;-
Ahsoka and Aisha almost danced through the training room as their sparring session heated up a bit. Aisha's skills with her lightsabers were improving every day. They had been practicing a lot together and she picked up the Forms quickly. With her sister's skill growing by the day, the two of them had also started working a lot on their new form, combining the Jedi lightsaber Forms with the fighting styles of the Togruta.
They hadn't been alone in this. The warriors of the royal guard had been quite eager to help them develop their new form. They all liked the idea of combining their traditional fighting styles with the lightsaber forms of the Jedi. The veteran warriors had been happy to teach them both more of the techniques. In one of their talks about the different Forms of the Order, they had come up with a name for the new Form: Way of the Akul. Ahsoka had admitted that it had a nice ring to it. From then on, they referred to their new Form like that.
Ahsoka smiled as she blocked her sister's strikes. Aisha had come such a long way from the scared little girl that she had rescued on Tatooine. Their practice with the Force had done wonders for her confidence and that had allowed her to grow as a person. Now that she was hitting her growth spurt, she was a little getting taller and stronger with each passing day. She was very proud of her little sister.
Aisha joined her lightsabers together and quickly went into one of the new combos that they had been working on, hoping to catch her sister off guard. Ahsoka moved back slightly, blocking and evading the blows. She dodged the last strike and it left her sister open. She acted fast and struck Aisha's lightsabers out of her hands. Then she signaled for the end of the match.
Aisha took a few deep breaths before she stood upright again. "Aw, I thought that I was going to get you there," she said with a little disappointment as she called her lightsabers back to her hand. She separated the blades again and clipped them back on her belt, next to her sash.
Ahsoka smiled at her as she put her own sabers away. "You thought you were going to get the better of me with a sequence that I largely created myself?" she asked teasingly. "You are getting a lot better sis. You just overcommitted a little bit too much in your last swing. When I dodged it, you left yourself no room to pull back or block. You were wide open in that moment."
Aisha nodded and thought it over a bit. Her sister had told her that reflecting on your own training could be just as important as the training itself. Looking back on it, she could see what her sister meant. "Yeah, you're right," she admitted. "We'll have to think of something for that. Hmm, maybe I could have separated my lightsabers again in that last attack."
Ahsoka nodded approvingly. "That might work. You would be able to finish the attack with one blade and you'll still have your second blade to either defend or follow up with a wide attack to give you more space," she mused. "I like it, let's see how it goes next time. For now, I think we should head home. Marina and Zolar were stopping by tonight for dinner and she won't be too happy if we're late."
Aisha laughed a bit. "If she gets angry about that, then it might be pepper time," she said, causing Ahsoka to laugh as well.
"Nah, we'll save those peppers for a special occasion," Ahsoka replied. "Come on, let's go." Aisha nodded and they made to leave the training room.
;-
Ahsoka startled awake with a loud gasp and sat upright in bed. She was breathing heavily and could feel the cold sweat on her face. "Again those same nightmares," she thought with some frustration and worry. She was having these frightening visions for well over a week now. They came back every night. She did see slightly different things each time, but they were the same in nature and always accompanied by such darkness.
She took a deep breath and released some of the tension into the Force. It was clear to her that these nightmarish visions were some kind of warning from the Force, but she wasn't too sure what she should do about them. Everything that she had seen in them…
She felt soft ripples in her montrals, someone was walking up to her bedroom door. She didn't have to reach out the Force to find out who it was. A few seconds later her door opened and Aisha stepped inside. Because of their bond, Aisha could easily pick up on her reeling emotions from the visions. Every time that she woke up from those visions, Aisha quickly came over to her room to check up on her.
"Ahsoka?" she asked softly as she walked up to the bed. "Was it those visions again?" At her sister's nod, she climbed into the bed next to her. Ahsoka smiled and wrapped her arm around her shoulder. "Do you want to talk about them now?"
Ahsoka looked at her sister. These visions were so horrifying in nature, she didn't want her sister to know what they were about. She hated seeing it all herself. Even though they were visions, seeing it all hurt. "Sorry sis, but I don't want to burden you with this. It's bad enough for me to see it," she replied softly, hoping her sister would understand.
Aisha looked at her and nodded slowly. She wrapped her arm around Ahsoka as well. "Are you going to do something about whatever it is you see? I don't like feeling those bad things from you," she admitted softly.
Ahsoka gently squeezed Aisha's shoulder. "Don't worry, I've thought of something," she replied. She laid back down in bed and Aisha laid down next to her, just like she'd done now every night since she started having these nightmares. "It… might feel weird and be difficult, but," she paused and took a deep breath. "when we go to Coruscant, I intend to go to the Jedi Temple and try to speak with Master Yoda. If there's anyone who can help me understand these visions, it has to be him."
Well, truth be told, there was another who could probably give her the answers she sought about these visions. She was connected to the spirit of a Force Wielder after all. However, Daughter avoided all of her questions on the matter with such ease that it seemed practiced to Ahsoka. According to her, there were matters in the Force that she could do or say nothing about. As annoying as it could be, Ahsoka did accept it from her. That did mean that she had to look for her answers elsewhere.
Aisha's eyes widened a bit and she turned to her sister. "You're going to the visit the Temple?" she asked surprised.
Ahsoka nodded. "Yes, it might be a strange idea, but Master Yoda probably knows about the Force than anyone else. After everything that happened, he can't really refuse to speak with me. Besides, he did apologize to me when we were on Ilum, so I hope he'll agree to see me." She could see that Aisha was looking at her, thinking it over. "Let's just forget about it for now and get some sleep, okay?"
"Alright," Aisha replied with a small smile. She snuggled up to her sister a bit. "Goodnight 'Soka,."
"Good night Aisha," Ahsoka said as she rested her head again.
;-
Ahsoka smiled a bit as she sat in the gardens next to her mother. The two of them were working on planting a few new plants that her mother had bought earlier that day. She always liked helping her mother with such things, it was nice and calming.
Yuae looked at her daughter. She worried for her. She knew that she had trouble sleeping lately because of strange visions again. She had heard Ahsoka wake up violently, accompanied by the now familiar sound of a lightsaber igniting. It had scared her immensely, but she had heard the blade deactivate a few seconds later. She had gotten out of bed to check on her, but then she had noticed that Aisha was already in her big sister's room. They were talking softly about Force visions, but Ahsoka had not shared what she had seen. With Ahsoka sounding much calmer, she had decided to go back to bed herself.
She hoped that Ahsoka would sleep better the next night, but those same visions had apparently come back again. Before she had been able to do anything, she heard Aisha go to Ahsoka's room again. A little hesitantly, she decided to let Aisha handle it. As much as she wanted to help her daughter, she just didn't know anything about the Force herself. Aisha did know and she could touch the Force herself, so she hoped that they could sort things out together.
Unfortunately, it seemed that her daughter still suffered from those visions. She had overheard that she didn't want to share what was in those visions with Aisha, so whatever it was, she knew it had to be bad. She hoped that Ahsoka would at least talk about it with her, it was obviously weighing down heavily on her mind.
"Ahsoka?" she asked gently. Her daughter turned to her. "Are you feeling alright? I know that you've been having trouble sleeping lately."
Ahsoka's smile faded a bit and she sighed softly. "I figured that you knew about it. I might have the Force, but your intuition seems just as strong," she replied.
Yuae gave her daughter a light smile. "I know that you've been having those troubling visions again. You don't want to talk about them with Aisha, but I hope you'll discuss them with you. It's pretty clear that it's a heavy burden on you," she said gently. Her worry increased when she saw her daughter's expression change.
Ahsoka took a deep breath. "I just… can't tell Aisha. She's too young," she replied softly. "I've been through a lot because of the war, so…" She shook her head.
"Ahsoka, I'm your mother. You know that you can talk about anything with me," she pressed gently. "Maybe I can help you with something."
Ahsoka looked down for a bit, thinking things over a moment, before looking back to her mother. "I… I keep seeing the Jedi die," she said softly, shocking her mother. "And it's not just someone I know falling in the war, no. It's more like a genocide of some sort."
"That sounds horrible," Yuae admitted. Ahsoka nodded her head in agreement. "But when you had those other visions, you were able to do something about them, right? Can't you do the same now?"
Ahsoka shrugged lightly. "I honestly don't know just what I can possibly do about this on my own. The things that I've seen," she said as she shuddered slightly.
Yuae took hold of one of her daughter's hands and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "I might not know much about the Force, but from what you've told us, I do know that It probably wouldn't show you those things unless there was something that you could do about it."
Ahsoka smiled lightly. "That's what I hope as well," she replied. "Like I told Aisha, when we travel to Coruscant, I intend to go and visit the Temple. Perhaps Master Yoda can help me make sense of these visions."
Yuae nodded. "Master Yoda's reputation is quite legendary. If there's anyone that can help you with it, it would probably be him. Or else maybe that Kel Dorian Jedi can help you," she replied.
Ahsoka nodded. Yes, she was sure that Master Plo would be willing to listen to her and help her make sense of these visions. "Yeah, Master Plo can probably help me as well. It would be nice to see him again."
Yuae smiled at her daughter. "I'm sure that you'll be able to figure things out with them sweetheart," she told her. "Why don't we get back inside and grab a little snack?"
"A snack would be nice, but I think that I could also go for a good shot of Kashyyyk vodka," Ahsoka joked at her mother, earning her a laugh.
"Well, maybe not," Yuae replied with a smile as they walked back inside.
;-
That's the end of this chapter.
Ahsoka and Aisha have been training a lot together. Aisha is becoming stronger with each passing day and their new lightsaber form is coming along nicely. Ahsoka, however, is having very disturbing visions about a certain event. Once they reach Coruscant, she intends to try and figure out these visions with the help of Master Yoda.
For those curious about the weapon used by my new oc Syrena Tao-Ni, just look up the Rakuyo from Bloodborne and the boss that uses the weapon, Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower. Love that weapon myself. Used it a great deal in the game. I would add more of those weapons from the game, but giving Ahsoka something like the Moonlight Greatsword just wouldn't really fit.
The next chapter or two for this story will set up the journey Ahsoka and her sisters will take to Coruscant. There are some more things to tell before we get there. In the meantime, Barriss will also get quite the surprise on Coruscant.
Until next time.
