Hi guys! So, the new chapter is here. I did some research about the Inquisitors, since I'm introducing them in this story and I know what happened to the sixth brother and how his encounter with Ahsoka ended. I haven'd read Ahsoka's book yet, I will someday, but not yet. So what happens to the sixth brother in Shadows isn't canon, but I already said that I will steer a little bit away from certain canon things... Beware of some blood descriptions, even though they are minor.
So enjoy this chapter! Only one left to go and we'll move onto 17 BBY! Yaaaaay!
Starwarshobbitfics: Thanks for the review as always! I completely made up that killing spring and at the beginning, it was only supposed to freeze flowers like Myra had wanted. But then I thought "Why the hell not make it lethal and allow Max to be a good parent figure for once?" so... that happened.
Johnt12345: I actually really do like Max's character. He holds a special place in my heart since he was the very first OC introduced in this story and the first one to meet Ahsoka (with his slight Han-ish attitude and Kanan-ish looks). I know he's not perfect, and I don't want him to be, but I also think that he could be a great father figure if he tried. So yeah, I'll always have a soft spot for Max. I don't hate myself per say, at least not in the long run. It's true that when I kill off a character that I loved, I hate myself a little bit at the moment, but it passes away. Still, it's still sad, whenever I think about that character. But I don't regret doing that, because it serves the story and it just sometimes have to happen. But yeah, I guess I didn't use the right words. So thank you John!
18 years before the Battle of Yavin / 2 years and 5 months after leaving the Jedi Order / 2 years and 2 months on Nar Shaddaa / a year and 8 months after Order 66 / 11 months after adopting Myra (Year +11)
Things actually went more smoothly than what Ahsoka had imagined. Because of their feisty personalities, both women didn't always get along and arguments happened before, especially when it involved Jynna and Taii's supposed spy web. But once they agreed to focus on the mission and put their differences aside, it was actually a pleasure to work with Taii.
Despite her sometimes bossy attitude, which allowed for things to get done, Taiilyrra was a very funny person. She was able to laugh at the most subtle jokes and no theme was taboo to her. But despite her humorous open-mindedness, she knew when not to cross boundaries and respected Ahsoka's privacy and past. She was also a good fighter, especially with a vibrospear, but she could also shoot rather precisely.
Their arrival on Dressel happened discreetly. They were looking for that Inquisitor that Ahsoka had heard about and basically the mission was to see who that really was, to find out their purpose (although Ahsoka could imagine nothing good) and if their motives happen to be sinister, to stop them. They actually spent quite a few days on that planet, going from city to city according to the rumors they heard and what people said around. Ahsoka was giving regular updates to R2-KT to transmit to Max, since she didn't want to involve him too much, at least not before the mission was over.
She didn't know how the girls were doing, how they were all doing without her, but she knew, deep inside that she couldn't protect them forever. She had been wary of Nar Shaddaa at first, but she loved the place now and most of the people that lived in their village. Nobody (Little Max and all the droids didn't count) was a decent person, besides Myra and maybe Jynna, but she had learned to trust some of them none the less and accept their dark pasts and shady dealings. Though, she still had a hard time accepting that her life was more and more becoming that of an outlaw but she knew she had no choice. To hide and survive, she'll need to go questionable things.
Taii was coming out of the refresher while Ahsoka was watching through the window, a pair of dusty and out-of-date binoculars in hand, the kind that wasn't used since the Clone Wars. They had rented a small room in the cheapest hotel in town, not because of the price but because of the vantage point that this room on the thirteenth floor gave them on the main street. Ahsoka didn't look at Taiilyrra until the Chagrian had put some more clothes on than just her underwear, blushing just by thinking about the hotel receptionist who had thought they were a couple of lesbians. While Ahsoka didn't have any problems with homosexual or bisexual people, she had been embarrassed that people believed she and Taii were together. And so she had blushed as Taiilyrra loudly laughed as if it wasn't the first time something like this happened to her.
"Something new?" the Chagrian asked as she sat on the bed (of course the best vantage point room had to have a single Queen size bed), cleaning her gun.
Ahsoka shook her head and sighed. "Nothing. I'm starting to wonder if our intel is right." It wasn't like her to give up and so, despite her words, she was still planning on staying and looking out for that mysterious threat. Patience was a virtue she had trouble to master before and she wasn't quite there yet, but in the span of two years, she had made some progress. The simple fact that she didn't murder Max every time he entered her home, drunk out of his mind and with no place to crash when Taii sometimes threw him out, was proof of that. Or how patient she was every time Myra did something stupid or when Jynna was distracted enough to become a burden.
But their team worked as a unit and that's what mattered most. So Ahsoka focused on the scenery outside the window without adding another word. It's only after her time of rest that things finally changed. Taiilyrra had spotted movement during her watch, people coming and going from the restaurant down the streets whose entrance she had been watching among other things. She had woken Ahsoka up despite the fact that the Togruta could use her two remaining hours of sleep.
As soon as Ahsoka's eyes shot open once Taii stopped shaking her shoulder, she felt something new in the Force. She doubted that the Force sensitive person in the restaurant had suddenly arrived, since they had been watching the place all day long. It felt more as if the person had lost control over the control of their Force signature, as if they slipped.
"Three Trandoshans and a Cathar were thrown out of that restaurant by a Besalisk. Soon after, a group of Weequays started shooting at the entrance of the place and now it's a kriffing battlefield!" said Taiilyrra as she eyed the street suspiciously, hands on her weapons as if she was only waiting for Ahsoka's word to jump in. They could hear the blaster shots echoing in the streets but they were too high to be in danger of a lost shot.
"Could be a deal that went south," Ahsoka said as she stood next to Taii, watching too. Despite her calm attitude, she put her belt, and thus blaster, back on. Closing her eyes, she pressed her hand on the window-glass, trying to feel through the Force. "There's a Force user in there. Someone angry who lost their edge. That's why I can feel them."
Taiilyrra had never questioned Ahsoka's abilities. On their way to Dressel a few days before Ahsoka had asked her how much she knew about her past and affiliations. "Almost all of it," the Chagrian had replied. "One of the contacts in my web has worked with you once or twice, a certain Zabrak lady named Sugi. Something about sillum and then a rescue mission to Wasskah…" Taiilyrra didn't hide her knowing smile as she looked at Ahsoka. "Then of course, there's our mutual friend Ohnaka… Don't give me that look, I keep tabs on everybody, mercenaries, bounty hunters and fallen Jedi knights alike. Knowledge is power after all and we live in a cruel world, Scarlett."
That was all Taiilyrra had ever said about Ahsoka's past, the only time she actually verbally acknowledged that she knew very detailed stuff about Ahsoka's life. But just how much she really knew? Ahsoka didn't know and thought it was actually better to not know. Taiilyrra had proven time and time again that she could keep her mouth shut and that she was very capable at running such an immense web as was her spy network, so Ahsoka didn't worry. Much.
"We could always go down to see what's really going on. Before the local authorities come barging in, all holohonks blaring," Taii suggested and Ahsoka nodded after a few seconds.
"Let's do that."
"Okay, I'll admit, it was a bad idea," Taii yelled over the noise as she ducked behind one of the front pillars of what remained of a long forgotten bank from wealthier times. Ahsoka was hiding behind a speeder and looked for an opening to hide somewhere else, since the engine could very well explode any time.
Also, she glared at Taiilyrra who shrugged.
"Oh, come on! It was getting boring anyway!" She shot a Weequay in the chest, smiling as she saw him fall down and try to reach cover. She had barely time to shoot him again before Ahsoka slammed into the pillar next to her, or rather brutally circled the thing, slipping on the marble floor in her haste and burning her right arm in the process as the speeder exploded. Thankfully, she was far enough to be almost unscathed.
"I hate you." Ahsoka said, as she took a few seconds to check her reddened arm, a small contrast to her deep orange skin. Now her sleeve was torn and she really liked that jacket. Taiilyrra grinned at her words.
"You're not the first person to say that to me."
It was enough to distract Ahsoka from the pain and to even make her smirk. "Why am I not surprised?"
Taiilyrra was about to reply but she was suddenly lifted from the floor by an invisible hand and pushed again the condemned doors of the ancient bank, making a dent in them. Ahsoka dropped her blaster (that she reluctantly carried after an argument she had lost against Max about survival and being ready for anything) and pulled out the vibroblades from her boots as she slowly walked towards the middle of the street.
As the smoke cleared after the explosion of the speeder, a man appeared, standing alone among rubble and corpses. He wore a grey and slightly black armor, the light kind. His tall grey figure and electric blue eyes were so unfamiliar that Ahsoka couldn't even guess his specie, let alone his identity. But the red lightsaber in his left hand left no place for doubt as to who he worked for.
"I've been told there might be a very promising child nearby, but I guess I found better." His voice was deep and precise, like the scalpel of a doctor, cutting through the air and making Ahsoka's skin crawl. Both their Force signatures were running wild now, each one trying to set a trap for the other.
"Who are you?" Ahsoka asked. She was almost at his level, her vibroblades humming softly with energy like small saws. He simply smiled, his weird eyes glowing like negative embers, giving him a skeletal look, as if he was the servant of some kind of devil. The bringer of Death itself.
"I am the sixth brother and I shall be your doom, forgotten survivor."
He didn't waste time in anymore formalities and Force jumped towards her, crossing the distance between them in a second, red blade raised in front of him, a snarl on his face.
He was fast, Ahsoka had to admit. And skilled in the Dark Side of the Force to boot. The fact that he seemed to know Jedi fighting style only made him more lethal. But Ahsoka was a better swordsman and the stakes were much higher for her. She kept her composure, allowing herself for the first time since she left the Order to truly fight like a Jedi. Her body memory kicked in and set in the Ataru and Jar'Kai forms she had come to love over the years.
Even when she had trained with Old Hoody and when she taught Myra, she wasn't allowing herself to be so fully revealing of her fighting style. She considered it a liability because it was a tie to her past and her past was dangerous enough to threaten her survival. So when she fought, she didn't fully use Jedi positions, sword placements and movements. In the last year, she had also started to fight dirty, kicking dust in the eyes of the opponent or hitting where it shouldn't be allowed. But her enemy already knew her. And he seemed to fight loyally, despite his sinister goal.
Their fight lasted some good fifteen minutes and it was the most demanding fight Ahsoka had in the last couple of years, even more demanding than the one against Tass'lik or Bane. In the end, the Inquisitor was less skilled. He might have surprised her with that spinning thing his red blade did, which had earned her a cut on her thigh, ruining her trousers along the way, but she was stronger, faster and more confident. She also had more experience and motivation.
Her left vibroblade pierced through his chest and glistened red in the sunlight. His face was barely inches from hers as he smiled. He opened his mouth to say something but smirked instead and closed his eyes as a streak of blood escaped his lips. Taiilyrra came as Ahsoka was pulling her blade out, swaying slightly as the Inquisitor's body fell limply to the dusty ground.
"Woah there. I got you," the Chagrian said as she caught Ahsoka by her good arm. "You seemed to know what you were doing, I didn't want to interrupt," she added to justify her absence from the fight, to which Ahsoka simply nodded.
"We're good to go," Ahsoka said without looking away from the Inquisitor's body.
Taii nodded and steered the Togruta away. It's only back aboard the Sneaky that she treated Ahsoka's wounds. The burn on her arm would heal nicely but her thigh would take some time, although the blade had already cauterized the wound. The Sneaky's infirmary wasn't ideally packed with medical supplies but Taii managed to find some Bacta patches lying around. Once Ahsoka was patched up, she wordlessly set a course for Nar Shaddaa.
