Chapter 7 - Show Me The Way

DISCLAIMER: We (unfortunately) do not own Star Wars. :P

Author's Note: This is from the Anakin & Obi-Wan comic series between tPM and AotC. :P

This is the last chapter before Attack of the Clones begins. ;)

~ Amina Gila

"What happened here, Master Obi-Wan?!" Ahsoka exclaims, looking around the barren planet in disbelief. Maybe it was once a prosperous one, but now, everything lies in ruins.

"War," he answers grimly, "The people of this planet destroyed themselves many generations ago."

"Why did the Republic allow it?" she asks.

"The world was not part of the Republic," he sighs, "There was nothing here the Senate needed." Oh, well that explains it. They wouldn't bother to help unless it would profit them.

"And the Jedi?!" she asks in disbelief. "Why could they do anything?" This is exactly when they're supposed to help! Why didn't they?

"The Jedi Order is under the jurisdiction of the Senate. The same was true when this planet was destroyed. And even if we were, there are only ten thousand of us to keep the light of peace alive in the entire galaxy. The Jedi can guide. We can teach. We can help people to help themselves, but are not an army. If a people are truly determined to write themselves out of existence, there is little we can do."

"So this entire world and all these people are gone just because of the system?!" she protests. It's sickening. "It should change." This is plain wrong. People shouldn't have to die by the thousands if not millions or even billions just because the galaxy is stuck on an old system, one that's clearly failing.

"Perhaps some day it will, Ahsoka." That does little to calm her.

"What do we do now, Master? The Republic diplomacy fleet we were supposed to meet doesn't have these coordinates. We can't call them for help either since our comms were destroyed when we crashed," Ahsoka points out. This mission is already a disaster; she can only hope that it won't continue to get worse.

"Why do we need help? We're here to provide aid, not request it," Obi-Wan replies, "The distress signal we picked up clearly was asking for Jedi assistance. The only ally a Jedi requires is the Force. I see no reason not to continue as originally planned. In any case, I'm curious to meet the person who sent out the call. The message was curious. The broadcast loop began fairly recently, but it used archive phrasing, as though sent by Jedi centuries ago."

"Uh... isn't this place supposed to be dead?" Ahsoka asks, pointing up at a giant ship flying past. It seems to be damaged.

"Apparently not," Obi-Wan realizes, stepping back from the edge of the cliff that they're standing by as debris fall nearby.

The ship finally hits the ground of the valley a distance away, a column of smoke rising up from it. "We should get down there and see if anyone survived that crash," Ahsoka advises.

"Of course," Obi-Wan agrees, "But not without these." He reaches into his robes, holding out her lightsabers.

"I meant what I said," Ahsoka argues immediately. Especially now, she knows she can't stay. If the Jedi won't even do anything to help on a planet like this, it's not her path. Not anymore.

"About leaving the Order? If that's what you wish to do, I would at least like for you to be alive to do it. Take your lightsabers, Padawan," he insists. Fine. He does have a point. She'll probably need them right now on a planet like this when they have no idea what they're going to be running into. The two start climbing across the slope when Ahsoka hears it: the sound of blaster fire above them.

"There's a battle," she notes. "Master, what is that? Why are they fighting?" Ahsoka arrives at the edge of another cliff, Obi-Wan stopping behind her. She watches as the flying ships fire at each other. "And what are we supposed to do?"

"What we can."

One of the ships starts falling, and Obi-Wan reaches out with the Force to catch it and pull it to safety. Ahsoka joins him, and they manage to bring it close enough for the two people inside to jump out before letting it crash down.

"Are you alright?" Ahsoka inquires, stepping over to the younger of the two people they rescued.

"I think so," she answers, climbing back to her feet.

"I'm Ahsoka Tano, and this is my master Obi-Wan Kenobi," the Togruta introduces.

"I'm Kolara," the younger of the girls replies. "That's mother Pran."

"Step away from her, Kolara!" the other snaps, pointing her blasters at them. "Now! Are you open or closed? Answer or die."

"...what are you talking about?" Ahsoka demands. "We're Jedi. We're here because someone was asking for our aid."

The two females exchange completely confused looks. "What are Jedi?" demands the older one finally. What? How do they not know what Jedi are? Has this planet really been that cut off from the rest of the galaxy for so long? And if so, how did the Council get the distress signal?

"I'm not asking again. Are you open or closed?" the older woman snaps, "Speak now or die."

"I already told you, we're Jedi!" Ahsoka shoots back.

"And I already told you I don't know what that is," she retorts.

"Mother Pran, maybe we should wait -" Kolara begins to protest nervously.

"No, Kolara, we shouldn't," Pran replies.

"This sure turned ugly fast," Ahsoka mutters, taking a step closer to Obi-Wan.

"Be calm, Ahsoka," he advises, before raising a hand, throwing a Force-suggestion into his words, "There is no need for weapons here."

"There is no need for -" Mother Pran is cut off as another airship swoops into view, open firing on them. Ahsoka bolts out of the way, Obi-Wan beside her. The other two scramble over a ledge out of sight, and she jumps after.

"You fools!" shouts Mother Pran. "You'll lead them right to us!"

"We just arrived on the planet. I find it hard to believe we're their target," Obi-Wan replies.

"And even if we were, I doubt they'd be able to harm us," Ahsoka adds with certainty.

"You don't understand!" Pran yells, "They're closed! They kill everything!"

"How do you know they won't just leave?" the Togruta retorts.

"They'll never leave until they've seen our corpses," Pran shoots back.

Obi-Wan glances around, then Force-jumps back up over the ledge.

"He moved so fast. Where did he go?" inquires Kolara.

"Up," Ahsoka answers cheerfully. She can hear the continuing sounds of blaster fire above.

"Does he want to die so badly?" rants Pran. "They'll slaughter him."

"I doubt it," Ahsoka scoffs. "He's perfectly capable of handling himself, thanks for asking." Above them, Obi-Wan throws his lightsaber at the ship. It cuts through a good part of it and it starts crashing. Someone jumps out of it, and Ahsoka instantly runs forwards to catch him.

"You idiot!" screams Pran, "Why did you bring him up? That's Grecker - one of the worst of the closed, and that is saying something. All you had to do was let him fall."

"I don't do that," she shoots back. Seriously, she's not involved in their conflict and nor is she going to get involved.

"I do," snaps Pran, raising her blasters, "Get out of the way, girl."

"Drop the bangers, Pran," growls the man, raising his own weapons, "You and your little open witch are dead." Great. What is she supposed to do now, when both of them are about to kill each other?

"Never, Grecker," snarls Pran.

"Master?" Ahsoka asks, looking up at Obi-Wan where he's standing a distance away.

"Go ahead, Ahsoka," Obi-Wan replies.

In a flash she activates her lightsabers, slicing through their blasters. Grecker and Pran stare in shock for a moment before yanking out knives and lunging at each other.

"Will you just stop?!" shouts Ahsoka. Are they insane?!

"That is enough," Obi-Wan states firmly, using the Force to rip their knives away and throw them over the edge of the cliff. Obi-Wan steps forwards to join Ahsoka, getting right down to the point. The two immediately start quarreling, accusing each others' sides of having started the fight. And really, what does Pran mean the Open are only ones preventing the planet from descending into completely chaos? As far as Ahsoka is concerned it already did.

**w**

"Looks like the corpse-leeches just noticed us," Pran observes, ending their discussion about how it was possible a distress signal could have been sent from the planet and where it might be coming from.

Ahsoka turns to see a group of creatures flying towards them, The rust colored creatures literally look like corpses to her. No wonder they got that name. Obi-Wan and Ahsoka ignite their lightsabers as they approach.

"These beasts are nearly mindless, Ahsoka, I can sense it," Obi-Wan calls, "They are merely following their nature. They should not die simply because they crossed our path. Use the Force to send them on their way."

"I... I'll try," Ahsoka sighs, raising a hand to focus on directing the currents of the Force at the creatures, trying to get them to leave. This is something that she's always had a hard time with. "Uh... friends... just..." she trails off.

"Focus, Ahsoka," Obi-Wan instructs, who has somehow already managed to calm down three of the creatures, "Feel the Force flowing through them. Feel how it connects with your own life energy."

"I'm trying," she insists, only to have her concentration immediately interrupted as the creatures lunge at her. One of them bites her arm. It's not deep, but it's enough to make her whip out her lightsabers and chop off their heads. Well. So much for that.

**w**

As the ship they commandeered is flying, Ahsoka pulls out her lightsabers, and starts tinkering with one of them. It's not necessary, but it's something she's learned helps calm her down and focus her mind on something other than the tense situation at hand.

"What are you doing?" Kolara inquires interestedly, looking over her shoulder. The adults are busy talking on the other side of the ship, leaving them alone.

"Just making some adjustments," she replies, looking up.

"Do you perhaps just like fixing things?" the girl wonders.

She shrugs. "I used to do it a lot. I guess I'm good at it for my age."

"Is that what you two do? Go different places and fix things?" Kolara questions.

"Sort of," Ahsoka offers. They do fix things, yes, but generally not in terms of machines. "The Jedi are powerful, but there aren't many of them compared to the size of the galaxy. Sometimes they can't help everywhere they should."

"Can't or won't?" challenges the other girl.

"Maybe both," she admits after a moment, "They're under the control of the Galactic Senate so..." She finally finishes making the last of the adjugements to her lightsaber and slips it away back into her robes.

"You know, Ahsoka, if you're good at fixing things... this planet is full of broken stuff."

"Really? Like what?"

"Mother Pran, can you come here? I want to show you something," Kolara calls. The other woman looks up from what she's doing, heading over to them.

"What is it?"

"Ahsoka knows how to fix things," she explains, "Machines. Ancient machines. I thought maybe..."

"Does she know?" queries Pran, holding out a strange looking object, "Do you know what this is?"

"Some old technology, possibly the processing center of a droid?" Ahsoka suggests, looking down at it.

"Can you fix it?" she presses.

"I can try."

Ahsoka takes the device from her, working on trying to get it fixed. It takes her some time, but the others wait patiently while she works on it. "I think I've got it," she declares finally as the thing comes to life at last.

"Ahsoka, this could change everything," Pran exclaims.

"What do you mean?"

"I have more of these. If you could fix them, it would - you'd be our savior. You could put the entire planet back on the right path."

"I'd be happy to help," Ahsoka replies. Of course, she'd agree to that, especially if it means that this planet will find some semblance of normalcy.

She's working on several more when the ship is attacked by flying creatures again, which eventually manage to break through one of the windows.

"Just stay away from the windows, Kolara," Ahsoka warns, pushing the girl back, "Obi-Wan and I will -" She freezes mid-sentence when she realizes that her lightsabers aren't clipped to her belt anymore. "What? Where are my -?" Her eyes promptly fall on Kolara.

"I'm sorry, Ahsoka," she says quietly, throwing the hilts out the window. What is she doing?!

"No!" Ahsoka cries, lunging forwards. Something slams her hard across the head and everything goes black.

**w**

Ahsoka squirms around in the ropes binding her to the pole behind her. No, this isn't going into work. She's never going to free herself like this. She'd woken up tied here, and nothing she's done has allowed her undo the knots. The adults of the group left to go find the Scavenger and the source of the distress signal, leaving the children to guard Ahsoka.

"Hey!" she calls finally, catching the attention of the group of young Opens.

"I'm sorry about this, Ahsoka. I'm sorry we kidnapped you," Kolara apologizes, turning to her, "I didn't have a choice. Mother Pran is our leader. I couldn't say no to her. Are you hurt? I didn't want to -"

"I'm fine," the Togruta interjects, though her montrals didn't really appreciate getting hit earlier. "But who is this scavenger you were talking about?" All she knows is that the Scavenger is the person they believe is the source of the distress signal.

"We don't know," the girl answers, "Someone out in the wastes, under the Celadon Sea. You remember the kite we saw on the airgun? That was one of many... gifts from the scavenger. Little pieces of the world before. The Scavenger sends us beautiful things. It's like... before the war people had time to care about something beyond fighting. They could make things. Things that aren't really for anything. Just..."

"I think art is the word you're looking for," Ahsoka offers, scowling, "Now I understand why the adults are so afraid of the Scavenger. They think he's a distraction. All the adults - whether Open or Closed - don't want you to think about anything but fighting. The Scavenger is showing you that things were once different and could be in the future if you chose to make them so."

"Who is this person?" demands one of the other children, stepping closer.

"A Skygift. Her name is Ahsoka," Kolara answers, "Her and her master came here because of a distress call -"

"She's not even from here yet she thinks she knows our business?" he scowls.

"Let me ask you something," Ahsoka interrupts. "One question. How many of you have art from the Scavenger? I know Kolara does. Do the rest of you?"

"We..." one of them begins, trailing off and not finishing. The others look away. That's what she thought.

"All of you do, don't you? You don't want Mother Pran to kill the Scavenger, and I want to get my master back. We can help each other. I could make things, there's plenty here."

"She's telling the truth," Kolara tells them, "She fixed the mechs." Well, it looks like this plan is working.

**w**

It takes far longer than Ahsoka has the patience for - with the other young Open helping - for her to be able to create something that can actually fly. It's good thing there were a number of larger ship parts already here so she just had to put them together into something that will hopefully work and not crash while they're on the way to finding the Scavenger. Now, she's really wishing that she had spent more time with mechanics.

She flies the ship overhead in time to see a huge battle raging. The Open and Closed are fighting each other, and trying to kill the Scavenger - she's presuming that's who the person is - and Obi-Wan at the same time.

"Are you alright?" Ahsoka calls as Obi-Wan jumps on board the ship as she flies it overhead. She's not the greatest at flying, especially in outdated machines like this. She only hopes it won't suddenly break down.

"Well enough," her master responds, "Where did you find this flying machine?"

"I fixed some damaged parts to make them flyable," she explains, "I brought Kolara and the rest of the young Open." She looks up to see Kolara speaking with the person who must be the Scavenger a distance away. "Everything will be alright... I hope."

Ahsoka lands the ship and the two of them approach. "I want to start over with all of you," the Scavenger is saying, "But I suppose all of that's done now because of him." She turns, pointing an accusing finger at Obi-Wan. "It's my fault. I called him to this world. I thought he could help. Instead he led both the Closed and the Open right to me. Now they know where I am. He destroyed everything. Even if he calls in the rest of the Jedi to kill them, it'll be too late."

The Togruta raises an eye marking, looking up Obi-Wan. "What is she saying, Master? We aren't killers."

"No, Ahsoka, we aren't," Obi-Wan agrees, "Come with me."

He takes her over to a nearby communication device which happens to be broken. With the battle raging in the background, it takes her and Obi-Wan what feels like far too long to finally get the thing working.

"I think it should work now," she concludes finally, "But what are you going to do?"

"That's simple enough, Ahsoka," Obi-Wan explains, "I'm going to change the system."

It's not long later that Ahsoka finally spots the Republic ships descending. It's high time. She was starting to wonder if they were planning to show up. "Cease all hostilities!" a voice commands over a loudspeaker from one of the ships, "Repeat. All hostilities must cease immediately."

"Wait, what's the Republic doing here?" Ahsoka exclaims in surprise, "I thought they didn't care about this place."

"I told them we had discovered that the unusual atmosphere of the planet had high concentrations of Tibanna gas," Obi-Wan informs, "They're here to secure it."

"Is that true?" she frowns.

"I have no idea. The point was to get them here. The people of the world may find peace to their liking. It's a chance, anyway. It will be some time before the Republic completes a survey and during that time they won't allow the fighting to start again," Obi-Wan tells her.

"But they just believed you?" Ahsoka wonders.

"Yes," he agrees, "The Republic did not come here because of Obi-Wan Kenobi. They're here because a Jedi called. Being a Jedi is not just about power, or lightsabers, or even skill with the Force. It is about connection, being part of something bigger. I am stronger as a part of the Jedi Order than I ever could be alone." Maybe – maybe she was wrong. If they respected what he said simply because he's a Jedi... Maybe if she stays, she'll have more a chance of change. Maybe there's more she can do after all.

He reaches into his robes, holding out her lightsabers. "The road lies before you, Ahsoka Tano. Will you walk it alone?"

Ahsoka looks at her lightsabers, then up at him. "No, Master. As a Jedi, if you'll show me the way."