Chapter 8
The dark bearded middle eastern man, hearing the shot, runs out, only to find his son dead, his two brothers with and broken, he falls to his knees, cradling his son's motionless head in his lap, tears making their way down his face.
He looks out into the mountains, looking for the operatives he knows are there. Ahsoka flinches as his eyes seem to stare directly down her scope.
"Who is he?" Ahsoka asks.
"Unknown, unarmed." Comes James's garbled reply. Ahsoka nods, relaxing her trigger finger. As his eyes bore into her, she shivers, feeling the darkness around him.
She's no more than a speck in the grass, but somehow, he could see where she was, his gaze unwavering.
"We may have a problem." Ahsoka says into the radio, feeling more and more uneasy every second.
"Surely he can't see you at this distance?" Rex replies.
"Rex, James, crawl out of here. Wait for me at the rendezvous point. This is going to get hairy if we're not careful, I'd rather have someone able to call home in the event." Ahsoka orders.
The moment she cuts off her transmission she freezes. The Force whispers to her, warning, danger. Suddenly her montrals buzz with activity. Footsteps, and close.
Closing her eyes, she senses where and how many, and the darkness surrounding them, the suffocating cloud of hate. Not good. She hears the clanking of rifles, then the silent command the prodding of a gun barrel gives.
A quick glance and she sees Rex and James quickly making their way down and into the trees in the valley below, unaware of her predicament.
The gun prods her again, Ahsoka slowly standing up, her hands near her head. Gasps emerge as she turns and faces the fifteen or so armed insurgents.
Perfect. Ahsoka takes advantage of their shock at seeing a non-human, leaping over them, her silver-white blades hissing to life, cutting down two men as she lands. Two more fall before the rifles rise and open fire.
Ahsoka Force-pushes the last two men, their heads colliding with stone. She checks for more insurgents, her sabers casting an eerie silver glow over the still-warm bodies of her opponents.
Her blades snap into their hilts with a hiss, the landscape dark again. Ahsoka bends over to grab her rifle, only now noticing the too-young face of one of the men she killed. He couldn't have been more than fifteen at the most.
She sighs, picking up her rifle, not liking but understanding her reality. Not too long ago she was in the dead kid's same position, too young to be fighting for something they didn't fully understand.
Rifle slung across her back, she leaps down into the valley, rolling into the tree line, running to meet Rex and James.
"Thank God. We heard gunfire, then nothing." James says, Ahsoka walking into their rendezvous point.
"What? Were you really afraid for little old me?" Ahsoka asks, popping her hip out, pouting.
James coughs, "Yeah… Command, we're clear for extract." James speaks into his radio.
"Copy Foxtrot, see you soon." The static-mixed reply comes back.
The three of them sit down, Ahsoka suddenly laying her head on James's shoulder, closing her eyes. James's eyes go wide as Rex looks at him curiously.
"Uh… Ahsoka?" James asks.
"Just shut up and be a good pillow." Ahsoka orders.
James looks back to Rex and shrugs, a smile tugging at the corner of Rex's lips.
Ahsoka groans, "Good pillows don't shrug. Be still."
Meanwhile James's brain is in overdrive, after a thousand different thoughts rush through his head, one stands out: Lekku are softer than he expected, more like the downy feathers in a pillow than flesh.
He notices Ahsoka's montrals twitch, her eyes snapping open. She remains motionless for several seconds, finally focusing on a rabbit behind Rex.
"Hey Rex, mind scooting over a bit?" Ahsoka asks, Rex not yet aware of her plan.
She carefully draws a knife, eyeing her target, her montrals still twitching. In a flash the knife leaves her hand and impales the rabbit, sticking into the dirt below.
Excited, Ahsoka runs over to her fresh kill and begins skinning it, sitting next to James again.
James jumps as she ignites one of her sabers, holding the meat close to the plasma blade.
Ahsoka smirks, "These things are good for more than just killing, you know."
"Yeah, I know, it's just… Odd, I guess. Normally we just eat the rations we bring with us." James answers.
"Blah. I prefer fresh meat." Ahsoka states, tearing into her meal, her sharp incisors and canines easily cutting through the tough meat.
"You ever think about civilian life? To maybe get a piece of this freedom we've been fighting for?" James asks, taking another bite of his dinner.
"Honestly? Not very often. A couple of times, yes. But I always come back to the same conclusion: If I'm not fighting, if I'm not protecting those I care about, then who is? Who am I trusting to protect my loved ones? If I were to leave and you two stay, then who am I trusting to have your backs?" Ahsoka answers.
James nods, "What about you, Rex?"
Rex leans forward, his elbows on the table, "Once or twice. I was bred to fight and die in a war. The clones had no other purpose. Our destiny was always in the battlefield, and frankly I'm not sure I would like the civilian life. Seems a little dull after you've been through more battles than I can count."
"About a year after joining the military and getting deployed, I started thinking about it. What it'd be like to settle down, find a woman, have kids, work a day job…" James trails off, glancing at Ahsoka.
"You should've listened to him. You could've helped me." Anakin's voice rings in her montrals.
Maul appears, holding out his hand, snarling. Ahsoka reaches out to take it, only to see a red lightsaber sprout from her chest.
Ahsoka gasps, shooting upright in bed, panting. She reaches down and feels her chest, feeling for the phantom hole left by the crimson blade. She closes her eyes, her heartrate stabilizing.
Suddenly, she hears James's scream from across the hall. She throws on some clothes and silently walks to his door. She can hear sobbing, feeling the despair through the Force, she opens the door.
"James?" She asks into the dark.
The crying stops immediately, his head snapping up to meet Ahsoka's figure silhouetted against the light of the hall.
He clears his throat, "Ahsoka?"
She walks to his bed, sitting next to him.
Like she had waiting for extraction, she leans her head on his shoulder, relaxing. James tenses up initially, before finally relaxing into her as well. Neither say a word, just enjoying the other's presence, eventually falling asleep leaned against one another.
The heavily bruised young man steps into the darkened room, a bandage around his head. He hands a sketch to the older, bearded, middle eastern man.
The man clutches the drawing, his breath thin, running his fingers over the sketched face of a woman, two lekku extending from the sides of her head.
Author's Note:
Another one down, many more to go. Some foreshadowing in this one, though likely not what you'd think.
Q&A:
None from y'all
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Fun Fact: I chose Foxtrot as their team callsign because of Fulcrum, the first letter being F.
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