Ahsoka's Orphan:

D362/4 BBY, Chandel

The small family was eating a meal. The mother, blond, blue eyed, and pretty in an elegant, peaceful way, exchanged loving glances with the father as they ate. His hair was a rich brown, long, flowing and wavy, settling around his shoulders in a soft cloud. His eyes were also brown, but they sparkled so much, they almost looked silver. His shoulders were broad and capable looking and his clothing was simple but neat. The mother's mother was also at the table, blond hair turned grey but still looking young in her features. Off to the side of the room, a four month old baby slept in her playpen, her short brown curls the same colour as her father's.

They made their living from the sea that surrounded their floating home that was attached by two tunnels to the floating city that claimed kilometres of the ocean's surface. The seas of Chandel were always calm and peaceful. The water planet had no moons to affect the water and no land to feel the tides if there had been any. The fish were plentiful and the life simple for those who chose to live there. The planet was far from the politics of the Empire, so it made a safe haven for those who wanted peace.

Like an ex Jedi who had escaped the execution of his Order almost sixteen years ago.

The husband stopped eating all of a sudden, tensing with his fork half way to his mouth and his eyes going blank as the Force he had mostly closed himself off from yelled a warning at him, making him pay attention. His fork clattered to the table a few seconds later.

The wife stared at her husband in wide eyed alarm. "What is it, Willan?"

"Red blades," he whispered in fear. Not for himself. They weren't coming for him. They were coming for his daughter. His precious Alora. Who shone like a beacon in the Force. He'd done his best to mask her presence, but shielding had never been his strong suit.

Willan turned to the mother-in-law. "Take her. Take her away now. Get off the planet. Disappear. And if you can, find someone who doesn't wield a red blade. They need to teach her. Save my daughter, Darja. Save her."

Darja nodded, eyes wide. She surged from the table, wrapped the baby in the blanket she had made for her when she'd first heard her only daughter was expecting, and grabbed her purse from a counter. She ran out of the room and was running down the secondary tunnel to the city in one minute flat.

Willan went around the table and gathered his quietly sobbing wife into his arms and kissed the top of her head. "I am sorry, Elana. So very sorry." He opened his connection to the Force as wide as he could, blazing his signature as brightly as possible, hoping to mask the fact that his daughter was on the move.

The door from the main tunnel suddenly opened with no warning and two people dressed in black and dark grey stood there, looking menacing and deadly. The female stalked ahead of the large male.

Willan pushed Elana behind him and pulled his lightsabre from under the back of his tunic. He ignited the blue blade and took up a defensive stance between the Darksiders and his wife.

The female threw the table and chairs out of her way with a sweep of her hand, sending them crashing into the wall, and pulled her circular lightsabre off her back, igniting one of the red blades. "Where is the child?" she said sweetly, opening her mask to reveal a sickly yellow skinned mirialan.

"There is no child," Willan said firmly, fingers tightening on the hilt of his lightsabre in anticipation of the coming fight. He hadn't fought anyone in years, but he'd do whatever he could, despite knowing how this was going to end. Maybe he could save his precious Elana at least.

The Seventh Sister glanced at the playpen full of stuffed animals, now buried under the remnants of the table and smirked. "I doubt that very much. Jedi aren't supposed to lie, you know. They aren't supposed to get attached either. You appear to be failing your teachings."

Willan sucked in a breath. "I'm not a Jedi anymore," he said, and attacked.

Blue blade clashed with red in a hiss and a sizzle. And then there was a second red blade as the grey skinned male joined the fight. The dining room / kitchen combo wasn't really large enough for a proper lightsabre fight and soon the walls and counters were slashed and scorched.

Elana shrunk down to the floor to avoid being decapitated and started crawling towards an exit. This was no place for her and she knew it. Tears were still falling from her eyes.

"I don't think so," the Seventh Sister said as she spotted the woman trying to sneak away. Leaving her reluctant partner to take care of the ex Jedi for a moment, she grabbed the woman with the Force and lifted her off the ground, causing her to give a strangled scream.

"No!" Willan cried, seeing his wife's distress. "Let her go!"

The Fifth Brother took advantage of his distraction and disarmed William, slashing through the hilt of his lightsabre and severing the better part of his hand at the same time.

Willan screamed gutterly.

Elana whimpered.

The Inquistors smirked.

"Tell me where the child is," the Seventh Sister demanded.

"Never!" Willan stated, voice ringing with determination, and cradling his smoking stump.

"Pity," the Seventh Sister said glibly. And she crushed Elana's throat then let her go, watching the body fall to the floor dispassionately.

She turned to face Willan fully. He had turned as pale as death and was quivering with delicious rage. "Let's try this again, shall we? Where is the child?"

"I will never tell you, Vryal Trejee."

The Seventh Sister blanched as she heard her real name for the first time since she'd turned to the Dark side.

"Yes. I remember you." Willan said, at this point just doing whatever was necessary to buy time for Darja to get as far away as possible. "You're a traitor to the Order and the Light side."

"Shut up," She hissed as she placed her hissing red blade at his neck. "You know nothing."

"I know you used to have friends in the Temple. What would Aayla think of what you've become? Snatching helpless children for your nefarious purposes? Working for the Sith like an obedient mooka? You sicken me."

The Seventh Sister paled even more.

The Fifth Brother almost rolled his eyes. "He's stalling. End him and we'll track the child through the Force again."

The Seventh Sister narrowed her glowing yellow eyes as she realized he was right. She hissed and and swung her red blade, ignoring how Willan's eyes stayed firmly on hers right to the end, judging her.

Willan died with dignity, standing tall and firm for one last moment even as his head hit the floor.

Darja ran. She ran like the mookas of the seven hells were chasing her.

She didn't know a whole lot about what she was running from, but Willan had let slip enough over the past few years that she knew he was one of mythical Jedi. She also knew that said Jedi had been hunted to near extinction.

Her heart was crying for the fate of her daughter and son-in-law but she had to protect Alora first and foremost.

She ran straight to the spaceport and purchased a ticket on the next public transport leaving the planet. She didn't care where it was headed. Just getting offworld was enough for now.

By some miracle, there was a ship leaving in five minutes.

Darja and her precious granddaughter were on it.

With Willan no longer confusing their Force senses, the repulsive beacon of the child's Light signature was once again easy to feel.

The Inquisitors ran down the tunnel back to the edge of the city and the spaceport. They glared at the departing transport that was just visible in the wispy clouded sky.

The Fifth Brother touched his comm and contacted the Star Destroyer that had brought them here. "There is a transport headed your way. Stop it but do not destroy it. We'll take care of the passengers ourselves."

"Yes, Sir," the comm officer replied.

The Fifth Brother snarled at his hated companion he'd been forced to work with. "Let's go."

With their prey being caught for them, they didn't exactly rush to the landing bay that held their modified TIEs.

Arriving in the ISD's hangar that also held the captured transport, the Inquisitors jumped out of the TIEs. The transport was being guarded by a squadron of troopers. Their posture stiffened respectfully or fearfully (the Inquisitors didn't care which as long as the troopers showed them their due) as they approached.

"We've held them for you, Sirs," a trooper with a sergeant's white pauldron said briskly. "They're demanding answers for their capture."

The Seventh Sister's lip curled in scorn under her mask. "They won't be asking much longer." With that, she swept the door to the transport open with the Force and stalked up the ramp, the Fifth Brother following in her wake.

The troopers glanced at each other but said nothing. They didn't dare. They stood rigidly at attention and pretended that they didn't hear the screams and the sound of lightsabres slicing through durasteel and... other things.

Ten minutes after entering, the Inquisitors strolled back down the ramp, a bawling infant wrapped in a blue blanket held under the female's arm like a helmet.

She glanced at the sergeant as she stalked towards her TIE. "Space the transport and tell the Captain to meet us over Coruscant in two days."

"Yes, Sir."

The troopers waited for the two TIEs to fly out of the hangar before the sergeant and his second walked up the ramp, fairly certain of what they would find, but needing to check to put in the report he'd have to file about the Inquisitor's activities. They walked into the transport, took one look at the bodies littering the hallway and walked right back out.

"They never leave any witnesses, do they?" the second asked the sergeant.

The sergeant just shook his head.

He gave the order to use the tractor beam to toss the transport back out into space and went to report to the Captain of the ISD that they were heading back to Coruscant, minus the two beings that almost every member of the crew secretly despised. The ship might even have a party while they were gone.

Fifteen minutes after the Star Destroyer jumped out of the system, a CR90 Corvette with the call sign of 'The Reckless' jumped in.

Standing in the bridge, Ahsoka gazed out the window at the transport floating aimlessly in space and felt the echoes of death in the Force. Blue eyes sorrowful, she nevertheless portrayed a calm front to the officers on the bridge. "Dock with that transport as quickly as you safely can," she instructed the Captain.

"Yes, Sir," she nodded and instructions rang through the space.

Ahsoka strode out of the bridge and down hallways, making for the airlock. Crewmembers respectfully made way for her, sensing she was a woman on a mission. She stopped in front of the airlock and waited patiently, sensing the docking process through the Force. As usual, Ahsoka gave thanks for her efficient crew when the light over the door turned green in only another minute, signalling it was safe to cross to the other ship.

Entering the transport, she glanced at the bodies but tried not to look too closely. She'd seen a lot of death in her time, but familiarity didn't make it any easier. Instead, she concentrated on the one life force left within the ship that had held over fifty living people only an hour ago. Ahsoka felt terrible she hadn't gotten here sooner, thinking she might have been able to prevent this massacre.

Opening a door, Ahsoka knelt by an older woman whose life force was flickering, but still hanging on. She had a lightsabre wound in her abdomen, an intentional injury meant to cause pain and a long, lingering death. She touched the woman's shoulder gently and sent her a burst of Force energy.

The woman moaned and her eyelids fluttered open. She gasped in pain the next moment.

"Shhhh," Ahsoka murmured, touching her head and blocking the pain for the most part. The lines of agony eased in the woman's face. She looked up at Ahsoka gratefully. "What happened here?" Ahsoka asked gently.

The woman's eyes widened in remembered fear. "Red blades. They took her. They took Alora."

Ahsoka felt a sudden sense of urgency from the Force. She gathered the woman up in her arms and strode back towards the Reckless. "Who's Alora?" she asked, glancing down.

Tears were falling from Darja's eyes now. "My granddaughter. She's Force sensitive, like her father. Like you. You have to save her." Darja had seen the lightsabres hanging from the togrutan's belt. She'd seen her son-in-law's a couple times and knew the cylinders on her belt were similar enough they had to be the same weapon.

Ahsoka raised a white eyebrow marking at the woman as she entered the Reckless and aimed for the medbay. The woman was definitely astute, near death or not. "I will do my best, that is all I can promise."

Darja blinked slowly in understanding. She couldn't really ask for more. The togrutan laid her on a bed and a medic immediately started fussing over her. Before the togrutan could turn to go, Darja stopped her with a shaking hand. "Wait. Please. I need to see that you're not another one."

Ahsoka stared at the woman for a moment before understanding dawned. She unclipped both her lightsabres and ignited them both, showing that they were white. "Okay?" she asked the woman.

Darja smiled slightly. "Okay. Alora, she will need a teacher."

Ahsoka's mouth quirked at the thought of being a teacher as she put her lightsabres back on her belt. "We'll talk about that after I find her." Ahsoka looked up at the medic. "Take good care of her."

He nodded. "Don't worry. I'm sure she'll make it. Her life signs are stabilizing and the wound seems to have missed anything vital. She won't be able to carry a child again, but I'm guessing she's old enough that wasn't going to be an issue anyway," he teased the woman on the bed, winking at her.

Darja rolled her eyes at him and snorted, making Ahsoka grin at her. She nodded to them both and strode out of the medbay, now aiming for the hangar with her personal A-Wing in it. On the way, she commed the Captain. "I need to go on a solo mission. There are bodies on the transport that need taking care of. Contact the authorities on the planet below and inform them that the Imperials attacked one of their transport ships, leaving no survivors. There is a woman in the medbay; find out where she lived and have a team go to her house. I have a feeling there will be more bodies there. Have them brought up to the ship and wipe her family's records from the planet's and the transport's registry. After that, head back to Garel."

"Understood, Director Tano," the Captain replied. "It will be taken care of."

"Thank you," Ahsoka turned off her comm and started her fighter. Once out in space, she set coordinates for Takobo, where she'd sent Kanan, Ezra, and Zeb. If the Inquisitors were just here, the odds were good they'd be going to Takobo next. With any luck, they'd still have the child with them.

As the lights of hyperspace took over her view, Ahsoka closed her eyes and settled her breathing into the familiar rhythms of meditation.

A teenage boy dressed in orange, with blue eyes and dark blue hair, carrying an ithorian infant, bangs on a large door marked 87. It is nighttime, the streets illuminated by the lights in the buildings. He bangs again. "Let me in! Let me in, Chopper!" he yells. "Paranoid droid," he mutters under his breath. Without touching his wrist comm, he activates it and calls, "The door is locked, Kanan! The door is locked!"

A voice calls from afar, getting closer as the man runs away from two figures wreathed in shadows. "I'm a little preoccupied at the moment!" The man in green called Kanan comes to a stop and turns to defend himself, igniting a glowing blue sword. His companion, a very large purple striped being with pointy ears and lime green eyes pulls a blaster rifle of some sort off his back and shoots at the enemy.

The masked female figure in black turns on a spinning, double ended red sword and blocks the shots of the purple one. The male figure in black holds out his hand and the purple one flies backward, crashing to the ground and doesn't get up.

The female leaps into the air, red sword still spinning, and descends on Kanan. Their swords clash as she attacks him, slashing over and over. He fends her off, but just barely, backing up with every step as the female's vicious swordplay outclasses his defensive moves.

The grey male joins the fight, slashing once with his own red sword before clenching his fist and Kanan rises in the air, a grimace of pain taking over his features. The female leaps and kicks Kanan back, sending him flying and then crashing to the ground. He doesn't get up either.

The teenager, still holding the pink infant, steps forward and ignites his own blue sword, a look of determination on his face.

"I don't have time to waste on you, child," the female says through the buffers of her mask, sounding mechanical. She raises a hand and the teenager flies backwards as well, crashing into the door he'd been pounding on only a minute ago.

The Dark ones move forward a step but stop abruptly as the big door suddenly opens and another female figure is outlined in the light behind her. She steps forward, looking calm and unperturbed by what she sees as the door opens. She is tall, dressed in grey and burgundy armour, and has white and blue striped lekku and montrals. She is the togrutan, Ahsoka Tano.

Ahsoka ignites two white lightsabres and moves them to a reverse grip, staring down the Dark ones.

The female's face is now uncovered, revealing yellow skin and glowing yellow eyes. She looks surprised. "Unexpected, but not unwelcome."

Ahsoka looks down at the teenage boy. "Ezra, get the youngling to the ship." He nods and she winks. Then Ahsoka leaps high in the air, coming down almost on top of the female, who raises her red sword just in time to avoid instant death.

The male moves to help the female, but Ahsoka holds out two fingers, while still holding her glowing while lightsabre, and he goes flying through the air, crashing to the ground like the others before; yet another person who falls and doesn't get up right away.

While Ahsoka and the female clash swords, double sided red one against two white ones, Ezra prods his fallen companions off the ground. "Come on, guys! Guys, get up! We've got to get moving!"

The purple one and Kanan groan but stagger to their feet. Kanan rubs his arm and glances at the fallen male and then back at the two female combatants. "What about Ahsoka?"

Ezra looks too and smirks as Ahsoka easily parries the female's almost wild swings. "She's doing fine." They run into the big doorway and board a shuttle.

The females are still fighting, Ahsoka making the Dark one use every trick she had just to stay alive. As the yellow skinned one made her sword spin again in a blur, holding Ahsoka back, Ahsoka says, "I know why you want the children."

The female looks smug. "Well, who doesn't want to be a mother?" thrusting at Ahsoka at the same time.

Ahsoka parries the thrust and the fight was back on faster than ever.

The male finally gets up and runs back into the fight. Ahsoka pushes the female back with a white sword and then flips away from the overhead blow raised at her by the male. While still fighting the female, she parries yet another clumsy blow from the male as he ran at her again. She uses his momentum against him and swings him around, right into a pillar. He hit the ground again.

Ahsoka's and the female's white and red swords are practically a blur as they exchange blows back and forth across the duracrete. Seeing an opening, Ahsoka kicks the female back, but she goes with it and comes to a stop still in balance.

Looking completely unfazed, Ahsoka turns off her lightsabres and kneels on one knee. The female tries to take advantage and rushes at Ahsoka. With eyes closed and a peaceful expression, Ahsoka uses her bare hands to take hold of the spinning sword, right on the circular hilt, and the red ends disappear.

To say the female was shocked would be an understatement.

Ahsoka snatches the female's sword out of her hands and throws it behind her like garbage while rising to her feet. Then she raises both hands and flings the female back so she crashes into the same pillar the male was still lying beside. Ahsoka stalks forward and points one of her white swords at the female. "You are beaten," she states with grim authority.

The female laughs as Imperial ground transports and soldiers in white armour arrive at the scene. "It looks like you are the one that is beaten."

Ahsoka doesn't look particularly worried.

The female summons her double ended sword, the red blades flying towards Ahsoka's back. Ahsoka leaps into the air over the spinning sword and lands lightly as the female rises to her feet and the male finally struggled off the ground again. "You're capture will please Lord Vader."

Ahsoka glances at her wrist comm as it flashes, glances up at the sky as a shuttle flies overhead, and then smirks at the female. "Tell your Master he'll have to wait."

The female snarls and the male throws his spinning red blade at Ahsoka, only for Ahsoka to leap the sword easily yet again.

Ahsoka then clips her lightsabres to her belt as she runs past the Dark ones, dodging a slash by the female, and then pushes off the ground and FLIES up into the air. She lands on the roof of a building with a graceful flip and then leaps yet again, looking like a wingless angel as she defies gravity. She catches the open back door of the shuttle and then swings inside as the troopers down below shoot at the shuttle ineffectively.

The shuttle flies away and the Dark ones are left snarling in defeat, squabbling with each other as they blame the other for losing the two children and all three of the Jedi targets.

They are still sniping at each other when they arrive at their landing bay and find their TIEs in a state of nothing more than scattered pieces of charred metal. They stare in shock for a moment before the female starts laughing manically. "Lord Vader is not going to be pleased," she says between snorts of laughter.

The male just looks at her like she's lost her mind.

Inside the shuttle, there is a bit of a celebration going on.

The ithorian infant is reunited with his mother, who is cooing over him. Kanan, who is flying, is laughing with the purple striped one he calls Zeb over their escape from a building and how they fell on a speeder out of sheer luck. Ezra is gushing over Ahsoka's badass fighting style and begging for more lessons as she smiles at him indulgently, promising nothing.

And in the manipulators of a slowly spinning ancient orange and white astromech, there is a baby girl in a blue blanket with a brown curl hanging over her forehead. Her name is Alora Sunchaser.

Ahsoka pauses Ezra's gushing by standing and walking up to Kanan and directing him to a nearby rooftop where she'd parked her A-Wing. With a, "I'll see you all back at Garel," she opens the back door and jumps out of the flying shuttle, landing lightly beside her A-Wing like she hadn't just plummeted a hundred metres.

Ahsoka stares up into the night sky as the shuttle flies away then looks back the way they'd come from. "We will stop you," she vows into the night breeze. "One day, every Force sensitive child will be safe again."

D27/2 ABY, Iktotch

Alora opened her eyes and stared at the barely visible ceiling of her dark room for a few minutes while she processed her latest vision, committing it to memory. She rose quietly from her bed, careful not to wake Pipey, who was in the bed on the other side of the room, and tiptoed out of their room.

Padding softly down the hall, she went to her grandmother's room and slid into the bed beside her, snuggling into her warmth.

Darja woke at the movement of her mattress and peered at her precious granddaughter, whose chocolate brown curls were rioting around her head and shoulders wildly. "What is it, baby? Another vision?"

Alora nodded, eyes serious in the dim light. "I saw Ahsoka again. She was fighting the Dark ones. The ones that killed mama and papa. It was the day she rescued me and Pipey from them. When is she coming back, Grandma? I want to learn to fight like her."

Darja smiled sadly and brushed a hand over her soft curls. "I don't know, Alora. She was supposed to be back long ago. Maybe one day you'll get a vision about what happened to her."

Alora sighed and snuggled deeper under the blankets, yawning sleepily. "I hope so, Grandma."

"Me too," Darja whispered into the dark, worried for the woman who had saved her life. Ahsoka had promised to come teach Alora and Pipey the basics of how to control the Force within them when they were three years old, saying the planet she'd smuggled them onto was strong enough in the Force to hide them from any more Inquisitors and they should be fine until then as long as they kept a low profile.

The children were now well into their fifth year and growing stronger in their powers by the day. Alora had visions at least two or three times a week now and Pipey was constantly making things float whenever his mood changed even the slightest. She was getting worried and Pipey's mother was already at her wits end trying to deal with her son.

Ahsoka needed to come back.