Chapter Five

Ashya awoke just before dawn. Her husband was still sleeping soundly and she smiled in the darkness watching him. His hair fell across his forehead and very gently she brushed it out of the way. She peered at the chrono by her bedside. She still had a good two standard hours to go before it went off. She wasn't sure why she was awake, especially this early.

Thwap. Thwap Thwap. Thwap. Thwap.

She frowned hearing the noise and strained to see in the darkness.

Thwap. Thwap Thwap. Thwap. Thwap.

The sound was coming at regular intervals. Was the faucet in the refresher leaking, she wondered somewhat drowsily. She slid out of bed to go check.

No. It wasn't the faucet.

She peered outside the window as she came back to the bed and what she saw made her heart stand still.

At least a dozen troopers were marching down her street. With a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach, she shook her husband.

"Ronin! Get up! Palpatine has found us!" She said panicking. She hurried to get dressed in the dark. Maybe there was a chance they could slip out the back kitchen door. She was grateful now that she had put her baby's bag by the door there. One less thing to worry about.

Her husband nearly leapt out of bed at the urgency in her voice. "Sithspit, how could they have discovered we are hiding a Jedi so soon?"

"I don't know! Maybe they have been searching for him since his ship was shot down," Ashya replied worriedly.

"Get the children," Ronin snapped at her.

Ashya ran into the corridor and to her children's adjoining bedrooms. "Ryli! Dilan, wake up!" she barked, dragging them out of bed when they were slow to respond.

"But mommy, I'm still sleepy," Dilan said yawning. "What's going on?"

"No time, Dilan," she said hurriedly while dressing her son. "Get to the back kitchen door and wait for me while I get your sisters."

Dilan did as he was told hearing the urgency and fright in his mother's voice. He had never heard his mother talk to him like that before.

Coming to her daughter's room, she found Kyran already there helping her get ready. "Ryli, get to the back door with Dilan!" She ordered, a fierce sense of protectiveness rising in her.

She ran to Ranya's crib and snatched her daughter up along with everything she could carry for her. She ran to the back door where she stuffed the diaper bag full of the supplies in her arms.

Ashya peered out the window again. She estimated they had five minutes. Maybe less.

She opened the back door and Ronin appeared with Kyran. The Jedi was holding his saber at the ready, the teal blade glowing in the darkness, and her husband had two blasters.

"Ronin, what are you doing?" She asked. "Hurry and come on!"

He bit his lip and shook his head. "Ashya, I can't."

"What are you talking about?" She asked worriedly. "Ronin?"

"I can't come with you."

"Of course you can! You're my husband! I need you to be with me to raise our children!" She said thickly. Tears began trailing down her cheeks.

"I can't Ashya. It is my duty to protect my family. The best way I can do that is to give you time to get the children out safely." He handed her an envelope filled with untraceable currency.

"Where did you get this?" Ashya asked, thunderstruck.

"Our savings account," he explained sadly. "I suspected something like this might happen when Kyran first came to us, so I took precautions before our assets were frozen. The Jedi and I talked it over and we agreed it's for the best and he would need backup."

He embraced her and kissed her with passion. "You are still the most wonderful woman I know. I love you."

Tears were falling faster now as one last time she returned his love. "Ronin.." she said. "Please…"

"This is for the best Ashya. In time, you'll realize it too."

"I love you, you big gundark," she whispered through the lump in her throat, struggling not to break down entirely.

"I know," he thumbed her tears away one last time. "Go," he urged.

The sounds of breaking glass came from the foyer. Their time had run out.

Giving her husband one last, pleading look that he would change his mind, she hurried out the door, the children's bags jolting against her as she ran. Ryli was having trouble keeping up and was falling behind. She scooped her daughter up.

Dilan could keep up. He always had been a fast runner.

"Mommy!" Dilan shrieked.

Ashya panicked. Dilan wasn't at her side like she had thought. She shrieked and whirled around. "Dilan!" Her son had a blaster in his hand. How he had gotten it she could only guess. She took several steps towards him before she saw the troopers advance on her son. She ducked behind a building clutching her daughters watching with horrified eyes as they surrounded him.

The air was thick with the smell of ozone and the sounds of blaster fire. "Take him," a trooper ordered.

A trooper picked up her son and he fired the blaster, freeing himself.

Ashya jammed her fist in her mouth to stifle her cry. /Someone help.. please… anyone…save him… save him/

A teal glow alerted her to a possible savior. The Jedi! Kyran! Brandishing a lightsaber and a blaster, Kyran and Ronin, both rushed to the child's aide.

Dilan was struggling, fighting against another as they picked him up and swung him over his body like a sack of dung. "Take him to training camp five."

/Training camp../ Ashya wondered what that was all about.

She could barely see through her tears. Her daughters were both crying in her arms. Her hopes of a savior were shattered as she heard Kyran and Ronin's refusal to surrender.

With growing dread, she turned her daughter's eyes away as the troopers surrounded her family and opened fire. She jammed her fist again into her mouth to stifle her scream. She could barely think.. could barely breathe. Ronin and Kyran fell soundlessly, the lightsaber falling from the Jedi's grip and clinking off on the ground. "Lord Vader will be interested in this," a trooper commented.

"Take it back to him. Burn the house and the bodies."

Ashya was close to a nervous collapse. Her daughters were still crying in her arms and the sound finally jarred her out of her panic. /You can fall apart later, Ashya. Pull yourself together or their sacrifice will be for nothing./ Gathering her thoughts, she furrowed a brow.

First things first…a place to hide. She had to find some out of the way abandoned place to stay for a few days. She would not endanger any other family like this. No one deserved this. Once she found a place to hide, she could lie low for a few days and plan her next move. Yes, that sounded adequate.

With her daughters clutched tightly in her arms and her children's satchels on her back, she began walking into the first rays of morning light.

A new day had begun.