Thank you, once again, for the exceptional response to the last chapter. Your feedback is extremely helpful in making sure this is the best version of the story I can write.

Quite a few people were upset that Aurra and Pre Viszla escaped at the end of the last chapter. I didn't expect quite as strong a hatred towards them as that, but I'm pleased nonetheless. They are hateful villains, and I promise, their time will come. However, this is Star Wars. The good guys don't always win. Even when they do, quite often, they actually lose. Justice will catch up to Aurra and Viszla, but it may take quite a while. I have plans for both characters already in place.

In other news, have a poll up on my profile asking if I should keep this story as one, enormous magnum opus, or split it into two parts. For spoiler reasons, I can't say where the split would be, but suffice it to say that I am not even a third of the way through this story.

There's been a lot of news in the past month, both here in the USA and around the world. Please don't forget about the ongoing war in Ukraine, and, if you can, donate to help them fight to save their country.

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Chapter 32

Jedi Master Fay did not often find herself surprised any longer. At her age, which was considerably more advanced than her youthful appearance would suggest, there simply weren't many things which could take her off guard. She was not so arrogant as to think she had experienced everything the galaxy had to offer, but she had certainly seen more than even most Jedi ever managed. However, when she felt the Force urging her to plot a course towards Rago, she was, indeed, shocked.

Not at the urge itself, though. Master Fay had spent the better part of seven centuries listening to such nudges, following the will of the Force. Ever since she had become a Jedi Master, she had embraced the life of a wandering nomad, letting the Force guide her wherever she most needed to be. She did not even report to the Jedi High Council, and had not set foot in the Temple in over 300 years. She maintained occasional contact with Yoda, enough to keep abreast of major events in the Order, but that was all. The Force had called her across the length and breadth of the galaxy countless times over the centuries. A pull towards a planet just over a sector away was no great thing.

No, what shocked her about this particular call was the strength behind it. Normally the Force's guidance was subtle; a gentle tug pulling her ever so softly in one direction. In the past few decades, those tugs had become ever more subtle and difficult to detect as the Dark Side clouded the future. This one, however, was nothing like that at all. It slammed into her with all the ephemeral subtlety of a hammer between the eyes. She was already halfway through plotting the course before she even realized she had moved. The last time she had felt anything like this from the Force had been over three years ago, when a shock wave had shaken the whole of the Force, throwing the future into turmoil and granting her visions so confused and vibrant she was still trying to make sense of them. This wasn't anything like as strong as that, but it still left her panting and blinking in shock.

A moment after the powerful urge to get to Rago with all haste came to her, she felt a surge of darkness and rage pulse through the Force. Somewhere, and if she had to bet, she would put every credit on Rago, someone or something had just channeled the Dark Side in a major way. It didn't feel like any Force user she had ever felt before. She had faced down Dark Jedi and banished ancient Sith spirits, and this was unlike either of those. It was wild, uncontrolled, and animalistic; full of pain and bitterness. Moreover, it felt strangely knotted up in itself, different from how the Force normally flowed.

Whatever it was, the Force kept on practically screaming at her to get to Rago and the source of that awful pain and rage. Clearly, someone badly needed her help, and Master Fay had never in her life ignored such a call. She finished plotting her course, using the Force to find the fastest route, and sent her ship hurtling into hyperspace.

Fortunately, her yacht was fast. It had been a gift, some 350 years ago, from the government of Devaron, after she had helped cure an outbreak of the Blue Shadow Virus that had been ravaging their capital city. As a Jedi, she normally would have declined any reward and shunned material possessions, but as a nomad, the utility of having her own ship had outweighed any philosophical objections she may have had. It was a custom job, designed specifically for her needs of speed and long travel times, and she'd had it retrofitted with more modern systems repeatedly over the centuries. As such, it took her less than an hour to reach her destination.

The raging storm of the Dark Side had subsided some minutes ago, but she still reached out with her senses and searched for any danger before she started the landing sequence. Master Fay had lived for over 700 years, and the reason she had lived that long was because she had not died, and she had not died by virtue of not rushing into potentially dangerous situations like an overexcited strill cub. She had no issue wading into perilous waters, but doing so blindly was the province of the young.

The Force didn't warn her of any danger, however. Instead, it sang of grief, pain, and desperation. Somewhere on the planet below, people needed her help. She followed that sensation like a guideline, descending through the atmosphere towards the forests below. The feeling came from near the mouth of what looked like a large ravine, a few kilometers from a recently wrecked ship. It was only as she got closer that she saw it for what it truly was.

"Stars and moons," she breathed, shocked for the second time in as many hours. "What happened here?"

What she had, at first, taken for a natural ravine, turned out to be nothing of the sort. Instead, it seemed to be the result of some immense weapon. It stretched for more than a kilometer; a deep groove cut as if by a huge blaster bolt. Patches of rock still glowed red hot, and the trees on either side of the trench smoldered and smoked. Master Fay had seen the result of a heavy turbolaser bombardment before, and she thought this might be what it looked like if one of those terrible weapons were fired parallel to the ground, rather than from space.

'But if that's true, where is the turbolaser cannon?' she thought. 'This happened less than an hour ago. It would be impossible to hide such a cumbersome weapon in that time. I'm missing something, but what?'

To compound her bafflement, she also recognized the nearby crashed ship. It may have been centuries, but she could still remember boarding that same cruiser for her own Gathering, as well as the Gatherings she had guided as a Padawan and, later, a Knight. Seeing the Crucible wrecked and burning, having obviously been shot down, had her redoubling her haste to land. Aside from Professor Huyang, the Crucible primarily carried children. If there was one thing Master Fay could not, would not tolerate, it was a threat to children. It was a subject upon which she held Views, and was one of the few things that could break her typical calm.

So, if her landing was, perhaps, rougher than normal, it was only because she was in a rush to find and help the survivors of the crash. There were survivors, she was sure. She could sense several young Force-sensitives, all of them in pain. Once the ship had finished shaking, she snatched up her medkit and lowered the ramp. Before it was even fully extended, she had jumped to the ground and marched off towards where she sensed the survivors.

When she walked past the mouth of the trench, Fay briefly thought she had somehow stepped into a war zone. There were bodies, or what had once been bodies, strewn everywhere. Blood and entrails splattered the ground, and severed limbs dotted the landscape like macabre lawn ornaments. The smell was indescribable; a mixture of burned flesh, colorized blood, and other, worse odors. Only long years of experience in places like this allowed Fay to keep her gorge from rising. Here and there she spotted pieces of armor, including several distinct Mandalorian helmets, some inexplicably crushed, others with their owner's heads still inside them. It was a gruesome sight, and it raised a dozen more questions.

'Force, what happened here?'

She had no time to dwell on such mysteries, though, as she quickly spotted a survivor on the other side of the corpse-littered field. It was, she saw as she got closer, a young, orange-skinned Togruta girl. She was wearing a traditional Togruta outfit, now torn and stained from battle, and was holding a copper-hilted lightsaber in one hand. Not hers, if Fay had to guess, judging by how she held it. The poor girl looked exhausted and beaten half to death, but she still stood, wary and defiant, as Fay approached.

"Who are you?" She yelled. "What are you doing here?"

"My name is Jedi Master Fay, child. I'm here to help."

"You're a Jedi?" Hope and suspicion fought a war in the young girl's eyes as she tried to decide whether or not to trust the stranger in front of her. Fay smiled and reached out with the Force to brush against the girl's mind, soothing her tangled emotions and letting her feel the truth of her words.

"Yes, young one, I'm a Jedi. What is your name?"

The girl hesitated for a moment before hope won out. "A-Ahsoka. I'm Ahsoka Tano."

"It's good to meet you. Now, do you need help, Ahsoka?"

At the word "help", Ahsoka's knees almost buckled. She nodded desperately and pointed at a large log behind her. "Please. My friends… they're really hurt. Can you help them? You have to help them."

Fay nodded and made sure to project calm and reassurance. She could tell the girl was on the verge of shutting down, and she needed her to stay coherent for at least a few minutes more. "Show me. I'm a Healer, and I'll do what I can."

She followed Ahsoka around the log, where she found five others lying in a row on the ground. Two of them, a human girl and a Nautolan boy, were at least semi-conscious. They sat propped up against the log, but they seemed only minimally aware of their surroundings. A Mirialan girl with a badly broken leg lay next to them, and a boy of some vaguely reptilian species she didn't recognize with a bloody bandage on his side lay next to her. Both of them were unconscious, and the Mirialan, at least, was worryingly pale. More concerning than any of those, however, was the human boy at the end.

When she first saw him, Fay wasn't even sure he was alive. How could he be? Most of his skin was missing, either burned or flayed away; she couldn't tell. It was only when she saw the muscles in his neck twitch as he swallowed reflexively that she realized he was, against all odds, still breathing.

"Stars, what happened to him?" She asked as she rushed over to treat him.

"He- I don't really know," Ahsoka said behind her. "It's hard to explain. He was worse earlier, though. I thought he was going to die, but it's already started growing back. That's why I moved him over here."

"What?" Sure enough, when she looked closer, Fay saw that some sections of the boy's body were better off than others, as if they'd already been healing for days. There were even a few sections of new skin on his chest and face. It was like nothing Fay had ever seen before. Not even the most advanced Jedi healing techniques could work so fast on wounds such as these. "How is that even…"

"Naruto's always healed fast," Ahsoka said. Fay pushed her curiosity to the back of her mind. She would ponder this boy, Naruto's, strange healing abilities later. For now, she was just grateful that they seemed to be keeping him alive.

In short order, she deemed the Nautolan and the human girl to be in no immediate danger. A quick change of bandages and a few bacta patches, along with some of her more rapid Force healing techniques, stabilized the Mirialan girl and the other boy. Galdos, Ahsoka called him. They were not out of danger, but she could at least transport them without risking them bleeding out. That just left Naruto.

'The others are mostly stable for now. I need to stabilize Naruto before I can move him again, though. Bacta will be the best thing for him, and lots of it. Then I can start using the Force to help him.'

She emptied two whole bacta spray canisters over Naruto's body. Once the healing ointment was in place, she carefully wrapped as much of his exposed skin as she could in bandages from her medkit, and then settled into a more comfortable position. When she reached out with the Force to start healing his body, though, she immediately gasped and jerked her hand back. There was some sort of foreign energy suffusing his body. Even to her Force senses, it felt toxic and corrosive, with a heavy taint of the Dark Side.

"What is it?" Ahsoka asked as she rushed to see what was wrong. Fay couldn't help but admire her continued bravery, despite her obvious pain and exhaustion. "Is he going to be alright?"

"I need you to tell me what happened here, Ahsoka. If I'm going to help him, I'll need as much information as you can give me."

The young Togruta nodded, though reluctance echoed in every tense line of her posture. Fay understood. She was asking her to relieve what were no doubt traumatizing events less than an hour after they had happened. In any other circumstance, she would have castigated herself for such cruelty, but there was a life at stake. Possibly more than one, as she sensed the same sort of energy in the wound on Ahsoka's abdomen.

"It was Aurra Sing and a bunch of Mandalorians. We had just come out of hyperspace when they attacked our ship. I don't know why. They just… wanted us dead, I guess. Naruto made Huyang and the rest of us get into the escape pods."

"He didn't go with you?"

Ahsoka shook her head. "He stayed on the Crucible to protect us from the other ships. I think he used the other escape pods as weapons somehow. It looked like he made them blow up. Anyway, it worked, because no one shot us down. We saw him crash right after we landed."

From Ahsoka's words, Fay's estimation of Naruto rose several notches. For a Padawan, and a fairly young one at that, to display such courage, selflessness, and ingenuity in the face of an unexpected attack was impressive.

"We tried to get to the crash site, but they got to us first."

"Aurra Sing and the Mandalorians?"

Ahsoka nodded. "We fought back, but… they beat us. That's where most of us got hurt. Sing said she was gonna use us as bait for Naruto."

Fay nodded as Ahsoka talked, half her focus still on healing the injured children. Even for someone of her skill and power, it was taxing to simultaneously heal multiple traumatic injuries on multiple patients. The vile energy coursing through Naruto's cells didn't help matters, either. It interfered with her healing, shredding the delicate patterns of the Force she tried to weave around his body. Still, she managed, and even worked to help soothe the worst of Ahsoka's injuries while the girl told her story. Sweat beaded on her brow, and the beginnings of a prize headache were already forming behind her eyes, but that was of no consequence right now. She was a Healer, and she had injured patients. Everything else was secondary to that.

"I don't really know what happened next. When I woke up, they had us all hostage. Naruto was there. He was going to give himself up… until… Viir." Ahsoka's voice cracked with grief when she said the name. Fay glanced up to see her eyes distant, tears running down her face in silent rivulets.

"Ahsoka," she prompted. "Ahsoka, child, I need you to focus. You've been very brave so far. I need to know what happened next. Can you tell me, please?"

Ahsoka sniffled once and then took a deep, calming breath. Fay could practically see her seize all the grief and pain and lock them back under the surface. It wasn't healthy, and she would definitely need to meditate and deal with her emotions properly later, but it would do for now. Seeing such a display of inner strength, Fay raised her estimate of Ahsoka as well. It was no wonder the girl was still on her feet when all her comrades had fallen. There was a fire in her, a core of white-hot durasteel that refused to buckle. She had seen full-fledged Knights with less determination than the young Initiate before her.

"Viir is… was… one of my clanmates. She tried to help Naruto, and they… they killed her." She pointed off to one side, and Fay followed her finger. A few dozen meters away, she could see a small form on the ground. It was wearing the typical robes of a Jedi youngling. She closed her eyes and sighed deeply, suddenly feeling every one of her 753 standard years.

"After that, something happened to Naruto," Ahsoka said. Her voice was rushing now, as if starting this story had somehow opened the floodgates, and she couldn't stop now until she had finished. "There was a horrible feeling, killing intent, I think, but like nothing I've ever felt before. He had some kind of weird, red chakra coming out of him, and then he… transformed."

"Transformed?" Fay had heard of chakra from Master Yoda. He had taken the time to track her down and inform of the recent events at the Temple. He hadn't said anything about it transforming its users, though.

Ahsoka nodded and told her about how her friend had somehow turned into a rampaging monster. When she described how he had blasted the trench behind them with a single attack, Fay's jaw actually dropped. The idea of such power coming from a mere Padawan was… difficult to comprehend.

'Still, this would explain the energy in his wounds, as well as the one he gave her. It must be the remnants of that chakra. Strange, though. It feels almost… foreign, as if it doesn't belong to him. I'll have to contact the Council. Perhaps they know something I do not.'

When Ahsoka finally finished recounting how Naruto had somehow regained control of himself and turned back, it was as though all the energy drained out of her. She swayed precariously on her feet, and Fay had to catch her with the Force before she collapsed onto her face.

"Are they going to be alright, Master?" She asked. Her voice was weak, but she still refused to pass out. Adrenaline, nervous energy, even the Force had all long since stopped sustaining her. All that was left was sheer stubbornness and concern for her friends' welfare.

"Your friends should all recover, Ahsoka. Even Naruto. You can rest now." The final syllable had not even left Fay's lips before the battered Togruta finally closed her eyes and let sleep take her. Once she was unconscious, Fay stood up and carefully levitated all six of her patients into the air. Slowly, so as not to aggravate their injuries, she took them back to her ship and set them up as best she could. Her yacht had extensive medical facilities for a vessel of its size, specifically for circumstances like this, but even so, she would have to get them to a proper hospital as soon as she could. For the time being, she put Naruto in her bacta tank and had the medical droid tend to the others.

With that done, she went back outside and walked over to where Ahsoka had pointed earlier. Sure enough, she found the far too little corpse of a human youngling, a blaster hole burned through her neck. The girl had been small in life, and now looked positively tiny in death; a fragile bundle of could-have-beens that now would never be. Fay's eyes burned, and her vision blurred as tears threatened to escape her normally tight self-control. No matter how many dead children she saw, and Force knew she had seen thousands, it never grew any easier. She prayed it never would.

With infinite care, she gathered Viir's body in her arms. No using the Force to carry this burden. There were some things that had to be done properly. She closed the girl's eyes and carried her back to the ship. Once she had carefully placed the body in the cargo hold, she checked in on the survivors before heading to the cockpit. It was high time she got her patients to a proper hospital and got in contact with the Jedi Council. She could feel in the Force that this wasn't over yet. Something larger was afoot, and the Order needed to know.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Naruto had grown accustomed to waking up from being knocked out over the years. It probably said something depressing about his life that he was used to regular bouts of involuntary unconsciousness, but he just considered it normal. So normal, in fact, that he had identified several distinct stages of regaining consciousness in such circumstances. Right now, he was in the calm, peaceful, numb stage, where nothing hurt and his mind was still too fuzzy to remember anything. His stay in those placid lagoons was always brief, however, and soon enough, clarity returned and dragged memory along with it.

The attack on the Crucible.

Fighting the Mandalorians.

Viir.

Giving in to the Kyuubi, just as he had sworn he never would.

'Oh, Kami. What did I do?' He thought, panic rising in his throat. 'The others. Ahsoka. They're not-? I didn't-? I have to find them. Have to help them.'

With one last effort, he wrenched his eyes open. Bright artificial lighting blinded him for a moment, but he ignored the inconvenience. Fighting against his stiff muscles, he kicked the blankets off of his legs, and rolled clumsily out of bed and onto the cold, metal floor.

'Wait. Lights? Blankets? A bed? Where am I?' He froze, confused and, he was just realizing, badly sore. Various parts reported in, and the consensus was that sudden movement had definitely not been the best idea. In the haze of his still blurry vision, he could see a robed figure walking up to him. When he tried to reach out with the Force and get a better feel for who it was, though, he couldn't. It was as though his control had reverted to what it was when he first came to the Temple. He could feel the Force, vaguely, but he couldn't grasp it. When he tried, it was like trying to squeeze a fistful of mud. It slipped and squeezed out between his fingers. He didn't have time to figure out what was going on, though, because the strange person had reached him and kneeled down by his side.

"Calm down, Padawan Uzumaki. You're safe now. I am Jedi Master Fay, a Healer. You're in a hospital on Ansion." The figure, who he could now see was a young-looking woman of average height wearing Jedi robes, spoke in a soothing voice. Even with his connection to the Force screwed up, somehow, he could still sense her presence, gentle and nurturing, but with a depth to it that rivaled even Master Yoda's.

"M'st'r F'y?" He tried to speak, but his throat felt as if it had been sanded raw and then coated in plaster. Even so, her name sounded familiar to him. He thought Master Windu might have mentioned her a few times. Some sort of wandering Jedi Master; practically a myth, even within the Order.

"Don't try to talk yet. You're still healing." She spoke in the same gentle, but vaguely reproachful tone that all doctors seemed to adopt with him. "Now, I'm going to put you back in bed. Please try not to vault halfway across the room this time. Can you do that?"

He nodded. Normally, Naruto would buck against a doctor's instructions as a matter of principle, but some primal instinct told him that would be a bad idea with Master Fay. Something about her calm demeanor and gentle words told him she hadn't really been asking him. She had been informing him of the way things would be. That, coupled with the burning pain in his… well, everything really overrode his typical stubbornness when it came to hospitals.

Fay gave him a small smile, as if she knew exactly what he had been thinking, and levitated him back into the bed. Once he was safely lying on the mattress, she walked off and returned with a cup of tea.

"Drink this. It should help your throat."

The warm liquid did indeed soothe the ache in his throat. After a few gulps, Naruto felt up to trying speech again. Talking still hurt a little, and his voice was raspy and quiet, but he ignored it. There were questions he needed answered.

"My friends? Are they okay?"

Fay nodded. "Ahsoka, Barriss, Knox, Trilla, and Galdos are all alive. Some of their injuries were rather severe, but I expect them all to make a full recovery. Professor Huyang backs up his memory banks to the Temple Archives before every Gathering, and I'm even told portions of his databanks survived the damage inflicted on him. He'll need a new body, but he will be fine."

A small mountain lifted itself from Naruto's chest when he heard that. He closed his eyes and sighed in relief. 'They're okay. I didn't- They're okay. Thank the Force.'

He basked in the relief of knowing his friends had survived for a whole minute, before he moved on to the next question. It wasn't one he wanted to ask, but he had to. He knew the answer, but he needed confirmation. The words didn't want to form properly, though, and he had to swallow hard and take several more gulps of tea. Finally, he managed to croak out a single word. It fell out of his mouth like a lump of volcanic stone, heavy and tasting like ash.

"Viir?"

Fay's forlorn sigh was all the answer he needed. Whatever tiny hope he'd clung to that his sister had, somehow, survived, shriveled and crumbled to dust. All the breath left his lungs in a rush.

"I'm truly sorry, Padawan, but Viir didn't make it. I recovered her body from Rago. There was nothing anyone could have done to save her." Her words were kind, but Naruto barely heard them. The last image he had of Viir, that of her eyes going blank as the life left her body, dominated his mind. He couldn't cry, he couldn't yell, he couldn't even get angry. All he could do was just sit there and try to process the fact that Viir was dead. The idea scarcely seemed real. It was almost like a bad dream. He would have given anything for it to be a bad dream.

But it wasn't.

He could only dwell on it for so long, though. Eventually, his mind drifted back to the real world, if only to get away from that awful memory. He noticed a hand on his shoulder and felt a faint sense of comfort coming from Master Fay. It didn't remove the pain, exactly, but, for the moment, it was a little easier to bear.

"Take heart, Padawan," she said, a world of empathy in her voice. "I know it hurts, but you cannot give in to despair."

Naruto didn't trust his voice yet, so he just nodded silently. It took a few deep, shuddering breaths, but he finally regained his composure. Once he had done that, he looked around the room. Immediately he spotted his lightsaber laying on the bedside table. Somehow, he hadn't sensed it earlier. To his surprise, he was not the only patient in the room. Ahsoka lay in a bed on the other side of the room, wrapped in bandages and sound asleep. He had been so disoriented when he first woke up; he hadn't even noticed her.

"How is she?" He nodded towards Ahsoka.

"Resting, for now. It's the best thing for her. She'll be asleep for a while, yet."

"Where's everyone else?" He asked. It was odd, he thought, that just he and Ahsoka were in the room. There was room for at least two more beds.

"If you're talking about the other younglings, they're in a separate recovery room. Healer Bant is seeing to them. I thought it best to treat you and Ahsoka here separately."

Naruto frowned. "Why?"

"Because you both had traces of dangerous chakra contaminating your wounds. It was interfering with my healing techniques. In fact, it's still disrupting your connection to the Force. Your godfather tells me it was residual chakra from the Kyuubi. I needed a controlled environment in order to remove it."

Naruto's mouth moved silently for a moment as he processed what she had said. "He- he told you?"

"Oh, I didn't give him, or the Council, much choice in the matter. They had information I needed to heal my patients." A note of something… not hard, perhaps, but unyielding, crept into Fay's voice. For a moment, Naruto was glad he hadn't tried to ignore her earlier. Then the full implications of her statement dawned on him.

"Wait wait wait. The fox's chakra is messing with my Force abilities?"

Fay nodded. "It seems so. I'm not an expert on chakra, let alone the Kyuubi, but it appears that trace amounts remain in your system whenever you use its power. Jiraiya told me they're harmless to you, but they do apparently interfere with your connection to the Force. I believe your body is naturally generating its own chakra in an attempt to absorb the Kyuubi's chakra safely. Don't worry, it isn't permanent. I've removed much of it already. It should only take a few days for you to process the rest of it. Less, if I keep helping."

"And Jiraiya-sensei is here?"

"Of course. Jiraiya told me he got your Toad, whatever that means, and alerted the Council at once. I arrived on Rago only two hours before they would have. Master Yoda and Master Windu accompanied him here, along with Healer Bant. They wanted to speak with you as soon as you woke up, in fact. Do you feel up for that?"

That brought Naruto up short. The idea of facing Jiraiya and Master Yoda, let alone Mace, was unpleasant, to say the least. He didn't want to see the disappointment in their eyes, and they would be disappointed. How could they not be? He had broken his promise never to use the Kyuubi's power. He'd failed to keep his old clanmates safe. They'd trusted him with a solo mission, and he'd screwed it up so spectacularly there probably weren't words to describe it.

'How can I face them now? How can I face any of them?'

Master Fay must have read the anguish on his face, or perhaps in his mind, because she tapped him lightly on the forehead to get his attention.

"It's up to you, of course, but you should know something. Bad news does not get better with time. Delaying facing your problems does not eliminate them. It only puts off solving them."

Naruto hesitated for a long moment, but her words made too much sense. It was the same thing he'd told himself for years back in Konoha. Drive forward. Act. No matter what, keep moving. That attitude had, eventually, propelled him from being an orphan everyone hated to being a chunin of his village and the apprentice of Jiraiya of the Sannin. If he had managed that, then he could manage this. After all, he was Naruto Uzumaki.

"I can talk to them," he said. "Send them in."

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

It was a solemn looking group that came into his room. Well, Mace was almost always solemn, but Jiraiya and Master Yoda both looked unusually grave. Jiraiya smiled when he saw him, though, and Yoda's ears twitched upwards. Even Mace's semi-permanent scowl softened at the edges for a moment, and Naruto thought he might have felt a glimmer of relief through their bond. It was hard to tell with his connection to the Force so unstable, but it still let him relax a little. They didn't look happy, but they also weren't looking at him like the adults back in Konoha once had. He didn't know if he could have handled seeing eyes like that again. Not now. Not from them.

Jiraiya took one look at him and reached out to ruffle his hair. His warm, calloused hand felt safe and familiar. Naruto unconsciously leaned into it, heedless of the other Masters in the room. Neither of them said anything. They didn't have to. They were family, after all. Just being there was enough.

Master Fay fiddled with a panel on the wall, and a faint barrier shimmered into place around his bed, dividing the room. The faint sounds of the hospital; distant beeps, footsteps, and even the sound of Ahsoka's breathing, vanished. A privacy barrier then, so no one could overhear their conversation.

"Good it is, to see you awake, young Naruto," Yoda said. "Strong enough, are you, to answer some questions?"

"Yes, master."

"Start by telling us what happened," Mace said, his voice flat. "From the beginning. Leave nothing out. Any detail may be important."

Naruto winced a little at having to relive the ordeal, but he didn't argue. He just wanted to get it over with. He was going to have to tell them what happened eventually. Now was as good a time as any.

So he told them. It was easier than he thought it would be, almost like reading a script. He got through the ambush over Rago without pausing. His fights with the Mandalorian warriors and Aurra's message, too. Viir's murder, though, proved too much. That part choked him up as he tried to tell it. The words just wouldn't come. Even his voice wanted nothing to do with that memory.

When he finally managed to relate how she had died, Yoda seemed to age a dozen more centuries. Mace's face became even more inscrutable than usual; a totally blank wall of stone. Naruto could feel the distant whispers of his sadness and anger, before he mastered those too. Jiraiya just looked tired.

After that, things got even harder. It wasn't just that Naruto was reluctant to talk about using the Kyuubi's chakra, although he was. He also didn't have the proper words to describe what he had experienced. It wasn't the sort of experience he could easily describe. Eventually, though, he finished. Silence reigned for a long while until Yoda finally spoke.

"Been through a terrible ordeal you have, Padawan. Well, you did, in protecting the younglings," he said, before his ears dropped. "However, what happened with the Kyuubi, serious it is."

Jiraiya shot him a glare and made to say something, but a raised hand from Yoda silenced him.

"A horrible situation it was. Know this we do. Many Jedi, bush the Dark side at times they do. For you, though, Naruto, more serious this is. Grave danger is there in your power, if use it in anger you do."

Naruto nodded miserably. "I-I know, master. I was just… so angry. I couldn't stop it."

"A dangerous connection to the Force, you made. Debate on what to do about this, the Council must."

He had figured as much. At any other time, Naruto might have bristled at the idea of the Council putting him under a microscope, again, but right now he was too numb to even be annoyed. So much had happened in such a short period that he couldn't do much more than just nod and accept it. Hell, he probably deserved whatever punishment they would think up, given how badly he had failed. He was so caught up in his own head that he didn't even notice Yoda had moved until he felt the old goblin's gimer stick smack him in the elbow.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"Being foolish, you were. Dwelling on the past, yes. Allow misery to rule your mind, you must not. Punish you, the Council will not. Teach you, we will. Help you through this, we will."

Naruto just stared at him, stunned. What was the wizened Grandmaster talking about? He'd kriffed up worse than he'd ever imagined possible. He'd gotten Viir killed. He'd used the fucking Dark side, for kriff's sake. How was he not going to be punished? In what seemed to be a trend lately, he once more found himself speechless. Yoda sighed and stepped back.

"Go now, I must, to arrange the Council meeting. Much to meditate on, there is. Stay here, Jiraiya and Master Windu will. Rest, young Naruto."

With that, he turned and hobbled through the privacy field and out of the room. Naruto just shook his head, still reeling from recounting the event and Yoda's words. To his surprise, neither Mace nor Jiraiya made any move to leave with Yoda. When he looked at his master, the same man who'd recommended him for a solo mission after just two years as a Padawan, the man who'd trusted him to safely escort his former clanmates on their Gathering, guilt flooded his chest like poison.

"I'm sorry, master," he whispered. Mace raised an eyebrow and tilted his head.

"Sorry? What are you apologizing for, Padawan?"

"I…" He paused and swallowed hard. "I failed you. You trusted me with this mission, and I failed."

Mace sighed and sat at the foot of Naruto's bed. For a while, he didn't say anything, and just stared at the opposite wall. Finally, just when Naruto thought he would sit there in silence for eternity, he spoke.

"You didn't fail me, Naruto." His words came slowly; he was obviously choosing them with great care. Nevertheless, Naruto could feel the conviction behind each one of them.

"You didn't fail me," he repeated. "There was no way for you to have predicted that attack. You reacted as well as any Jedi could have, and better than most. It is because of you that Ahsoka, Barriss, Galdos, Knox, and Trilla are alive right now. Do not forget that."

"But Viir…" Naruto clenched the blanket in his fists so tightly it tore. His teeth clenched, and tears filmed his eyes again. Only when Jiraiya placed a warm hand on his back did he relax, letting out a shuddering breath.

"Viir's death wasn't your fault, Naruto," Jiraiya said. "You did everything you could, everything I would have had you do. I know it doesn't help right now, but there truly was nothing else you could've done."

"He is right," Mace said, before his face hardened a little. "But I will not lie to you. I am disappointed and… concerned that you used the Kyuubi's power. I have told you before, the Jedi have great power. That means we must always use that power wisely. Always. There cannot be exceptions."

That had Naruto frowning. He knew that. Didn't Mace know he knew that? It wasn't that simple. "I know, master. I just- they murdered her right in front of me. I couldn't just let that… I didn't even think."

Mace looked at him, and somehow, Naruto just knew what he was about to say. He could see it coming, and, for the first time since he woke up, an emotion other than grief flared up in him.

"Naruto, I know Viir's death was painful, but-"

"Don't!" Both Jiraiya and Mace flinched at his shout. He even surprised himself a little at how loud it was, but he couldn't help it. After sitting there, numb, this whole time, the sudden anger burned like a fire. It probably wasn't fair to his master, and it definitely wasn't the Jedi way, but Naruto didn't care. He needed to say this.

"Don't give me some stupid platitude. 'It hurt, but you should release your feelings into the Force.' Or maybe, 'The dead become one with the Force. It isn't the Jedi way to mourn them. Rejoice for them, instead.' Don't you dare say something like that right now!"

"Naruto-" Jiraiya started.

"No! I'll let you know when I'm finished," he cut off his godfather before turning his attention back to Mace. The older Jedi was frowning at him, but Naruto was past caring about that. "Don't you dismiss her like that. Viir mattered. She was my sister. Her life mattered. Her death mattered. It's supposed to hurt. Don't ever tell me I shouldn't hurt when family dies."

Mace's eyes widened a little when he called Viir his sister, but otherwise he said nothing. Some small part of Naruto, beneath the anger and grief, was grateful for that, at least. Whatever fine threads of self-control he had left at this point would not survive him being interrupted.

"I shouldn't have used the fox's power, I admit that. It was dumb and dangerous. But I will never be okay with someone getting murdered in front of me. Jedi are supposed to care about people. That means caring when they're gone, too."

When Naruto had finished speaking, all the energy left his body. He slumped back against his pillows as the sudden flare of righteous anger died down. In a way, he missed the sensation. It hadn't been fair, or Jedi-like, but it had at least been something. Something other than the numb grief and guilt he felt now; a warm island in that bleak, gray sea. It was tempting to just close his eyes and retreat back into his own mind, but he didn't. He wanted to see how Mace reacted to what he had said. Rude and unfair or not, Naruto stood by every word.

For a long time, Mace said nothing. He just stood silently, giving nothing away on either his face or through their bond. Five seconds soon became thirty, then a minute, then three. Finally, just when Naruto was sure his master would leave without a word, Mace sighed, his shoulders slumping a little.

"You are right," he said. It took a moment for the words to fully process in Naruto and Jiraiya's mind.

"Huh?"

"I am?"

Naruto straightened again and tried to keep from gaping in surprise. Of all the responses he had expected, from an angry lecture to cold dismissal, this one had not even crossed his mind. He peered closely at Mace's face, looking for some sign of a trick, but he found nothing but the usual grim seriousness.

"You are right," Mace repeated. "I… should not have tried to say that. Viir did matter, her death should be mourned, and it was wrong of me to suggest otherwise. I did not mean to insult your attachment to her, and for that, I apologize."

Naruto lost the battle to keep his jaw from dropping. Technically, Mace was speaking perfectly understandable Basic. All the words made sense, and they were in the right order, but coming from him, they just seemed impossible. It was like watching Obi-Wan volunteer to fly a starship, or seeing Ashoka eat vegetables. Physically possible, but utterly incongruous with the normal proceedings of the universe.

Jiraiya recovered the power of speech first. "You are apologizing for insulting an attachment? That's… unexpected."

"The last few years have given me much to think about." He turned back to face Naruto, who was still trying to figure out if his ears were giving accurate reports to his brain. "Naruto, do you remember when I said you might teach me just as much as I teach you?"

Naruto nodded. "I remember."

"During your time as my Padawan, I've seen how much strength you draw from your attachments to your friends. I will admit, at first I thought it would prove to be a problem; a dangerous temptation towards the Dark side. You proved me wrong though, and it would be dishonest of me not to acknowledge that."

Naruto winced and looked down. "But I did fail. You said it yourself; I chose to use the Kyuubi's power. I should never have done that."

"No, you should not have," Mace said, but something in his voice dragged Naruto's eyes back up to his. He saw no condemnation, nothing but calm acceptance and reassurance there. "But you slipped up during a moment of terrible stress, in a situation no one could truly prepare for. It was a grievous mistake, but a mistake is all it was."

Naruto opened his mouth to speak, but Jiraiya beat him to it.

"Kid, you can't beat yourself up over this. Trust me, it'll eat you alive from the inside, until you're so twisted up you don't even recognize yourself. Grieve, but don't wallow in guilt and self-pity."

It sounded so easy, the way Jiraiya put it, but Naruto just couldn't see how. "But she's dead," he said. He didn't add, "and it's my fault," but the words still seemed to echo around the privacy field.

"Yes, she is, Naruto," Mace said. "Nothing can change that. The only thing you can control now is how you respond to this. What do you think Viir would want you to do? Lose yourself in grief, isolate yourself from your friends, and let this overwhelm you? Or would she want you to remember her life, rather than just her death? You knew her best. Meditate on that while you rest. I trust you will find the right answer."

Mace reached over and squeezed Naruto's shoulder before he turned and walked out of the privacy field. Master Fay followed him out of the room. Jiraiya watched him go with a small smile on his face.

"Damn kid, I gonna get jealous if he keeps giving you good advice before I can."

A brief snort of laughter escaped Naruto's lips, surprising him. It hadn't even really been that funny of a joke. Still, it was a relief to know that jokes still existed, even after everything he had just gone through. The laugh may have been short, but it felt like a warm breeze on a wintry day.

"You really think it wasn't my fault, Jiraiya-sensei?"

"I know it wasn't, Naruto. And I'll keep telling you that until you believe it, even if I have to chisel it into your thick skull. You hear me?"

"I hear you." He wasn't sure if he could believe him yet, but, for now, it was enough to know someone else believed it for him.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Omake: Ahsoka's Hunt 5

The akul was proving to be every bit as fearsome a foe as Ahsoka had heard. As she dodged and wove around its claws, she felt as if she were locked in a deadly dance. Every second brought another brush with death, and each one felt as if it were closer than the last. The Force and her natural agility had kept her alive so far, but she could feel exhaustion creeping in, stealing the strength from her limbs and blunting her reactions. Already, she had taken two more glancing blows, leaving shallow cuts along her left shoulder and across her forehead.

That wasn't to say the fight was completely one sided. Her spears darted out again and again, like wasps harassing an intruder. As she jumped backwards away from a bite, she managed to jab the akul in the snout, leaving a nasty cut across its face. A few seconds later, she sank one of her spears into its right forepaw. It howled in agony and flung her away. Once again, she summoned her weapon with the Force, tearing an even larger wound as she did so.

Despite those small victories, she could feel the fight turning against her. The akul may have been young, but it was still a large animal. What injuries she'd inflicted on it were far less crippling than the ones it had inflicted upon her. The initial cut on her leg was particularly concerning. The blood loss was not doing her stamina any favors. It was not unlike sparring against Naruto. She might land a few glancing blows, even some serious ones, but, in the end, she couldn't hope to match her opponent's endurance.

'Wait a second,' she thought, in the small part of her brain not totally consumed by the ongoing fight for her life. 'That's it. This is exactly like fighting Naruto, only the akul can't use any dirty tricks. But I can, and there's one that Goldie always used to fall for.'

Her plan was risky. If it bordered on insanity, it was only because it had gone so far over the line as to approach it again the long way round. However, as the akul's claws came within half a millimeter of ripping her face off again, Ahsoka knew it was the best chance she had. So, when the next strike came in, she pulled in the Force and jumped backwards, putting as much space between her and the akul as possible. Even with her injured leg, she put a good thirty meters between them. When she landed, she swallowed hard and braced for what was about to come.

For the entire fight, she'd done her best to stay as close to the akul as possible. Part of it was to allow her to use her spears without risking them breaking in a throw. The other part had been to avoid exactly what she now hoped to encourage. Sure enough, when it spotted the new distance between them, the akul coiled its powerful muscles and pounced. Rather than dodge it, Ahsoka instead stood her ground as 100 kilograms of orange-haired alpha predator dropped towards her like a ballistic missile. Then, in the tiny fraction of a second before it smashed her into paste, she fell backwards and raised her spears.

She had timed it almost perfectly. Rather than crushing her and tearing out her throat, the akul found itself with its mouth biting at the shaft of a spear, while another stabbed into its chest. It couldn't even yowl properly around its mouthful of wood. However, it wasn't quite a perfect victory.

For a moment, Ahsoka thought she'd pulled it off. She felt the spear enter the akul right in its chest, just as she'd planned. Then, in what could only be described as the universe shitting on her, she felt it jam against one of the beast's ribs and deflect away from its heart. She'd still wounded it, maybe even mortally so, but it wasn't the near instant death she'd needed. Now, instead of an akul laying on her and bleeding out in seconds, she had one still very much alive and mad with pain trying to bite her face off. Overall, things could have gone better.

Even as its lifeblood drenched her clothes, the akul growled and strained to sink its teeth into her throat. The haft of her spear was tough, and it was lodged so that the beast couldn't properly close its powerful jaws and bite it in two, but she could still hear it splintering. Those teeth, each one as large as one of her eyes, slowly crept closer and closer. Even with the Force multiplying her strength, her left arm still trembled as she tried to keep its jaws away from her. Her other hand scrabbled against her leg as she tried to pull it free and buy herself some more time. Even a few seconds would be enough. She could do a lot with a few seconds. To start with, she could use them to live longer in. Just as she managed to pull her right arm free, she felt her hand brush against something hard on her thigh. It took a moment until she realized what it was; the knife Naruto had made for her birthday. In all the excitement, she'd forgotten she even had it. Earlier, it had proven useful in crafting her spears. Now, it was the key to saving her life.

As the akul pushed its deadly maw ever closer to her vulnerable throat, Ahsoka pulled the knife out of its sheath, stabbed it just under the beast's rib cage, and pushed it down as far as she could reach. It cut through the flesh and hair like flimsi. The akul screeched in terrified agony as blood and viscera spilled out of its body and covered her in gore. She shuddered at the sensation, but revulsion took a backseat to disgust as the high-pitched shriek turned into a slow death rattle. Within seconds, the akul slumped over and breathed its last. Ahsoka lay under its body, too exhausted to move. An eviscerated akul made for a deeply unpleasant blanket, but there was no way she could shift it off her.

She didn't know how long she lay there, but it couldn't have been more than a few minutes before she sensed the familiar presence of Master Ti moving closer. Shortly after she first felt her, she heard twigs snapping from off to her right, followed by a desperate voice.

"Ahsoka!" She felt the crushing weight of the akul lift off her chest as the beast's body floated into the air. "Ahsoka, are you alright?"

She coughed as her lungs re-inflated and rubbed her aching ribs. 'Alright' seemed like a stretch, but she was at least alive. "I think so. Everything hurts."

Shaak's face loomed into view above her. The normally imperturbable Master looked distinctly perturbed. Worry drew lines across her face, and she immediately began checking Ahsoka over for injuries. "Are you hurt anywhere? Ahsoka, you need to talk to me. Are you bleeding?"

"My- ow!" She made the mistake of trying to sit up. Shaak probably would have stopped her, but bruised ribs did the job first. "My leg. Everything else is minor."

Shaak moved down to examine her leg, muttering the whole time, and inhaled sharply when she saw where the akul's claws had first caught her. "I have to clean this out before I put any bacta on it. Brace yourself. This will sting."

Ahsoka grit her teeth as Shaak poured some sort of antiseptic into the cuts on her leg. She hadn't realized until that moment how deep they were. The sharp fire of the antiseptic traced two cuts halfway through the muscle of her thigh. It was a minor miracle the akul hadn't nicked an artery. Her breath came in harsh pants as she fought not to cry out. Finally, the burning subsided, and the cool numbness of bacta took its place. When she looked down, Shaak was wrapping a bandage around her leg.

"That… hurt worse… than the claws did," she complained. Shaak gave her a wan smile, but didn't stop tending to her.

"I did tell you it would sting, young one." After a few more seconds, she tied off the dressing and nodded, apparently satisfied Ahsoka wasn't in immediate danger. "Can you stand? There's a stream just over there you can wash in."

"Oh thank the Force," Ahsoka said as she shot to her feet. It hurt, but the chance to clean the akul innards off her skin was worth a little pain. Shaak helped her limp to the stream, and she slid into the water with a satisfied grunt…

"Sithspit, that's cold!"

"Ahsoka!" Shaak tried to give her a recriminatory glare, but the smile tugging at her lips rather ruined it. Ahsoka couldn't help but laugh at the sight. "Honestly. First, I find you half-crushed and covered in akul guts, now I catch you swearing? Speaking of which, didn't I say something about not fighting an akul. I was very explicit, as I recall."

"It wasn't my fault, Master, I swear!" Ahsoka said, waving her hands as if she could ward off any incoming lectures. Togruta didn't have eyebrows, but Shaak nevertheless managed a look of skepticism to put even Obi-Wan's finest arched brow to shame. Ahsoka remained undaunted, however.

"Really. I wasn't planning on fighting an akul. I hunted a lirsu, but that bastard started stalking me. It attacked me. I was just defending myself. Honestly."

Shaak looked at her for a long moment before she sighed and shook her head. "I swear. You and Naruto both attract trouble like stars attract planets, and you're both too hard headed to back down from it. If you two manage to survive your own stubbornness long enough to grow up, I think you'll both wind up changing the galaxy. Or, possibly, lighting it on fire."

Ahsoka snorted and slipped lower into the stream. It may have been bone chillingly cold, but it was also clean and refreshing. The blood and… other bits of the akul sluiced off and washed away downstream. It wasn't until her hands and feet started going numb that she crawled out of the burbling snowmelt and stood shivering on the bank. The slight breeze suddenly bit as deep as a winter blizzard, but she did her best to ignore it and pulled the Force into her body. She'd come a long way in the last two years, and it took her only a second to generate chakra. It took a bit longer to mold it into fire chakra, but once she did, a comforting warmth suffused her body. Steam plumed off her clothes as the water rapidly evaporated.

"Impressive, Ahsoka. I didn't know you'd started on elemental manipulation," Shaak said. "Now come. We have a ceremony to conclude. Two, in fact."

"Two?"

"You did take down two trophies on your hunt." Shaak smiled. "The lirsu alone would have earned you your sash, but you also slayed an akul in single combat. Its teeth are yours."

Something in Ahsoka's mind went sproink and her brain just froze. She couldn't have heard right. The lirsu antlers already would have been an honor, but akul teeth. "What?!"

"Congratulations, Ahsoka. I believe you're the youngest Togruta in living memory to earn an akul tooth headdress. I'm proud of you. I trust you remember the ceremony."

A smile crept across Ahsoka's face as her brain finally rebooted. In her excitement, she tried to bow and nod at the same time, and nearly fell over. "Yes, Master. I remember."

She retrieved Naruto's knife and washed it clean. Once it was no longer stained with gore, she dragged both her kills next to each other. As tradition dictated, the lirsu was first. She carved the antlers from its head and set them aside. Then, she cut a piece of flesh from its heart and ate it raw. For humans, it would have been disgusting, but to her it tasted delicious. She repeated the ceremony with the akul, first removing its teeth and then eating a piece of its heart. When she was done, her teeth and lips were stained with blood, and she felt a profound sense of accomplishment.

"Well done, Ahsoka. As your elder, I decree you have succeeded in your hunt and passed the rite. I present you with your sash, as a symbol of your coming of age. Wear it with honor." Shaak reached into her robes and presented her with a purple sash. It was shaped a little like an elongated diamond and covered in an intricately woven design. She took it reverently and hooked it in place on the front of her skirt.

"Thank you, Master."

"You did very well, Ahsoka. You've earned this. I'll help you make your headdress on our way back to Coruscant."

Ahsoka smiled mischievously. "I can't wait to see the look on Naruto's face when he sees me wearing akul teeth."

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Shaak was as good as her word, and by the time they got back to the Temple, her new headdress was firmly affixed to her head, right where her montrals met her scalp. She'd decided to keep the traditional Togruta clothes as well, though she'd added a pair of white leggings and a set of boots and elbow-length gloves in the same burgundy material as the skirt and top. Her purple sash hung from her belt at the front of her skirt. She preferred her new outfit to the standard Jedi tunic. It was less restrictive, and it reminded her of the heritage she had earned, and therefore had to uphold.

The second she entered the Temple, she could tell Naruto had returned from his mission. The symphony of his presence was unmistakable. It filled the halls of the Temple with silent music only she could hear and had her racing down the ramp to track down its source. Shaak didn't even bother calling after her as she sprinted off to find her best friend.

As usual, he was easy to locate. She followed his Force signature until she wound up at the door of one of the Temple's engineering workshops. There was another presence in with him, and even without the Force, she could have guessed who it was. Sure enough, when she opened the door, she saw Naruto and Anakin leaning over what looked like a partially disassembled speeder engine of some sort. They were both covered in grease and other muck, and, of course, so engrossed in their project, they completely failed to notice her entrance. At least, that was what she was supposed to think. For no immediately apparent reason, she grabbed a large scrap of intake fan blade with the Force and threw it over her head and into the wall above the doorway. Rather than the clang of metal meeting duracrete, she heard the dull thump of soon to be bruised flesh.

"Ouch!"

"Damnit, 'Soka!"

The real Naruto and Anakin fell to the ground from where they'd been hiding above the door and landed in a groaning tangle of limbs. A few balloons full of brightly covered paint told her all she needed to know about what their plans had been. The two impostors working on the engine vanished in twin puffs of smoke.

"Really?" She looked down at the would-be pranksters and smirked. "Paint balloons. What, are you two five years old? I just got back from my first ever hunt, I immediately came to see you two, and this is how you want to greet me?"

"Aww, don't be like that, Snips." Anakin finally managed to disentangle himself from Naruto and stood up. "We were just, uh- checking your situational awareness. Uh-huh. Tell her, Naruto."

"What? Oh, that's right. We wanted to make sure you hadn't gotten sloppy after missing training for a few days."

Their looks of wide-eyed innocence might have been a lot more convincing if it hadn't been for the fluorescent green and pink paint dripping from their hair. She just shook her head and snorted. "You're both idiots. I don't know why I put up with you two."

That probably would have been the start of a productive session of bickering and friendly banter, but Naruto took the chance to wipe the paint out of his eyes and froze when he actually got a good look at her.

"You… uh, wow," he stuttered, before his eyes landed on her forehead. "Wait, are those akul teeth?"

"Yep."

"Real ones?"

"Yep."

Before she could react, he ran forward and wrapped her in a huge, and, sadly, paint splattered hug. "That's so awesome! You killed an akul! Tell me everything."

So she did. As they smiled and laughed and joked back and forth, she felt any worries about the future fade away. For now, there was warmth, light, and happiness, and she got to share them with the people she cared for. She was home.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

This chapter marks the transition from the Rago arc into the last arc before the start of the Clone War. Currently, it looks like the war will start around chapter 39, for those of you who are interested. I'm pleased to say that, while editing this chapter, I finally figured out how I want to start the war. That was the last major plot point I had yet to plan out. I can now say that every major point in this story is officially outlined.

When it comes to this chapter, I wasn't actually expecting to have Master Fay be here, but she showed up and refused to go away. I was planning on incorporating her into the story eventually, so now is as good a time as any. She's an interesting character who really should have been explored more in the comics. I hope you like my adaptation of her. There wasn't that much material to work with in canon, and she ended up with a few Galadriel-esque qualities to her. For a long time, Fay was actually a top contender for Naruto's Jedi master. Mace won out in the end, but if you want a story where she features more prominently, I recommend Magic of the Force by Vimesenthusiast.

This is also the last entry of this omake miniseries. Aside from giving Ahsoka a much needed chance to stand on her own, I also wanted to show what life is like for her and Anakin before the war. We hardly get to see any of our main characters during peacetime in canon, and I wanted to give them a chance to know what it's like before tossing them into the fire.

Please, leave a review if you have anything to say. Until the next chapter, farewell.