Author's Note: Aaaaanndd, have another chapter! I'm in a charitable mood:-D What is that, 3? 4 chapters this week? Man, you guys got lucky XD This whole entire chapter makes me so happy! *evil villian chuckle*
Trigger Warning: More abuse tactics.
Chapter XV
"What is the mission, Ventress?"
They were in the cockpit, currently flying through hyperspace to wherever their destination was. Ventress was flying, and Ahsoka was in the copilot's chair.
Ventress spoke without looking up from the controls. "We are on a supply run. We will set down in a village, where there will be boxes waiting for us. You will load the supplies, while I speak to the village leader and give them payment."
Ahsoka furrowed her brow. That was the mission she had been sent on? She needed weapons for this? "Is that all?"
"Yes." Ventress finally looked at her for the first time, and Ahsoka was startled by the intensity of her gaze. "That's all."
Ahsoka decided silence would be the best course of action for the remainder of the trip.
The remainder of the trip turned out to be only a few minutes.
Ahsoka watched, just trying to stay out of the way while Ventress landed the ship just outside of the village limits. The place looked like a desert, hills ringing the houses and buildings on three sides, meaning only one side was approachable. The light was fading. They'd arrived at twilight.
Twilight. Ahsoka gave a small gasp as the image of a ship flashed inside her mind, the scene eerily similar to real life. From her seat in the copilot chair, she found her eyes turning to those of a man with dark hair and darker clothes, who seemed to be expertly weaving the ship through a debris field. He caught her looking and flashed a cocky smile. The vision was quickly obscured by red, and she blinked rapidly to clear the whole scene away.
She looked up just as they touched down with a bump.
Ventress set the landing ramp in motion. Getting up from her chair she pulled her hood over her head and said, "Alright. Let's get this over with." With her inspiring speech complete, she walked outside.
Ahsoka pulled her hood up in imitation of her leader, holstered her polearm on her back, and followed.
They made it to the village without incident. Ventress immediately went to the fur-covered man who was waiting for them, while Ahsoka walked over to the boxes, keeping her head down the whole while. There were only a few, and she apparently had use of a nearby anti-grav unit. Well. This won't take long. She started piling the boxes on the unit.
She had just set down the last one when her lekku began to prickle. Something was coming. She looked up, scanning the horizon, but the hills encircling the village blocked all lines of sight into the desert. Save the one behind her.
Her eyes still on the desert, she sensed Ventress step up next to her, conversation clearly over. She must have noticed Ahsoka's searching gaze. "What is it?"
Ahsoka's eyes didn't leave the horizon. "Something's coming."
She felt Ventress pull away and heard the crunch of footsteps. "Well, then let's get moving."
Ahsoka nodded, her features obscured by the hood. She quickly grabbed the handle of the anti-grav unit and started pushing till she was caught up with Ventress.
They weren't even halfway there when it started.
Blue bullets came raining down on them as speeders came out from around the hills.
They were caught in a pincer.
"Run!" shouted Ventress, pulling her hood off, and activating - a lightsaber? She had one too, the same colour as their Master's! She must've been closer to Dooku then Ahsoka had thought.
But Ahsoka didn't have time to be shocked. Not particularly caring to get shot, she ran, pushing the unit in front of her as fast as she could go.
Ventress did her best to catch the bullets flying all around them, but they were coming at them from both sides. Ahsoka had to duck and weave, twist and turn, to avoid the blue streaks hailing down around her, all while the speeders drew closer and closer.
Unfortunately, the speeders caught up before they reached the ship. A brown-robed figure made a flying leap off of one, and engaged Ventress, igniting a laser-sword of their own as they did so.
Not even realizing it, Ahsoka froze. The fearsome monsters that her Master warned her about were here, in the flesh. The ones that had carved out the horrible wounds on her back, caused her to lose her entire memory, the ones she'd barely escaped from with her life. They must want revenge. They finally tracked me down! But I thought this - she yanked on her collar, fear making how hard she pulled irrelevant - was supposed to stop them from doing that? A gasp of pain flew from her lips as the red light flared searing bright in her mind, a voice not her own hissing louder than a thunderclap. JEDIIIII! She clutched her head, just about doubling over in agony at the stabs of pain the voice sent through her mind. Everything went red for a split second.
"Padawan, look out!" Ventress yelled at her.
Ahsoka lifted her head to find the cause of her partner's warning, but it was too late.
Two bolts from a speeder shot right at her and the unit.
They missed her, but hit the ground underneath the supplies, and Ahsoka went flying. Rocks and dirt sprayed high into the air, and she didn't know which way was up or down. She felt her hood ripped from her head as her body slammed into the ground.
She lay there stunned, her ears ringing from the too-close shot, her chest heaving as air refused to fill her lungs.
The world around her was a cloud of dust, and all that she could see for a handful of heartbeats was Ventress's lightsaber duel and a handful of blue bolts still zipping through the air.
She coughed, hard, her breath coming back in a rush. Attempting to get her bearings as quickly as possible, she pushed herself up as the dust settled around her. Peering through the haze, she let out a loud gasp as a different brown-robed figure loomed up out of the cloud. A blue sword swung for her, and she cried out in surprise, yanking her knives from their sheaths.
The blue sword froze mid-swing, and the dust cleared to reveal an orange-skinned being, with black machines where his mouth and eyes should be.
"Ahsoka?" Said the figure in a deep voice. The vocalizer made his words sound slightly mechanical, but it couldn't hide the utter shock behind the words.
A just as shocked part of her thought, how does this man know my name? A split second later, the answer came to her. It doesn't matter. My Master told me to follow Ventress' word like I would his, and she said to run.
Seeing that he was distracted, she swung her knives at him. She managed to graze his arm before he came to his senses and swung to block her.
Ahsoka had a moment of panic. I can't fight a Jedi sword with knives! As if she had heard her thoughts, Ventress attacked from behind, and the man who knew her name swung his weapon around just in time.
Ahsoka didn't wait. The supplies were a lost cause, so she darted for the ship, weaving around Ventress' and the Jedi's duel. She had to duck as one of their lightsabers nearly got her montrals.
Three running steps toward the ship were all she got before three white-armoured figures stepped out to block her path.
"Commander Tano? What are you doing?" One of them asked, but she didn't wait to give him an answer. Leaping into the air, she executed a front flip over their heads and kept going.
Cries of "Commander, wait!" followed close behind, but so did Ventress. Somehow Ventress managed to get ahead of her, and she dashed inside, the engines firing just as Ahsoka reached the ramp.
"Hold on!" Ventress called from the cockpit and Ahsoka grabbed the metal beam that attached to the ramp for balance as the ship achieved lift off.
And came to a quick halt.
The ship jerked, Ahsoka almost falling out the still open gangway before they levelled out. Slightly. She quickly looked down at the planet to see the Jedi whose arm she'd cut with his hands out in front of him.
He's holding the ship somehow! The astonished thought came to her, and she almost immediately discounted it… except she knew in her bones it was true. She called toward the cockpit, "One of them is holding us!"
"Well, stop him!" Ventress yelled back.
"How?!"
"Distract him!"
Ahsoka looked at the knife in her hand. Okay, she thought. And threw it square at the man's head.
She gasped as he caught it out of the air, shocked at the lightning-quick reflexes he'd displayed to achieve it.
But it was enough. Their ship broke free, and Ahsoka pushed the button to close the ramp. Joining Ventress in the cockpit, she sat down hard. And realized she was trembling.
Ventress pushed a few buttons, pulled a lever and then they were safely away in hyperspace.
Ventress collapsed in her chair, letting out a huge sigh. She said something Ahsoka didn't register, too suffocated by her own thoughts to perceive the outside world.
It's all my fault. It's my fault. They tracked me somehow, and found us, and the mission is ruined! But I couldn't let them hurt me again! Oh lord, the mission is ruined, the first one he gave me. I was supposed to prove myself and instead it all fell apart because of me. Ohhhhh, he's going to be so mad. What kind of punishment could possibly make up for this? Is he going to send me to Despair forever? Is there something worse than Despair?! I don't know, I've definitely never messed up this bad bef -
She realized Ventress was calling her name. "What, what?" She asked.
"Ahsoka, what is the matter with you?"
Ahsoka opened her eyes, fully intending to comply with the order. "There's nothing wrong!" Only for her to realize that a) she didn't know she had closed her eyes. And b) she'd covered her face with her hands and c) she was shaking harder than when her Master used the shock gag on her.
She lowered her hands from her face and turned to Ventress with what she knew was a terrified expression. She whispered hoarsely, "He's going to kill me."
Ventress seemed to understand everything Ahsoka hadn't said in that one sentence, because she gave her a long look before saying, "Well that's that decided." And slammed her hand down on a button.
Ahsoka didn't know what that meant, but she didn't much care. She had bigger problems right now.
Author's Note: Dun dun dun daaaaawwwww! Eh, eh? Did I say this was the beginning of the end or what? It only gets better from here, folks!
