A/N: Oh my, I've done a thing.
'This is bad, this is bad, this is shit, fucking fuck!' I thought to myself, pulling my robes on slowly, refusing to look at the Kaminoans and Clones standing by to help me or guarding me respectively, my eyes locked to either the floor or the wall just shy of the window.
The window where Anakin and Obi-Wan were watching me, their Presences' in the force quiet, calm, and nearly unreadable.
It was...spooky. Everyone else besides droids were easy to read, but Jedi of higher rank could simply vanish, and while I knew they were there, it was hard to tell...anything else.
I finished dressing, pulling my gloves tight and turning to face the two Jedi in the window, the only inch of me not covered by black, felt-like robes being my face.
"It seems I owe you my life." I started, nodding lightly to the two of them.
They blinked, and Anakin made an aborted motion to step forward, confused.
"They, uhm, they cannot hear you." One of the Kaminoans to my right said lightly, "They turned off the communicator just before we came to let you out."
I flushed at that, wincing a bit. "Oh...I...oops?" I tactfully ignored the snickering of some of the clone troopers. "Oh well." I murmured with a shrug, "Not like they'd enjoy what I had to say next." And with that nugget of 'ominous' in the room, my hand flew forward, my lightsaber spinning and igniting, flying through the window between myself and the Jedi, scorching a melted hole as I twisted to catch it, the blade sailing past my shoulder and deflecting a blaster bolt before I caught the hilt and lept, flipping through the air and landing atop the bacta tank I had just exited, deflecting two more shots.
"Gentlemen," I said, perhaps a little smugly, and lept again, red blade swinging to intercept the shots that came close to hitting me, using the force to rip out a grate of the ventilation shaft and sailing into it, cackling to myself as I darted through it, no idea where I was going, but going nonetheless.
I crawled for fifteen, maybe twenty minutes, picking directions at random whenever I hit an intersection, tactfully ignoring the shouting beneath my and the alarms around me, dodging the occasional blaster bolt when I made a bit too much noise taking a corner.
Then I felt her.
Ahsoka.
Red!
I turned left at the next intersection, sailing towards her presence, and I felt her sprinting towards me. We grew closer and closer until...well she was right under me, and there were no exits from the vent.
So I made one, lightsaber hissing to life and burning through the metal, opening a hole large enough for me to drop out of.
"Red!" She exclaimed, quite literally catching me in a hug, holding me bridal style as she pressed her face into my neck, relief flowing off of her like a river.
"Ahsoka." I murmured, pressing my forehead to the small gap between her horns. "Its good to see you, too. Can uh...Can you let me down, though?" She blinked, and I could see the exact second she realized how she was holding me, yelping and jumping a step back, dropping me flat on my ass. "Ow."
"S-Sorry, I didn't mean to-"
A door at the end of the hallway flew open, and our eyes snapped over to meet the surprised Blue of Anakin's.
In my defense, what I did next was pure instinct.
I lept, darting behind Ahsoka, snagging her lightsaber from her belt and igniting it, the vibrant blades crossed over her neck threateningly, my normally brown-yellow eyes growing sickly with the dark side as the brown was replaced by red. "Hello, Mister Skywalker."
"You…" He hissed, his own lightsaber igniting.
"Ah, ah, ah!" I called warningly, blades hissing unnaturally as they dragged against one another, pulling closer to Ahsoka's neck. I felt quite bad for her, the shock rolling off her only matched by the fear and confusion I could feel in her posture, the way our heads were almost touching, the bulk of me shielded behind her, but it was likely the only thing keeping Anakin from murdering me on the spot so...I didn't feel all too bad. "One more step and she dies."
The anger in Anakin's eyes became more pronounced, his face twisting as his rage became very real in his force presence.
'I am become error.'
Obi-Wan proved his spot as one of my favorite characters once more, choosing that exact moment to step out from a side hallway next to Anakin, lightsaber igniting, and his face falling into grim determination as he saw what all was happening.
"Ah, Mister Kenobi," I drawled, trying to think up a solution to this predicament, "how kind of you to join us."
"Far be it from me to skip out on the party." He drawled right back, sarcasm in full swing, "Step away from the padawan, and nobody has to get hurt-"
I laughed explosively, cutting him off. "You must be Joking, Mister Kenobi. That, or blind. Look at the man next to you. He wants to see if my blood is as red as my skin." I hummed, taking a step back, dragging Ashoka with me with my elbows, which were wrapped around her upper arms, their back pressed to hers' front as her back was pressed to my front.
Obi-Wan glared at Anakin for a moment, and they clearly had a silent conversation that ended with the younger man taking a few deep, steadying breaths, the rage on his face cooling into a simmering distaste. The bearded man took a breath of his own, turning to face me once more. "Now then, what's going to happen is that you're going to deactivate those lightsabers, and stand down when we get some clones to take you into custody-"
"Nooo-no-no-no-no." I drawled laughingly. "No matter what happens to anyone else in this room, I will die today if I turn these off, and you know that." I chuckled, shaking my head lightly, and got a terrible, perhaps a little cruel, idea. "In fact, if the Padawan here dies, I do to...so I have a better idea." I hummed, dragging her along with me as I started to slowly back away, mouth hidden by her head as I whispered- "Closest ship, where." I hissed, allowing some of my panic to slip into my voice for her ears.
She stiffened a bit further, and I felt her Tug at my presence wildly, almost like...like code.
Left three, right two, left again, right again, straight four.
I nodded very faintly.
"I'm going to walk away with your Padawan here, and if I feel the presence of either of you following…" I lifted her lightsaber so it lingered threateningly by one of her horns.
The anger now decorating both their faces told me the message was very much received.
I started walking, and they did not follow, following the first step of Ashoka's instructions, waiting until they were out of sight to remove the sabers from their threatening positions and grabbing her hand, my lightsaber deactivated and hung up to let me, and turned, running as fast as I could, ignoring her slight stumble before she matched pace.
"What the hell, red?!" she exclaimed, glaring at the back of my head.
"I panicked, alright?!" I admitted, slowing at the corner to poke my head around, her lightsaber held ready. The hall was clear, so I broke into a sprint once more. "Hey, at least I got out without being caught, right?"
"Oh, yeah," She hissed sarcastically, "Because this is so much better!"
I winced faintly. "Okay, fair enough, but I'm doing my best, alright?"
She sighed explosively.
"...It's good to see you again." I told her faintly, wheezing lightly as I paused at a corner to check again, chest heaving. "Christ, why am I so tired…?"
"I-It's good to see you too." She said quietly, and I wondered if she was blushing. "After our Connection snapped that last time I didn't hear from you for a week…" She admitted.
I blinked a few times, pausing. "I can survive a week without food or water? How durable is he? How durable am I? Questions for later." I tugged her off on another batch of sprinting, keeping most of my focus on ensuring that the Duo of Jedi hadn't moved.
"Wait," Ashoka exclaimed, stumbling for a moment, "Who's 'he'?"
"Dunno," I admitted, not bothering to stop at the next corner, simply skidding into the hallway, saber up, and moving again when there were no clones. "But I came from somewhere, yeah?"
I felt the logic click in her head, right as I skidded around the next corner, face-to-breastplate with a clone. We stared at each other for a moment, and I saw him raising his arm, com unit blinking as he stumbled back-
No, shit, bad, if he says Ashoka is helping me-
My lightsaber sprang to life as I jammed it into his stomach, using Ashoka's to slash his Com unit.
He gasped quietly as the air was forced out of his lungs, and I felt his life drain away when I deactivated my lightsaber. I stared but a moment at him before hanging up my lightsaber and continuing down the last stretch, sprinting into the small hanger, letting Ashoka open up the Twilight-of course it was the ship she knew was closest, that made sense-and sprinting up into it after her, throwing myself into the cockpit and taking up the co-pilots seat, letting her start the engines and launch us from the station.
I took slow, deep breaths, and tried to still the shaking in my hands, eyes staring at the lightsaber in my lap. My lightsaber. My lightsaber which had just stabbed and killed a man, because he could have threatened Ashoka's safety.
I didn't even hesitate.
Just stabbed him, killed him, like that. One swift motion damning him. Ending his life in an instant. Gone, forever, because of me.
"RED!"
I snapped back to the moment, looking at Ashoka.
"They're trying to contact us…" She murmured. I nodded slowly, and grabbed her lightsaber, igniting it and holding it across her throat. I nodded again and she activated the holo-projector.
Anakin, Obi-Wan, and a clone with medical garbs and a command pin stood waiting, eyes quickly assessing myself and Ashoka.
"Mister Skywalker, Mister Kenobi, Commander." I murmured, not sounding nearly as confident as I wanted to. "I'm afraid I will be borrowing your Padawan until I can get a ship of my own," I told them, unable to hear whatever bluster Anakin was shouting. I turned to look at the commander, and I could feel everyone else staring in confusion as I simply...stared. "I…" I took a breath, and swallowed deeply, unwilling to look away from the commander's eyes. "I killed one of your brothers…" I whispered, shrinking in on myself. "We ran into each other...h-he was going for his com unit and I just…" My eyes fluttered shut. "It was instinct. I'm sorry…"
I killed the line before I could hear a response, Ashoka's lightsaber deactivating as it tumbled from my hand into her lap. She grabbed my hand, squeezing tightly as the tears began to fight their way out of my eyes.
"Red?" She asked quietly. I had to steady myself a moment and only could say one thing before the dam broke.
"His name was Ko…"
A/N: Rest in peace, Ko, 5/14/18-4/26/20
