Chapter 6: Smuggler's Haven
QUICK NOTE: 'The Lawless' arc was the episode just before the bombing, but the clone wars episodes aren't always chronological to the timeline, so lets just say in this story, the lawless arc took place a few weeks after Ahsoka leaving the Order...
More notes: The writing in italics is lyrics from a song by Kendrick Lamar. I just thought it would be a bit fitting to add to the scene regarding Ahsokas life as a whole.
Coruscant...
Ahsoka dismounts her speeder, she took the time to switch cloaks and have a shower in the 'fresher with an en-route trip to 'Smuggler's Haven'club. She is currently wearing a cloak that is as black as the night sky many levels above her. Lifting her hood up, she proceeds.
She keeps her blaster concealed, and will only use it if the need arises. Upon entering the Smuggler's Haven, she is suprised to find that this place is a casino, and quietly scolds herself for being naiive enough to not know anything about the place before entering. For all she knew, this could be a trap.
The place is bustling with activity, coins are rattling everywhere, people were busy drinking at the bar and there was a song playing in the background. One she recognises well as 'Pray for me'.
I'm always ready for a war again. A war again.
She walks to a poker table and scans her surroundings, looking for the shady man who was looking to employ her.
Go down that road again. That road again.
Its all the same. Its all the same.
She paces around the bar, still searching for her employer.
Im always ready to take a life again.A life again,
You know im riding it. Im riding it, its all the same.
She moves her hand to feel the muzzle of her blaster in her black cloak, whenever she gets an uneasy feeling from the force, it has become more and more of a habit. Old habits die hard.
Tell me who's gon' save me from myself?
Finally, she sees a lone man, sitting on a table, looking in his pocket. She instantly recognises him, its the employer.
When this life is all I know?Tell me who's gon' save me from myself?
She cautiously approaches him, making sure not to startle him. She makes herself comfortable on the seat, resting an arm on the table, and putting her feet up.
Without you, Im all alone.
Who gon' pray for me?
"So, down to buisness?" she enquires him. Still having her hood concealing her face. He looks up from his pocket, pulling a holodisk out from his tunic. Ahsoka eyes the holodisk, right before it turns on, before adding "I take it you have brought the payment with you? My rates aren't cheap." She was impressed by how typical she sounded, as if she had been living this life from a young age. He impatiently revealed the crystal, before pocketing it again.
Take my pain for me?
Just a few weeks ago, she had been undergoing the republic trial that she had been wrongly accused over something she didn't do. Now she was no longer on any side of the war, and she had begun to question some of the morals that temple life had taught her. Its not that she had grown arrogant like the Jedi, she just saw the grey areas in everything. Every time she broke the law, she knew the risks, and the consequences, but what choice did the jedi give her after all? Casting her aside when she was no longer of use. It was clear none of them cared about her, and she was beginning to despise the jedi. The people had begun to lose faith in them, and ever since the bombing, so had she.
Save my soul from me?
The holodisk had flickered up, showing a face Ahsoka knew all too well. Her blood began to boil, and she could feel the anger building, "So I need you to assassinate Senator Amidal-" The client begins but never had a chance to finish, because a bullet was through his head, causing him to collapse to the ground as Ahsoka holstered her blaster back into her cloak. She acted out of pure, reckless instinct, Senator Amidala is her friend, her most trusted one at that, and murdering her would be a sin to the force. Because friends dont betray each other, she believed in, she had to believe it, to be honest, Senator Amidala was all she had left, aside from Anakin and all those minority jedi who voted not to send her to the republic. She held a grudge towards Plo Koon and most of the jedi, because they were so blinded by arrogance that none of them believed in her.
Cos Im alone you see...
A few gasps were heard, and as she looked around, she could see a few horrified faces, all staring at her. Thank god they cant see my face, she thought. She shifted from her position, and reached into the dead employer's pocket, pulling out the kyber, she stored it in the safety of her own belt. His blood was starting to pump out of the hole in his forehead. Then her actions just finally hit her.
Cos im alone you see...
She had just killed an unarmed civilian, adding to the growing list of illegal things she has done in the last 24 hours. Arms dealing, murder, kidnapping, theft. She decided it wasn't safe to stay, because someone had likely just informed the underworld police about the murder. So she turned, and exited the building.
Mandalore, 1 week later.
Bo Katan's POV:
That monster just overthrew Pre Visla! I witnessed as he murdered him out of cold blood with our own Mandalorian darksaber, by mercilessly impaling him in the stomach.
Maul just smiles wickedly, I cant help but have tears stream down my face, my emotions swirl around me and that horrid zabrack and his yellow brother claims themselves the leader of deathwatch.
Im not having that, so I scream "No!", my face retorting out of anger, everything we have worked so long and hard for, just to be stolen by an outsider.
Everything was happening so fast, my deathwatch brothers and sisters began lifting their guns up at my face, calling me a traitor. I look behind me, and I exchange a few worried glances with a few deathwatch members. I could tell by their body pose that they all wanted to get out to form a resistance, so we did the only logical thing. We ran.
We ran for hours, us renegades, trying to lose the traitorous soliders that had sworn alliegance to Maul. When we were sure we had lost them, I pulled out a communicator, we would need to form a resistance, so I create a job rota for Bounty Hunters, offering a generous sum of credits in hopes of reclaiming Mandalore and protecting my sister, Dutchess Satine. Unfortunately, I cannot call for republic reinforcements, seeing as Mandalore is a neutral system, so i guess it is my only option.
I punch in the residence and job rota, any bounty hunters accepting the job will meet us here. I just hope they come fast.
Ahsoka's POV:
Im climbing out my speeder, once again job hunting, in the past week, I have effortlessly executed bounties. It has become a second nature to me now, its strange to admit it, but my questionable actions are so different to that of a life of a jedi, that I forget I was once Ahsoka Tano, Padawan to Anakin Skywalker, the chosen one. A naïve and innocent child, thrown into a war against my own will.
I am now living the life of Perdita Pax, newest bounty hunter, according to Onyx, I have a growing reputation in the underworld for successful assassinations and hand to hand combat skills.
I have started to make alliances with the other hunters, one i get on particularly well with is Embo, a member of Cad Bane's bounty hunter group. Good alliances with someone like him means that I can accept more advanced jobs from employers. It doesn't really bother me that Cad Bane's group work for the Confederacy of Independant Systems, I just need to ensure that I stay neutral.
Currently, I am sat at a table, with a pint of beer in my hand, I lounge around the holoscreen that is on, awaiting a job rota worth my time. Embo and I are placing large bets between ourselves as to who can drink the most in the smallest amount of time. Unfortunately, last time I lost, I don't plan on doing that again.
Every job I do, with my reputation rising, I always either keep my hood up, or wear a black stealth combat mask to keep my real identity hidden, as I hide behind the name Perdita Pax.
Third person POV:
Ahsoka has adapted to fit into the life of a bounty hunter, no longer caring about the war. Whatever side wins doesn't really make a difference to her, she just gets a job and gets on with it.
She was leaning against the table, doing an arm wrestle with an anonymous trandoshian bounty hunter, when a new bounty flickered onto the screen. One that was recently added. It read:
Title: Protection job
Pay: 500,000 credits per hunter
Location: 1267 Sundari place, Mandalore
Description: Protect and escort the Dutchess Satine off Mandalore, extra 500,000 for killing blackwatch leader.
Hunters needed: Any
Wow. Ahsoka thought. The amount I could make from that. She rose from her seat, and printed the contract. She then mounted a Taxi from the landing platform on level 2300 and departed to the spaceport.
She was going to Mandalore.