The planet Felucia was full of bad memories for Ahsoka. First, the time her entire squadron had been blown up and she'd gotten in trouble with the Council. Second, the time they'd been stranded and forced to fight Hondo and his pirates. And third, and worst, the time she'd been kidnapped by the Trandoshan hunters. The war seemed to have a way of coming back here, and it seemed determined to bring Ahsoka back with it.

Needless to say, she was not too fond of the planet. Between the heat, the humidity, and the hostile flora and fauna, the whole planet was just unpleasant.

"We're nearing the village," Ahsoka whispered to Barriss and Lux. "We should be careful. Who knows what defenses the Separatists may have."

The small village

The small farming village soon came into sight. It's fields, which Ahsoka had expected to see full of nysillim, the valuable healing herb, were bare. The village seemed deserted. The dirt paths that connected the homes were empty, and not a single villager was in sight.

"Strange," said Barriss. "I can see the villagers inside their homes, but they seem to afraid to venture outside. I assume the Separatists have something to do with this."

Barriss was right. Ahsoka could see the cowering villagers through the windows of their homes. But there was nothing to frighten them. Unless…

"It's a trap!" said Ahsoka. She ignited her lightsabers as the sound of clanking footsteps appeared behind them. A battalion of battle droids had appeared, guns drawn and pointed towards the trio. Barriss ignited her lightsaber and Lux pulled out his blaster.

"Jedi!" shouted one of the droids. Blaster fire quickly followed the droid's words, and Ahsoka and Barriss deflected the bolts back into the droid's ranks. Once the droids were close enough, they made quick work of them, destroying the entire battalion within minutes.

"That wasn't so hard," said Ahsoka. She pointed towards the village. "Look. They're coming out now."

Sure enough, now that the droids were gone the peaceful farmers began to exit their houses.

"Jedi!" announced a villager. He seemed familiar to Ahsoka. She thought back to the first time she was in this village, with her master and Obi-Wan. She placed him as Cassis, leader of the village.

"Cassis!" she said, waving at the Felucian. "It's good to see you again!"

"Again?" he asked, momentarily confused. Then his eyes lit up as he remembered her. "Ah, yes! You were one of the Jedi that helped us free our village from the pirates! What was your name again?"

"I'm Ahsoka Tano," she said. "This is Lux and Barriss."

"Well, Ahsoka," said Cassis. "I hope you can help us again."

"Help you with what, exactly?" asked Ahsoka.

"Come with me."

Cassis took Ahsoka, Barriss, and Lux to his small home, where he sat them down and told them of his predicament.

"The droids take our nysillim, out only source of income, for their own good," said Cassis. "If we try to stand up to them, we are shot down. I fear if we stand up to them, they will kill us all. But now, we have you to defend us."

"We cannot defend your village alone," said Ahsoka. "We don't have the power to fight both the droid army and Grievous, if he decides to show up. We will need your people to help us. If I'm remembering correctly, there's an old Republic outpost near here. We can find weapons and supplies there for your people."

"My people are farmers," said Cassis. "Not warriors."

"You learned how to fight," said Ahsoka. "My friends and I, we taught you."

"That was nearly two years ago," said Cassis. "We have had no reason to fight again until now. I do not believe that most of us even remember how."

"Cassis," said Ahsoka. "Last time we were here, we had three Jedi and four bounty hunters and we still needed your help. Now we're going up against a far more dangerous threat with two Jedi and a Senator. If you want to free your people, they will have to fight. There is no other option."

Cassis sighed. "I had hoped we would be able to stay away from the war. No one notices small villages like mine anymore. All resources go to the war, without any thought about the suffering of the people."

Ahsoka laid a hand in Cassis's shoulder. "If I did not care about your people, would I still be here?"

Cassis pondered for a moment. "Very well. My people will fight alongside you. But I fear the outcome."

Ahsoka led Lux and Barriss out of Cassis's house. "So do I," she whispered to herself once they were out of earshot.

They set up camp near the nysillim fields that night with a spare tent that one of the villagers had provided for them. Under the humid Felucian night sky, Ahsoka could not have felt further from Coruscant and the Jedi.

Perhaps that is a good thing, she thought to herself.

"Ahsoka," said Barriss. "These farmers that we are fighting with. Are they any good?"

Ahsoka thought back to the battle she'd fought in this very village. "With a proper amount of training, they were decent fighters. But I don't know how much of that training they will remember."

Sleep once again eluded Ahsoka. She tossed and turned for a few hours and finally gave up. She sat up and prepared to leave the tent.

"You couldn't sleep either?"

Ahsoka turned and found Lux wide awake.

"No," she said. "But I was thinking that some fresh air would do me good. Care to join me?"

Lux nodded. "I'd love to."

As they walked out of the tent and through the village, Lux intertwined his fingers with Ahsoka's. She was surprised at how natural the gesture felt. Her whole life she'd been told that relationships were forbidden and led to the Dark Side. But how could something this good lead to evil?

"Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if I wasn't a Jedi," said Ahsoka. "I could have seen the galaxy in my own way, without all of the war and death. I could have met my family. I could have become whatever I wanted to be."

"You could have had relationships?" suggested Lux.

Ahsoka glanced down at their joined hands. "Yeah. This could have happened sooner. Of course, if I wasn't a Jedi, though, I wouldn't have met you, or my master, or any of the people that have influenced my life. But I've always had a sense of longing. Is that wrong?"

"Of course not," said Lux. "It's seems that with the Jedi, you've never gotten to have anything close to a normal life. Of course you want to know what that would be like."

In their wandering through the village, they found a small bench overlooking the fields of nysillim. Ahsoka studied the night sky, the thousands of twinkling stars. Somewhere out there, Anakin, the Council, and the entire Republic Army were looking for her. But sitting here, with Lux by her side, Ahsoka felt further from her old life than she ever had before.

She looked over at Lux. He was completely at ease, one arm wrapped around Ahsoka, the other resting at his side. She'd never seen him so relaxed before, not even in his own home on Onderon. Ahsoka thought back to every mission, every lesson in the Temple, and she couldn't think of a time, or a person, that he made her feel so safe before.

She leaned over and kissed him. Lux wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her body against his as they kissed under the stars. For just this one moment, nothing else existed, nothing else mattered, except for the two of them and the bond they shared. The Force has brought them together, and nothing would tear them apart.

Eventually, Ahsoka broke away and rested her head on Lux's shoulder.

"Do you think the Republic will find us here?" she asked.

"I don't know," he said. "If we interfere with the war here, it's likely that the Republic will know about it. But we'll be saving the villagers from the Separatists' cruel methods."

"We can never escape the war, can we?" asked Ahsoka.

"No," said Lux. "It doesn't seem like we can. But we can face it together."

And with that thought, Ahsoka and Lux relaxed in the first real comfort they had felt since the whole ordeal began.

Once the sun had risen, Ahsoka and Lux returned to the tent, where Barriss had woken and was preparing for a full day of training. After a quick breakfast at Cassis's, Ahsoka, Barriss, and Lux borrowed several speeders and backpacks from the village and headed towards the abandoned Republic outpost. The dark, imposing exterior of the outpost was in stark contrast with the colorful fungi of the planet, making it easy to spot.

Any life, droid, clone, or Jedi that may have resided at the outpost had certainly left a long time ago. The outpost was completely empty of any life forces, although Ahsoka did spot a few droid scraps and several clone corpses. She wondered at what point this outpost had fallen. Was it the beginning of the war? Or recently? She wasn't sure she wanted to know how long those bodies had been there for.

Once inside the outpost, Ahsoka felt both anxious and reassured. The military style of the building reminded her of her friends in the 501st, but she couldn't think about the Republic without anxiety bubbling up inside of her.

It wasn't difficult to find what they needed. Ahsoka and Barriss were able to quickly navigate the base, finding within minutes what they were looking for. The hangar was full of old Republic ships, most probably broken and useless, but more importantly, there were crates filled to the brim with grenades, droid poppers, and guns. Ahsoka shoved a backpack full of supplies and Lux and Barriss followed suit.

Once they'd filled their packs with as much as they could fit, they hopped back in their speeders and returned to the village, where Cassis had assembled the villagers.

Ahsoka dismounted her speeder in front of the villagers and began by passing out weaponry. She recalled the first time she'd been in this situation, and thought of what Anakin would do.

"Alright, everyone," she called. "Divide into rows of five…"

The sun was beginning to set just as she finished her training exercises. She was exhausted, and from what she could tell, so were the villagers. But the night was just beginning. In the distance, Ahsoka could hear the clanking of droid footsteps.

"They've already sent reinforcements," said Barriss.

Ahsoka cursed under her breath. She had hoped that they would have more time to train. But the fight was happening now.

"They're nearly here!" Ahsoka shouted. "Positions, everyone! Just like we practiced!"

Ahsoka heard a crackle of energy as the electric fence was turned on, encasing the village entirely except for the entrance. There would only be one way for the battle droids to get in. But also only one to get out of it came to that.

Cassis sighed at Ahsoka's waist.

"Perhaps this was destined to happen in the end," he said. "We had almost entirely forgotten what you Jedi had taught us in the first time. If we had defended our home to begin with, this would not be happening now."

"There's no time to regret our decisions," Ahsoka said. "All we can do now is defend your home." And hopefully not die trying. She didn't add that last part, but she knew Cassis was thinking it.

Ahsoka activated her lightsabers as the droids appeared at the entrance to the village. She heard the familiar sound of gunfire as the droids began the only thing they were programmed for. Violence.

Ahsoka twirled her lightsabers as she deflected blaster fire. This, at least, felt normal. She could see Barriss's blue blade slice through droids on her right and saw Lux firing with his blaster in her left. The gunfire picked up as the villagers began to fire back.

"Stay here," she said to Cassis, handing him a blaster and a bag of grenades. "Use tear if you need to."

"And what about you?"

"I'll be where I always am," she said, remembering the quip her master used to always use. "Saving the day."

She charged towards the line of battle droids, slicing and hacking, and soon the air was thick with the smell of singed metal.

A glance around the battlefield told her that they were successfully keeping the droids back. Destroyed droids littered the ground, and she only saw a few dead villagers. Elation and adrenaline filled her body. They could do this!

Adrenaline quickly turned to dread as she heard something approaching. Something she'd heard a thousand times, but usually with clones to back her up. Here, all she had to rely on were amateur farmers trained by herself. She'd just have to hope her training was enough.

Several droidekas

Several droidekas rolled past the remaining battle droids and unfolded, activating their shield generators. They released heavy fire into the villager ranks, instantly slaughtering several.

"Take cover!" Barriss shouted.

Ahsoka dove behind one of the villager's huts. She turned to the villagers.

"Remember what I taught you!" she yelled. "Droid poppers, now!"

Several small metal objects were hurled towards the droidekas, landing and slowly rolling towards the droids, which were still releasing heavy fire into the villager's ranks, until they quietly slipped past the droidekas' defenses, releasing and electric pulse throughout the droids ranks and successfully deactivating them.

As the gunfire began to diminish, Ahsoka stood from her hiding place and watched as the few remains droids were shot down until none remained.

Ahsoka breathed a sigh of relief as the villagers let out shouts and cheers of celebration. Ahsoka shared a quick hug with Barriss and Lux before approaching Cassis.

"You have done us a great service, Jedi," said Cassis, grasping Ahsoka's hand firmly. "I don't believe we will ever be able to repay you."

"We only did what we felt was right," Ahsoka said, shaking his hand. "But, I have to admit, I'm not exactly a Jedi anymore."

Cassis looked up at her. "Whatever you are, you are a good person. Thank you for your help, Ahsoka Tano."

As he walked away, Barriss and Lux approached Ahsoka.

"Now that we've freed the village," asked Barriss. "What do we do now."

"They're not truly free," Ahsoka said. "Not until the Separatists are gone from Felucia."

"But we're just three people," said Lux. "We can't possibly hope to liberate and entire planet."

"Sometimes three people are all it takes to make a change Ahsoka said." She looked up to the sky, where she knew the three Separatist ships were waiting. "And luckily for us, I've got a plan." She turned towards Lux and Barriss. "It's time for us to take on Grevious."