Author's Note: THE SEQUEL IS HERE! Or not here but on my authors page. Remnants is the sequel to both Only Words and The Expelled. It picks up right at the end of this story with Ahsoka and Padme. Comments, concerns, suggestions, random drug induced epiphanies: leave them in a review. Hope you like it. -Ember.
P.S. since we're technically not supposed to have whole chapters of just author's notes you get an epilogue thingy.
Epilogue: Echos
Across the galaxy, Force sensitive children cried out in their sleep. Mothers and fathers ran to comfort them in futility. Shivers ran down the spines of any sensitive enough to feel the waves of Death, the shudders of the Force as voids opened up within it. A Bounty Hunter with a mild sensitivity missed his aim for the first time in years. A painter spilled her paints across the half finished canvas. A mother shuddered and held her child to her chest. A young girl in school jumped out of her chair and stood staring at the ceiling, crying silently. Younglings in the temple shared frightened looks as they sat in their beds and silently huddled together, seeking comfort in each-other's presence. Asajj Ventress in a dirty cantina deep in Coruscant's underbelly dropped her drink and her mouth went dry. She shivered and looked around warily. Time to leave, she thought to herself, time to disappear again for a very long time.
On Utapau, Obi-Wan felt a familiar presence in the unsettling waves of the Living Force just before the rocks under his lizard exploded under Clone munitions fire. It was the surge of despair and loss that pulled his breath away just before the fall, not the jerking sensation of gravity taking hold of him in empty space.
On Mygeeto, charging between the craters under heavy fire Jedi Master Ki-Adi-Mundi felt the ripples, echoes of screams and pleas. He stopped, standing on a battlefield and felt suddenly very alone. He turned to look back at his men, who had protected his back for so long and how he stared down the barrels of their guns. He despaired and his despair added new ripples to the Force.
On Felucia Ayala Secura felt the barest brush of what was to come before Commander Bly's blaster bolt hit her back. The pain was short and she died quickly, the Force of her life becoming part of the Cosmic Force but leaving a void in the Living Force where it plunged inward like a dying star. Bly kept firing, even though his vision blurred, even as the tears rolled down his face. No one would ever see them but his anguish and guilt left ripples in the Force just the same.
On Saleucami Stass Allie felt nothing before Commander Neyo and CT-3423 shot down her speeder, only the ground as it came up to meet her. On Cato Neimoidia, Plo Koon in his Jedi starfighter felt the waves in the Force and reached out to see who was in pain, trying to help just before he was engulfed in flames.
On Kashyyyk, walking between the beds of wounded or dying Clones and Wookies, Luminara Unduli felt the death around her. She paused in surprise to hear it echoed in the Force from far away. She was still frozen in worry and confusion when her troopers turned their blasters on her. She didn't even have a moment to raise her hands.
On Shili Ahsoka Tano was laughing. She was sitting across from Rex in a Togrutan restaurant with a bright green drink joking. Then suddenly she was gasping, falling forward, knocking over cups and stumbling to her feet. She collapsed on the floor, mouth open in a silent scream and eyes wide. "Master," she whispered not hearing her name called in the background, not feeling the hands on her shoulders. She was miles away.
In his starfighter, rocketing through hyperspace toward Kalevala, Anakin lay back in his seat, dry tear tracks on his cheeks but there were no tears left. He pressed the heels of his hands over his eyes and tried not to see the murders, tried not to see Clones turning on their Generals, tried not to hear the screams. But he felt every death. Across the Galaxy he felt the family that had taken him from slavery disappearing one my one like candles blown out and the smoke lingering heavy in the air, pungent and suffocating. He couldn't breath. He was numb even to the pain of the leg that was no longer there, the gash in his side that was bleeding, dripping down and pooling in the cockpit and under his feet. Anakin, wrapped tightly in the Force screamed his anguish and the Force screamed with him in the ears of hundreds of children, the ears of every Jedi fighting for their lives, in the ears of the younglings as the 501st shot them down in their training rooms and in their beds, in ears of his wife…
Padme gasped for breath and the book in her hands fell with a tump to the tiled floor. Satine lifted her head and turned.
"Padme? Is something wrong?"
The Senator was pale and sweat quickly broke out on her forehead. She swayed on her feet, gripping her swollen belly and biting her lip, eyes wide, terrified.
"The baby… the babies… it's too soon." She whispered.