The Final Battle: Part 16
Ahsoka, Barriss, and Tanya were running, yet again, through the Liberty's abandoned hallways. Only this time they were running toward the enemy, not away. They ran faster and faster, turning corner after corner, until they finally made it to the bridge between the Liberty and the Seperatist cruiser. Ahsoka and Barriss paused slightly, before slowly creeping toward the ship. Tanya, however, stayed.
"Tanya, is something wrong?" Barriss asked, looking back at Tanya. Tanya lowered her head.
"I can't do it," she whispered.
"Do what?" Barriss inquired.
"I can't abandon my ship." Ahsoka and Barriss looked at each other, unsure of what to say.
"Tanya," Ahsoka said, gently. "If you don't come with us now, you are going to die!"
"I know that!" Tanya snapped. "It's just, my master trusted me with this ship. Do you know how many other padawans have their own Jedi cruisers? None! I'm the only one in the entire galaxy!"
"Tanya, losing your cruiser is not that big a deal," Ahsoka assured her. "My master loses his all the time!"
Barriss gave her a look that clearly said, Not helping!
"Ahsoka, that's entirely different! Your master is a Jedi knight and Anakin Skywalker at that! It's not a big deal because he's one of the order's best and he's always doing stuff like that anyways! The council will be very shocked and disappointed in me if I lost my cruiser because I'm young, inexperienced, and careful!"
Barriss gave Ahsoka an, I told you so! look before telling Tanya, "But they'll be even more disappointed if one of their best padawans gets killed because she refused to retreat from a battle she knew she couldn't win."
Tanya winced as though the words had hurt her physically. She took a deep breath, looked into their eyes, and nodded. "You're right, I'm being stupid. My master wouldn't want me to get myself killed over something like pride. If I die, I want to die for something worth dying for."
Ahsoka and Barriss smiled, though a little sadly. Neither of them wanted to think about Tanya dying. It just seemed like one of those impossible things, like Anakin turning to the dark side. Tanya took a deep breath and ran to join her friends, just as a huge blast shook the Liberty, almost knocking the padawans off their feet.
"And that's our cue. Run!" Ahsoka shouted. The padawans took off toward the Seperatist ship, Ahsoka smashing her fist into the control panel, and opening the door to inside of the vessel. They bolted inside, closing the door behind them and detaching the Seperatist ship from the Liberty. They looked out of a porthole, to see the Liberty drifting away before it exploded in a fiery inferno.
Tanya closed her eyes and whispered, "Good-bye Liberty." Ahsoka gripped her shoulder as Tanya leaned her forehead on the cold glass that separated them from the vacuum of space.
"My master is going to kill me."
"Tanya, Master Yoda is very understanding. He'll know you had no choice."
"Yeah, but he'll be very disappointed in me and that's what I hate the most, disappointing him," Tanya explained. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes, before looking as though she had just remembered something and groaning.
"What?" Barriss asked.
"Master Li... we couldn't even save her body for Zana."
Ahsoka and Barriss's eyes widened. They had almost forgotten. Almost.
"There's nothing we can do," Barriss pointed out.
"I know, but I hate the feeling of not being able to do something. It's like being in a small, tight space for me." Ahsoka and Barriss looked at each other, still unsure about how to respond to that. Barriss, deciding it was best to keep moving, grabbed Tanya's shoulder and started gently leading her away from the window. They started walking down the hallway, when Tanya stopped suddenly.
"What is it?" Ahsoka asked.
"Don't you find it a bit odd that the Separatists were firing at the Liberty while they were still attached to each other?" Tanya pointed out.
"It's not that odd. Grievous has done that in the past," Ahsoka said.
"Yeah, but why didn't they just finish us off? Why did they come aboard in the first place? They could've blasted us into oblivion as soon as our shields were down."
"Maybe Grievous wanted another lightsaber?"
"Then why leave us alive? And, why would Ventress be here?" Tanya questioned. Then, she stopped, as though the air had been sucked out of her lungs. "They've trapped us on the ship."
"What?" Ahsoka and Barriss exclaimed, believing they hadn't heard her right.
"They've trapped us. They want the information we took."
"Do you really think that it would be worth all this trouble just for some information?"
"Oh believe me, a bit of intelligence could turn the tide of the entire war. They want this information back."
"Why didn't they just destroy it, then?"
"Maybe this is the only copy of some of Doctor Caust's secret plans. Remember, he was a biologist working on mass murder machines. And, it would explain why he was on Dantooine. It has lakes, rivers, and grasslands, so they could test it on environments, and the only inhabitants are simple farmers and primitive Dantari race, for living test subjects. Leave it to the Separatists to kill innocent people for test subjects."
"Quite clever of you, youngling," said a horribly familiar raspy, metallic voice.