Ahsoka still felt something negative, something dark around her. It felt as though the dark side had encircled her and was waiting to go in for the kill. Ahsoka hadn't felt this nervous since the day Jabba the Hutt's son was kidnapped and she was ambushed by Magnaguards outside his palace with Jabba's son strapped to her back. Only this time the situation was far worse, Anakin was not coming to save her and she couldn't count on her men to do so either since their objective was to escape, not fight.

Vader's own force senses started to feel a shift near him. The Sith lord suddenly stopping in his tracks in the cave tunnels with the stormtroopers under him also stopping movement, remaining quiet. They and seen this behavior before and knew that interrupting would displease the Sith, and displeasing Vader was inadvisable. "I sense... something..." Vader commented, focusing in on it. Feeling a familiar presence, Vader knew someone he used to know was here, but the question was who? Could it be a Jedi leading the rebels?

"Onward, no more idle games." Vader ordered, igniting his red blade and stepping forward, taking point in-front of his troops as they fell in line and continued to follow their commander. Vader was prepared to deal with the rebel team and whomsoever presence was strong enough in the force to slightly annoy his own.

The rebels had a small advantage over the Empire, they had been given a significant head start in the tunnels before the imperial strike team had rushed in and been blocked off by debris, some surely having been crushed under the ceiling. Ahsoka could only hope the explosions triggered a total cave in, perhaps completely blocking off the Imperials. "Sir, if you don't mind me asking, how are we going to get off this rock?" A male rebel trooper questioned. Ahsoka could feel this trooper's emotions through the force, and they all reeked of fear for his own life. "We're sneaking to the landing pads. If we're lucky, Imperial troops landed by the exit before they were informed we were in the caves, and maybe left an unattended landing transport there. We can take it and go." She replied. It was risky, stealing an imperial landing craft. There was no promise it'd be big enough for all of them, or that they'd slip away safely. The Imperial Star Destroyer in orbit was still hovering over everything, if the stormtroopers called in a rogue transport, they'd be shot down by turbo laser fire before even breaching the atmosphere.

The trooper obviously felt the need to question his commander further, but relented, this was no time to harass the only Jedi around with useless comments of self preservation and fear.

Ahsoka continued walking forward until she finally saw a bit of sunlight streaking across the cave wall, they had reached the exit at last. "Weapons ready, I'm going to peak out first and make sure everything's clear," the Jedi Knight said. Carefully, Ahsoka used the force to dash over to the next wall, and then the next, close enough to peak out of the cave without being seen by stormtroopers. Near a lake shore was a landing pad, still intact, with a large Imperial landing craft. A sentinel-class, which meant there was plenty of room for the survivors of the attack to board, with only one Officer and two stormtroopers guarding it.

"Stay there," she whispered over the comm link. Ahsoka could handle the guards alone, that way there wouldn't be a lot of noise. Igniting both of her green sabers the togurta Jedi raced out of the cave, using force speed to quickly run up to the stormtroopers.

"Hey! Jedi!" One of them yelled, pulling his E-11 on her and shooting frantically, though not in time to save his midsection from receiving a deep slash that would immediately render him dead due to cut organs and severed spine. The officer, carrying a T-21, attempted to shoot at Ahsoka was well. The Jedi skillfully dodged each blast before simply decapitating him. The last stormtrooper grabbed a grenade from his belt, and activated it.

"What're you gonna do, Jedi? If you kill me, you die too!" The trooper stated, staring the Jedi down. He felt confident enough in his own abilities that he'd be able to take down this female who just carved through his co-workers with ease. Ahsoka knew sometimes violence wasn't always the answer, however, and deactivated her light saber.

"You don't want to kill me." Ahsoka stated, slowly waving her hand.

The stormtrooper suddenly seemed to be daydreaming, standing in place, stiff as a statue for a few moments. Ahsoka's mind trick abilities had improved since she last used them, and she was more capable of using them to peacefully manipulate this stormtrooper into deactivating the grenade.

"I... don't want to kill you..." Repeated the stormtrooper.

"You want to put away the grenade, and go for a swim in the lake. You deserve a little break." Ahsoka suggested, once again waving her hand to make the verbal command work. The stormtrooper quickly deactivated his grenade, clipping it back onto his belt and then turning around, heading for the lake. "I want to put the grenade away and go for a swim in the lake. I deserve a break." He repeated in a mindless tone, walking directly into the water until he disappeared. Ahsoka realized she just probably indirectly caused the stormtrooper to drown himself, but it was better than her dying from shrapnel.

"All clear." She whispered once more, and soon the rebel troops flooded out of the caves towards her position. Suddenly, however, three TIE fighters quickly came down from the skies, shooting at the unprepared rebel troops in an attempt to pick them off one by one, following the first pass the TIEs flew out of sight. At least ten troops had been killed by the surprise attack run, but most of the men were more shaken than injured.

"Run! Get inside the transport. They know what we're doing!" A troop yelled, racing up the landing ramp of the craft, motioning at the other troops to quickly board. Without much hesitation, the other rebels followed.

Ahsoka quickly felt that pang in her heart again, and this time realized what it was – a trap. "No! Wait!" She called, out stretching her hand. Too late, within the next millisecond the landing craft exploded into a million pieces, killing all the rebel troops that had gone inside or were standing just next to it at the time. The explosion force was strong enough to knock Ahsoka back slightly, causing her to watch in horror as the crooked, burning hull of the landing craft slowly caved in on itself, forming a permanent metal grave for the troops who had raced inside.

With only a few troops left, about ten by Ahsoka's view, their situation was now extremely hopeless. There was essentially no way they would survive now, and no telling when those TIE fighters would come back around for another pass.

"Alright, all of you, hands up!" Commander Appo called as he waltzed out of the caves next to Darth Vader, the stormtroopers that followed quickly training their E-11 blasters on the Jedi and her injured comrades. Vader suddenly realized all along what he had felt in the force -his old padawan, Ahsoka.

"Ahsoka?" Vader commented abruptly, causing Appo to look back at his general for a few moments, "Uh, sir?" the Clone veteran inquired, curious as to how Vader knew this Jedi's name or why it seemed to trigger a slight bit of emotion.

Ahsoka cautiously stood up, wiping what felt like a small amount of her own blood from her lip. Noticing the large black cyborg she immediately hissed "Vader... I've heard a lot about you." She ignored the fact this Sith knew her name, and immediately began to swell with rage. Vader felt this, and knew she was going to try something.

"Don't." He warned, although his former padawan didn't heed it, and channeled a force push so strong it sent Appo and most of his forces flying back. Vader quickly used the force and his own weight to get footing for himself, managing to tank the force push that sent his cape flying out behind him.

"I heard how you killed all the Jedi, how you killed everyone I knew. Including my master!" Ahsoka yelled, igniting her light sabers once more. She knew the chances of surviving a direct confrontation with Vader was quite slim, however, she would not die a coward. She would not repeat what she had done months ago. If it was the Jedi's place to die and their order be wiped out, then she would fight and die against the Sith as her friends before her had done.

"I see you have become more powerful since we last spoke, Ahsoka. However, it's only because you are slowly giving into the dark side." Vader commented, once again calling her by name as he held his saber in a defensive position. "You knew it just as I that the Jedi order was failing and corrupt, snips."

The Jedi stopped in her tracks at the nickname. There was only one person who called her that, and it was Anakin.

"Don't call me that, only Master Anakin can call me that!" She yelled in fury, almost at the verge of tears. "You aren't him!"

Vader's troops finally regained their stature, aiming their guns back on the young Jedi female. The Sith Lord stepped forward, walking in a straight line towards his old apprentice, light saber ready.

"Oh, but I am."

NEXT CHAPTER

LORD VADER VS AHSOKA

R&R

I hope you're all still enjoying this story. I put a good amount of effort into this one. This story is my first star wars fan fiction actually! So in the future I might make more seeing as how this one appears to be receiving favorable reviews. I want to personally thank everyone who has favorites my story or reviewed it, I continue it just for you guys. 3