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Ahsoka awoke to see fire just feet from her face. She scrambled to her feet and regretted it when a searing pain shot through her left leg.
Well, this is better than being blasted by twenty battle droids... I think.
She had been thrown against a wall in the explosion knocking her briefly unconscious. She must have hurt her leg then.
"Great, now what?" Ahsoka stared at the flames, which were creeping closer every second. She couldn't Force-leap over them, not with her leg like it was.
At least things can't get any worse.
Just then, a chunk of the ceiling high above her gave way and tumbled down toward her.
Ahsoka had a split second to decide. Should she stay put and hope it missed her or take her chances with the fire?
She dove forward into the flames, hoping desperately that the wall of fire was only a few feet wide. There was a flash of blinding, unbearable heat and then she was sprawled on the other side.
I'm alive! She looked around and saw that she was in a large machinery room. Ahsoka assumed that this equipment was used for combining the two chemicals to make the super-weapon.
"Roger roger. Roger roger."
Ahsoka glanced up to see a battle droid stumbling amidst the equipment. "Roger roger. Finding data. Roger roger."
She leaped forward and wrenched the blaster from the droid's grip, then pressed it to its head. "One move and I'll blow you from here to Coruscant!" Actually, she was tempted to do that anyways.
"Don't shoot!" the droid screeched, trying to get away. It was a lot stronger than she had anticipated; she had never held a droid captive before. "Roger roger! Roger roger!" It then started mumbling unintelligibly.
This droid seemed to have a screw loose.
I can take advantage of this.
"OK," Ahsoka said. "This place is falling in around us, soon the fire will consume us and without my help, you will be melted slowly into fried circuits. I am willing to form a temporary alliance- just until we get out of here." She briefly wondered if the droid was too stupid to understand what she said.
"Roger roger. I am 448 of the separat-"
Ahsoka sighed. This droid reminded her slightly of the protocol droid C-3PO. "Come on."
She dragged the battle droid to the exit and pressed the button to open the door, but the controls weren't working. "Great. Could this day get any worse?"
A blaster bolt whizzed past her and smashed into the control panel. Ahsoka spun around to see 448 holding a smoking blaster.
"Are you brainless?" Ahsoka demanded, then remembered she was talking to a droid. "Now we have no chance of getting it open!"
"You should be glad that was not your head," 448 grumbled.
A battle droid with a sense of humour? This one is really malfunctioning
"Give me that!" Ahsoka snatched the blaster and studied it. She set it on high power and hoped what she was going to do wasn't going to get them killed- and destroyed.
Ahsoka aimed the blaster at the crumbling wall above the door and fired. The whole room shook with the blast, but only the wall came down, leaving a hole about ten feet above the ground.
"I can't jump up there!" 448 said, sounding as panicky as a droid could sound.
Ahsoka considered breaking her alliance and deserting the battle droid, then shook her head. She had already sunk as low as to make deals with the enemy, why not save its metal skin as well?
If my Master could see me now...
Ahsoka used the Force to levitate the droid through the hole, then dropped it ten feet straight down, just for the fun of it. She was about to Force-jump through when an object glinting in the firelight caught her eye. It was a small vial containing a blue-tinged liquid.
Could this be a sample of the Virdix?
Ahsoka stuck the vial on her belt, then followed 448.
"I am going to assume you know were the nearest exit is," she said as the droid picked itself up off the floor.
"Roger roger," 448 said unhappily. "You know, you are violent for a Jedi."
"You are sarcastic for a battle droid."
The droid went mute and walked on.
There were faint explosions in other parts of the factory. A low rumble began soon after.
Ahsoka picked up the pace, which was hard to do considering she had injured her leg.
"Uh, Jedi?" 448 began nervously. "The Virdix is-"
448 was interrupted by a huge explosion in the room just beside them. Ahsoka was almost thrown off her feet and 448 clattered to the floor.
"The Virdix is flammable!" 448 finished. "If we are in here and the big vats of Virdix and Fondorian Extract catch fire-"
"The whole forest could go up in a much much more powerful pulse!" Ahsoka finished in dawning horror. The fact that she was in a burning building stocked with flammable items forgotten, she raised her comlink.
It was time to contact her Master.
"Ahsoka, where are you?"
"I am- er- in the factory." Ahsoka cringed, awaiting his next words.
"What? Ahsoka, that factory blew up!"
"No, that was the ship in the hangar of the factory. But that isn't important, listen to me, Master-"
"Ahsoka!"
Ahsoka recoiled from the comlink, glad that several kilometres of land and a burning building separated her from her Master at the moment.
"What in the galaxy possessed you to go against my orders like that? You could have been killed in the explosion, you could have-"
"Master!" Ahsoka was running out of patience at the moment. "They are mixing this liquid- Virdix, they call it- with Fondorian Extract, and if the fire reaches those flammable chemicals, we are going to have a lot more to worry about than me disobeying orders!"
"Got it," Anakin said. Ahsoka was relieved to hear that he had calmed down some. "I'll evacuate the men, then I am coming back for you."
"Master, no. I can handle myself. Just get out of here."
"I'm not leaving you alone in there!"
"I'm not alone," Ahsoka said. "I've got 448."
"Who?"
Ahsoka was starting to enjoy herself. "A battle droid. Bye!"
Ahsoka cut the transmission and turned to 448. "Under the circumstances," she said. "I think that went rather well."
Ahsoka and 448 arrived at the exit with no further incidents. Ahsoka took a deep breath of clean air, then turned back to the factory, a mere twenty metres away.
"I wonder," she mused. "If the Force can be used to stop enormous pulses."
448 was confused. "What? If you're thinking what I think you're thinking..."
Ahsoka shushed the droid and turned her attention back to the factory. The building was almost entirely consumed by flames and she knew she didn't have much time.
Sure enough, the rumbling had increased to a loud roar and the factory was beginning to shake.
Ahsoka knew what she was about to do was sheer madness, but she had to try. She gathered the Force and braced herself.
Suddenly, the building exploded with a blinding light. A fiery ring was spreading rapidly around the factory and Ahsoka met its light with the Force, imagining a wall so thick that the flames and the energy couldn't get past. She had never felt so in tune with the Force and wondered disantly if this was how Anakin had felt during the test in the arena on Mortis. The flames and the energy grew and grew until Ahsoka almost couldn't contain it, then everything just stopped.
The factory was a pile of ruins and the ground was charred, but nothing had spread farther than Ahsoka.
The young Padawan stared at her hands in shock, feeling slightly overwhelmed. How had she done that?
I wasn't really expecting to survive that.
"Jedi?"
Ahsoka had forgotten 448 was there. "You can leave if you want. I no longer want to see you're circuits spread across the galaxy. Thanks for helping me get out."
448 bowed once, then retreated into the trees.
"Commander Tano!"
Ahsoka spun around to see Rex hurrying toward her. "What are you doing here? I told my Master to evacuate everyone!"
"Everyone is gone, sir. The general ordered me to come look for you, and to inform you that your lightsabers should be fully functioning."
"Thanks, Rex." Ahsoka began to remove her lightsabers from her belt.
"Too bad you wont be needing them anymore."
The change in Rex's voice made Ahsoka look up. An ugly sneer marred the Captain's face and he had a stun gun pointed in her direction. Before Ahsoka could react, she was enveloped in a blinding flash. Her limbs were instantly useless and she fell into darkness. Her last conscious thought was projected through the Force.
Master, help me.
Muahahahah! What has happened to Rex? And Ahsoka? Find out next time on- oh forget it. Please reveiw!