Chapter 3
"Uni! Are you okay," Ahsoka asks as she places a hand on his back. Uni is hunched over and is panting heavily, but he has finally stopped screaming.
"I think so," he says struggling to his feet. Cold sweat rolls off his face that is now pale and green. "Let's get out of here!"
"Yeah and get you to a hospital," Ahsoka says. Uni says nothing, just throws his arm around her shoulder as she helps him to the door. He grunts in pain along the way.
Suddenly, he drops to the floor again. "Aaaaagggggh," Uni screams as he clutches his stomach. "It hurts! It hurts!"
Ahsoka places a hand on his drenched forehead. He's burning up! Uni needs out of this house and into a hospital immediately. She brings her wristcom close to her lips to call Anakin Skywalker, but she can't get a signal in this house.
"Ahsoka, help me! Aaaaggghh! It burns," Uni says. He has now curled up in a ball and is rolling back and forth. His skin begins bubbling and popping. "Aaaaaggghh!" Uni flings his hands to his face. Horror fills his eyes as he pulls them from his face, finding them covered in his blood.
"I need to go outside and call for help," Ahsoka says. She tries placing a comforting hand on his shoulder, but he is too distracted by the pain. "I'll be right back!"
"Aaaaaaaggggggh," Uni screams. This time he clutches his left arm.
Pop!
The skin on his are burst open and sprays blood around the room like an over inflated balloon that just popped. He lets out another blood curdling scream of pain. His arm is now red, scaly, ten times its original size, and growing larger. Uni skin dangles from his shoulder blade as if it we part of his torn tunic. His hands are replaced by huge red claws with yellow claws.
"Aaaaaggggh," Uni screams again and now his right arm bulges and bursts open. His legs pop as well and a tale pops out as well. Ahsoka helplessly looks in the eyes and she his terror. He snaps his head back in pain, which turns into a growl before a massive red head bursts out of his own head. Its fangs are nearly a foot long, and the horns on its head are big enough to be impaled upon.
The remains of Uni's slide off the beast scaly back and land on the floor like some discarded costume. Before her stood a twenty-foot dragon. The beast lowers its massive head to look Ahsoka in the eyes. Yet, it no longer had eyes. Rather, it had two gaping empty eye sockets, filled with an orange and yellow flame that licked the top of the sockets.
The dragon let out a deafening roar. Its breath is warm and moist Ahsoka's face, and reeks of rotting flesh and flame.
Ahsoka is frozen with fear and indecision. Uni is dead and she will be to if she does not get out of here. She does the one thing she can think of. She ignites one of her lightsabers and flings it at the beast's neck. The lightsaber twirls in the air until it ricochets off the dragon's neck making a dull clanking sound.
The dragon is unscathed and suddenly she realizes what the beast is. It is not a dragon at all, but rather a palanthitar. A demon birthed by the dark side of the Force. She had only heard rumors of a palanthitar and believed to be a myth. Once a sith has been killed, the power he used in the dark side of the Force, sometimes becomes a ball of energy, which also contains fragments of the former sith lord's soul. It cannot take form without a host, and it will not rest until it finds one.
Now that it has taken form after killing Uni, she cannot kill the thing. She needs to escape. Ahsoka bolts for the hallway that leads to the door. She reaches out with the Force to retrieve her lightsaber as she runs and catches it in her out stretched hand.
The beast whips its tail, smacking Ahsoka in her gut before she can reach the hallway. She is flung across the room, smacks against a wall, then collapse on the floor. Its tail knocked the with out of her and she hunches over trying to breath. Still unable to breath, she forces herself up once her feels the pounding vibration of the beast charging at her.
At the last moment, she dives and rolls out of the way. The beast digs its claws into the floor to stop itself. Floorboards splinter and are torn from the floor. It tumbles and falls on its side before smashing through part of a wall. Half of its body covers the hallway, so she looks for another way out. Ahsoka runs over and picks up Uni's glowing orb and finds a second staircase leading upstairs.
The beast digs itself out of the wall. It is furious, letting out another deafening roar. The dragon gets to its feet and charges at Ahsoka again. Once more she dives out of the way of the beast. It stumbles, rolls head first, then lands on its back.
Ahsoka books it to the stairwell while the dragon is momentarily dazed. If she can make it up the stairs and find a window to bust through, she knows she can make it out of the house. Hopefully, the dragon will stop pursuing her at that point.
She can hear and feel the loud thuds behind her as it gives chase again. As she reaches the staircase, she slams into the wall, before she hurtles herself up the stairs. As soon as she reaches the top of the stairs, the beast smacks into the staircase, destroying it.
Ahsoka tumbles to the floor after the beast smacks into the staircase. She looks around the room for a window to break out of. The second floor is one big open space, except for the support beams. There are no rooms here, just one big dark empty space. At the other side of the second floor, Ahsoka sees a faint light from a boarded-up window.
She begins running towards the window. The boards thump and squeak as she runs. Suddenly, there is a loud thud from beneath her. Some of the floorboards pop up, which causes her to stumble. Ahsoka throws her hands out to brace her fall. Her wrists smack down awkwardly onto the floor. Pain shoots through her hands and wrists, and she lets out a squeal of pain.
There is another loud thumping sound, followed by the sound of sniffing. Ahsoka doesn't move a muscle. She hopes the beast will not find her scent, then move on. She waits in the same spot on her hands and knees listening. Moments later she hears the beast walking away. Ahsoka lets out a sigh of relief, then very slowly crawls on her hands and feet, silently towards the window.
Crack!
The floorboards begin bulging upwards in front of where she is crawling. Boards crack and pop. They fall back into place for a second, then the floor seems to explode. Shattered boards, nails, and splinters shoot all over the room, and the terrible red beast bursts through the hole in the floor and thuds into the ceiling. It lets out a deafening roar and struggles to squeeze the rest of its body through the hole. More boards crack and break as it thrashes.
Ahsoka screams and backs up on her hands and feet. Its stuck, she says to herself. I can't make it to the window now, so I will have to make it to the front door.
She pulls herself to her feet as the beast squeezes one of its arms through the hole. Ahsoka makes her way to the shatter staircase and leaps down, landing on a pile of broken wood. The wood pile shifts beneath her feet and she stumbles onto the floor. The sound is heard throughout the room and the beast begins jerking its body downwards like a wild animal caught in a snare.
"No time to waste," Ahsoka says aloud as she forces herself to her feet. She runs towards the hallway that leads to the front door. Chunks of shattered wood falls from the ceiling and smacks against the floor as the beast thrashes. "Faster! Father," she screams to herself!
But it is too late!
The beast frees itself from the ceiling as a large pile of debris thunders to the floor. Dust fills the air and the beast is shrouded from her sight. Ahsoka watches frightfully, scanning the thick dust cloud for the red monster as it stocks her. She backed away slowly, silently, looking for a way out of this nightmare. Her heart feels like it is pounding out of her chest and she can barely breathe.
Suddenly, she sees the dim lights of those flaming eyes through the dust. The beast exhales through its nostrils and a puff of dust hits her in the face. When the beast finally sees her, it lets out another roar. Ahsoka screams and backs up until she runs into a wall and has nowhere else she can go.
This is it! This is it! This is how I die, Ahsoka says to herself. The Force has abandoned me to death. She had meditated and prayed to the Force about her decision to leave the Jedi Order. It gave her the answer she asked for and she faithfully obeyed the Force. Her reward for such obedience is death!
The beast lumbers over to the trapped Ahsoka. It rises onto its hind legs, and prepares for its deadly strike. Its shadow engulfs Ahsoka.
"Back you foul beast," someone yells from behind them. "You will not touch her!"
The beast whips around to face its new foe and disappears back into the dust cloud. There is a snap crackle, followed by the glow of blue light that lights up the haze. The beast cries out in pain.
"Back you beast," the stranger yells again and the blue light, lights up the haze once more.
Ahsoka gets up quickly and hurries through the dust to find the dragon and the man. He saved her life and now she needs to return the favor. She does not know if they can kill it, but she needs to get out of there. The dust is settling and she can see the beast advance towards the man, then retreat as force lightning courses through its body. She ignites her light sabers and charges at the beast. Before she reaches the beast, she glances at her rescuer and is shocked by who it is.
It is none other than Count Dooku.