AN: So three finals out the way and two to go. I feel pretty good about them too and I figure if I can Ace em all, I can get three A's this semester (I nearly bombed midterms becuz I went out of town so these finals were important if I wanted to get some A's) and it's likely my mythology class will be an A because I got a 95 on my research essay (does happy dance). But A's or B's (A's will help with financial aid and keep me in the honors program), I know I worked and studied damn well hard for these classes. The proof? I haven't worked on any of my novels or fanfics nearly as much as I usually do. Went some days without writing at all. So I'm going to take a long deserved break and write as much as I please before I do my online final and study for my last final Tuesday. Working on a new fic, but I'll tell you all about that one down the road...

Again. Not sure what your reaction will be. I'll let you all decide. I won't comment to the end.

Read, enjoy, and review!

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Chapter Twenty-three

Ahsoka fidgeted again in the long, heavy, and flowing tribal robe that she was wearing as she stared into the large fire where the meat was roasting. She wished she could take it off as it restricted her movement and made her feel uncomfortable. She wouldn't even begin to talk about the jewelry they had adorned her with on her arms, feet, ankles, fingers and lekku, although she had to say that some of the jewels that they had gifted her with would make great lightsaber crystals.

As the chief's honored guest (thanks to her sisters' request), she took her seat directly next to him and they served her like a queen while she watched the festivities. So in addition to being uncomfortable, she was bored. Her only comfort were the berries that Atallah said had been her favorite fruit when she was younger. The reason her sister said they started the farm was in her honor when she left. It left a lot of things unanswered, namely where their parents were. Ahsoka had no memory of them unlike her sisters who she vaguely remembered.

"So you're Ahsoka?"

Ahsoka looked up from her lap to see a woman a few years younger than her with face markings similar to Ahsoka's, her hand on her hip and a bow on her arm. She was dressed in the light and simple garb of a huntress, her feet bare, with an akul tooth headdress and gold bands on her upper arm. Humans would call it skimpy, the equivalent of a bikini or even a slave costume. Ahsoka called it comfortable and she would give anything to be allowed to wear it right about then.

"Ahsoka?" the woman asked again.

"Who wants to know?" Ahsoka asked sighing.

"Avani told me I should come meet you," the woman said up and down. "Apparently, she just knows you and I will get along perfectly though judging by your preference of dress, I doubt it. Wouldn't catch me dead sitting next to the chief with that on, honored guest or not…"

"Believe me. It wasn't my idea," Ahsoka said dryly. "Who are you?"

"Amaia."

"So you're my other sister," Ahsoka asked.

"Depends…"

"On what?"

"Whether I believe it or not. To be honest, you don't look like a hunter or a fighter for that matter…" Amaia said.

"I think I could surprise you," Ahsoka said leaning on her hand. A few tricks with her lightsaber would change Amaia's mind.

Amaia frowned and for a moment, Ahsoka thought she was insulted until she smirked.

"Atallah was right. I do like you," she said taking a seat next to Ahsoka before adding, "You look uncomfortable."

"You think?" Ahsoka asked gesturing to the robe.

"No… I mean with the situation."

Ahsoka nodded slightly. "It does feel a little odd to me. I've been raised in an entirely different world than this one and then you all embrace me like I never left."

"It's part of our tradition and culture. No matter where you go or who you become, deep down you're still a torgruta. Stick around for a while and you'll see," Amaia commented.

"Well don't let my awkwardness spoil your fun."

"If that were the case, I wouldn't be up here. I'm trying to avoid the party anyway," Amaia said to her. "Atallah has been trying to marry me off for years."

"But she's not married is she?"

"No. She was too busy taking care of us to trifle with such a matter," Amaia replied.

"Taking care of us?" Ahsoka asked turning to look at Amaia. "What about our parents?"

"You mean they haven't told you the story yet?" she asked and continued without answering. "Our father died in a hunt. Our mother died giving me life a few months later. Being the oldest, it fell on Atallah to take care of us, right at the age which she was supposed to get married. Naturally Atallah had her hands full with us and so she was in no position to take on a mate. We struggled for a while. Because no one from our family was able to participate in the hunts yet and we had no extended family, it was hard for us to come by food as tradition mandates that any family who doesn't have a representative to participate in hunts gets last pick on food after the feasts. Thankfully you seemed to be content with the shrub fruit at the time."

"It was only a few months later that the Jedi came and realized your force potential," Amaia added. "It's how you got that," she said pointing to the headdress around Ahsoka's head.

"I don't remember how I got it…"

"Neither do I," Amaia said. "I didn't get mine until I was ten and began to go on the hunts to represent our family. That was before the empire came and started to colonize this place. There's not much of value for them here. So they left a little while afterwards. Avani and Ahava both have mates, but from another tribe and they don't want to leave Atallah by herself. So they commune back and forth a lot which is an oddity in itself but we won't talk about that. Personally, I don't want a mate. They're too much trouble."

"I can agree with that one…" Ahsoka said dryly.

"You have a mate?" Amaia asked. "I was under the impression that Jedi didn't do such things."

"I don't have a mate," Ahsoka said simply. It wasn't a lie. She didn't know what she and Vader were. "But I've been around the galaxy a few times since the purges. Things have been different since then. Normal rules and Jedi traditions don't apply anymore."

"You're lying," Amaia said dryly.

Ahsoka remained passive. "How would you know?"

"Your aura says it all. It's complete and only someone who knows their other half or has one has an aura as complete as yours," Amaia pointed out. "But you're lonely…"

"I know torgruta have a sixth sense, but it's not that good," Ahsoka replied knowingly.

"I'm almost force sensitive, but not quite. I can still sense things the average person can't," Amaia admitted. "No one knows it except Atallah, Ahava, and Avani. It would make me different, an individual and the tribe barely tolerates our family as it is. You were an individual. You'd climb a tree and stay there by yourself for hours, sneak out and explore on your own instead of with the other children. You weren't like the other torgruta. Atallah said that's why she gave you to the Jedi when he proposed it to her. She thought you would fit in better. She didn't want you to feel left out because of your individualism."

Ahsoka huffed. She was still different even amongst the Jedi. She hadn't learned true acceptance until she met Vader. Well, he had been Anakin Skywalker then. That's when she had stopped being lonely.

"And you miss him," Amaia added.

"Miss who?"

"Your mate."

"I don't have one," Ahsoka insisted.

"Then who is the father of your child?"

Ahsoka tensed and for once she was thankful that it was dark so her sister couldn't see her darkening lekku stripes.

"My daughter's seven years old and she's not here," she said indifferently. "How do you know about her?"

"I'm talking about the child you're pregnant with," Amaia said to her calmly.

"Don't tell anyone," Ahsoka said immediately.

Amaia rolled her eyes. "Why would I? I don't even know you like that."

Ahsoka sighed. So far she had been able to hide it and no one had noticed, especially the person she wanted to notice. Not that there was anything for her to hide yet. Compared to her pregnancy with Shmi, she had caught this one early on when she had been oblivious to the signs the first time. Maybe because the first time it hadn't seemed like a possibility so she hadn't thought about it. But now that Shmi was here, it was a real possibility that had become reality… again.

"So what has he said about it?"

"I haven't mentioned it yet," Ahsoka replied.

"So you've already been domesticated?" Amaia asked laughing.

"Tsh… Far from," Ahsoka said rolling her eyes as the feast continued

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Ahsoka fell into a routine in the next few days. She got to know her sisters and quickly found out that some things they did were just unique to their family. One trait was their more unique face markings. Unlike the more obvious patches many had around their eyes, she and her sisters all had the intricate markings and designs that looked purposely penciled on. It wasn't a rare pattern, but it was for their village. She also learned that while she was the most individual of them, all her sisters had a strange individuality about themselves. They'd rather be together and socialize together amongst the shrub fruit trees they took care of than socialize with the rest of the village who could be found living closer to the main town, not to mention how strange it was for Amaia not to be married at the age she was.

However, even Ahsoka could see that they saw some of her ways as kind of outlandish. Her tendency to go off and meditate was one as well as her very un-torgruta style of clothing. While her sisters usually went barefooted, Ahsoka almost always sported her boots. It was also nothing for them to walk around in what Ahsoka knew most humans would call a slave costume (and that was putting it nicely), especially Amaia, who was the main huntress of the family. Next time Vader said she was wearing something too revealing, she would laugh.

Speaking of him, Ahsoka wondered how long it would be before he came after her unless he simply didn't care and had gone about his business with the empire. Lately, it seemed like something he would do.

"Oh wow… Well we don't see many of your kind around here much…"

Ahsoka snapped out of her musings and looked up at that point as she used the force to induce her hearing to hear who it was. It turned out she didn't need to do so as the presence invaded her senses and she felt relief that he had come after her, but rage at how he had been acting lately. She groaned as she stood up, starting to climb a tree and run along the branches to get away until she figured it would be pointless. Vader would always find her.

"She's this way," Ahsoka heard Atallah say warily as she sensed her, Vader, and also Amaia come their way.

Soon Vader came into view walking in between Atallah and Amaia.

"Hey Ahsoka," Atallah said. "Do you know this guy?"

"Yeah. I know him alright," Ahsoka said dryly.

Amaia looked between the two for a moment before blurting out, "You never told me your mate was human."

Atallah's jaw dropped in surprise before she cocked her hip out to the side and said, "I didn't know she had a mate."

"He's not my mate," Ahsoka snapped.

"That's not what your auras say," Amaia pointed out.

Ahsoka glared at the two.

"Fine," Atallah said putting her hands up in surrender, a smirk gracing her features. "But we'll talk about this later."

Her older sister winked before grabbing Amaia by the arm and pulling her back toward the house.

Vader didn't say anything and as usual, Ahsoka had to start the conversation.

"I'm surprised you actually came after me." Actually, she wasn't.

"Don't lie. You knew I would come eventually," Vader replied simply.

"It took you long enough. It's been a week and a half."

"You expected me to come after within a few hours after the way you left?" Vader said heatedly.

"After the first week, I was starting to think you wouldn't come for another six months or so," Ahsoka said sourly. "You've certainly been ignoring me enough in the last few weeks."

"I've been treating you the same as always."

"That's the point," Ahsoka snapped. "For a while it looks like everything might be going okay, as okay as things can go with the two of us and then you act like you can't stand to be around me. Why don't you just stop it?"

Vader started to reply before he seemed to switch his chain of thought. Instead he looked at her, an eyebrow quirked before he shook his head.

"What?"

"Why is it that it takes something drastic like us being captured or you getting mad and running off to find your long lost family before we finally address something you want to talk about, before you finally decide you want to tell me?" Vader asked exasperated and then muttering, "It's right out of a bad space opera…"

"What are you talking about?"

Vader looked her dead in the eye and said, "You're pregnant."

Ahsoka couldn't believe it. He had shocked her again, just when she thought he hadn't even noticed, hadn't even been paying attention. How had he known?

As if reading her thoughts (and he probably had), he said, "It doesn't take a genius to figure it out. I know you too well anyway."

"You didn't know the first time."

"I wasn't there to observe you then. In fact, except for a couple of days, I wasn't there at all when you were pregnant with Shmi," Vader pointed out. "Second, I knew before you did."

"You couldn't have."

"I knew five weeks ago. What are you? Five and a half weeks?"

Ahsoka reared her head back. She hadn't even known until a couple of days before she left.

"How?" she finally asked stunned.

"Do I need to remind you of my midichlorian count?" he asked her.

Ahsoka gave him that one.

"And it was the only reason you would have brought all that stuff up you did. The pieces fit," he continued and then noticing her surprise he smirked. "Contrary to your belief, I'm not always too caught up in my own problems to notice other people's problems."

Ahsoka stared at him for a moment, sure this was supposed to comfort her somehow and Vader was doing the closest thing he would to trying to comfort her. But instead it only invoked her rage and for the second time she attacked him. This time he seemed prepared for it and although he fell backwards from the force of her attack, he flipped her over on her back and covered her with his own body to keep her from going anywhere or attacking him again. However, he was careful not to crush her under him, obviously conscious of her condition.

"Get off me," she said.

"And let you attack me again? I doubt it," he said to her. "If I promise to explain all this to you will you promise not try to kill me again?"

"Depends…"

"Pregnant former Jedi torgruta should be a hazard," Vader muttered and then sighed. "Fine. We'll stay like this."

"Start talking," Ahsoka said managing to cross her arms over her chest.

"I wasn't trying to push you away if you must know."

"You weren't trying not to either."

"Don't make this any more difficult than it already is," Vader said to her softly before rolling off her and lying on the ground next to her.

Ahsoka sighed. "Fine…"

"I just… You think you're the only one bothered by the fact that we can't locate our daughter?" he asked her.

"You certainly don't act like it sometimes."

"It's easier not to act like it bothers me. I can't let it bother me. If I do, it disrupts my focus."

"I don't get it…"

"This may be the first time you've lost a child in the galaxy, but this is the second time for me and sometimes I have to remind myself you didn't do it to purposely hide her from me. You were trying to keep her from everyone else," Vader admitted.

Ahsoka leaned over and propped herself up on Vader's chest.

"I thought we had gotten past this trust issue. I told you-."

Vader closed his eyes and raised his hand to stop her. "I know. I know what you said. But that doesn't stop me from thinking it. That's why I didn't come after you immediately. It bothered me when you said you rather keep her away from me and I thought I was failing at this all over again and loosing you at the same time. Maybe in a way I am pushing you away."

Ahsoka looked at him for a moment. She could never understand why Vader expected so much from himself. The things he blamed himself for were usually never in his control and when he tried to bring them under his control was when disaster struck…

"You're don't trust anyone else because you don't trust yourself," she deadpanned. "That's why nothing's ever good enough. There's always something you could have done different, even when it's not in your control. So your intolerance for other's mistakes is like killing imperfection in yourself."

"What are you? A psychiatrist?"

"I should be shouldn't I?" Ahsoka joked. "But I've known you for over twenty years. I know that's what it is."

"Maybe," he admitted.

"You're pushing me away because you don't want to disappoint me."

Vader sighed. "Every time I get involved, something goes wrong Ahsoka. Maybe you're better off here staying with your sisters."

Ahsoka sighed. "You expect too much of yourself. You're not all powerful."

"Padmé told me that," Vader replied frowning. "I didn't believe her. I was always doing something wrong. Always causing something bad to happen no matter how hard I tried."

"Then maybe you should stop trying so hard," Ahsoka said to him. "Sometimes it's better to just let things come as they may and have faith that the force will make it all work out."

"How would you know?"

"Because it worked for me in the end," Ahsoka said seriously as she laid her head down on his chest and Vader began to play with her lekku.

"What do you mean by that?"

"You figure it out," Ahsoka said coyly and then said, "Believe me. It works."

Vader paused and then said, "But that would mean letting go. I've never been able to let go," he added in a whisper as his hand began to trail up and down her third lek.

Ahsoka hissed in contentment and Vader looked down at her.

"You like that?"

"Mhm," Ahsoka hummed lazily as she moved off his chest and leaned her head on his arm to stare at him in contentment.

He laughed at her to Ahsoka's delight as it was something her rarely if ever did and then he leaned forward to kiss her lightly and pulled away. Ahsoka leaned back in though and all thoughts of where they were invoking their passion was forgotten as Ahsoka rolled back on top of him, straddling his waist. She slipped her hands under his shirt and tugged it over his head, looking appreciatively at his well formed chest. He grabbed her wrist and pulled away from her lips slightly saying with a small chuckle, "We're not alone."

Ahsoka stretched out her senses and her montrals twitched in a seemingly random direction. She groaned.

"You never told me you had sisters," Vader said to her.

Ahsoka reached back and grabbed one of her boots off her feet saying, "Until a few days ago I didn't remember I had any sisters."

She took the boot in her hands and threw it in a seemingly random direction.

"Kriffing voyeurs!" Ahsoka shouted.

"Stang it! Ahsoka that was my montral!" Avani said revealing their location hiding in one of the trees.

"Avani!" Atallah said.

"You'd say something too if you got hit with that thing. Stang she's got good aim…" Avani said jumping out the tree.

"I told you we should have let them have their privacy," Ahava said.

"There's nothing private about being outside on a shrub berry farm," Atallah said with her arms crossed. "You two need to go find somewhere else to do that, but certainly not on my farm or in my h-. Ahsoka!"

Ahsoka stood to her two bare feet with a smug air about her as she stalked back to the house. Vader stood to his own feet and started to go after her until he found himself surrounded by the four women that claimed to be Ahsoka's sisters.

"So you're the guy my sister's been pining over the whole time she's been here," Amaia said tilting her head at him. "Not bad for a human. But apparently judging by your conversation, you need to be schooled in how to treat a torgruta woman. She's not like those human women. Torgruta are much more hostile…"

Vader wondered if they knew who he was if they would leave him alone. But he doubted it would be a good idea for himself or for Ahsoka who probably didn't want or need to deal with her sisters asking her what she was thinking being with Darth Vader. He held back a groan as the four surrounded him. Ahsoka owed him big time for all this trouble.

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AN: I had fun with this. It was nice comparing and contrasting Ahsoka to her sisters and Torgruta culture as a whole. Again, I took creative leeway with the whole thing based on what little is known and torgruta in the Star Wars universe so don't take my word on it and I know it might not be accurate. Got it? Good. Anyway, Leia, Lana, and Abdul are in the next chapter, along with Mara and Luke. They were supposed to be in these last two chapters but when I added Empire day, it got pushed back. It was actually never my intention to had four chapters in a row solely for Ahsoka and Vader, but when I tried to mix Leia or Luke in, it brok the flow and so I said to hell with it. I'll put it in the next chapter.

So I'm curious to see what you all's reaction will be to Ahsoka pregnancy. I was greatly amuse because I know women who said "one and done" and ended up with a second child. Don't worry. It wasn't just for the heck of it… or it could be. You decide.

Hope you enjoyed. Review Please!