AN: Don't have much to say, but my chapters will be getting longer now. I hope. thanks for the reviews!
I agree with you, Jedi Master Misty Sman-Esay , Palpatine is an evil genius!
Anakin heard her fall, her scream echoing in the caverns of his mind. Grunting, he flung around a barrier, grabbing Obi-Wan's shoulder and said loudly to be heard over the endless clanking feet, "Master, it's Ahsoka...another vision. I have to go!" Anakin started to get up, but Obi-Wan shook his head, not even muttering the command not to. It wasn't the Jedi way - it wasn't right to go to her. Even though Anakin was struggling, he tuned into the Force, "Dooku's coming...and, Master, I'm going to her."
Anger bubbled in his blood. The Sith would destroy her, preoccupy him, and pretend he didn't worry, didn't care? Of course he did! It was Ahsoka. He had known the girl for three years, and he wouldn't betray her now. But Dooku smiled, a smug curving of his lips that showed no care for any of them. Anakin's hand wrapped around his lightsaber. Anger was working it's way to the surface. It sizzled, frying the light, or trying to. His blue blade activated, Dooku following as his ruby-red blade shot out of the hilt. Anakin's hand shook as he struggled to contain the emotions sizzling in his blood, but it just wouldn't stop.
This man had to do with Ahsoka's horrors, the war, the death of so many Jedi. How could he stop? Anakin's eyes closed as he tried to follow Obi-Wan's teachings, tried to lean away from the Sith's want. And the hate kept on leaping up into him, currents and currents, a constant feeling trying to immerse him. Obi-Wan's steady hand touched his shoulder, and Anakin looked at him with a touch of compassionate love.
He had to save them. He couldn't turn against them. Obi-Wan's eyes met his, so transfixed, so worried. And Anakin gazed into them for a moment, and then to Dooku. Anger again. And now it hurt not to listen to it.
Ahsoka was dying. Dying, as in never coming back to him if she left. That hurt, and the raw hurt let the anger seep under his skin a little more. The pain was brilliant...he was giving in. He couldn't...he wouldn't...he would. He did.
He would kill them. They would kill Padme, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka...anger thrust into his throat, his eyes narrowed. "They won't stop me, Snips." And he screamed, the Force flying out of his voice. The walls buckled and and shook, and with horror, Anakin stared. Rocks shifted, and Dooku looked on with widened eyes. Anakin's lightsaber deactivated as Obi-Wan pushed him down and the building collapsed, consuming them.
Anakin felt rocks graze his back, and continuously tossed about dust. But his remained open, because something was beginning to ache. It wasn't external, it was internal. His mind throbbed, pulsed beneath his skin. He had used the dark side and it hadn't felt toxic to his touch. It was easy, an awning of promise, but also an awning away from Obi-Wan, Padme, and Ahsoka. No matter what the Dark side, he couldn't leave them. Obi-Wan's finger touched his shoulder, gently whispering,"Com'on, Anakin. We have to dig our way out." So they began, using the Light to lift rocks and toss them aside. Obi-Wan didn't mention Anakin's display of emotion, but there was worry in his gray eyes. After an hour of digging, no one mentioned Dooku or Ahsoka, but finally Obi-Wan said softly, "Dooku's gone."
Disgusted, Anakin sighed, tossing aside another rock. He could see the hazy sunlight, blocked by circulating dust, "We'll get him next time, Obi-Wan." Anakin closed his eyes, pinpointing Ahsoka. She was alive, but fading fast. Her mind was filled with horrors so deep they were strangling her.
Not even waiting for Obi-Wan, Anakin loped over to Ahsoka's location. She was lucky; she wasn't buried deeply. He tossed aside rubble with ease, with the Light. Never dark, never again, he promised himself.
When Anakin found her, she was on her side, dust marring her orange skin and white markings. Blood trickled off of her blue lips and onto the ground, mingling with the dust. What he did to save her... Anakin knelt beside her, whispering, "Ahsoka, get up. Snips..." Anakin lifted her small, gloved hand and felt for a pulse, a sign of life. A thin trickle, so barely visible. He lifted her, "S'ok, Snips. You did well. Don't listen to whatever it's telling you. It's a not the truth. I wouldn't lie to you, would I? Ahsoka?" The overwhelming sense of despair nearly dawned on him, but then, she squirmed slightly. Making small noises, she opened her blue eyes with nauseated reluctance.
"Not again...not again." She gagged. Anakin placed his hands on her shoulders as she retched, the fear, the horrible beating she was taking pouring out of her small body and into the Force. She cried out again as she sunk to the ground, grasping for a footing. Anakin and Obi-Wan each grabbed her arms to support her drunken stumbling. Anakin paused, though, "Set her down." That got him a pointed look that clearly indicated they should be getting away from here, not staying. Anakin frowned, "She's locked in a vision. We either have to hurry, or I have to break it now." But Obi-Wan's quiet look, desperate, so completely Jedi, told him that they had to go now. Anakin gathered up the small girl's body - she was incredibly lightweight - and ran after Obi-Wan, giving a sigh of relief when he saw their ship was still flyable.
Ahsoka groaned, and Anakin muttered, "I'm taking her to the medbay - you'll be all right?" Obi-Wan nodded. He seemed almost stunned by Anakin's past display of emotion that he now regretted, or perhaps it was the small Togruta's condition that had him worried. Anakin suspected the former.
When Anakin got to the Medbay, he set Ahsoka down on a cot, ignoring the confused droid's look. The droid moved closer to them, but Anakin held him back with the Force, and begin speaking. He broke it last time, he would do it again. He had too, he had too. So long ago he hadn't wanted her, but now, things had changed. "Ahsoka, Ahsoka...you did well today." He spoke the truth - she had done better than her master - "Snips, you did better than me." Anakin hoped that wouldn't go to her ego, though. That was the last thing he needed - her being cocky.
"Ahsoka?" And so it went on, for so long that they were near the battle-soiled Coruscant, and Anakin was still coaxing her to come back to him. Every time he got closer, she sunk away. He could barely grasp her, barely keep her alive. But no more screams and cries - it was like the Sith had a hand around her throat, suffocating her. Which, Anakin realized, that was probably true. Until, suddenly, a victorious noise escaped her mouth, the sound of the hunter catching the prey.
Ahsoka. Ahsoka struggled to wake up, but she couldn't. She could hardly speak, hardly think. And she didn't suppose that was good. Not good at all. She wondered if her lekku were intact, but they didn't particularly hurt. What hurt was her head; it was pounding, screaming against her temples, but she couldn't find the source. Well. She forgot. Ahsoka thought she had destroyed the source a moment ago, but it left pain. Or perhaps the man talking to her destroyed it. Who was he?
She opened her eyes and gazed up at him. Blue eyes, worried and pensive, with locks of brown hair in his eyes. Worried? About her? She could only imagine why. And then a spark of memory tugged at her brain. Anakin Skywalker, the Chosen One, Hero with No Fear, Skyguy.
"Master?" And then, as though everything could be made all right by her voice, she sat up, dazed. "What in the Force - when...?" Anakin's frown was grim, and his Force presence seemed almost deadly. If hardly thinking wasn't good, this was monstrous.
"You wandered away, Snips, and it happened in the battle." Anakin's voice was soft, but he sounded irritated, like he'd lash out at her any moment, even though Ahsoka suspected he'd destroy the Voice years before he'd destroy her. Ahsoka couldn't help flinching or shrinking back though, widening her blue eyes. Before he could speak again, going on about her dangerous stunt, Obi-Wan came in.
His smile was wary, but at least he smiled at her, "Welcome back, Ahsoka." She rolled her eyes, not that he seemed to notice much. He looked preoccupied, and he said, more to Anakin, "We're here." Ahsoka got up, refraining from asking where 'here' was, though by the heavily clouded Force, she suspected it was Coruscant. When she tried to stand up, Anakin grabbed her arm. She shot him a dirty look and trotted off. Something was off - some senators, none of which was Senator Amidala - milled around, lost in worried conversation.
"Glad you're here, I am, young Skywalker." Yoda! Ahsoka turned to him, questions swelling within her, but Yoda answered them before she could speak, "Back into battle, you must go. Chancellor Palpatine..." There was a short pause before Yoda continued, "kidnapped, he has been." Ahsoka could see her master's shock, see and feel his anger.
"By who?" He demanded, his voice taking on an uneven edge that Ahsoka recognized, but he answered his own question, "Oh, never mind. I know who...come on, Ahsoka. You're going to the Temple." Ahsoka balked, making a face.
"No. I can't. I need to help you." Anakin gave her look that she assumed to mean, You're not helping yourself. Well, so what if she wasn't? She didn't want to remain locked in the Temple's grasp; she had been in the war way too long to sit still. Nonetheless, with a clipped, overly loud sigh, she trailed after him. Once they were in their shared quarters, Ahsoka pounced "Why?"
"I can't. Having a Padawan is hard when I have to watch he or she. Being a Master is harder than I suppose you think. Don't think you're grown up, Snips." Anakin crossed his arms and stared down at her, but Ahsoka, being Ahsoka, stared right back, her lips curled up in a sneer. She balled up her fists and planted them on her hips.
"Me as a Padawan, and you being my Master?" Ahsoka shot back, the fury in her voice more than it actually was. Her silka beads swung on her lekku proudly as she glared at him.
Anakin looked at her with disgust, "No, the Master needs to make sure the Padawan is safe." That drew a taunting smile onto Ahsoka lips, "Oh, I see. It's in general now, not just the Master who has too many attachments. "
Anakin looked at her with stunned, hurt eyes, but gathered up the Force to shout, "Well, reckless Padawans who don't even care if they die or live need to have somebody watch out for them!" The reckless part wasn't to be taken offensively, and Ahsoka didn't let it get to her. Her master had set himself up nicely.
"What about their reckless masters?" She said it innocently enough, and that caught her master off guard. She lifted a small red-gloved hand to hide her snicker, or pretend to hide her snicker, but she accidently-on-purpose did a horrible jog of it.
"Well, those visions...if you die...by the way, I'm gonna have somebody watching out for you, so don't think you can go try and sneak off with us. It won't work." Anakin snarled back. His snarl wasn't horrible, it was just a way of trying to get Ahsoka to listen to him, and Ahsoka knew it. So she ignored him.
"Jedi shouldn't feel fear."
"I don't! When did I even suggest that?"
"Since when does bickering solve anything?" A new voice wedged it's way into their pointless, tense battle. It sounded wary and disproving, and a touch annoyed. As though he was wondering why the two couldn't just work things out like normal, civilized beings. But he didn't continue, because all of them knew it was the heavy atmosphere - the stress impacted on both Anakin and Ahsoka.
"Since today." Ahsoka replied, flushing, she added, "Sorry, Master Kenobi." With a short glance at Anakin, she quipped, "You, too, Skyguy." She didn't mean it, though, and Anakin knew it. He chose not to say anything, just glare at her as he walked out of the door, following Master to Kenobi for their mission, "Stay here!"
Ahsoka leaned partway out of the door and shouted, "And behave, right?" There wasn't an answer. Disappointing.