Hello, darlings! I know, it has been forever since I posted but exams are over now. Now, sorry to be a party spoiler if any of you are dancing right now in glee, but this is just to let you all know that my writing days are indeed not dead yet. This month is still busy for me as I have two university trips, one on Wednesday and another one from the 27th until the 28th. Straight after that on the 29th I have a camping expedition that lasts until the 30th. Two days and one night of hiking and living outside of civilisation will leave me shattered for a day or two afterwards, I've done this before, so my next update for any fic will be in July at the latest. Sorry for the long A/N but just felt compelled to spill the beans for you all.

The curtains are now drawn back! Enjoy! :D

33. Discussions of a Master and Padawan.

Ahsoka trailed sluggishly behind her Master, cerulean eyes warily verifying his broad back and his powerful legs pushing him into a brisk walk that was the equivalent to a jog. Her anxiety was pulsating all around her. She could feel it rushing through her veins, and her self-perseverance warned her to be on her guard.

Rationally, she would tell herself to snap out of whatever delusion she was in. It was madness what she was currently thinking of her Master. Monstrous would be a close cut to what she heard of his actions in the tent. Hearing could be worse than seeing; although blind, your mind wandered and sketched an image of what your hearing could pick up.

The image was…. Unpleasant.

She had heard Vizsla whimpering like an injured dog in the tent and a dead weight of dread dropping into the pit of her stomach as she imagined whatever had transpired in there.

The chilling thought was however what she had heard Anakin breathe on the other side of those flaps.

He had indeed spoke of a dark threat to Vizsla, and by his further whimpering the message Anakin had sent him had sunk in deep.

He, on pain of death, had threatened Vizsla with his own demise by his hand. Her Master was power. The Chosen One of their religion. His power was unrivalled and it scared her to know that. His raw power and reign on the Force could cause devastating damage. Cataclysmic even. He was one of the few Jedi to be able to inflict a technique known as Shatterpoint onto his enemies, applying pressure with the Force to their weaknesses and bring them to their knees.

She shook her head. Anakin was a passionate man. Passionate but indeed a Jedi. He wouldn't actually murder Vizsla!

Would he?

'Snap out of it, Soka! You're not thinking straight!'

But she had to know.

"Master?" she called out to him. He suddenly stopped in his tracks without stumbling in the slightest, as if he had surprisingly been caught in between the two walls, one in front and the other behind him, before answering her call with a curt "Yes?"

The young Togruta moistened her suddenly dry lips and parched throat. She had no idea how Anakin would respond to her enquiry.

"I was just... Well, it's really none of my business, but… you won't actually kill Vizsla if he tries to attack Master Kenobi again will you?"

He slowly looked over his shoulder at her and she stared worriedly at him as his sapphire orbs darkened slightly in askance of her question. He then proceeded to full face her, folding his arms over his chest and drumming the fingers of his left hand against the black leather glove that coated his mechanical counterpart.

He sighed as he thought of how to approach her with this subject. He was not the type of the Jedi that she or the others were; raised outside of the Temple's sacred halls for nearly a full decade of his life and therefore being a much more emotionally attached Jedi than any other, further gauging his connection to the Force with more phenomenal power.

"Ahsoka," he began wearily, blowing out a long breath through his parted lips and blinking slowly. "You must understand that a Jedi must, every now and then, destroy their enemies, if there is no other alternative."

"But you had the alternative back there," Ashoka argued, pointing back towards the dying camp further back towards the mountains. "Why didn't you take it then if he is posing such a threat?"

"I gave him a chance to live by telling him what I did."

'Threatening is closer, Master.'

Ahsoka raised her white brows in surprise. "So you scaring him off with the threat of death was good?"

Anakin's eyes narrowed minutely.

"With the highest respect, Master and please forgive me, but I thought Jedi weren't supposed to intimidate their enemies."

His hand reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose tightly. His shoulders tensed even more. "Ahsoka, please understand. By doing so he won't come back! I won't have to kill him!" He swiftly approached her and laid a soft hand on her shoulder, smiling warmly at her, hoping to convince her to see his side of the situation. "Sometimes we have to do things that we don't like for the benefit of others."

Ahsoka stared wide-eyed at his earnest own. Her Master's logic was rational and she trusted him, aspired to follow his footsteps and become as great a Jedi as he. Nodding, she cast her eyes down for a split second before flickering back up to meet his gaze once more and offer him a solemn smile.

His eyes sparkled as the corners of his own lips curled into an understanding smile. It had been the same for him when he had first intimidated an enemy into never committing the same act again. Palpatine had told him that sometimes intimidation was necessary in order to seize the carnivorous acts that swept across the galaxy, and that he was surely not the first of the Jedi to use such a technique as an alternative to killing. He was different than the other Jedi.

"My boy, the Jedi council need to realise that you are much different than them. You are open to emotion. And emotion is a part of what makes us human."

Those words of guidance from the Chancellor's counselling had clung to Anakin years after they had first discussed how wrong he felt after his first act of intimidation as a Jedi.

It was dark, but not as dark as he knew murder would be. Murder was the way of the Dark Side.

And he swore that he would never fall into its clutches.

So there we have it! I also have some more news for you: This story is coming to an end. I don't have many places to go on this and with life and after two years of writing this I want to finish it, preferably before I hit the three year mark. I have an ending mapped out, its just remembering it through all of my 6th form life until this story is completed.

Anyway, guys and gals, please let me know what you think. Feedback is always appreciated. :D