Chapter 40

Sacrifice

Ylenic stepped back away from the Whipclaw and his lightsaber appeared in his hand. "Something is wrong."

Nat turned off the welding arc. "On this planet, how can you tell? Everything feels so... ick."

The older man closed his golden eyes. "It's Ahsoka. Something has happened."

He started to stride towards the Whipclaw's ramp, when Ahsoka darted down it, her speed clearly enhanced by the Force, and skidded to a stop. Dust flew up in the air behind her, and she spun around.

Even from the nose of the ship, Nat could see that there was something wrong with her face. Dark veins could be seen under her orange skin, and her face was stuck in a snarl that he'd never seen in her before.

And both of her lightsaber blades were lit.

She waved a hand, and before he could react, Nat could see sky in front of him. He was on his back, a good four meters past the nose of the ship where he'd been working. All he could hear was the hum of a lightsaber blade, and the whirring of Bollux's servos on the ground nearby. He sat up to see that Ylenic had withstood the Force assault, and he between Ahsoka and Nat.

"Whatever has happened to you," he said, "you are not yourself, Ahsoka."

She held out her double sided saber in front of her with one hand. "Don't call me that... don't call me anything! You don't know me! You don't know who I am! I'm stronger than you, stronger than Nadir, stronger than anybody!"

Nat saw her free arm swing forward as if she was throwing something at Ylenic, and a moment later a blast of sand flew from the ground. Ylenic had his arm in line with his eyes, and his green saber blade snapped into existence in time to divide the flow of sand. The individual grains sizzled in rapid succession as they struck the blade, making a hissing static sound.

And immediately behind the powerful wave of stinging sand was Ahsoka, charging. She struck fast and hard, forcing the older Jedi to stagger back as he blocked every incoming blow.

Nat had never seen anyone attack with such fury and power before. Ahsoka moved like some kind of orange demon, and even with his years of experience, Master It'kla was having trouble keeping up. His single blade managed to block or sweep aside every blow, but barely. Nat pulled himself up to his feet, wincing as something in his back felt like it was bruised from the impact.

He heard a crackle, and saw that Ahsoka's secondary blade, the one with the bondar crystal that gave it an electrical aura, had passed close enough to singe Ylenic's robe above the knee, and his leg twitched, almost giving out under his weight.

But the older Jedi expertly shifted his weight to his other leg and continued fighting. Or rather, continued defending, since he didn't seem to be able to find an opening to strike back.

From the direction of the other ship, Nat heard a shout that sounded like Jyssa, but he was too busy watching Ahsoka and Ylenic to turn his head and see what was happening there.

Nat couldn't do much more than watch in awe as Ahsoka proved that she was far more agile than Ylenic, and with the wide grip on her double sided lightsaber, at least his equal in strength. And whatever madness was driving her, it seemed to give her even more strength. The two clashed blades, and Ahsoka began to lever hers closer to Ylenic's face and shoulder.

Then Ahsoka released the catch in the middle of her double sided saber, and suddenly she had two blades, one of them was free to strike at Ylenic's ribs or legs. Before she could strike, Nat reached out with the Force and pulled at Ylenic's cloak with all of his strength.

A trail of electricity filled an arc that would have ended in the Caamasi Jedi's solar plexus, and Ahsoka snarled at him angrily.

Ylenic stumbled, his focus had been on Ahsoka so strongly that he hadn't anticipated the pull from Nat. But, with the calm and reflexes of a Jedi Master, he recovered before Ahsoka could strike again, and for the first time in the fight, he stepped forward and attacked.

Ahsoka simply twirled around, diverting his blade with both of hers, then as she spun around she smashed the hilt of her blue saber into his temple.

He crumpled to the ground, limp.

Nat screamed, "Ahsoka, no!" as she raised her other blade high for a final strike.

From behind Nat, he heard the click of a trigger, and the pulse of a weapon.

A blue ring of ionic discharge flew past him, and Ahsoka effortlessly flipped over it.

Arc was standing behind Nat with a blaster carbine. He fired twice more, and each time Ahsoka dodged it.

"Don't make me do this!" he yelled to her as he fired again.

Then Nat felt the ripple of his danger sense, and once again he reached out with the Force and yanked, this time at Arc. The solid stone itself split under the sheer power of Ahsoka's Force strike, and Nat saw Arc's rifle go flying, broken in two.

Luckily he had reacted in time to keep Arc from breaking in the same way.

"This isn't the first time I've had a clone try to stun me!" Ahsoka bellowed. "You can't stop me!"

Looking around frantically, Nat didn't see Mirian anywhere. He was the only person on the plateau who had access to the Force, and had any way of defending people from Ahsoka's madness.

As she stalked towards Nat and Arc, Nat reached for his lightsaber.

And he realized that his lightsaber was still locked inside the chestplate of the droid that was lying on the ground a few meters away from him, where they'd hidden it from the pirates.

"Oh boy... we just aren't getting any breaks," he said to himself. Nat reached out with the Force, and pulled Ylenic's lightsaber towards him, and he felt it slap into his palm just as Ahsoka reached Arc.

He activated the green blade, and Ahsoka whirled around to face him.

"I won't let you hurt anyone else. I don't know what happened to you, but it doesn't matter. It ends now." With the Force, he pulled his lekku back behind him. He didn't want them to get in the path of an oncoming lightsaber blade.

"Oh, does the little Padawan think he can stand up against me?" Her snarl had disappeared, only to be replaced by a mocking grin. This wasn't any Ahsoka that Nat had ever seen before.

She darted towards him, and he used the Force to leap high in the air, landing behind Ahsoka so that he stood between Arc and Ylenic, much like Ylenic had done at the beginning of the fight.

Ahsoka stalked closer to him, her blades glowing brightly against the Korriban sky. Her snarl slowly returned, and Nat could swear that she was looking at him the way he would have looked at a multi-legged bug that he found in his bunk.

But it was still Ahsoka. Ylenic had trusted that she could fight off the dark side.

And so did Nat.

He lowered the lightsaber and turned it off. "I know you're still in there, Ahsoka."

She continued to stalk closer. Her blades were facing back over her shoulders, ready to strike at him.

He tossed Ylenic's lightsaber aside, letting it roll across the flat rocky ground. It ran into the crack that Ahsoka's telekinetic blast had made and stopped.

And she stepped within striking range. Nat looked her in the eyes. "You need to fight this, Ahsoka. You can fight this. I believe in you."

The crackling blue blade swung at Nat's neck. He felt the tingle of the electrical field against his right lekku.

And he didn't close his eyes. He stared at Ahsoka, at her bloodshot eyes.

The blade crackled loudly as the it hissed down into the hilt. Ahsoka collapsed to her knees, and Nat felt a powerful surge of Force energy pass through her. He could swear that he heard a faint scream of pain, a scream that didn't sound at all like Ahsoka Tano.

Ahsoka looked like she had gone limp, as if she were a puppet with its strings broken. He put a hand on Ahsoka's shoulder, and felt it shaking. Unsteadily, her hand rose up and wrapped around Nat's forearm.

"Thank you," she said quietly. "Thank you."

"You may find," came Ylenic's voice from near the Whipclaw, albeit far shakier than usual, "that the teacher often learns more from the student than vice versa."

"I've got a shield that can keep him out now," Ahsoka said quietly, "as long as Nat stays with me. You've only been my Padawan for a little while now, but there's no way I could ever betray that. Ever."

Arc kneeled down on the ground next to her, bruised but relatively unharmed. "We're all here for you. Just like always."

Jyssa put her hand on Ahsoka's shoulder. "I was going to make some smart comment about you just being my mechanic, but somehow I don't think this is the time. Grife, kid, you had me worried."

Even with her head down, Nat could see the dark veins fading away. Whatever dark forces had been churning inside of her were gone, and Ahsoka was back.