Previously on Star Wars: Exile's Journey
After leaving the Jedi Order, ex Jedi Ahsoka Tano joined the crew of a freighter, the Red Drexl. After a year of working as a mechanic and copilot, suddenly the Republic fell and the Empire rose in its place, and she found herself fighting and defeating a bounty hunter named Koros L'Larr and taking his ship for her own. Now Ahsoka has taken on the persona of Riella Masso, bounty hunter, as a way of keeping tabs on the current hunt for Jedi on the run
So far on her journey, she has joined up with not only Jyssa Motla, captain of the Red Drexl, an injured clone trooper who now goes by the name Bryn Arc, but also three other Jedi on the run, two droids, and a Verpine mechanic.
Ahsoka and Jedi Master Ylenic It'kla tracked a rogue Jedi to a planet named Wayland, where they discovered a secret cloning facility. The rogue Jedi was a clone of Master Sifo-Dyas, the Jedi who secretly commissioned the Republic's clone army ten years before the Clone Wars broke out. He had been brainwashed and sent to free the facility from the grip of a defective clone of Mace Windu who had gone mad and killed everyone in the facility. The three Jedi defeated the insane clone, at some cost.
Chapter 57
Guardian
Ahsoka fell to one knee in exhaustion, and her smaller off-hand lightsaber fell out of her hand, clattering to the ground. The blows she had blocked from the Windu clone were so powerful that her hands felt numb from the repeated impacts.
Then she heard the wrenching sound of metal tearing away from metal. "Master It'kla!" she yelled over towards the open center of the huge multi-tiered chamber. "Ylenic, are you okay?"
She heard only a grunt, then the sound of more metal tearing. Staggering to her feet, she charged towards the edge of the platform, and slid to the edge, looking down. The clone's powerful blast of Force energy had thrown the Caamasi Jedi off the edge of the highest platform in the room, a fall that would have certainly killed most people. But with the honed reflexes of a Jedi Master, Ylenic had managed to grab onto a sturdy tube that led into one of the spaarti cloning tanks. It had torn free from the tank, and was only attached at one end.
"I've got you!" Ahsoka yelled, reaching out with the Force, trying to lift Ylenic. She was drained by her battle with the Windu clone, but she still managed to lift him up slowly. Another Force grip joined hers, and Ylenic was lifted easily up onto the balcony.
Ahsoka rolled over and sat up. "Thank you," she said to Sifu-Dyas. "I wasn't sure I had him."
The clone reached out through the Force, and Ahsoka's discarded lightsaber floated over to her, followed a moment later by Master It'kla's, which had been sent flying so fast that it had struck one of the spaarti tanks and left a network of spider-web shaped cracks across the front of the transparisteel tube.
Master It'kla was uncharacteristically quiet, but Ahsoka could hear the faint wheeze of his breathing. He must have gotten the wind knocked out of him with that powerful blow. There were several singed marks on his fur and tunic as well, since the clone had lashed out with what looked to be both telekinesis and lightning.
Sifu-Dyas kneeled down next to the body of the insane clone. "He looks... so like Master Windu. Just as I look so much like Sifo-Dyas. But we were not those people. We were... I am... a copy. No more."
"You're a Jedi," Ahsoka said, "You only killed him because he was too powerful to be stopped any other way. He would have killed us if he had the chance."
The clone shook his head. "No. I killed him because I was altered. Given new thought patterns, new memories. I feel an urge only to patrol these halls and protect this place for a master that I did not choose to serve."
He reached out with the Force and pulled Windu's lightsaber into his hand. "This... this whole complex. Me, Windu, all of this... we were merely trophies to be won, and pawns to be toyed with. I see it now. The future is all too clear. I cannot leave this place. And when the Emperor comes, he will but speak a word, and my programming will take over. I will serve him."
"Then break free of your programming!" Ahsoka urged him. "You have the memories of a great Jedi!"
"I cannot," he said, closing his eyes. "I see more in the future. I must stay here. I must act as a guardian for this place. And I must prepare. One day there will be another battle here, and I will do what I can to prepare this place for it. The Sky Walker will save the galaxy from darkness."
"Wait... Skywalker?" Ahsoka forced herself to stand up, "You mean Anakin? Is Anakin still alive? I couldn't feel his death when..."
The clone covered his closed eyes with one hand, and Ahsoka could feel him opening up to the Force. For a moment, it seemed as if the threads of life woven by the Force from all over the galaxy were running through the clone, and she knew that he could read their patterns far better than she could.
"No," he said finally, "There is another Skywalker."
Ylenic leaned heavily on his makeshift walking stick as they headed back towards the Whipclaw. Ahsoka held out a hand to help the injured Jedi over a small stream and said, "Maybe I should have Xho install slave circuits on the Whipclaw, so next time something like this happens I can call the ship to come pick us up."
"Or perhaps," Ylenic replied, taking a shallow breath to avoid further injuring his ribs, "we should have taken young Nat with us. He could have flown the ship easily."
"I know I have bacta patches on the Whipclaw. You should be fine by the time we get back to Susevfi."
Ahsoka stopped for a moment, her sensitive montrals picking up a faint vibration nearby. "Hang on a minute..."
The sound rose to audible levels and she recognized it. It was the sound of a ship's repulsorlifts warming up. A ship was taking off.
And, as far as Ahsoka knew, there were only two ships on the entire planet. Her Whipclaw, and the stolen Imperial shuttle that Sifu-Dyas had used to get to Wayland.
"Go," wheezed Ylenic, leaning on the ancient echani vibrosword that, while sheathed, made for a functional cane. Before they left the mountain base, Sifu-Dyas had given them Windu's violet lightsaber, his own newly constructed dark saber, and the ancient echani blade. He could not deny every prize to the Emperor who had created and brainwashed him, but he wanted to at least deny him those small things.
Ahsoka nodded, then darted forward through the thick jungle brush. Using Force enhanced speed, she dodged from clearing to clearing. Using her momentum, she jumped onto a fat branch and ran along it, leaping off of it onto another further along.
She finally came to the clearing where the two ships had landed, just in time to see the Imperial shuttle lifting off. It was too far away from her perch to get to in one bound, even with her most prodigious Force-enhanced leap.
Fumbling with the wrist controls for her visor, she magnified the view and zoomed in on the shuttle cockpit as it lifted off.
Glaring at her from the cockpit was Master Windu's face. There were two other figures in the cockpit, but she would have to figure out who they were later. Thankfully the recording function on her visor was working again.
The shuttle lifted off, and once it was clear of the trees, rocketed forward.
Ahsoka dropped down from the tree and ran to the Whipclaw. It looked like the clone, or maybe clones, hadn't tried to break into the ship. By the time she had the Whipclaw powered up and the sensors on full, the other ship was barely a blip at the edge of scanning range.
By the time the engines were warmed up, the shuttle had long since disappeared off of scanners. Ahsoka felt the presence of Master It'kla, and she left the cockpit to help him up the ramp.
She helped him into the navigator's seat, and managed to finish gathering all of the useful medical equipment just as the engines finished powering up.
Sifu-Dyas rode the turbolift up to the highest point in the mountain base. The turbolift opened up to a throne room. This was the room he had seen in his vision. This is where the final battle would be fought.
He paused for a moment. In his vision, the one he called Sky Walker had been up on the catwalks, fighting for his life. But there was a faint echo of another, by the turbolift.
"Two Skywalkers?" he mused to himself, "Interesting."
The automated cleaning droid rolled into the cloning chamber. It was short, easily able to slip into small holes in the walls, and it ran on a set of treads so that it would be able to traverse obstacles better than a wheeled droid.
It found a puddle of nutrient fluid and a broken spaarti cylinder. Various devices went to work, using suction and sweeping motions to clear off the smaller bits of debris. Liquid and broken glass disappeared into it.
It ran its sensors over the floor, and discovered an oblong spot of fluid a little further away. In moments, the fluid was cleaned up. Then another, an equal distance. And another.
The small oblong puddles made a steady trail across the platform, until they faded away. The droid reached the end of the puddles and scanned again, this time for life forms. If those footprints had been left by an employee of the facility, the droid would log the mess in the employee's records.
No nearby life signs were found. Whatever, or whoever had left the tracks was gone.