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
Ahsoka and Jedi Master Ylenic It'kla tracked a rogue Jedi to a planet named Wayland, where they discovered a secret cloning facility. At the facility, several clones had been made of Jedi Master Mace Windu. Grown too quickly, they had all gone mad and attacked the innocent world of Bpfassh.
After a prolonged battle, all but one clone was killed. The last clone kidnapped smuggler Jorj Car'das, destroyed his crew, and crashed his ship, the Talus Twin, onto the surface of the swamp planet Dagobah, where the two Jedi were reunited with the exiled Jedi Master Yoda. In their battle, Car'das was injured, and the last Windu clone regained his sanity long enough to take his own life, in order to protect the galaxy from his power...
Chapter 69
Reunion
"I believe I can keep him stabilized," Master It'kla said to Ahsoka. "If you would like to see how Master Yoda is doing..."
"No problem. You've got my com if you need me," she interjected before the older Jedi could finish his sentence, and promptly darted out of the Talus Twin. The muddy ground squished under her boots.
The sounds of battle had stopped. She walked towards the gnarled old tree where she'd seen Yoda disappear, only to see the elderly Jedi Master climb up out of the cave beneath the tree.
"Is he... gone?" she asked, as she handed his small lightsaber back to him.
Yoda nodded, "A sad end to such a short life. Many clones I have seen die in these past years. The first that wore the face and memories of a long time friend, this was."
Ahsoka sighed, "But it had to be done. All of the Jedi clones were at least a little crazy. The only one who was kinda sane was the one who helped us find the cloning facility. You won't believe who it was."
"After all that has happened, believe most anything, I might." The elderly jedi hobbled over to Ahsoka, and she kneeled down to his level. She put her arms around him.
"I'm so glad to see that you're alive, Master Yoda," she said, with tears forming in her eyes. "I felt so many die that day... I didn't know if you were one of them."
"Many friends I have on Kashyyk. Helped me escape the planet they did." He returned the embrace with his much shorter arms. "Warms my heart, it does, to see the two of you alive and well."
"It's more than just us," Ahsoka said. "Padawan Nat Tina and Mirian Varos are safe with some friends of mine. We're keeping an eye out for any more survivors wherever we go."
The two let go of each other, and began to walk back to the freighter.
"Kept a distant eye on you after you left the order, I did," Yoda said as they walked. "Return to your family on Shili, you did not. Instead, try to find your place in this galaxy, you did."
"I guess I could have gone home, but, the only home I ever really knew was Coruscant. So I wanted to find my own way."
"Success you have had?" Yoda asked.
"A little," she replied. "I bummed around on a Corellian freighter for a while. Tried to help where I could. After the Empire... happened, I've been trying to do what I can to keep the Jedi from being completely wiped out. And to help where I could."
"Who the sane clone was, you never did say," Yoda pointed out, pausing at the bottom of the freighter's ramp.
"Oh, right. I got distracted," she said. "It was a clone of Sifo Dyas."
"A terrible joke, perhaps, from the mastermind behind the Sith plot. His ship we found, crashed and deserted for many years. Still no clue we had as to what befell him."
"Well, now we know that somebody kept at least a genetic sample around."
"More you will have to tell me, when time we have," Yoda said as he walked up the ramp to the Talus Twin. "Master It'kla, wonderful to see you it is."
"And you as well, Master Yoda," the Caamasi Jedi replied. "I think I've managed to stabilize this Human's vitals for the now, but he'll need medical care."
"Watch over him, I will. Repair the ships, you two should. Hidden we are from the Force, but with too many Jedi here, remain hidden we may not." The tiny Jedi Master gestured towards the ship's ramp with his walking stick. "Follow me. Small my home will be for you, but welcome to it, you are."
"I believe we can move him carefully. I'd prefer a hover cart, but the Force will certainly suffice," Master It'kla said. He and Ahsoka held out their hands, and together, they levitated the Human into the air, and followed the small green Jedi into the swamp.
The two had to duck to get into the small hut that Yoda led them to. He cleared off a space so that they could set the injured man down gently.
Yoda placed his hand on the man's forehead. "Hmm. A deep trance you have put him in. Heal, eventually, he will. But repaired, his ship must be. Attract attention, a crashed ship does."
"Why are you hiding out in this mudhole, anyway?" Ahsoka asked.
"Mudhole?" Yoda gave Ahsoka a mocking frown and rapped at her knuckles with his gnarled walking stick. "My home this is now!"
"Ow," she said, pulling her hand back. "Seriously, though, how did you even find this place? There's barely any information about it in the navigational data for this sector."
"A site of an old battle, it was. Caused part of the clone's confusion, I suspect. Before even I was born, fell to the dark side a group of Bpfasshi Jedi did. Defeated, the last one was, in that very cave under the tree, by an ancestor of mine. Passed down the story was."
"My vague recollection of the story is what led us here," Master It'kla replied. "We thought that we sensed a faint vergence in the Force around this clone. I believe he was connected to history in some way. Either his actions will greatly affect the future, or perhaps in his mad state, he was reliving the past."
"Hmm," Master Yoda said, pursing his green lips. "Always in motion the future is. What effect the actions of this clone will have in the future are still unseen to me. Trust your senses, I will. A longer time to study him you had."
He looked down at the injured Human. "Brought us together, his actions did. And brought this man here. Know who he is, do you?"
Ahsoka shook her head. "I'm afraid not. Never met him before in my life. I saw the clone dragging someone through the spaceport, it looked like him. But that ship was enhanced way beyond anything that's come out of the CEC's factory line. The Whipclaw could have caught up with any other freighter out there. And then there was the Imperial code."
"I'd nearly forgotten," Ylenic said.
Yoda chuckled, "Learned your freighter pilot's lingo well during your time on the Red Drexl, you have. What company you speak of in acronyms, I know not."
"Sorry, Corellian Engineering Corporation. They make the Barloz-class freighter," she replied. "Hey, how did you know I've been serving on the Drexl?"
"Kept an eye on you from a distance, I have been. Hope that you would return to the order, I did. But more concerned I was with your safety and well being. A noble cause, delivering relief supplies is. But dangerous."
"Captain Motla goes where the money is. But she likes helping people too." Ahsoka continued explaining to Master Yoda, "Anyway, when the freighter left orbit, an Imperial ship showed up to help deal with the attack. But the captain of the ship said that the freighter had a high-level Imperial code embedded in its transponder. Their targeting computers wouldn't label it as an enemy, and they couldn't lock on."
"Interesting, this man is," Yoda said. "Wonder, I do, what will happen if he leaves here with knowledge of our existence."
"Maybe you should come with us," Ahsoka said. "Find a new hiding place. If we let him leave, this one could be compromised. And we can't just keep him prisoner here. Or... worse. I won't stoop to the Empire's level."
Master Yoda closed his eyes. "Difficult to see, the future is. Always in motion. But clear my path is. Stay here, I should. Much to do, I have."
Author's note: Sorry I posted this a little late today. Meant to do it before I left for work this afternoon, but I got caught up in trying to frantically finish the last bit of my NaNoWriMo novel from last year. I kinda needed to write the last two chapters before I started plotting and planning for THIS year. I just got home from work, and I've only got about five or six hundred words left to write... I literally had to stop halfway through the climactic final scene of the book to get to work on time today. :( But I'm brewing some coffee to help me churn through, and maybe if I've got enough of a celebration and caffeine high, I'll keep writing and get next week's chapter of Exile's Journey done tonight too. :) I'll be trying to get caught up throughout the next month because, like last year, I'll be focusing on NaNo during November instead of writing fan fic.