Ahsoka's Origins
Chapter 4
On The Move
It's been about 5 standard weeks since Mako'ta was born to the Tanos. Ahsoka loved her baby brother. She was often caught using the force to make him float in the air although this really worried Ta'zeek since Ahsoka was so unskilled with her abilities to use the force. They really seemed to be a happy family.
Malachor, 33 BBY:
"Darth Sidious, it will soon be time for the Jedi order to proceed in claiming the young Togrutan girl. You must now act on retrieving her."
Darth Sidious bowed to his master. "Yes my lord. It shall be taken care of."
Sidious walked down a long hallway to the communication room of the castle to contact his bounty hunter for this job.
"Darth Sidious." Came a female voice under a hood and dark robe, almost as if she were disguised as a Jedi.
"It is time Manda. The girl must be brought here to Malachor. I'm placing you in charge of this expedition Manda. You know the world of Shili better than I or my master."
Manda bowed to Sidious and responded. "It will be done my lord." And Manda signed off.
Manda prepared her artifacts that were designed to fool the Tanos into thinking she was a Jedi. An old lightsaber hilt from a Jedi she had killed in battle years ago, a Jedi robe and hood and of course a belt to hook the hilt on. She gathered up her blaster incase the little Tano didn't come quietly or unless the parents didn't give her up. She left her living quarters and headed to the hanger area and hopped onto her ship.
"R1, take us to Shili and land in a desolate region close enough to these coordinates."
In a few standard hours, Manda landed her ship on Shili just outside of the town where the Tanos lived. It was morning and Manda knew that things would likely be easier if the husband of the house was gone at work before she attempted the kidnapping. She had come in contact with a male Togruta in the past and he nearly broke her back during a fight for his survival.
She got off of her ship to sneak around the area and placed monitors around in order to watch the Tano house to see when Maak would leave for work. Then she headed back to her ship and sat in the pilot's seat watching her monitor screen.
It wasn't long and Maak was heading out the door for work.
"Have a great day my love." Ta'zeek requested kissing her husband as he walked out the door.
"You too my lady." He responded with a huge smile on his face just like he did every single day. He knelt down and lifted his little daughter into his arms and kissed her face almost 12 times. "You have a good day too and take care of your mom and brother."
Ahsoka squealed and laughed just before Maak put her down. And with that, Maak headed out the door.
Ta'zeek and Ahsoka headed back into the kitchen to start their day. Ta'zeek noticed that Maak had forgotten his lunch that she'd made for him the night before. "Oh, no! Your daddy forgot his lunch again." Ta'zeek said looking at Ahsoka who was holding a spoon in her hand waiting for her breakfast. Ta'zeek used her communicator to contact Maak to inform him that he forgot his lunch and for him to come back and get it.
Manda was now in root on a speeder bike that was attached underneath her ship.
She finally arrived at the Tano household and there in the front yard was Ahsoka, playing in a patch of tall grass. Manda walked up to the front door of the house and knocked.
Ta'zeek answered the door. "Hello, can I help you?"
"Ah, yes, you must be Mrs. Tano. I am here to take Ahsoka off to the academy. She will be inducted in this week and start her pre-schooling next week." Manda said following Sidious's role playing.
Ta'zeek invited Manda into the house for some tea. "Umm, I don't think she is ready for schooling yet. She barely talks."
"We will teach her everything she needs to know." Manda replied.
"Yeah but I was hoping we'd get to teach her how to speak."
"It's not like you won't be able to see your daughter ever Mrs. Tano. You can have some influence on her speaking. But you need to trust me, she is not like normal children, and you've seen that."
Ta'zeek hung her head knowing that Manda was right about that. "Well, I suppose she isn't quite normal but I was hoping we'd have more time with her before she was taken to this academy."
"Well, three years is generally the age we like to start. She will learn how to control her abilities and soon enough you'll have her back in order to spend some time with you as she ages to 8 years." Manda said just making up some random age in order to convince Ta'zeek. "Of course there are plenty of breaks during a school year that we will bring her home to be with you guys."
Ta'zeek was so unsure about the whole thing, but it was what her and Maak had discussed before that they would send her to this "academy". "I think I'd like to talk this over more with my husband." Ta'zeek demanded.
"Very well Mrs. Tano." Manda stood up and drew her blaster but didn't fire yet.
Just as this was happening, Ahsoka ran back into the house.
"Ahsoka! Get out of here!" Ta'zeek yelled as she jumped in front of Mako'ta who was sitting in a hover chair.
Just as Ta'zeek jumped in front of Mako'ta, Manda fired the blaster hitting Ta'zeek right in the stomach and she fell to the floor.
Ahsoka ran outside and his in the tall grass. She didn't know what was going on and she was very scared and she started to cry.
Manda was walking around outside the house looking for Ahsoka.
Ahsoka perked up with she heard the familiar sound of her father's speeder flying in. The speeder shut off, and the door opened and Ahsoka peeked out of the grass and burst out in tears and ran to her father.
Maak scooped her up and began to be concerned, it wasn't quite like her to cry like this. Maak knew something was wrong. "Calm down baby, I've got you, I've got you!" He said as he hurried into the house to see Mako'ta still sitting in the hover chair and Ta'zeek laying on the floor. He set Ahsoka on the floor and ran over to his wife.
"Ta!" He yelled as his heart was racing. He placed his hand on her stomach where her wound was.
Her eyes were fading and she was panting. "Get….the….kids…..outta here!" She panted as she breathed her last.
Maak's eyes filled with tears at the thought of everything that was going on. He eventually stood up and grabbed Mako'ta and Ahsoka and headed for his speeder. He was only a few feet from his speeder when a laser shot came towards him. He was able to dodge it.
Manda was coming from around the corner on the far side of the house as she fired that shot. She began walking quickly towards him and the baby Togrutas.
Maak quickly got the kids into the speeder and jetted out of the driveway and headed for the nearest large town. Centaque was several miles away from their home and it would take them some time to get there. Maak always kept a low range blaster in his speeder in case he was ever attacked and he pulled it close to him.
Manda hopped onto her speeder bike and followed them. Fireing shot after shot after shot.
Maak was able to miss most of the shots but a few had hit the rear of his speeder causing them to slow down a little bit.
Meanwhile:
Plo Koon was landing in a nearby village on Shili in order to claim Ahsoka and take her to the Jedi temple. He followed a map that he received from his coordinates and walked to the Tano residence.
When he got there, he noticed the door to the house was flung open, and things looked a bit disorganized. He walked inside and he saw Ta'zeek's body on the floor and was immediately concerned. He went back outside and contacted the council.
"Yes Master Plo Koon." Answered Master Windu.
"Master Windu, there was a disturbance here at the Tano household. There is no one here alive." Plo said.
"Is the girl dead?" Windu asked.
"She does not appear to be here anywhere, perhaps just the mother has passed on."
"Hmm, we received word that someone around there had been impersonating a head master of a Jedi academy that no longer exists, perhaps this was them trying to capture the girl."
"I am not sure where to begin looking for the girl now, is there any intel you can give me as to where she could be?" Plo asked.
Mace rubbed his forehead. "I certainly hope she's not in the wrong hands already."
Oppo Rancisis soon came into view. He had been searching the data bases for nearby cities near the location of the Tano residence. "It has been made clear to me that there are a few large cities near your location Master. The closest one is called Centaque. I think I'd start there." He suggested.
"Very well Master Rancisis." Plo replied.
"Master Plo, be careful and may the force be with you." Mace Windu added.
Plo Koon nodded to the two masters and signed off. "If only I had a speeder." He said to himself. But he made due with his ship. He plugged in the coordinates that he was given by Oppo and headed towards Centaque.
Meanwhile:
Maak and his family was almost to Centaque when Manda hit their speeder with another shot causing the speeder to shut down.
"Oh come on! No!" Maak muttered flipping the switch to try to get the speeder fired up again. He let the speeder drift as far as he could. When it finally came to a complete stop, he grabbed both kids and he placed his blaster in his belt and they took off. They were just a few miles outside of the city where they could possibly escape from this bounty hunter. Maak ran as fast as he could while carrying two children.
Manda set her weapon to stun just in case she hit Ahsoka or even Mako'ta, she had no interest in him but she wouldn't hesitate to kill him if he got in her way. She fired the first shot which missed. The sound of a loud Republican ship flying overhead threw her focus off.
Plo Koon's ship was landing just outside the city.
Manda fired another shot this time, hitting Maak and he fell to the ground and dropped both of the kids.
Mako'ta started crying.
Ahsoka crawled over to her brother and held him closely and was hoping he would stop crying. She could hear Manda's footsteps getting closer.
Despite a fair distance, Plo Koon could sense fear through the force, he knew the girl must be somewhere close by and he would trust the force in order to find her and he started walking out past the city in the direction of the Tanos.
Ahsoka closed her eyes and held her brother so close to her shivering body. The footsteps stopped and Ahsoka looked up and there was Manda's hands reaching down to pick her up. Ahsoka started crying and kicking.
"Settle down you little brat!" Manda yelled. She switched her gun off of stun and shot Maak right in the chest but left little Mako'ta alive. She started back towards her speeder bike with her hand over Ahsoka's mouth in order to smother her crying.
Plo Koon was close enough now to feel exactly what had happened and he leapt into the air and ignited his blue lightsaber. He landed right in front of Manda. "Put the child down bounty hunter!" Plo demanded.
"She is no property of yours Jedi scum." Manda replied.
"She be no property of yours either bounty hunter." Plo Koon used to force to lift Manda up into the air. He disengaged his lightsaber and placed it inside his robe. As Manda was in the air she dropped Ahsoka and Plo used his free hand to use the force to stop her fall. He force pulled Ahsoka close to him and dropped Manda. He then drew his lightsaber again and darted towards her. He held his lightsaber to her throat. "If you're asked to interfere with the Jedi business again, I will see to it that you are killed."
Manda threw her hands up in surrender.
Plo lowered his lightsaber and switched off the blade and then walked over to pick up Mako'ta and together they headed for Centaque.
Plo left the kids with a trusted group of colonists in the city while he contacted the council to inform them of the incident.
"Disturbing this is, that impersonate a Jedi someone would." Yoda stated.
"I agree. Did you get a name of this person Plo?" Mace asked.
"All I know is that she is a female bounty hunter. I have no idea who she was working for." Plo answered.
"It could be that she was working for herself. It seems to be useful for everyone to obtain a force user these days." Oppo included.
"Yes but generally non force users don't have the ability to train force sensitive children. She must have been working for someone with the ability to train a force sensitive child." Windu responded.
"But who? And Why? Puzzling, these questions are." Yoda mentioned.
"There is more to this incident. Both of the little girl's parents were killed. We should consider having them properly buried and having a memorial service for friends and family." Plo added.
"See to it, I will." Yoda added.
"One more thing Masters. There is a little boy who I'd imagine is her brother with me who is still alive. Where shall we send him?" Plo asked.
"Is there any family of his there in Centaque?" Oppo asked.
"There doesn't seem to be, no one that I asked knew of any other Tanos left on Shili."
"That must mean the rest migrated to the world or Kiros." Oppo stated.
"Perhaps we shall send the boy there to reunite with his family. For now, bring the boy here to the temple and I will personally take him to his family on Kiros." Mace Windu stated.
"Very well Masters. I shall return soon." Plo stated as he signed off and headed back into town to collect the two kids. This time Plo didn't wear his hood as not to frighten the girl who he was sure was still scared.