Chapter XXXV

The Seventh Sister throws her lightsaber at Ahsoka as she backs away, closer to the cliff. Ahsoka jumps, dodging the hurtling blades. The Inquisitor uses to Force to retrieve her lightsaber while the Grand Inquisitor bounds ahead of her to attack Tano. Ahsoka nocks one of the Inquisitors blades away before spinning around to open her second lightsaber down parallel to her back as she counters the Inquisitors opposite blade.

Ahsoka thrusts her free blade at the Inquisitor, forcing him to pull back.

Seventh Sister charges Ahsoka with the intention of a kill blow to the head. Only one of her blades is open.

Ahsoka crosses her blades with the Seventh Sister.

The Inquisitor opens her mask, revealing her sinister smile and demented eyes.

"You're not that bad." She says sarcastically, "You may make a fine Inquisitor."

Ahsoka comes back, "What is it with everyone trying to recruit me today?"

Ahsoka leans into the Inquisitor and smiles, "For your sake, I don't think you'd want me in your ranks. I'm a bit more than you can handle!"

The Seventh Sister laughs, "Actually, I wouldn't be so sure."

The Inquisitor releases her lightsaber's second blade, and with the flip of a switch, they start spinning rapidly. Ahsoka's blades become violently out of her control as they counter the spinning blades. With little other choice, Ahsoka moves back.

She looks to her left to see the Grand Inquisitor approaching her, his blades spinning as well.

Ahsoka is cornered, with the two Inquisitors blocking her way of escape and the cliff edge just two steps behind her. She dares to glance back at the drop to see a waterfall gushing from out the side of the mountain to plummet a thousand feet below. Ahsoka can only assume it's a thousand, she cannot get a clear picture of the ground as its shrouded by a thick mist coming off the waterfall.

"Escape is pointless." the Grand Inquisitor smiles, "Surrender or die, your choice."

Ahsoka retracts her lightsabers and hooks them to her side. She takes a deep breath and closes her eyes as she feels Panatha's deep connection to the Force surround her. With one strong push from the cliff ledge, Ahsoka repels herself off the mountain and free falls into the waft of cold moist air.

The Inquisitors watch their prey disappear bellow.

"Unexpected." the Grand Inquisitor says, "However, the Jedi was going to die one way or another, whether that would be by our hands or in this case - another."

The comlink on their wrists suddenly flashes, it's Lord Vader's signal for them to return to their ships. Their mission on Panatha is over.

"I have my doubts she is finished with." Seventh Sister says, "She could have very well survived the fall."

"For now, in the eyes of the Emperor and Lord Vader, Ahsoka Tano is dead. If she miraculously resurfaces, we will terminate her then."

The entrance to the mountain hangar is just overhead. The Rebels have worked their way up the steep mountain to the hangar. However, Imperial forces bellow make it difficult to move. All the Rebels can do is move boulder to boulder for cover.

At the mountains base, Stormtroopers and Death Troopers fire up at the Rebels. They too move to whatever cover they can find as they avoid being cut down by Cassian who acts as a sharpshooter higher up the mountain.

Shila activates the boosters built into her boots to propel herself over her cover and towards Cassian. She pulls out a grenade and throws it at the troopers before landing beside Cassian.

The grenade goes off bellow as she hunkers down beside Cassian.

She pulls out her blasters and looks at Cassian, "Get moving up the mountain. I'll cover you."

"Got it."

Shila jumps on top of the rocks Cassian used for cover and aims her blasters downrange. She opens up a hail of blasterfire onto the troopers bellow, signalling Cassian to get moving. A Stormtrooper flips backwards with a hard hit to the head from Shila.

Suddenly a Death Trooper rises up from behind the boulder the Stormtrooper fell beside, and opens fire at Shila. Shila lunges off her highground and towards the trooper, her bold action has caught the trooper by surprise. She uses it to her advantage as she kicks the trooper in his heavily armored chest.

Shila pushes herself off the Death Trooper as the force nocks him back. The trooper, with his blaster now out of hand from the fall, charges Shila with the intention to kill her without the aid of a weapon.

With a little push off the ground, Shila barrel rolls under the troopers right arm and past his right leg. Once behind her attacker, she gets back on her feet without any difficulty, before swinging her arm around to whip the hilt of her blaster into the troopers helmet. With her opposite blaster, she shoots a Stormtrooper poised to cut her down just ten yards away.

The Death Trooper steps back and hooks his foot around Shila's ankle, and with sharp jab into her back with his elbow, causing Shila to fall forward. Shila flips onto her back the moment she hits the ground to look up at the trooper. The trooper lunges at Shila, but she is quick to push him back with a swift kick into his sternum. However, it is only a matter of seconds before the trooper recovers and pulls out the SE-14r light repeating blaster from his hip, and aims directly at Shila's head.

Shila closes her eyes, waiting for the Death Trooper to take the killing shot. When suddenly, she hears the sound of a blaster bolt pierce the Death Trooper's armor. She opens her eyes to see smoke rising over the troopers shoulders from the scorched kill shot between his shoulder blades. The trooper goes weak at the knees before falling forward and onto Shila.

Shila groans as she shoves the lifeless body off her. When she looks up to see past where the trooper stood, she sees Callan with his smoking blaster in hand.

"No one, harms my girl." he says with gusto.

Shila smiles, "Thank you, dear." She gets back on her feet. "But I had it all handled."

"Did you now?"

Callan holds his blaster up, aimed at Shila's head. Shila's eyes go wide before Callan squeezes the trigger. The shot flies beside Shila's head and hit's a Stormtrooper behind her as he raised his blaster to execute her.

Shila looks behind her at the trooper Callan shot.

"You're right, you had it all handled." Callan says sarcastically.

A blaster bolt suddenly flies past Callan, when he turns to face where the shot came from, he sees four Stormtroopers who have turned their fire from Ondar and Zallar to him and Shila.

Callan and Shila take cover before returning fire at the troopers.

Callan shouts over the boulder beside the killed Death Trooper, "Ondar, Zallar, get to the hangar! We'll cover you!"

Callan jumps out from behind his cover to take out two of the troopers. He aims to take out a third, when suddenly another trooper gets up and fires twice at Callan. The second shot hitting Callan's side.

Callan falls to one knee feeling the sharp sting of the shot in his side. He rapidly fires three shots at the troopers, killing the one who shot him.

The last Stormtrooper gets up from behind cover and returns fire. Callan takes another hit, this time to the right shoulder.

He crumples to the ground, breathing slowly and heavily.

"Callan!" Shila shouts in fear.

She gets up from her meager cover to run to Callan's aid, she shoots the Stormtrooper mid run. Once she is behind the blaster scored boulder, she grabs Callan and pulls him behind cover, his life quickly fading away.

However as she begins to resuscitate him, she sees another squad of Stormtroopers moving towards them.