Ahsoka swung her golden blade in a vicious downward arc as the first tentacle came careening in her direction, clearly poised to either wrap around and crush her, or strike and knock her back. Neither option was preferable.
The golden blade passed through the water quickly, illuminating the room around her as it made contact with the tip of the tentacle, burning away at the skin and forcing whatever creature was attacking them to back off. Beside her she witnessed Anakin doing the same, his own blade pivoted in a way that would impale any tentacle that came in for an attack.
The damage caused by her lightsaber did indeed force the creature back, only for it to release an unmistakable roar of rage and pain, before it's tentacles began to flail again.
"What the kriff is this thing?!" Anakin's voice echoed between them, both panic and frustration evident in it.
"Some kind of aquatic creature clearly. A squid maybe?" Ahsoka replied, lunging with her blade again, whilst igniting the one she had taken from the drowned Jedi as well, swiping out towards another approaching tentacle. This time the tentacle appeared to fall back at the swipe of the blade, as if it had learned its lesson the first time.
That still didn't stop it from trying to attack.
"Thanks Captain Obvious! You have any other words of wisdom in this situation!" Anakin's voice hit her montrals again, sounding overly sarcastic as he spoke, not that Ahsoka was surprised. That was just who Anakin Skywalker was, no doubt mainly due to his training under Obi-Wan, who himself had a serious sarcastic streak.
"You should brush your teeth everyday, less they fall out!" Ahsoka couldn't help the quip back, even if it had no bearing on the situation at hand. Again, that was just who they were.
"Very funny Snips!" Anakin replied once again, swinging his saber in a vicious arc at an approaching tentacle, this time proving successful at landing at hit.
The creature roared again in agony as Anakin's saber severed the tentacle, the appendage now floating in the water.
Still, despite the wound, it appeared the creature was not deterred. Even with one tentacle missing the creature kept up it's assault, swinging it's remaining limbs at the duo, attempting to bypass their defences.
Another tentacle again came speeding towards Ahsoka, who in turn brought both her blade and that of the fallen Jedi up to defend herself.
The tentacle failed to stop in time, and was met with a wall of superheated plasma, the scorched end being rendered useless.
It was then that more movement occurred throughout the bridge and the creature fully emerged, it's whole body being exposed for the first time from where it had been concealed in the darkness. It possessed a long spindly frame, one that was covered in what appeared to be warts and other protrusions. Dozens of tentacles were attached to its body, each poised to quite obviously kill anything it viewed as hostile. Ahsoka couldn't say she had ever heard of such a creature before, let alone encountered one!
"OK, definitely a squid of some kind!" Anakin called out again, his blade moving to defend his body from another approaching tentacle.
And then something caught Ahsoka's eye. The body of the squid-like creature seemed to open, a large gaping void full of sharp incisor like objects appearing in the middle of it.
It occurred to Ahsoka seconds later that they were teeth!
"I think it's hungry!" Ahsoka called back, her eyes widening as the creature's mouth snapped closed, before opening again, repeating the motion.
"Well I've got no intention of becoming dinner today!" Anakin replied, pushing backwards through the water in hopes of escaping the reach of the creature. Ahsoka too began to fall back, swinging her own blade at an approaching tentacle in the process, severing it from the rest of the body.
This time, when the creature reacted with another roar of pain, it's tentacles began to flail even more erratically than before. One long appendage smashed into the side of the bridge, contorting the already damaged metal and and causing it to buckle and break. A gaping hole opened in the side of the bridge, sending more debris into the chaos in the process. Large shards of metal plating, mixed with sharp fragments of transparisteel floated all around them. The sheer speed of the tentacles' flailing around them only served to make matters worse. Crosscurrents of water threw debris in all directions, giving both Anakin and Ahsoka yet another hazard to dodge.
Evading to the side as best he could to avoid a tentacle, Anakin was forced to bring his saber up to cut a large chunk of loose metal that hurtled towards him in two. But as he did so the creature seized its chance and a large tentacle wrapped around Anakin's torso before he could react and began to pull him towards the razor sharp teeth that adorned its mouth.
Ahsoka felt her entire body go cold when she saw this. She would not lose Anakin, not like this! Not after she had just gotten him back!
Bracing herself against a nearby wall, Ahsoka pushed off with all her strength, sailing through the water towards the tentacle that held Anakin, who himself was struggling to get free.
As she approached it, Ahsoka angled her body in a way that would allow her to spin, the two blades she was wielding spinning with her in a vicious whirlwind.
The gold and blue hues of the lightsabers she held flooded her vision as she span, severing two tentacles that were coming for her in the process, before slicing a third, the one that held Anakin, allowing her Jedi master to get free.
Stabilising herself in the water, Ahsoka glanced up at the jaws of the creature, now mere inches away from her. Despite the evident pain it was in, the teeth still continued to gnash towards them, determined to feast on a meal of Human and Togruta.
It was then that the unexpected happened. The sound of a blaster firing hit her senses, and a bright red bolt went sailing past her head, directly into the jaw of the creature, followed by three more.
Each bolt pierced through the skin of the creature, forcing it to retreat, it's tentacles coming up as if to defend itself.
But right now that wasn't Ahsoka's focus, but rather the shooter was. Spinning around Ahsoka spotted a single figure floating in the centre of the doorway, a blaster in hand. Whoever they were they were dressed in garb similar to both she and Anakin. A dark grey wet-suit covered the entirety of their body, exposing no skin or anything that would give away their identity. The figure was humanoid in shape however, something that helped to narrow down the species somewhat.
Glancing up at the face of the figure, Ahsoka found that it too was hidden behind a dark visor, making it impossible to identify the shooter in any way.
That being said, the visor did not shield everything from sight. Focusing her eyes slightly, she could make out two small red spots that were seemingly glowing behind the visor, much the same as the ones she swore she had seen earlier following her and Anakin.
And now it appeared that she was right in her assumption. Someone had indeed been following them. The only question was whether they were friend, or foe.
The figure shot their blaster another two times, before gesturing towards both Anakin and Ahsoka, and then pointing at the hole in the hull that had been created. Clearly, whoever this person was was suggesting a retreat, and Ahsoka couldn't agree more.
Anakin too seemed to understand, as he pushed through the water towards the opening, Ahsoka on his tail, and the mysterious figure behind them.
The breach in the hull led directly to the bottom of the ravine the ship had crashed into, and was thus fathoms under the water. It would be a long swim up.
Just as she began to swim up however, the creature returned. A long spindly tentacle crashed through the hull behind them, speeding towards Ahsoka's legs and wrapping around her entire body in the process, pulling her downwards.
"Master!" Ahsoka called out in desperation, forgetting the fact that she was no longer his apprentice and thus did not have to refer to him as her master. Perhaps it was the life or death situation she faced that caused the slip.
The tentacle around her began to tighten, crushing her body and forcing the air out of her lungs.
And then the worst happened.
Her oxygen tank ruptured.
'Oh come on!' Ahsoka thought in despair as she felt herself begin to struggle for breath. She could hear the sound of the oxygen rapidly leaking out of the hole in the tank, bubbles erupting from it in the process, the telltale sign of what had happened. If she wasn't struggling for air before, she was certainly doing so now.
Then another sound hit her montrals, this one sounding like a roar of anger. Ahsoka assumed at first that it was the creature below them, roaring out in rage as it tried to pull her in.
But then she discovered the true origins of the sound.
Anakin came barrelling towards her, a look of pure fury and hate on his face, his eyes locked onto the tentacle that was wrapped around her. With a single precise swing of his saber, he severed the tentacle, cutting her free, before grasping hold of her hand and pulling her up through the water with him.
Not complaining at his 'heroic' rescue, Ahsoka kicked her own legs sharply, helping to propel them both upwards, the mysterious figure beside them the entire time, blaster out, watching their six.
'Who is this guy?' Ahsoka couldn't help but think, trying anything to distract herself from the way her throat began to tighten as she ran out of oxygen. Her tank was empty now, and her vision began to distort, various coloured shining spots appearing on the periphery of her vision, which in turn began to blacken.
Glancing upwards, Ahsoka briefly saw the way the water above them began to brighten as they approached the surface, before the strain became too much, and she passed out, Anakin calling out for her in desperation in the process.
Ahsoka awoke some time later with a rush of air flowing into her mouth, almost as if someone was blowing into her.
Her eyes remained closed as she felt her body ache from some phantom pain, before she felt a large weight upon her chest, pushing down on her ribs several times in succession, before another rush of warm air flowed into her mouth.
Opening her eyes, Ahsoka saw what the source of both the weight upon her and the rush of warm air was, and promptly responded in surprise.
Reaching out her hands, despite the ache in her arms, she shoved Anakin back from where he had been attempting to resuscitate her, rolling onto her side in the process, hacking violently in the process.
Several sharp coughs later, she turned her head to face Anakin's and spoke.
"Yuck Skyguy! I don't want your germs! Give them to Padmé instead!"
The look on Anakin's face was one of both bemusement and realization, before what looked like a thankful smile appeared on his safe.
"Hey now Snips, my germs just saved your life!"
"They still taste like rotten Nexu!" Ahsoka replied, entering into another harsh coughing fit as she felt oxygen slowly seep back into her lungs, which themselves felt like they were on fire.
Despite the seeming awkwardness of the situation, Anakin remained by her side throughout, rubbing her back gently to help her. A few more harsh coughs later and Ahsoka was convinced she was alright, lifting a hand to Anakin, allowing him to help her stand.
It was then that Ahsoka spotted another figure standing behind Anakin, the one from the shipwreck. They still wore the entirety of their scuba gear, unlike both Anakin and Ahsoka who's helmets and oxygen tanks were now strewn around them on the beach they had managed to swim to.
Now that the person was standing before her in the open light of day, Ahsoka was able to properly analyse them. The figure suggested male, as they lacked anything that would identify them as female, though it could be a member of a species that had less easily distinguishable genders.
Rising to her feet, she gestured towards the figure, who seemed to be watching every move Anakin and her made, as if they were studying them. Behind the helmet they wore, Ahsoka could almost picture a pair of eyes scrutinizing them.
It was Anakin that made the first move to communicate, much to her surprise.
"Thanks for the help down there friend. You have a name?"
The mysterious figure titled their head, before several sounds came from behind the helmet, one's that sounded like speech, but in a language Ahsoka had never heard before.
"I'm sorry?" Anakin responded, clearly not understanding the language either, something that was rare for him.
"I don't think he speaks Basic Anakin." Ahsoka spoke, before gently removing herself from Anakin's supporting arms and taking a single step towards the figure before them.
Through the Force she could feel no ill intent or threat from the person, only the concern of her former master as she approached the figure.
Looking up at the black face plate, Ahsoka decided that the best way to identify and possibly communicate with the figure was to do so face to face.
That meant they had to remove their helmet.
Reaching up with her hands to her face, Ahsoka made a gesture that represented the removing of one's own helmet, before gesturing to Anakin behind her and repeating the gesture.
She then turned her eyes back to the figure, who all the while was watching her with a tilted head, and repeated the gesture, pointing at them in the process.
The figure made no move to remove their own helmet, their head moving from side to side, watching both Anakin and Ahsoka. And then, just as Ahsoka was about to repeat the action again, the figure moved their hands to their face, clasping the helmet, and gently pulling it off.
Ahsoka watched as the figure's face was revealed. The person, who she could now tell was definitely male, was not human. He had sharp cheekbones that gave him a stern, yet inquisitive looking face, as well as neatly groomed blue/black hair.
Those however, were not the most unique features of his face. Ahsoka had seen many different skin tones in her life, but the shade of blue of this person's was different in some way. It was deeper than a Pantoran's, and far more noticeable in a crowd. What made him stand out even more however were his eyes. They were a shade of bright red, one that would usually suggest a person had an eye infection of some kind. The eyes themselves also seemed to have their own unique traits, and if Ahsoka didn't know any better she would have said they glowed.
Together, this person's facial features created a stark contrast, ensuring he would stand out in a crowd at any event.
The man's mouth moved again, another string of unfamiliar words leaving it, before he tilted his head in expectation. It was clear he had asked them a question.
But they had no idea what it was.
"We're gonna need a translator for this." Ahsoka quipped, fascinated at the figure before her. She had never encountered a member of this species before.
"Good thing we know one then." Anakin replied, earning an odd look from Ahsoka in response.
Who was he talking about?
The trip back to the shuttle was merely a short walk across the beach, Anakin leading the way, with Ahsoka and the mysterious individual seemingly following at will behind.
The figure seemed to carry himself with an air confidence, but not to the point of arrogance. He radiated respect, both towards the people around him and towards himself. It was an odd combination really.
Still, he seemed willing to cooperate, which was a good thing. These days Ahsoka had no idea who was on their side or not, especially after she had been framed for the bombing of the Jedi Temple by Barriss.
Taking her seat behind the controls before Anakin could seize his opportunity, Ahsoka turned the chair around to face her former master, who was now sitting in the co-pilot's seat, working on the transmitter. Whoever they needed to talk to was clearly a ways away, hence the need for the holocall.
Whilst her human companion worked on linking the call to whoever it was he needed to speak to, Ahsoka turned around in her chair again to face the mysterious individual, who seemed to be glancing around the cockpit with great interest, inspecting the various components from afar. It was clear that he was trying to maintain a respectful distance from technology that he had never seen before, or believed he was not allowed to touch. Could he be a member of a primitive species that had never even seen a spaceship before?
The figure's eyes then shifted to lock with hers, with what seemed like scrutiny within them. His mouth opened again, clearly attempting to speak words, words that she didn't understand.
There was nothing worse in such a situation than not being able to understand another's language.
Rather than try to speak and further confuse the alien herself, Ahsoka simply gestured with a free hand to a spare chair that was nearby, next to a console with various readings upon it. As far as Ahsoka knew, all that there was on said console was a galaxy map. He couldn't do any great harm with that.
The alien glanced between the chair and her, as if asking permission to sit, even if she had just offered it in the first place. Throwing a gentle smile in his direction, Ahsoka gestured to the chair again, and watched as the alien slowly sat down, testing the comfort of the chair with a few experimental bounces, before nodding at her with what seemed like gratitude.
It was then that Ahsoka heard a new voice in the cockpit, one that she was very familiar with, as was Anakin.
"Anakin? What are you doing calling me with an unknown ID?" The voice of Padmé Amidala gave way to a bright smile coming onto Anakin's face, one full of adoration and love. Ahsoka had to refrain from making a snippy comment about Anakin being too loved up. How they thought they had succeeded in hiding their relationship, she didn't know?
"Sorry Senator, I'm on an important mission for the Chancellor with his new agent. I'm contacting you from the ship we are using." Anakin responded with a surprising level of professionalism. It was clear that even now he was trying to hide his relationship with Padmé from Ahsoka.
"You're telling me you are calling in a middle of a mission? Anakin, that is very irresponsible of you!" Padmé's response was one for the highlight reel. The woman could be terrifying when angry, even more so when she was angry towards Anakin, who himself seemed a little shocked at the aggressiveness of her tone.
Before the situation could get out of control, or before Anakin found another way to put his foot in it, Ahsoka chose to intervene, leaning towards the hologram of Padmé that had appeared.
"Yeah, tell me about it Senator. All this guy does is break regulation after regulation. I feel sorry for his old apprentice sometimes."
Ahsoka didn't miss the way the features of Anakin's face contorted in mock annoyance, and was thus forced to repress a chuckle because of it. Still, that wasn't her focus right now.
Padmé's face was one of shock, as if the sudden appearance of Ahsoka was the last possible thing she had been expecting to occur, much less on a mission with Anakin.
"Ahsoka? What? How? When? Have you come back to the Order?" Padmé inquired with speed, each question faster than the last, urgency present in her tone all the while, even as a warm thankful smile came to her face.
It was nice to know that some people had missed her.
Well, Padmé and Anakin at the very least.
"Long story Padmé. Simply put, I'm working for the Chancellor now on secret assignments. He tracked me down and offered me a job as an apology. Couldn't exactly refuse huh?" Ahsoka replied, brushing off any concern that she knew Padmé would have for her. The older woman was a mentor of sorts to her, in ways that people like Anakin or Obi-Wan, or even Rex could never have been.
"Well when you get back from your mission you come round here right away and explain everything to me Ahsoka. I would have helped you if you'd asked." Padmé responded, her tone warm and loving, her eyes bright and full of happiness.
"You did more than enough for me during my trial Padmé. I didn't want to burden you anymore."
"You would never be a burden to anyone Ahsoka." Padmé's reply was instantaneous, and quite frankly surprised Ahsoka. The whole Temple bombing incident had shaken Ahsoka's world to its very core. Barriss, whom she had counted on for help had instead betrayed her in spectacular fashion. And the Council, whom she had always considered wise and benevolent despite not always agreeing with its decisions, had tossed her into the hands of a military tribunal without hesitation. They had even gone so far as to pretend to give her a chance to defend herself before them, when in fact the decision to expel her had already been made behind closed doors. The Jedi Order had been her family and her life. She had dedicated herself completely to them, but in her time of greatest need they had simply abandoned her. After that ordeal she just couldn't help but wonder if she had really ever meant anything to anyone, if she hadn't just been another mouth to feed or tool to be used and then discarded.
But now, here was Padmé Amidala, one of the most powerful women in the galaxy telling her the opposite of what Ahsoka believed. If Ahsoka was to truly believe anyone other than Anakin, then it was her.
Opening her mouth to reply, Ahsoka suddenly found herself cut off by Anakin.
"This isn't a conversation to have over a holocall. You two can chat later to your heart's content. Right now however we need help."
Despite being interrupted in the midst of a heart to heart discussion, Ahsoka knew that Anakin was right. They had a mission, and that took priority over her personal feelings.
"Well then, how can I help you General Skywalker?" Padmé replied, clearly understanding the shift in topic as well. Despite how warm and welcoming the woman was, she had a serious side to her.
Unsurprising considering her job.
"Truth be told Senator it's not you we need, but rather Threepio." Anakin said, his tone neutral.
There was a sound of movement behind Padmé for a brief moment, before the Senator stepped aside to allow the golden protocol droid to take his place in front of the holoprojector without any fuss.
"Oh my, Master Anakin, this is an unexpected pleasure. Most people usually do not wish to speak to me so I am quite surprised by this turn of events. I so hope you are faring well. I get so worried about you and little Artoo. That droid does not understand the basics of self preservation most of the time, always rushing off into danger. And oh my, is that Miss Ahsoka with you? How wonderful to see you well my dear. Master Anakin and Mistress Padmé were so worried about you when you decided to leave. Have you been looking after yourself? My studies suggest that a growing Togruta adolescent such as yourself should eat at the very least three full courses of meat a day and…"
Despite the the fact that See-Threepio was once again running off on an unnecessary tangent, Ahsoka couldn't help the bright smile that came to her face at hearing the eccentric droid talk. Threepio had always been that way, and would more than likely always remain so. Quite the contrast to his usual companion in Artoo.
"I'm fine, thank you Threepio. However, now is not the time for a catch-up. We had some unexpected help from an alien of a species we have never seen before on our mission, and from what Anakin and I can deduce he doesn't seem to speak Basic. Are you capable of translating for us?" Ahsoka replied, entering what Anakin called her 'commander mode', a state in which she assumed complete control over the situation. The Clones had always been surprised at how quickly she shifted from happy go lucky Padawan, to Commander in an instant.
She guessed it was thanks to her training from Anakin. He had taught her how to lead, as well as how to be a normal person. She was most grateful for the diversity he had instilled in her. Without it, she would be no better than a battle droid, listening and obeying all orders given without question.
"Why of course I can translate Miss Ahsoka," Threepio's voice all but squeaked in what Ahsoka might have called feigned offensive, " I am fluent in over six million forms of communication."
"Well let's see if those bragging rights hold up." Anakin chose that moment to interrupt, humour in his voice as he gestured behind him. Threepio's gaze moved from Ahsoka to where Anakin had pointed, his eyes locking onto the blue skinned alien sitting in the chair behind them.
"Greetings, I am See-Threepio, human-cyborg relations. What language do you speak my friend?"
Ahsoka turned her head to watch the alien with interest, to see what his response would be. He was unresponsive at first, his eyes studying the hologram of Threepio intensely, as if figuring out how he was put together.
And then he opened his mouth, the language he was familiar with coming out fluently.
"Ah, I see." Was Threepio's reaction, before the protocol droid himself changed language, the same sounds coming from his vocabulator as came from the alien's mouth. Ahsoka watched with a small smirk as the alien's eyes widened in surprise at the sudden way the droid changed to his language, before he responded to Threepio's comment with a series of sounds that were clearly words.
"What's he saying Threepio?" Anakin questioned from beside her, his own eyes watching with great interest.
"He is asking whether or not Miss Ahsoka is ok, as she very nearly drowned not too long ago?"
Now it was Ahsoka's eye's that widened in surprise. All this time, and all the alien had been doing was asking if she was ok?
Now she felt incredibly rude for ignoring him.
"Tell him I'm fine Threepio, and ask what his name is." Ahsoka replied, watching as Threepio reiterated her phrase in the alien's language.
The discussion between droid and blue skinned alien continued for a few moments, before Threepio switched back to Basic to translate his response to Ahsoka's own question.
"He says his name is Mitth'raw'nuruodo."
Author's thoughts
Soooo... surprise character appearance! You like? (And no I'm not talking about Threepio)
It was always my plan to bring Thrawn into this at some point. I know people really like him, and I wanted to keep writing him as well as he is such fun to do. This time round however he is very much not the Grand Admiral he is in rebels. Instead, this sort of serves as an origin story for him within this AU, using elements of the two canon Thrawn books for his character. Hopefully you like the direction it goes in.
Oh, and he doesn't speak basic yet. Nor has he met Anakin yet either. :)
Anyway, not much else to say aside from the surprise appearance of Thrawn. I hope you enjoyed the fight against the squid monster thing, as well as the Ahsoka and Anakin banter, which is still great fun to write.
Once again I want to give special thanks to my beta reader 'Arrinsnyders' who greatly helped me with this chapter and even added sections of their own ideas into it for me. Guess that kinda makes you my co-author now huh? :)
Chapters may slow down a bit now as well just so you all know. My beta reader and I went back over this chapter several times to make it the best it could be. Thanks again friend! :)
Next time round is a dialogue centric chapter. Sorry.
As usual, comment and speculate at will. Speaking of which:
Mysterious guest one: I'm glad you liked the solution to the crack. It was simple, yet effective.
R.I.P unnamed Jedi and Admiral indeed. I was going to give them names, but decided against it.
TerminatorJedi: Blanking is good. That means I'm doing my job right and confusing you. Hope you liked the reveal.
I've passed your praise onto my beta reader as well. Thanks for the kind words. :)
SLE's fave guest: I'm glad the writing was an improvement. My beta reader is better at English than I am... which is a good thing. Native English speakers tend to be rather flippant when it comes to it, and often miss obvious things. I know I do.
And I knew you'd make some sort of tentacle internet reference! Too predictable lol. XD
Roddlz25: I have passed on your compliments, and my beta reader is very grateful. :)
Hope you enjoyed the surprise reveal, as well as the fight against the evil space squid thing!
tf330129: I'm keeping it up. :)