Summary: Ahsoka and her wife have been living in domestic bliss, but war comes knocking and Ahsoka has to return.
Notes:
- Feel free to write derivative works based on this fic. All I ask is that you mention that this fic was your inspiration and link back to it somewhere.
- I'll be publishing in 'Arcs.' Once an arc is done there will be a small break/hiatus before the next arc.
- I plan to complete this. If I'm going on hiatus, I'll let you know before and.
- I do not own any of the characters from Star Wars (George Lucas and others). That should be pretty obvious, this is fanfiction after all.
"Wake up love."
"Mhhwa, two miniz . . ."
More gentle shaking.
"No. It's almost 10 . . . I've given you two hours already."
Turning away, "Mhhhhh, plewsesesss."
Gentle shaking continues. The sleepy head was surely waking up now.
"Let me sleef . . ."
"Nope."
Gentle shaking intensifies.
The sleepy orange-skinned Togruta dramatically whips around at the hip, throwing her blanket off. She was going for a whiny spoilt kid look. "You're such a meanie."
Isn't that adorable? The other woman just laughs, "Com'on Ahsoka, you're too old to be sleeping this late."
"I'm too old to get up this early Liz."
Liz gets up peaceably, "Always gotta be so dramatic?"
Ahsoka simply raises an eye mark — Togruta do not have eyebrows, but inevitably have at least over facial marking over their eyes. "That isn't why you fell for me?"
"It loses its charm when you're always like this dear. Get ready, I'll get you some breakfast."
Liz seemed to be in a pretty good mood. Ahsoka didn't get booted from bed as early or as unceremoniously as usual. But damn, she was old. She even went for hyperbole, always telling Liz she was in her late 400s. Liz just thought she liked her sleep, she did curl up like a lothcat every other day. She heads off into the refresher, why spoil the mood?
Compared to the stereotype, Ahsoka was low maintenance woman. All she demanded was a daily affirmation of love when they weren't fighting over something. Even something as small as a hug was enough. And Lizzy Andor who grew up mostly alone was rarely comfortable with overt gestures of love. She wasn't ostracized or anything, just that combination of living away from urban centers and being an introvert. Ahsoka being an ex-commander also meant that she was good at pushing Liz just right, they were a perfect match.
They lived on Scariff, on the outskirts of Miribahn. Peaceful enough for Liz to write her books. Good enough for Ahsoka to not die of boredom. Technically, she had daily work. Practically speaking, the new republic was just paying her a monthly stipend. That would probably change today. Ahsoka didn't need the force for conformation . . .
Liz was back soon. She had a tray of food, two handleless cups, and a flask of kaf, neither of them drank tea. Ahsoka waited for Liz to bring the cups and flask to the balcony.
"Didn't let Tren cook today?"
Liz flushes lightly as she replies, "Nah, I wanted to cook for you dear."
I was cheezy in all the right ways. Ahsoka is temporarily amused. Earlier, Tren had walked in on her changing, the poor girl was overly apologetic. Tren had a good head — honest, hard-working, and far too meek — that was why they hired the tan, wiry fisherwoman as their housekeeper. The fact that they were notoriously bad at house upkeep also contributed.
"So Liz,"
"Yeah?"
"Do you think that our life is good? That we have a peaceful life?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you truly believe in that Liz?"
"Yep. We fight once in a while, but we make up in a day or two at max, there are not a lot of people around, your income is certain, and you're not dying of boredom, so yep, life's good, it's peaceful."
Ahsoka was amused, her face showed as much. Liz was content to wait for Ahsoka to tell her why.
"Remember that saying about preparation and expectation?"
"Yours or the normie one?"
"The normie one."
"Ah ye, the 'Soka version," Liz starts with fake enthusiasm, "Expect Akul, prepare for Elef."
"Atta girl!" Ahsoka says with equally fake enthusiasm, "Expect Akul — trusting and believing that life is good and peaceful just because things have been good and peaceful so far is basically expecting Elef, would you not agree?"
"This isn't exactly hunting deer 'Soka."
"It's an analogy, Liz." A pause, "Expect the worst that could reasonably happen — predators — and prepare for the task you're approaching appropriately, in this case hunting Elef."
"I don't see how it applies here."
"Give it till evening."
The conversation was done. Not dismissal but companionable quiet. Liz left, probably taking a seat at the round table they had in the corner of their spacious balcony. The beach and waves and the not-so-harsh sunlight set a pretty nice mood if she were being honest.
Ahsoka pulls out her everpresent comlink, after the initial fizzle, a slightly rough voice comes on, "Sister, good to hear from you it is."
"Master Grogu."
"Pulling titles already, are we, hmm?"
"Of course Master Grogu, this is a professional request."
The Jedi master sighs.
"Very well Miss Tano, how can the order be of service?"
"I would like to request for Jedi escort to Courasant for two, things can be expected to get heated. It would be nice if the escort could pick us up at the Miribahn landing pad within the hour."
"I shall see what I can do Miss Tano."
"Much appreciated grand master. I'll meet you in person."
"Yes, and may the force be with you."
"And with you too grand master."
The line cuts out.
A curious Liz asks, "what's that all about 'Soka? I didn't know that you had a work visit lined up."
"I didn't know either Liz."
Liz was used to Ahsoka's blaisé non-answers. This didn't seem like the time to push for answers.
"Hey Liz,"
"Yep?"
"Why don't you go get changed?"
"Cuz you want me to tag along?"
"Yes."
This caught Liz off-guard. Ahsoka wanted her to come along with her on official work? Her wife's work was highly classified. Liz didn't know what to say. She simply stared at Ahsoka like she had an extra Lekku.
"W-What?"
Ahsoka just chuckled before making a shooing motion.
What was Ahsoka up to? Things were normal till Liz came back into their bedroom. Then, Ahsoka started an out-of-the-blue conversation about peace. Then spoke to the Jedi grand master and now this? Just what happened in those thirty minutes she was gone? More importantly, why take her along? If she was in danger Ahsoka would have gotten her to a safe house, there had been one or two scares before.
Lizzy, Lizzy, Lizzy, just cuz 'Soka asked you to tag along doesn't mean that it's for the job. Be happy she's asking you along. Just go get changed. Got that?
She doesn't take long to change. Respectable grey pants, check. Presentable orange tank top, check. Boots, check. Light sabers, check. The grey cloak I'm stealing from Ashoka, chec–
Something slammed into her side. Her ears were ringing. Grasping at her sides, she slowly gets up, her vision quickly clearing. There were flashes of color all around them. And then there was Ahsoka. Cooly sipping Kaff without a care in the world. She just stared. She distantly realized that the light flashes were blaster bolts. What the actual kriff was wrong with her wife? Drinking Kaff when there were being shot at? "Ahsoka!"
"Yes?" Ahsoka wasn't even phased when a blaster bolt grazed her skin.
Liz was still on the ground, she looked around for a second, desperate to confirm that this was a twisted dream. The rubble around here formed a rough circle. Had Ahsoka kept the building from collapsing on top of them? Not a dream, can't be. "Ahsoka get the kriff down! karking sithspit! What's wrong with you Ahsoka?" She quickly tried to drag Ahsoka to ground level.
Ahsoka didn't even budge and Liz got an epidermis-deep blaster bolt injury on her shoulder for the trouble. She yelped.
Ahsoka is unphased. "Lizzy, we have a ship to catch."
A ship to catch? Ahsoka wanted to go towards the blaster fire? "You've gotta be kidding me."
Seconds later, she was hefted against Duracrete. Pain radiated through her shoulder blades. Ahsoka was crouching by her already. The ruins of their house exploded blinding her. Someone cupped her cheeks. No, not someone — Ahsoka — only she had such soft yet tough skin. The white was clearing up from her vision. She was hyper-focusing on Ahsoka's deep mauve lips. The words would come to attention soon after.
"–izzy. Listen to me. Lizzy?"
Lizzy nods weakly.
"I didn't train you in using those lightsabers for nothing." There was beskar in Ahsoka's voice. "You will take them," she moved Liz's hand to grip the twin saber hilts at her waist, "and you will use them," the blades sizzled to life, Liz was clearly startled by it. "You will keep yourself alive."
Liz looks up the length of her green blad once, twice, and then nods strongly.
"Good. Now, get up."
Liz obeys. She doesn't agree or follow. She obeys.
"Stay behind me, kill or be killed — there is no place for mercy."
Was Ahsoka always like this? Could she kill? She used to be a spy, Lizzy knew she had to have killed at some point, but knowing and realizing were very different things weren't they? Ahsoka hadn't moved, she was still calmly observing her. Did she just sigh? This was not a small thing, they were being sho–
"Buyacir-akaan. Storm warfare. Mandalorian tactic. Attack like lightning, destroy like the storm. They're here to kill. And to kill fast. They will leave you no quarter."
Ahsoka draws her lightsabers and clicks them on. Brilliant white blades — beautiful, wise, and elegant — before walking off into the blaster fire.
If her wife died and she did nothing, she wouldn't be able to– No. Now is not the time. Lizzy got up and followed. A bolt whizzed toward her face. She deflected it before she had time to recognize it. She was wound up. Jittery. That would save her in a pinch, but Ahsoka always warned her against it. She had experience with combat. But never with the sky alight with fire. Never with dust wave after dust wave blanketing the ground. Never with buildings collapsing and people dying. Never with so much killing and screaming.
A fresh dust cloud from another nearby collapse blanketed her vision, and ahead were Ahsoka's twin sabers, two glowing lines . . . until they went out. Kriff. Ahsoka couldn't have died, ye? Cold anger shot through her and she barely registered it. She would make them pay. For seconds, white sabers illuminate the dust again while a body dropped. What? The dust was clearing enough to see silhouettes of the fighters. A white blade flashed in front of her face — close enough to spear her brain — and a bolt was reflected back off to the side. A body slumped into the ground. Everything was so darn karking loud.
Fingers snapped in front of Lizzy's face, "Lizzy," Ahsoka's voice was amused, "this won't do. Focus." When had she gotten that close? She had barely noticed her presence in the force, was it the anger and stress making her hyperfocus?
Ahsoka strolled past the bodies and turned a corner. Lizzy followed, eyes sharp, unwilling to get blindsided again. Maybe she shouldn't have been that alert. Her chest constricts. The feeling was more metaphysical than physical, like her lungs were trying to shrink-wrap a rock.
Tren. What did she do to deserve this? Their tan fisherwoman housekeeper was against the ground, her upper half crushed under duracrete.
She felt heat against her neck and glass shattered somewhere nearby. Lizzy was ready for the next bolt, it neatly killed the shooter. Ahsoka wore an unamused look. If Ahsoka hadn't force-deflected the first bolt, she would be dead.
You don't need a reason to die. Lizzy swallowed unblinking even as her eyes went dry.
Where the enemy group was small, Ashoka simply paused some distance away and made a few hand gestures. The invaders fell to the ground. The acrid smell of burnt flesh was very harsh on sensitive Togruta noses.
"Ahsoka, what are you doing?"
"Clearing the way for us without actually fighting."
"How?"
"With the force." Lizzy probably wouldn't take it too well if she said she was snapping their necks. Oh well, it still was clean, fast, painless, and above all, quiet.
When there were bigger groups, Ahsoka simply walked in.
"Fall back! Fall back!" a woman was yelling.
"Hey Lady! where the kriff are you going! " someone else made to reach out for her, "They'll kill you!" but had to duck under the blaster fire.
Ahsoka didn't care and Liz watched as she thumbed her lightsabers. Walking into the blaster fire at a sedate pace. There was no jumping around like she usually would. She didn't need to. A swipe of her arm sent a broken neon sign spinning into enemy lines, neatly beheading three attackers and crushing open the fourth one's skull. Blood pooled out. Liz couldn't look away. Every bolt that came her way was reflected back at the shooter. Anyone close enough got chopped cleanly in half.
Just another day in the life of Ahsoka Tano. A change of pace.
There were only five of them left. Fear pooled around them in the force, and Ahsoka stood within those waves, a rock in water. She could hear their fast, shallow, and slightly irregular breaths. She waited there doing nothing, her blades deactivated. This was something she needed Liz to see.
The invaders tried to run. The woman who had been ordering the retreat had her blaster aimed, light smoke wafting off the barrel.
"Lizzy, we need to keep moving."
"Yes, Sensei."
Lizzy was in student mode, good, it would help her stay alive.
They were not taking a straight route. They were instead traveling near, the edges of the city, where the destruction was the worst. There wasn't much cover here, so most combatants would have left. Ahsoka could cut through the city, but Lizzy didn't have enough experience of open war to survive that. They could have made a force-enhanced run for it and avoided most of the killing. This town had only innocents, there was no rhyme or reason to their deaths. It would have made sense if she were angry, instead, she wasn't even surprised. She wanted to make the invaders pay, maybe they would do their homework before the next invasion, and the reputation would certainly help her.
So they continued their slow, sedate pace. Lizzy deflecting blaster bolts and generally trying not to die. Ahsoka stepping in every once in a while to save her struggling student and wife.
It had been an hour now, and the planetary army had been deployed, about half an hour too late. If anything, the fighting had intensified, it would lull soon. The invader's morale was dropping because apparently, she was a monster that hunted them relentlessly. Not completely wrong, she was a hunter, and that was part of who she was. She wasn't actively hunting them. Those she killed were just unlucky enough to come her way. In the end, it helped minimize the deaths, and she wasn't going to stop.
Probably a good thing because the Miribahn landing pad came into sight, covered in invaders. "Wait here," Ahsoka ordered walking forwards, not even waiting to check if Lizzy complied.
She raised her hand to snatch a fighter out of the sky, and the yellow ship lurched to a halt in the sky. Invader's eyes were on her and so were their guns. She dragged the ship backward. Slowly. She had gotten pretty strong in the force and while she was past her prime, she was not that far past it. There was pitched silence, broken only by the fighter's structure straining against the immense forces acting about it. She slams her hand down, dropping the fighter against the ground. She half expected it to explode. Apparently, the pilot did too as he smartly powered down his ship.
"Hello!" She started, cheerfully, with a light bow. "You can not stop me." She waited for someone to speak, smiling. "Even if you tried, it wouldn't be too hard to crash a ship or two into you." No one's hands shivered, she respected that. "But I would rather not kill you like the others who gave me no choice today."
She waited. For almost a minute no one moved, then a man lowered his blaster, and the others followed suit. She nodded.
"If anyone asks, we never came here, you never saw us. You can't be ordered to kill an enemy who was never here." Ahsoka turned her back to them, if anyone was stupid enough to take a bucket shot, they would die. "Lizzy, come over."
They walked right in between the invaders. Humans, Twi'leks, and even a few Mirialans. The invaders parted around her. Once out on the landing pad, a duracrete platform large enough to house about 20 medium-sized cargo ships, she opted to walk toward the end of the platform.
A few minutes later, her commlink beeped, and she answered.
"Master Tano-"
"Miss Tano."
The Jedi didn't miss a beat, "Miss Tano, the Miribahn landing pad seems to be occupied by invading forces. We'll land out by the river flowing to the south of the pad. Is that ok with you?"
"That won't be necessary Master . . ."
"Master Kenneth."
"Master Kenneth, we're already on the landing pad, I managed to negotiate with the invaders. They won't shoot you out of the sky. I'm in a grey toga, and my wife is in an orange tank top, do try to land nearby, I'd rather not spend one extra second in this battle zone."
"Very well, miss Tano."
The commlink beeped to signal the end of the conversation. She called out to tell the invaders who were antsy and handly strayed far from her not to shoot the tiny incoming ship out of the sky. A nearby Twi'lek woman radioed the update to the rest of them.
The ship didn't land, instead, it hovered just off the platform with the ramp lowered. Such precision hovering required both a decent grasp of the force and pilot skills. In the entrance was Master Kenneth, hand ghosting over the lightsaber clipped to his belt.
"Lizzy, get on the ship."
The girl was shaken and the adrenalin was exiting her system. She numbly followed the orders. Ahsoka hopped onto the ramp after her, a lightness in her step, as waved bye to the invaders who chose not to fight. The pilot — Tragen Yale, formerly a Dathomirian night sister — wasted no time getting into orbit and then to hyperspace. She was happy that they were away without there being any argument over 'staying and helping the people,' but she was also a twinge disappointed because that was what the Jedi were supposed to do.
Once they were in hyperspace, Master Yale brought them some tea. Liz accepted on autopilot. Ahsoka politely refused and asked if she could get some Kaff instead. That done, she sat down next to Liz. Master Yale returned with the Kaff and decided to stay out of curiosity. She would one day have a padawan, and this might help if she ever needed to help her padawan after a violent experience.
"Lizzy," Ahsoka called out caringly, letting calm, compassion, and care radiate out into the force.
Master Yale could literally feel the comforting warmth on her skin. Who was this woman that the force lent itself to so easily?
"Ahsoka?" It was an unsure question.
Ahsoka cupped her wife's cheeks. "Yes, love?"
Lizzy leaned into her shoulder, the cup gripped tightly, resting on Ahsoka's thighs. She felt a hand stroking her back, soothing her, and the dams opened up. Slow tears rolled down her face, but no sound came. So much death, so much destruction, so much hate and anger created in the span of less than an hour. All her peace lost, and she didn't even know why. She couldn't find the sound to express what she was feeling. Heck, she didn't know what she was feeling.
Ahsoka? Ahsoka never stopped comforting her, never said a thing either, opting simply to stroke her back. Her wife's presence was enough. Later, after how long she didn't know, she finally looked up, her tears drying trails on her cheek. She looked at her wife. Then past her wife. It was twenty-six hundred in the evening, galactic standard. It would have been mid-evening on Scarrif back home.
Ahsoka followed her eye, "Oh, it's evening already." She seemed just a tad surprised, It was only early afternoon when then got off Scariff, "Well Liz, I'll ask you again, do you truly trust in that our life is a peaceful one?"
"Not now 'Soka." Liz was tired, her voice was weak.
"Yes now, darling. I know you are tired, but I want your answer."
Liz snapped at her wife, a ping of anger at the other's callousness. That anger quickly faded as she saw the honesty on her wife's face. Listen to the force Ahsoka had always told her, so she reached out, she felt the force around her wife. It was calm, resigned, caring with a hint of beskar, and it was waiting patiently for her.
"No. I'd say no, I don't believe that anymore."
"Why?"
Annoyance burst into her, but she set it aside, Ahsoka was trying to teach her something. It was frustrating, 'Soka never gave her answers, only questions. The answers were hers to find. "Uh," She quietened. She thought for a bit before looking to force only to find silence. She thought some more. "Routine lulled me into a sense of complacency. I saw repetition for truth."
"Complacency?"
"Not every city has a former Intel Chief living innit."
"But the attack wasn't for me Liz. Honestly, I don't know what it was for."
"And yet you called for an escort." The annoyance was almost overflowing now.
"Force things." Ahsoka paused, "Do you think everyone should prepare for invasion?"
"No, you prepare for the worst probable situation."
Ahsoka nodded, "I won't keep you much longer, but I'd like to leave you with a thought."
Sure, but just please do it fast.
"Someone who has kept their word a million times can backstab you, a routine situation with years' worth predictability can suddenly change. Trust isn't quite knowing that things will go as expected, you can never know that for a fact. Trust is believing that they will. Trust isn't knowing that I won't leave you, trust is believing that I won't, even without one hundred percent proof." And then with a lopsided smile, "Want to cuddle under the blankets?"
"Yep."