Hey folks, Grubkiller here.

Here's part 4 of this story. Hope you enjoy.

It will be starting off with a flashback of Ahsoka

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Coruscant, the day after Order 66 was issued.

Ahsoka closed her eyes as she walked through the crowded streets. She had been avoiding Clone Trooper patrols the entire time she had been down in the underworld, using her com-link to listen in on their communications.

Ahsoka no longer even wore her Jedi outfit, instead wearing a mechanic's jumpsuit that she lifted from a garage down on level 1313, and wore a black cloak over that.

Deep in the underworld, she couldn't have been more than a shadow amongst the people. And the Force would guide her steps, and get her through the crowd.

But it was hear where she witnessed the relentless drive of the Clones that pursued her, particularly the Coruscant Guard, who shook down every random citizen or kicked down every door that they came across.

Every lesson she had gone through, and every fiber of her personality, burned brightly, demanding that she do something about this injustice. But what could she do? She couldn't just start hacking away at clones and in the middle of a crowded street when every clone from here to the Outer Rim would be searching for her and any other Jedi survivor.

A Jedi. I am no Jedi.

Of course, that's what Ahsoka kept telling herself. But no matter how many times she told herself that, she could only half believe it.

But as she continued to merge with the crowd, the large holo-screens that hovered over the streets flashed to life. The advertisements that had been playing were now playing a news report, nd the speakers were turned up for everyone in the surrounding streets could pause and listen to this public address.

"It is over, ladies and gentlemen, after three long, terrible years, the Separatist menace has been dealt with. The Clone Wars are over. A new age of peace is upon us. We would like to replay the speech by His Excellency, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine."

The entire crowd, including Ahsoka, gawked at the screen in surprise. She heard people whisper to each other, expressing every emotion ranging from disbelief to excitement.

The feed cut to a video of Palpatine, looking like he normally did in the holo-image. Although, rumors suggest that to not be true, since the Chancellor, and that this was a heavily edited image.

"Citizens of the civilized galaxy, on this day we mark a transition. For a thousand years, the Republic stood as the crowning achievement of civilized beings. But there were those who would set us against one another, and we took up arms to defend our way of life against the Separatists. In so doing, we never suspected that the greatest threat came from within."

The Jedi, and some within our own Senate, had conspired to create the shadow of Separatism using one of their own as the enemy's leader. They had hoped to grind the Republic into ruin. But the hatred in their hearts could not be hidden forever. At last, there came a day when our enemies showed their true natures.

The Jedi hoped to unleash their destructive power against the Republic by assassinating the head of government and usurping control of the clone army. But the aims of would-be tyrants were valiantly opposed by those without elitist, dangerous powers. Our loyal clone troopers contained the insurrection within the Jedi Temple and quelled uprisings on a thousand worlds.

The remaining Jedi will be hunted down and defeated! Any collaborators will suffer the same fate. These have been trying times, but we have passed the test. The attempt on my life has left me scarred and deformed, but I assure you my resolve has never been stronger. The war is over. The Separatists have been defeated, and the Jedi rebellion has been foiled. We stand on the threshold of a new beginning. In order to ensure our security and continuing stability, the Republic will be reorganized into the first Galactic Empire, for a safe and secure society, which I assure you will last for ten thousand years. An Empire that will continue to be ruled by this august body and a sovereign ruler chosen for life. An Empire ruled by the majority, ruled by a new constitution!"

The announcement of the destruction of the Republic received an uncomfortable amount of applause from the Senate, and from the crowd around her, for Ahsoka's liking.

Palpatine continued.

"By bringing the entire galaxy under one law, one language, and the enlightened guidance of one individual, the corruption that plagued the Republic in its later years will never take root. Regional governors will eliminate the bureaucracy that allowed the Separatist movement to grow unchecked. A strong and growing military will ensure the rule of law.

Under the Empire's New Order, our most cherished beliefs will be safeguarded. We will defend our ideals by force of arms. We will give no ground to our enemies and will stand together against attacks from within or without. Let the enemies of the Empire take heed: those who challenge Imperial resolve will be crushed.

We have taken on a task that will be difficult, but the people of the Empire are ready for the challenge. Because of our efforts, the galaxy has traded war for peace and anarchy for stability. Billions of beings now look forward to a secure future. The Empire will grow as more planets feel the call, from the Rim to the wilds of unknown space.

Imperial citizens must do their part. Join our grand star fleet. Become the eyes of the Empire by reporting suspected insurrectionists. Travel to the corners of the galaxy to spread the principles of the New Order to barbarians. Build monuments and technical wonders that will speak of our glory for generations to come.

The clone troopers, now proudly wearing the name of Imperial stormtroopers, have tackled the dangerous work of fighting our enemies on the front lines. Many have died in their devotion to the Empire. Imperial citizens would do well to remember their example.

The New Order of peace has triumphed over the shadowy secrecy of shameful magicians. The direction of our course is clear. I will lead the Empire to glories beyond imagining.

We have been tested, but we have emerged stronger. We move forward as one people: the Imperial citizens of the first Galactic Empire. We will prevail. Ten thousand years of peace begins today."

The feed cut back to the newsreader.

The crowd around Ahsoka roared with approval. But some, she noticed, just maintained a neutral expression.

"In other news, reports of Jedi survivors are circulating throughout the Empire. Hear is where you must report if you have any information on Jedi survivors."

Ahsoka didn't hear the rest. She looked at the list of confirmed Jedi killed during the purge, scrolling down on the side of the screen. Names she recognized that would haunt her forever.

Barriss Offee.

Mace Windu.

Aayla Secura.

Shaak Ti.

Luminara Unduli.

Kit Fisto.

Plo Koon.

And... Anakin Skywalker?

No... not Anakin. Tears began to well up in her eyes, and she felt herself choke up inside.

Ahsoka couldn't accept this. She stormed off, heading for the only place where she would find answers.

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Coruscant, near the Jedi Temple, 2 days after Order 66 is issued.

Kai Hudorra and Noriah Na, still playing the master and slave roles, had disembarked from their transport and were now hauling their luggage through the crowded streets of of Coruscant.

Mostly Noriah was carrying the luggage, having to play her, or rather 'his', role convincingly.

"It's this way, stay close." Kai said.

"I'd forgotten just how crowded Coruscant was." She said as they rounded the corner and saw what they came here to see. "M-master!" Noriah stuttered.

The Jedi Temple, once a symbol of justice and good in a Galaxy government by a just Republic, now stood as a smoldering, blaster-riddled ruin. Clone Troopers guarded the grand staircase. A massive bonfire blazed at the top of it, onto which clones dragged the bodies of fallen Jedi, and allowed nature to do the rest in disposing of the bodies.

Noriah held her mouth in horror, trying to suppress a gasp, but her master urged her to press on so that they could get a closer look. They pushed through the crowd, which was full of people giving their opinion on the matter.

"The Jedi were traitors! They got what they deserved, I say." One man said.

Others were more sympathetic to the Jedi.

"I can't believe the Jedi tried to overthrow the government. I think they were the ones who were betrayed."

"Quiet friend. Talk like that'll land you in jail."

Kai and Noriah noticed a couple other Jedi in the crowd.

A man with long white hair pulled back in a pony tail, wearing a green jumpsuit and armor, with his arm in a sling.

Another they noticed was an orange togrutan with white markings, with tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Master, look!" Noriah said quietly.

They moved towards the front of the crowd, and saw another Jedi, in full robes and holding his lightsaber in his raised fist.

a human male with shoulder-length hair, clenched fist holding lightsaber in the air.

"The Jedi were your protectors! They, like you, have been victims of a corrupt government! Will you stand idly by and allow your freedoms to be taken from you?"

He said as he ignited his blue lightsaber, causing the crowd to gasp in surprise and fear. This got the attention of the Clones from the Coruscant Guard, who guarded the public entrance to the former Jedi Temple.

They readied their weapons and prepared to apprehend the rogue Jedi.

"I call upon my fellow Jedi, who I know are among the crowd," he said as he turned towards the Temple, "Let us find justice - for our brother and sister Jedi!"

Noriah reached into her tunic for her lightsaber, but Kai grabbed her by the wrist before he could continue.

In another part of the crowd, Ahsoka Tano wanted to do the same thing, but but was able to stay her hand, knowing that her old friends wouldn't want her to join them.

He then charged up the stair.

"OPEN FIRE!" The Clone officer called out, before he and his men cut loose with a barrage of blue blaster fire.

The Jedi expertly deflected them.

The crowd started to become agitated.

Ahsoka could only watch in stunned horror as the Jedi valiantly tried to fight his way into the Temple. He cut down half of the Clone squad. But then backup poured out of the Temple, or rounded the corner from the streets, returning from patrol. The 'Justice' Jedi was surrounded, and tried to deflect as many blaster bolts away from himself and into the Clones as possible. But it was too much. He was leg. He staggered, but kept swinging. He was then shot in the shoulder, and the chest, and everywhere else, and the Clones didn't stop firing until he finally stopped moving.

As the clone picked up the fallen Jedi's saber, and dragged his body away, other clone stormtroopers went to break up the crowd, which was still panicked at what they just witnessed.

Noriah froze in place, and Kai eventually urged her away. "Master... We-we should have..."

"Hush." He said.

Hudorra knew that even if the other Jedi that young man had spotted in the crowd had joined him, they would have suffered the same fate.

Only one had been willing to meet his gaze.

One thought entered the mind of all the assembled Jedi, who eventually dispersed with the crowd: It was a mistake to come here.

"There were no other Jedi to help that young man, Master." Noriah said. "Coming here was a waist of time. We may be the only Jedi left-"

"That boy didn't need help, he needed to hide." Master Hudorra said as he took them into a secluded alleyway. "Give me your lightsaber."

She hesitantly complied, reaching for her saber. "Why master?"

He grabbed it and threw it into sewer drain along with his own, to her shock and horror. "Because you won't need yours, and I certainly won't need mine."

'"But..." Noriah started.

"The time of the Jedi is over. The galaxy we sought to protect has turned against us. For now, we must concentrate on survival. Forget about the Order. Forget about the Temple, and forget everything you've been taught about the Force." He turned to her. "I am no longer your master, and you are no longer a Jedi."

Tears began to well up in Noriah's eyes.

He placed his hands on her shoulders.

"Listen to me Noriah, the future of the Jedi, however few or many of us there may still be, depends on all of us surviving. No situation lasts forever. But for now, we must go to ground. Hide our abilities and our beliefs, and hope for a day when the Jedi Order will be reborn." He looked away from her and at the burning ruins of the Temple. "Though I do not know that we will live to see that day. The future has always been difficult to discern." He reached for the bag of credits on his belt and handed it to her. "Take this. It's not much, but it'll get you away from Coruscant. Go now, Noriah Na. Find a new life for yourself. Find a purpose that makes you happy, maybe build a family. But go."

Noriah, tears in her eyes, accepted the bag with shaking hands. "Master..."

"Forget your past. Forget me." He ordered one final time. "Go."

And with that, the young girl turned around and disappeared into the crowd.

When he was sure, Noriah would not be coming back to him, Hudorra lowered his head in sadness.

"That was a very hard thing you did, Kai Hudorra." A new, familiar voice said from behind him. He looked over his shoulder to see a man with white hair, and wearing military fatigues. He had his arm in a sling. He looked back at where Noriah walked towards, not facing Jennir.

"It was the necessary thing, Dass Jennir."

"Yes, you returned to Coruscant even though the beacon tells us to stay away."

"I didn't know. I had to dispose of our com links. But you are here..."

"Seeking counsel, the same as you."

"I would counsel you to get rid of that lightsaber you have hidden in your sling. Or do you plan on charging into the Temple as well?"

Jennir turned to the temple, shaking his head. "I would not waste my life so hastily, or so vainly. But neither am I done fighting for the principles on which the Republic is based." He turned to Master Kai. "I could use your help, Master Hudorra."

Kai closed his eyes and lowered his head. Then he shook his head. "No. I am done with war. I'm going to follow the advice that I gave to the girl. Perhaps when the Jedi Order is rebuilt. But until then, the galaxy will have to go without my sword."

"What will you do?"

"I recall that Master Geiit once remarked that an individual skilled in the ways of the force can make a comfortable living for himself as a gambler." He then turned to Jennir as he started to walk away. "May the force be with you, Dass Jennir."

Jennir smiled. But then he looked back at the burning Temple.

"I hope so."

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Ahsoka was alone.

Something she was never meant to be. Her people were tribal, blood and bond, and her ability to use the Force gave her a galaxy of brethren from all species. Even after she left the Jedi Temple, she could feel the others when she wanted to—the ebb and flow of them in the Force around her. Until, of course, she couldn't.

That was what it felt like to be Ahsoka Tano at that moment, as the young Jedi man who tried to charge into the Imperial forces was carried into the burning Temple.

Ahsoka began to think about what coarse of action to take next. Charging the Temple was out of the question, seeing how well that ended.

If she was alone, she didn't have to make choices that affected anyone other than herself. Fix a malfunctioning motivator or not, eat or not, sleep or not— dream or not. She tried to dream as little as possible, but that day in particular wasn't good for it.

But whatever action she decided to take, she had to be careful where to go with it.

Across the galaxy, from the Core to the Outer Rim—though somewhat less enthusiastically in the latter—there would be festivities celebrating the end of the Clone Wars, as well as the establishment of a new order and government by 'Emperor' Palpatine.

The new Empire was only a day old, but the idea of celebrating it at all nauseated her. After all, she lived through how it was created. She even helped forge it in some cases.

She paused. That last thought made her stomach turn. Lux Bonteri, her old friend (and more at one point), had long ago told her the reasons behind the Separatist movement. At the time she might not have agreed with him, but now...

Well now she knew that the Chancellor's reasons behind prosecuting this war were for entirely different reasons than just peace.

Across the galaxy, hundreds of worlds had burned, even the one she was standing on for a short time. Even though she and the other Jedi helped to save most of them, their victories had been immediately undone with such violence that Ahsoka could hardly bear to think about it. So she didn't.

Perhaps now was the time to try and run away from it all, and start a new life. But then she shook her head. Or now it was time to do something about it.

What would her masters have done?

She looked back up at the Jedi in the kill list. Looked at the pictures of Mace Windu, Kit Fisto, and several other Jedi 'assassins'.

No. She couldn't just let all of sacrifices that she and her friends had made be all for naught. It was time to take action. But perhaps she would need some help to face off against the Empire. Should she join an insurgent group in the Outer Rim? Under-mind the Empire from within? Maybe she could find other Jedi and go on a light-side crusade.

But then she remembered that not every senator supported Palpatine throughout the war.

Maybe she could enlist the help of a few powerful ones.

She looked down at her clothes. They were the only ones she owned. But that could not be the case for long. She was growing up. Already the jumpsuit she wore was too tight around her chest, forcing her to unzip it quite a lot. Her head-tails had grown again, hanging down past her breasts, and her montrals would soon be too tall for the hood on her cloak.

Ahsoka went back to her hiding spot and gathered her few meager belongings, shut the door of her one-room apartment for the final time, and walked in the direction of the nearest spaceport. As she walked back onto the surface, the air was split by an all-too-familiar roar of engines. The flyby had started, and it seemed that the Empire was showing off the maneuverability of its star-fighters. The people were packed elbow to gut on the sidewalks, as Clone Stormtroopers and streets were deserted. Ahsoka could hear the music, raucous and martial at the same time.

But the parade was actually relatively small for a victory parade. The majority of the Clones would be patrolling the underworld or guarding the spaceports. Anywhere a survivor of the purge could hide or escape. At one point, the young former Jedi felt like she was being followed, so she disappeared into an alley and force-jumped to a nearby rooftop of a series of apartment complexes.

Eventually Ahsoka reached the edge of rooftop, looking down overlooking a nearby spaceport. The ships were mostly large passenger freighters. Most of the people getting on board were refugees being re-located from Coruscant to other parts of the Core, or even back to their home systems, which were now free of any battle droid presence.

There were maybe twenty stormtroopers in the port. Before, when she could openly use the Force, that would have been no trouble at all. Now, with just her wits, Ahsoka took a moment to consider her options.

Anakin would have crashed right through, regardless of personal risk. Even without his lightsaber, he'd have been fast enough and strong enough to make it. It would have been very noticeable, though. Explosions had tended to follow close behind her mentor. She missed the excitement, but this was not the time for it. Master Obi-Wan would have tried to charm himself through and would invariably have ended up making as much noise as Anakin anyway.

"When are you going to admit you're on your own?" Ahsoka muttered. "They're gone. They're dead, and now it's just you."

As motivational speeches went, it was not her best, but it did spur her into action. After taking one last look through the nearby skyscrapers, catching a small glimpse of the smoke rising from the Jedi Temple over the horizon, she turned back to spaceport and left, taking her chances for the future.

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New Plympto, Separatist camp.

The morning has broken bright and cold. In the air, the non-familiar aroma of alien bodies in close proximity and something he's never gotten used to... the pungent tang of preserved Rikknet eggs.

But the sky is clear. Tranquil as a pond.

A good omen.

"Have the scouts reported back in, Captain Greenbark?" Jennir asked.

"As you predicted, General." Bomo said. "The weather's holding, and the clones are moving their support vehicles towards the reservoir. General Rootrock has the troops in position on the ridge. It looks like a good morning to die, eh?"

"I hope not."

Jedi General Dass Jennir looked through his binoculars and looked down at the pass below. A column of Repub-... Imperial vehicles were moving through the area, with Clone Stormtroopers marching alongside.

Rootrock got into cover next to him. "The troops are in position, General. Just give the word."

Jennir nodded to him. He looked on either side of him, and saw hundreds of natives taking cover, ready for battle, armed with blasters, grenades, battle axes, and various heavy weapons, but not many.

'The future has always been difficult to discern.' Master kai Hudorra had said. He was correct.

The future was always in motion, and unknown. All one could do was follow the force, and one's feelings.

Jennir reached for his lightsaber and stood up.

This feels right.

He ignited his lightsaber and waved it around before pointing it at the Imperial forces.

"CHARGE!"

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