A/N: Hey guys! Blink and you'll miss Chapter Two flying at you. Today, we will be watching our favourite (former) Jedi, Ahsoka Tano, react to the shocking (?) conclusion of Chapter One. We will also be introduced to the rest of the crew who some of you may recognise from the fantastic 2016 canon novel 'Ahsoka' by E.K. Johnston. I literally just finished the novel yesterday and really wanted to include these two characters since I doubt we will see any more of them in the Canon-verse and I had some really interesting ideas for them in the future. I'll do my very best to fill the gaps over the coming chapters for anyone who hasn't read the novel but I would seriously recommend it for anyone curious as to what Ahsoka was up to after Season 7 of The Clone Wars. Anyway, enjoy!

Star Wars Rebels: The Boy From Lothal

Chapter Two

The Girl From Shili

By RocketTortoise

"There are two kinds of pride, both good and bad. 'Good pride' represents our dignity and self-respect. 'Bad pride' is the deadly sin of superiority that reeks of conceit and arrogance."

- John C. Maxwell

Ahsoka Tano cannot take her eyes off of the body of the young man lying on the pavement five floors below her. He had landed head-first into the cold stone and would have all but surely suffered catastrophic brain damage, spinal fractures, and internal organ damage. Ahsoka would not even be surprised if there is not a single bone in his body left unbroken nor a single organ left unpunctured. In other words, he is probably dead.

Ahsoka reaches out with the Force but can feel nothing left within that broken body. Nothing remains but a cold emptiness that Ahsoka had become much too accustomed to for her liking.

The final moments of that boy's life flash in her head over and over again. His fake surrender before leaping off the side of the building. Ahsoka catching him but his foolhardy blaster shot that had committed him to his fate.

Ahsoka tenses. No, it wasn't foolhardy. It was conscious and intentional decision. He didn't want to be taken in. He would have rather died than be interrogated by Ahsoka and give up information on who she was after. Such a decision required extreme emotion to make; extreme enough to overwhelm the basic instinct to survive. The boy was either immensely scared of the man he was protecting.

Or immensely loyal.

The boy's death had shaken Ahsoka in a strange way. She can feel it in her bones, she can tell it from the slight tremours in her hands. Stormtroopers wouldn't have sacrificed themselves like that and a battle droid self-destructing wouldn't have rattled her like this. Could she have done something different to prevent it?

Sabine Wren grabs Ahsoka by the shoulder and shakes her awake. "Hey! Are you listening?" Ahsoka stiffens as her eyes focus on the armour-clad woman beside her. "We need to go. We're drawing too much attention."

Ahsoka glances down at the boy once more. Sabine is right. By now, several civilians have gathered around the body, with a few of them casting their eyes up to the top of the building where Ahsoka and Sabine can be found. And the last thing the two of them need is to be accused of murder and have to fight their way off of this planet.

Ahsoka turns back to Sabine, taking a deep breath and taking a moment to regain her spiritual balance. "Yeah, let's get back to the ship."

Sabine holds out her hands for Ahsoka. Ahsoka tilts her head and sighs. "You know I hate this type of travel."

Even without seeing her face behind her Mandalorian helmet, Ahsoka can sense the smirk growing on Sabine's face. "And you know that this is far faster than running back to the ship."

Ahsoka lets out a light chuckle and grabs a hold of both of Sabine's hands. Sabine grips them tightly, "You know the rules. Hands and feet inside the ride at all times. And... try not to look down."

Sabine's jetpack roars into life and before she knows it, Ahsoka can feel herself being pulled into the air. Being carried through the air puts a lot of strain on her arms and shoulders so Ahsoka uses the Force to reinforce her joints and hold them together.

If Ahsoka had somehow forgotten why she hated flying like this, Sabine wastes no time in reminding her. It feels like Sabine kicks her jetpack up another gear and picks up speed, much faster than Ahsoka felt comfortable with in such a precarious position.

It isn't so much that Ahsoka would die if she fell. She can use the Force to soften her landing as long as she is focused and times it right, but a lot of things can go wrong when you let yourself free fall. She can clip a building or get hit by a speeder on the way down and be knocked unconscious, dooming herself to a long plummeting demise. A Jedi is not much more maneuverable than a rock when falling so no respectable Jedi should ever confuse themselves as invulnerable. And Sabine seemed to find great amusement in feeling Ahsoka squirm below her. I'm sure she thinks she has this all under control, Ahsoka thinks with a grimace.

Their ship is waiting for them on a hill just outside of town. She isn't much to look at on the outside. A red and white tri-wing, similar in design to the old Republic shuttles used to transport clones and Jedi alike during the Clone Wars, as well as their successor Imperial shuttles that swapped the classic Republic white paint for the dull Imperial grey. Its two side wings are raised vertically, leaning against the central dorsal stabilizer as it sits in landing position.

But a quick look under the hull would reveal some of the ship's hidden charms. At the insistence of Senator Leia Organa, with much approval from Sabine and their pilot, Ahsoka's ship was fitted with as much of the former Rebellion's high-end spacefaring technology as they could fit inside the modest tri-wing, including a top-of-the-line hyperdrive, independent and manoeuvrable thrusters that significantly improved the ships ability to hover and strafe in tight spaces, and an experimental stealth core that had been reverse engineered and modified from Clone War-era Republic blueprints. The ship could be… temperamental at times with all the advanced modifications that were not designed to co-exist, but in the many tight spots the crew had been in during the past year they had been on their search, the ship always came through when they needed it.

The crew's pilot, Miara Larte, is lying under the ship, tools in hand as she fiddles with some part of the ship's engines. She starts at the sound of Sabine's jetpack and she pulls herself out from under the ship to greet them. "You're back." She says, flipping up her face shield to reveal her face. Her brown skin, as always, is spotted with dark grease and oil, which she only makes worse by trying to rub them off with her sleeve, smudging them even more across her face. "I'm guessing that we are going to need a quick takeoff?"

Ahsoka feels relieved when her feet finally touch the ground. "It doesn't need to be too quick. We didn't get into that much trouble this time."

Miara rolls her eyes and tosses her tools into a crate. "Well, that's a relief, I guess. Where are we heading?"

Ahsoka places a hand on Miara's shoulder as she passes by, heading towards the entrance ramp into the ship. "That, I'm not sure of yet. But you'll be the first to know when I figure it out."

"Oh boy. Lucky me." Miara groans.

Sabine shrugs her shoulders as she passes by Miara, "It could be worse. We aren't being shot at this time."

Miara stares daggers into Sabine's back as Sabine walks away and repeats once again, "Oh boy. Lucky me."

Just as Ahsoka and Sabine step foot on the entrance ramp, a figure pops out of the ship doorway. It is Miara's older sister and the crew's resident medic, Kaeden. Before saying a word, her eyes start scanning Ahsoka and Sabine's bodies up and down. Sabine subtly shifts behind Ahsoka but not fast enough to avoid Kaeden's keen eyes.

"You were shot again, Sabine?" Kaeden asks, a tone of annoyance creeping into her tone. "This is the third time this month!"

Sabine raises her hands in surrender, taking a step back down the ramp. "I'm fine, really! The blaster bolt hit me right in the shoulder plate. The armour took all the damage."

"I'll be the judge of that. Get your butt in here."

Sabine's shoulders drop and she groans, before marching up the ramp and into the ship, Kaeden sidestepping out of the way to let the Mandalorian through. Kaeden's eyes turn back to Ahsoka, who gives her a hesitant smile. "Kids, am I right?"

Kaeden's eyes narrow. "Don't act innocent like you haven't hidden injuries from me before." She jerks her head towards the ship, gesturing for Ahsoka to get her butt inside as well. "I better give you a look-over just to be sure."

Ahsoka laughs slightly before dragging herself up the ramp. As she is about to enter the ship, Kaeden grabs Ahsoka's arm. "Are you alright? Did you find Thrawn's informant?"

Ahsoka can feel her face tense for a moment. "We did, but he didn't make it. The kid chose to jump off a five-storey building rather than give up Thrawn."

Ahsoka can feel Kaeden's grip loosen as she pulls back. "Woah. That's… I don't know what to say."

Ahsoka tries to put on a reassuring smile. "You don't need to say anything. I'm fine. What it means though, is that we've hit another dead-end."

Kaeden's grip tightens on Ahsoka's arm. "You'll figure it out. I know you will. It was you who did the impossible and got us through the Rikishi Maze and into the Unknown Regions. You'll figure this out too."

Ahsoka smiles at Kaeden and grabs her hand, giving it a warm squeeze. "Thanks Kaeden, really." She lets go of Kaeden's hand, letting it drop between them. "You better go check on Sabine."

Kaeden opens her mouth as if to say something, but in the end, she turns towards the ship. "Yeah, you're right."

Watching Kaeden disappear inside the ship, Ahsoka turns around and takes a seat on the ramp, looking out to the city in the distance. The image of the young man's face, full of desperation as he turns and leaps off of the building, flashes through Ahsoka's mind, as well as the look on his face as he stood in the middle of the crowd, realising that Ahsoka had seen through his attempts to disguise himself and escape. It was pure panic, and panic can cause people to make poor decisions.

Ahsoka can feel a weight at the bottom of her stomach. She had been careless. Arrogant. She could have caught him at any point and used the Force to capture him before he had gotten on top of that building. But she had fallen into old habits, playing with her food like she and her old Master, Anakin Skywalker, had often indulged themselves in when they were together.

Ahsoka had thought that she had shaken those habits after the Jedi Purge; had been forced to become smarter and more efficient to survive. But since the fall of the Empire and the deaths of Darth Vader and the Emperor, Ahsoka had become one of the strongest beings in the galaxy and the list of people she genuinely had to be afraid of was extremely short. Without even noticing, she had become full of herself, and she was sliding down a slippery slope.

And now, someone is dead that she could have easily prevented.

A series of beeps and whistles sound from Ahsoka's left, breaking her out of her trance. Ahsoka turns to see a small light blue droid sitting right beside her. Its designation is JB-13. It is one of the new BB-series astromech droids that had popped up towards the end of the Galactic Civil War. In contrast to the previous series of astromech droids that were cylindrical with three legs, the BB-series are spherical, using their bodies themselves to roll around while their head units remains upright using magnet casters.

Senator Organa had given Ahsoka the droid along with the ship and while Ahsoka hadn't had a personal droid since working with her old Master's astromech droid, R2-D2, during the Clone Wars, having the small astromech droid around the ship was equally comforting as it was useful.

Ahsoka pats JB-13 on its head and the droid beeps happily, rolling around in a small circle while keeping its head in place for Ahsoka to pat. A small smile grows on Ahsoka's face watching the droid's antics.

"Captain." A voice calls to Ahsoka from her left. Ahsoka raises her eyes from JB-13 to where the voice is coming from. Miara is approaching her with her tool crate tucked under her arm.

"How many times do we have to talk about this?" Ahsoka groans, tilting her head to one side. "I'm not a captain, I didn't even have a rank within the Rebellion."

Miara glances towards the ship. "It's your ship, so as far as I'm concerned, you're the captain."

Ahsoka sighs. There is something about ranks and labels that is a sore spot with Ahsoka, whether it be Captain, Fulcrum, Commander, or Jedi. Hearing Miara call her captain drives her mind back into the Clone Wars, to all the men that she had led into battle, and all the men she had buried under six feet of snow. But Miara seemed like she had no intention of dropping the 'Captain', so Ahsoka had long resigned herself to half-hearted resistance whenever she brings it up.

"What is it, Miara?" Ahsoka asks.

"I figured that before you decide on where we're going, I should remind you about our fuel situation."

Ahsoka blinked. A lot of things seemed to have slipped her mind with everything going on. "Right, of course. How bad is it?"

Miara's eyes drift back to the ship. "Well, we've eaten into about fifty-five percent of our reserve fuel stores. We've got enough for maybe another lightspeed jump but we're burning up fuel faster than we're finding more of it."

Ahsoka rubs her hand against her jaw in thought. Fuel had been a major problem for them ever since they had entered the Unknown Regions three months ago. They had somewhat expected it, considering the isolation of the Unknown Regions from the rest of the galaxy. But the majority of space transportation within the Unknown Regions ran on completely different fuel to what the rest of the galaxy used. And that fuel was completely incompatible with Ahsoka's ship's engines. They had tried using it but let's just say it didn't go well.

Their makeshift solution was to pluck suitable fuel from convoys and storage plants they could find here and there. It appears that while the rest of the galaxy had not found any way to reach the Unknown Regions for millennia, that was not the case for those within the Unknown Regions. Which made sense considering Thrawn's ability to become Grand Admiral of the Empire despite being from the Unknown Regions. But this served to be useful for Ahsoka and her crew since it meant that fuel and technology that had been presumably stolen from the Civilised Spaces could be found if they looked hard enough.

But Ahsoka and her crew have known that it could only be a temporary solution. There is not much compatible fuel to be found on any of these planets and every time they steal fuel, more and more hostile attention begins to be aimed towards them. And having more hostile attention makes it harder for them to find the information they are looking for. They need a proper solution, and fast.

"Do you have any ideas?" Ahsoka asks.

Miara's gaze shifts back to Ahsoka. "I do, actually." Miara lowers her tool crate onto the ground in front of Ahsoka and takes a seat on top of it. As Miara settles in, Ahsoka's eyes are drawn to her brown, frizzled hair. Her hair has that same messy, untreated look that it had when Ahsoka had found her on the moon, Raada, while Miara was hiding from an Inquisitor that was after Ahsoka. This was maybe a year after Order 66 and the fall of the Republic and Ahsoka was in a bad place. Meeting Miara and especially Kaeden on that moon all those years ago helped Ahsoka find her way and how she could help the Rebellion against the Empire. Miara had changed a lot since then.

Ahsoka was pulled out of her thoughts when Miara's eyes met hers. "I went into town this morning while you and Sabine were out, and I took a look around. I stumbled across the spaceport and…" Miara hesitates, her eyes drifting away at Ahsoka. "I snuck in."

Ahsoka's eyes widen. "You went in without telling us? Miara, we've been over this."

The pilot sighs. "Yeah, I know. Look, I saw a way in, and I took the opportunity without thinking." Miara meets Ahsoka's eyes. "Yell at me later. This is important."

Ahsoka leans back, letting out a sigh. "Alright then. Go ahead."

"I found a spot where I could watch the spaceport for a while." Miara stated. "They have some fuel reserves that I thought we could grab if we needed them, and I figured it would be smart to scout it out before we go in."

Miara leans forward, her hands pressed against her knees. "But then I saw an old Imperial shuttle come into port." Miara pauses and looks straight at Ahsoka. "And they started pouring Unknown Region fuel into it."

This catches Ahsoka's attention. She leans forward as well. "Are you sure? It was definitely incompatible fuel?"

"One hundred percent sure." Miara confirms.

"And the ship?"

Miara nods. "It was heavily modified, but I've seen enough of those shuttles to last me a lifetime."

Ahsoka's eyes drift up into the night sky, her mind racing. "So, they must have a way to make one of their engines fit the shuttle."

"Or they have a way to convert their fuel to be compatible with the shuttle's original engine." Miara adds. "If you can get me some time to look through their engine, I can figure out how exactly they've got it to work."

Ahsoka looks towards the city, specifically the distant set of lights that make up the spaceport. "Do you think the ship is still there?"

"I think so." Miara replies. "It was still there when I left."

Ahsoka rises to her feet. "There's no time to lose then. I'll get Sabine to do a flyby before we infiltrate." She begins walking up the ramp. "You should prepare the ship to take off, I may need you to relocate the ship before we meet up again."

Miara pauses. "Wait, am I not coming with you?"

Ahsoka stops at the entrance way and turns back towards Miara. "No, I've got something else in mind." A grin grows on Ahsoka's face. "Luckily for you, stealing ships is our speciality."