What I'm wondering is if Master Shade heard/felt that question through their Bond.
Master Shade comes out of the chamber, looking worse than before.
"Damn it Ahsoka, don't ask that! Murphy loves answering that!"
I have a very strange Master (Star Wars/SI) EPI-EPII
- Thread starter shadenight123
- Start date
What I'm wondering is if Master Shade heard/felt that question through their Bond.
Master Shade comes out of the chamber, looking worse than before.
"Damn it Ahsoka, don't ask that! Murphy loves answering that!"
EPII-Chapter Six
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- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
Chapter Six
Ahsoka spoke with her eyes down on Mister Fluffles' form, gingerly scratching the cat's ears as she recounted the tale of events that had brought her to become the apprentice of Master Shade. There wasn't much to speak of, all things said. Together, they had gone on just a few missions. They had been to Dantooine, to Felucia, to Florrum, he had met with her after Geonosis, they had spent time together of course in the temple, but most of the time her Master seemed to simply be on his own.
"Have you ever been in his rooms?" Barriss remarked. "Here in the temple, I mean."
Ahsoka frowned. She had been in her Master's meditation chambers, that much was sure, but...no, she had never been in his private rooms. "No, why?"
"You can find out a lot about your master by looking in their rooms," Barriss replied with the hint of a smile. "Master Luminara keeps a holocron collection of Mirialan fighting techniques under her bed, and has training equipment like bars and heavy weights. I don't need to ask her, or have a Bond with her, to know that she has a passion for fighting techniques."
Ahsoka looked up at the ceiling. "My Master's...strange, but the good type of strange," Ahsoka said. "I just don't understand him sometimes. He says he trusts me, and then he pushes me away. It's as if he can't wait to be rid of me."
Barriss hummed. "I don't know. Maybe he's doing it for your own good?"
"My own good?" Ahsoka asked. "My own good...I know the Bond's dangerous, but I can handle it. He can handle it. We all can handle it."
"But should you handle it?" Barriss remarked. "Attachment is prohibited, isn't it? To have such a Bond is by itself a leeway in the rule, and that makes it an easy trap into the Dark Side. I think your Master simply wishes what is best for you," the Mirialan said. "Unless he doesn't trust you, but I don't think that is the case. What kind of Master wouldn't trust his Padawan?"
Ahsoka looked sideways. "Yeah," she said. Her Master hadn't even told her how much of the war he had foreseen. He hadn't told her anything, always sidestepping, or saying 'later'. He had always tried to push her away, while at the same time keep her close. He did it because 'she always did the right thing', but wasn't that just for his benefit, rather than hers? What were the words of Master Shen-Jon? He did things for his benefit, rather than the benefit of both? She wasn't a tool to be conveniently used and then be discarded. Yet, it felt just like that.
"Well, I better go before I'm late meeting with my Master," Barriss acquiesced, "It was nice talking with you, Padawan Tano."
"Likewise," Ahsoka replied. "And...well, thanks, Padawan Offee."
Barriss smiled and walked away silently, leaving Ahsoka behind with her thoughts. Ahsoka gave a quick glance at the doors of the High Council, and then stood up from her bench. Well...she still had the Taozin nodule on her person -it was held around her neck and fashioned like an amulet- so her Master couldn't sense her in the Force. She decided to risk it.
If she always did the right thing, then rummaging through her Master's private rooms was without a doubt 'the right thing'. And her Master would understand, wouldn't he?
She ended up walking through the sleeping quarters of the initiates and past the Jedi Knight sector, with no one stopping her on the way -she was a Padawan, and she was headed towards the Jedi Master quarters, so why would anyone stop her when she was clearly going to meet up with her Master?
Now, the problem was that she didn't have a key for his room. On the other hand, the door was locked with a simple magnetic lock, and Ahsoka had the Force. No lock -especially electronic- could survive the Force applied in just the right way.
"Sorry about this, Master," Ahsoka whispered as a small burst of purple lightning emerged from the tip of her fingertips. Her Master had used the technique to disable droids, but it worked on electronic locks just fine. The door of his rooms slid open with a soft hiss, and Ahsoka held her breath as she stepped inside the pristine looking room. There wasn't-well, there was very little of personal. The doors closed behind Ahsoka, and the Togruta began to walk around, looking beneath the sofa, on the table, the desk, through the drawers...but there was utterly nothing. It was as if her Master had never slept in there to begin with -but there was his name outside the door.
Ahsoka scratched the underside of her chin, lost in thought. If she were her Master, where would she hide important documents? In a Datapad, a Datapad not connected to the web and hidden somewhere no one would think of looking for it. Ahsoka's eyes moved to the panels that hid the cupboards and dressers, and as she slid them open she took in the sight of a large amount of boxes piled one over the other in a dangerously precarious position.
Using the Force, she easily moved them aside while keeping them on the same level, and then her fingers moved gingerly to touch the wall behind them. The metallic wall was smooth, and without imperfections of sorts...so the hidden compartment behind the dresser was out.
Placing the cardboard boxes back in their place -after catching a quick peek and finding them only filled with robes- Ahsoka looked at Mister Fluffles, who meowed at her insistently from the bed.
"Mister Fluffles? Did you find something?" Ahsoka asked as she neared, and Mister Fluffles grinned and nodded, before pointing one of its paws at the bed's pillow. "My master wouldn't be that stupid," Ahsoka said dryly as she lifted the pillow, only to find the Datapad beneath it. She nervously chuckled. "Well-" she said. "Apparently...he can be."
The Datapad was password-protected. Using the Force to disable the password wasn't going to work -it would fry the Datapad. She had to resort to finding out the password. Now, what could the password be?
She drummed her fingers on the back of the Datapad, her attention on Mister Fluffles who returned a 'I don't know either' gaze. "Mandalore?" Ahsoka mumbled, trying the password only for it to fail. 'Do you want a hint?' the question popped up in the corner of the Datapad, and Ashoka's eyebrows rose. Her Master couldn't have possibly placed the password in the 'Suggestion' box. He couldn't have. Her Master couldn't be that stupid to-to actually-he couldn't.
The Gift of Prophecy, gifted to one whose warnings no one would ever heed.
"Right," Ahsoka drawled. "That's...helpful. Really helpful," she looked at the ceiling of her Master's bedroom, dropping her back against his bed. She closed her eyes, her nose breathing in the air that smelled so much like her Master it felt as if he was in the same room as her. If she concentrated hard, she could actually feel the tiny ripples of the Force in the room that bore his mark -the room had appeared unused just at first, but it did hold her Master's scent and Force mark, meaning he did spend time in it.
Mister Fluffles meowed from her side, and she bleakly opened her eyes to realize that outside, the sun was setting. Her eyes widened as the realization sunk in that she had fallen asleep in her Master's bedroom, on his bed, while he could have come back at any moment.
She jumped on her feet and rushed out of the room faster than she could blink, not even realizing she was clutching on to the Datapad until she was way back into the Padawan dormitories. Her breathing eased up only once she reached her room, and even then, only after she dropped the Datapad on her bed.
After she did that, however, she began to loudly curse her stupidity. She had stolen her Master's Datapad from his room, and if he found out-if he did, then he'd probably drop her as his Padawan. He was just looking for an excuse to push her away, and she had served him one on a silver platter.
Ahsoka ground her teeth and punched with her right fist the wall by her side. She winced at the pain, and then screamed as she punched the wall with her left and right fists repeatedly, venting off her frustration. Mister Fluffles meowed in fright as Ahsoka breathed in and out hard, sweat dropping from her brow.
"Why did I do that?!" Ahsoka snapped. "Why. I'm-I'm so stupid." She shuddered and shook her head. No, she could still salvage this. She just had to return the Datapad without her Master knowing, and once she did that-there was a knock at the door.
Her eyes wide, Ahsoka quickly hid the Datapad behind her-no! Hiding it behind the pillow was stupid! Better to hide it in her robes! "A moment!" Ahsoka blurted, checking the Datapad didn't show through the Jedi Robes, and once satisfied by that tiny fact, she headed to the door.
She had expected her Master. She was glad it turned out to be Knight Skywalker.
"Here you are," Anakin said. "Well, are you ready? We're leaving for Tatooine."
"What?" Ahsoka blurted out. "Already?"
"Yes," Anakin nodded. "We are." His voice was kind of sour. "I thought I had left that blasted planet behind...anyway, let's move. The faster we leave, the faster we return."
"I just have to do one thing before-" Ahsoka hung her head as she watched Knight Skywalker already start to walk towards the temple's hangar. "Hey! Are you even listening-" nothing, Knight Skywalker wasn't even slowing down. Groaning and grumbling, Ahsoka had no choice but to follow. She ended up departing for Tatooine with Knight Skywalker and his droid inside a Star Fighter, while holding on to her Master's Datapad hidden inside her robes. Seriously, this stroke of bad luck was impossible. It was like a series of unfortunate events, one after the other.
What had she done to deserve it?
She just wanted to understand her Master better, was that too much to ask?
"You're surprisingly silent," Anakin said after a few hours. "Are you nervous?"
"Not really," Ahsoka said. "I don't want to take the trials," she added. "I don't feel ready."
"Uh," Anakin said. "When I was your age, I couldn't wait to become a Knight."
Ahsoka looked bitterly out at the vastness of space, and at her reflection in the cockpit's glass. "I'm not you."
"Is it because you don't want to leave your Master's side?" Anakin asked.
Ahsoka bristled at the accusation. "It hasn't even been a year," Ahsoka said. "How can I be ready to become a Knight if it hasn't even been a year since he began to teach me? There's so much he knows, so much he could teach me. I can feel it through our Bond, he just knows so much. It's..."
"Maybe it's not knowledge meant for you to know," Anakin replied. "You can't always be fed with a spoon. You need to learn how to eat by yourself."
Ahsoka's right hand moved to the Datapad, and she quietly took it out. Since she was in the seat behind, there was no way for Knight Skywalker to see her. She had more than a few hours before their arrival on Tatooine. "Maybe you're right, Skyguy," Ahsoka said. "Maybe I need to start learning by myself," starting with the Datapad. "Do you know of anyone gifted with prophecy that nobody believed in?"
"What's with the question?" Anakin asked.
"Well, if you don't know the answer then it's fine-"
"That came out of the left field," Anakin acquiesced, "But it should be Cassandra. Did Night ask you that? It's a story he told a long time ago about-"
Quick as lightning, Ahsoka tapped 'Cassandra' in the password field, and grinned like the Cheshire Cat himself when the Datapad opened up, the password correct.
The Datapad held a crimson and black desktop, with more than a few documents written in a language that Ahsoka couldn't understand. One, however, was written in Basic.
Ahsoka felt dread as she read the title of it. 'To the attention of my Padawan, Ahsoka Tano.'
Sweating, Ahsoka pushed the button to read the document. Her Master was a seer, capable of seeing the future, so of course he'd know she'd try to steal his Datapad! How stupid was she, to think he hadn't foreseen such a thing from happening?
By the time you'll be reading these lines, I'll probably be dead.
Ahsoka froze.
No. Wait. This wasn't-this wasn't a warning for her. This was...this was her Master's will.
You will probably feel betrayed. I would be. Yet, I hope you understand this was for the Greater Good, and also for the sake of everyone else. I tried my hardest not to lie to you, but I did misdirect. I'm very good at misdirection. Master Yoda can teach a wolf to like vegetables, but he can't stop the wolf from growing claws. I knew from the day I realized my power that it would be a fight against time. My powers-they can't be stopped. I could live the rest of my life in a prison made of walls of light, but that would require many Jedi, and they'd eventually tire. I fear that my actions will eventually lead me to the Dark Side, and from there, to the depths of Darth Nihilus, and the immortality of Darth Sion. I could not allow that. I know these names might be running over your head, but rest assured, they are Sith Lords and Masters of eras long gone by.
I am not that old, nor do I possess their knowledge. I do know of their feats. You could say I learned from Darth Traya, the Betrayer. Man, when you think about it, I know about a lot of Sith Lords, and their words echo in my head every now and then. 'Power' they whisper 'is here, just a fingertip away' and the call is strong, Padawan. Make no mistake. The call is strong. I have not lived decades without knowing how to repress it, but even my strength of will is starting to fray. By the time you're reading this, you should be done with Tatooine. If things go as I foresee them, Anakin will be pleasantly surprised in finding his mother freed and employed at the Senate under Senator Padme Amidala. I couldn't do it before, not with Palpatine being there, but now everything should be solved.
Don't cry. I know, I know it might be hard, and you might be angry, and you might wonder why I pushed you away more than once, but you see, there is knowledge that isn't meant for you to know, just like there is knowledge no one else is meant to discover. I know a lot of things. I know of the greatest threats to come and of the most terrifying horrors that lurk the galaxy. I did what I could to stem the flow, but, in the end, I fear I failed at taking into account the most important thing of them all.
Prophecies need to be realized. You can't fight them, but you can misdirect them. So, there was no other choice. I'm entrusting the truth to you, Ahsoka, because I believe you alone should know. It's a heavy weight, this knowledge, but I'm sure you'll be able to live with it and grow stronger from it. The final lesson a Jedi should learn is that he, or she, should be willing to sacrifice his own life first, and if he cannot, then he is a hypocrite.
I played the game of deception from birth, Ahsoka. I am not a good man. I am not even a good Jedi. I am probably one of the most vicious Sith Lords that has ever lived, or one of the most hardcore fallen Dark Jedi. I should have let the Force run its course, but I refused to allow the deaths of thousands, of the young, of the innocent. My soft spot for them will be my downfall, Ahsoka, but so be it.
By the time you'll be done reading this, as I said, I'll be dead. If all went according to plan, Anakin Skywalker has found me on Dromund Kaas, has battled through the Sith Prophets that exist there and has found me in the temple, in the Nexus of the Dark Side of the Force. He will have battled me, already imbued in the Dark Side to the point where I doubt there will be much of my sanity left behind, and he will have killed me.
My death will bring back 'Balance' to the Force, if temporarily. That way, Anakin's prophecy will realize him as The Chosen One, and no one else will need to know that the Jedi Order and the Republic was saved by a Sith. Everything will be fine. Everyone will be happy. And Abeloth will not break free from her prison.
Well, everyone will be happy except for Anakin, but that's why I'm telling you. That's why I put you on a mission together with him to Tatooine. That's why I made sure you two got to know each other. Because you'll do the right thing, I know you'll be there to make sure he doesn't do something stupid.
And if I fail, well, if I fail and he does fall to the Dark Side...he is rash and stupid, and if you let him attack you while you're holding the High Ground, you can easily overpower him. When that happens, kill him. Do not let him live.
There can be no mercy.
Ahsoka gasped at the coldness of the words. Her hands couldn't even hold on to the Datapad any longer, as her breathing hitched. "Ahsoka?" Anakin asked, "Is everything all right back there?"
'My Master is a Sith Lord by necessity' didn't seem like the right way of breaking the argument to Anakin Skywalker. 'My Master is falling to the Dark Side on purpose in order to make your prophecy true, Chosen One' sounded a bit too venomous. 'My Master is a moron and I'm going to punch him hard on the face' sounded better.
"Ahsoka?" Anakin asked after silence was all that greeted his first query. Ahsoka bit her lips hard, to the point where she could taste the blood seeping through it, and finally relented.
"Anakin," Ahsoka whispered, "We're not going to Tatooine."
"What? Why?" Anakin asked. "Of course we are, the Jedi High Council-"
"We are heading to Dromund Kaas," Ahsoka said firmly, "We are heading there right now, and we are going to stop my Master from doing something stupid, and you will help me or rest assured I will drag this ship off the Hyperspace Routes with the Force."
"Did you just have a-all right," Anakin said, before adding, "You heard the padawan, R2! Set course for Dromund Kaas!" as he barked the order, R2 beeped and the Star Fighter quickly changed course. "Is he in pain?"
"No," Ahsoka whispered. "Not yet." She added. 'But he will be when I get within striking distance' was left unspoken. "I...I-" no, don't say 'vision', if you do, Anakin will reset the course to Tatooine because he knows how they work, because Master Shade told him, and Master Shade told him because he knew Anakin would have visions that he was not allowed to act upon. "I felt his fear," she lied. She lied, but Anakin bought it and said nothing more.
And Master Shade knew because he knew a lot of things.
He knew of Palpatine even before the war, the Datapad proved it, and because he knew and allowed it, it meant that...it meant that he was responsible for it. He was responsible for a lot of things.
Her Master was a Sith -he was just like Palpatine, good at hiding it.
Well, if that was the case, then she'd just have to stop him and find another solution. People could return from the Dark Side, and her Master was no different. Heck, he had rebounded from it again and again thanks to her, because he had chosen her on purpose.
He had chosen her for his own benefit.
The thoughts drifted across Ahsoka's mind, but she swatted them away. She would not allow her Master to play the part of the martyr, prophecy or not.
And to hell with everyone else.
Ahsoka spoke with her eyes down on Mister Fluffles' form, gingerly scratching the cat's ears as she recounted the tale of events that had brought her to become the apprentice of Master Shade. There wasn't much to speak of, all things said. Together, they had gone on just a few missions. They had been to Dantooine, to Felucia, to Florrum, he had met with her after Geonosis, they had spent time together of course in the temple, but most of the time her Master seemed to simply be on his own.
"Have you ever been in his rooms?" Barriss remarked. "Here in the temple, I mean."
Ahsoka frowned. She had been in her Master's meditation chambers, that much was sure, but...no, she had never been in his private rooms. "No, why?"
"You can find out a lot about your master by looking in their rooms," Barriss replied with the hint of a smile. "Master Luminara keeps a holocron collection of Mirialan fighting techniques under her bed, and has training equipment like bars and heavy weights. I don't need to ask her, or have a Bond with her, to know that she has a passion for fighting techniques."
Ahsoka looked up at the ceiling. "My Master's...strange, but the good type of strange," Ahsoka said. "I just don't understand him sometimes. He says he trusts me, and then he pushes me away. It's as if he can't wait to be rid of me."
Barriss hummed. "I don't know. Maybe he's doing it for your own good?"
"My own good?" Ahsoka asked. "My own good...I know the Bond's dangerous, but I can handle it. He can handle it. We all can handle it."
"But should you handle it?" Barriss remarked. "Attachment is prohibited, isn't it? To have such a Bond is by itself a leeway in the rule, and that makes it an easy trap into the Dark Side. I think your Master simply wishes what is best for you," the Mirialan said. "Unless he doesn't trust you, but I don't think that is the case. What kind of Master wouldn't trust his Padawan?"
Ahsoka looked sideways. "Yeah," she said. Her Master hadn't even told her how much of the war he had foreseen. He hadn't told her anything, always sidestepping, or saying 'later'. He had always tried to push her away, while at the same time keep her close. He did it because 'she always did the right thing', but wasn't that just for his benefit, rather than hers? What were the words of Master Shen-Jon? He did things for his benefit, rather than the benefit of both? She wasn't a tool to be conveniently used and then be discarded. Yet, it felt just like that.
"Well, I better go before I'm late meeting with my Master," Barriss acquiesced, "It was nice talking with you, Padawan Tano."
"Likewise," Ahsoka replied. "And...well, thanks, Padawan Offee."
Barriss smiled and walked away silently, leaving Ahsoka behind with her thoughts. Ahsoka gave a quick glance at the doors of the High Council, and then stood up from her bench. Well...she still had the Taozin nodule on her person -it was held around her neck and fashioned like an amulet- so her Master couldn't sense her in the Force. She decided to risk it.
If she always did the right thing, then rummaging through her Master's private rooms was without a doubt 'the right thing'. And her Master would understand, wouldn't he?
She ended up walking through the sleeping quarters of the initiates and past the Jedi Knight sector, with no one stopping her on the way -she was a Padawan, and she was headed towards the Jedi Master quarters, so why would anyone stop her when she was clearly going to meet up with her Master?
Now, the problem was that she didn't have a key for his room. On the other hand, the door was locked with a simple magnetic lock, and Ahsoka had the Force. No lock -especially electronic- could survive the Force applied in just the right way.
"Sorry about this, Master," Ahsoka whispered as a small burst of purple lightning emerged from the tip of her fingertips. Her Master had used the technique to disable droids, but it worked on electronic locks just fine. The door of his rooms slid open with a soft hiss, and Ahsoka held her breath as she stepped inside the pristine looking room. There wasn't-well, there was very little of personal. The doors closed behind Ahsoka, and the Togruta began to walk around, looking beneath the sofa, on the table, the desk, through the drawers...but there was utterly nothing. It was as if her Master had never slept in there to begin with -but there was his name outside the door.
Ahsoka scratched the underside of her chin, lost in thought. If she were her Master, where would she hide important documents? In a Datapad, a Datapad not connected to the web and hidden somewhere no one would think of looking for it. Ahsoka's eyes moved to the panels that hid the cupboards and dressers, and as she slid them open she took in the sight of a large amount of boxes piled one over the other in a dangerously precarious position.
Using the Force, she easily moved them aside while keeping them on the same level, and then her fingers moved gingerly to touch the wall behind them. The metallic wall was smooth, and without imperfections of sorts...so the hidden compartment behind the dresser was out.
Placing the cardboard boxes back in their place -after catching a quick peek and finding them only filled with robes- Ahsoka looked at Mister Fluffles, who meowed at her insistently from the bed.
"Mister Fluffles? Did you find something?" Ahsoka asked as she neared, and Mister Fluffles grinned and nodded, before pointing one of its paws at the bed's pillow. "My master wouldn't be that stupid," Ahsoka said dryly as she lifted the pillow, only to find the Datapad beneath it. She nervously chuckled. "Well-" she said. "Apparently...he can be."
The Datapad was password-protected. Using the Force to disable the password wasn't going to work -it would fry the Datapad. She had to resort to finding out the password. Now, what could the password be?
She drummed her fingers on the back of the Datapad, her attention on Mister Fluffles who returned a 'I don't know either' gaze. "Mandalore?" Ahsoka mumbled, trying the password only for it to fail. 'Do you want a hint?' the question popped up in the corner of the Datapad, and Ashoka's eyebrows rose. Her Master couldn't have possibly placed the password in the 'Suggestion' box. He couldn't have. Her Master couldn't be that stupid to-to actually-he couldn't.
The Gift of Prophecy, gifted to one whose warnings no one would ever heed.
"Right," Ahsoka drawled. "That's...helpful. Really helpful," she looked at the ceiling of her Master's bedroom, dropping her back against his bed. She closed her eyes, her nose breathing in the air that smelled so much like her Master it felt as if he was in the same room as her. If she concentrated hard, she could actually feel the tiny ripples of the Force in the room that bore his mark -the room had appeared unused just at first, but it did hold her Master's scent and Force mark, meaning he did spend time in it.
Mister Fluffles meowed from her side, and she bleakly opened her eyes to realize that outside, the sun was setting. Her eyes widened as the realization sunk in that she had fallen asleep in her Master's bedroom, on his bed, while he could have come back at any moment.
She jumped on her feet and rushed out of the room faster than she could blink, not even realizing she was clutching on to the Datapad until she was way back into the Padawan dormitories. Her breathing eased up only once she reached her room, and even then, only after she dropped the Datapad on her bed.
After she did that, however, she began to loudly curse her stupidity. She had stolen her Master's Datapad from his room, and if he found out-if he did, then he'd probably drop her as his Padawan. He was just looking for an excuse to push her away, and she had served him one on a silver platter.
Ahsoka ground her teeth and punched with her right fist the wall by her side. She winced at the pain, and then screamed as she punched the wall with her left and right fists repeatedly, venting off her frustration. Mister Fluffles meowed in fright as Ahsoka breathed in and out hard, sweat dropping from her brow.
"Why did I do that?!" Ahsoka snapped. "Why. I'm-I'm so stupid." She shuddered and shook her head. No, she could still salvage this. She just had to return the Datapad without her Master knowing, and once she did that-there was a knock at the door.
Her eyes wide, Ahsoka quickly hid the Datapad behind her-no! Hiding it behind the pillow was stupid! Better to hide it in her robes! "A moment!" Ahsoka blurted, checking the Datapad didn't show through the Jedi Robes, and once satisfied by that tiny fact, she headed to the door.
She had expected her Master. She was glad it turned out to be Knight Skywalker.
"Here you are," Anakin said. "Well, are you ready? We're leaving for Tatooine."
"What?" Ahsoka blurted out. "Already?"
"Yes," Anakin nodded. "We are." His voice was kind of sour. "I thought I had left that blasted planet behind...anyway, let's move. The faster we leave, the faster we return."
"I just have to do one thing before-" Ahsoka hung her head as she watched Knight Skywalker already start to walk towards the temple's hangar. "Hey! Are you even listening-" nothing, Knight Skywalker wasn't even slowing down. Groaning and grumbling, Ahsoka had no choice but to follow. She ended up departing for Tatooine with Knight Skywalker and his droid inside a Star Fighter, while holding on to her Master's Datapad hidden inside her robes. Seriously, this stroke of bad luck was impossible. It was like a series of unfortunate events, one after the other.
What had she done to deserve it?
She just wanted to understand her Master better, was that too much to ask?
"You're surprisingly silent," Anakin said after a few hours. "Are you nervous?"
"Not really," Ahsoka said. "I don't want to take the trials," she added. "I don't feel ready."
"Uh," Anakin said. "When I was your age, I couldn't wait to become a Knight."
Ahsoka looked bitterly out at the vastness of space, and at her reflection in the cockpit's glass. "I'm not you."
"Is it because you don't want to leave your Master's side?" Anakin asked.
Ahsoka bristled at the accusation. "It hasn't even been a year," Ahsoka said. "How can I be ready to become a Knight if it hasn't even been a year since he began to teach me? There's so much he knows, so much he could teach me. I can feel it through our Bond, he just knows so much. It's..."
"Maybe it's not knowledge meant for you to know," Anakin replied. "You can't always be fed with a spoon. You need to learn how to eat by yourself."
Ahsoka's right hand moved to the Datapad, and she quietly took it out. Since she was in the seat behind, there was no way for Knight Skywalker to see her. She had more than a few hours before their arrival on Tatooine. "Maybe you're right, Skyguy," Ahsoka said. "Maybe I need to start learning by myself," starting with the Datapad. "Do you know of anyone gifted with prophecy that nobody believed in?"
"What's with the question?" Anakin asked.
"Well, if you don't know the answer then it's fine-"
"That came out of the left field," Anakin acquiesced, "But it should be Cassandra. Did Night ask you that? It's a story he told a long time ago about-"
Quick as lightning, Ahsoka tapped 'Cassandra' in the password field, and grinned like the Cheshire Cat himself when the Datapad opened up, the password correct.
The Datapad held a crimson and black desktop, with more than a few documents written in a language that Ahsoka couldn't understand. One, however, was written in Basic.
Ahsoka felt dread as she read the title of it. 'To the attention of my Padawan, Ahsoka Tano.'
Sweating, Ahsoka pushed the button to read the document. Her Master was a seer, capable of seeing the future, so of course he'd know she'd try to steal his Datapad! How stupid was she, to think he hadn't foreseen such a thing from happening?
By the time you'll be reading these lines, I'll probably be dead.
Ahsoka froze.
No. Wait. This wasn't-this wasn't a warning for her. This was...this was her Master's will.
You will probably feel betrayed. I would be. Yet, I hope you understand this was for the Greater Good, and also for the sake of everyone else. I tried my hardest not to lie to you, but I did misdirect. I'm very good at misdirection. Master Yoda can teach a wolf to like vegetables, but he can't stop the wolf from growing claws. I knew from the day I realized my power that it would be a fight against time. My powers-they can't be stopped. I could live the rest of my life in a prison made of walls of light, but that would require many Jedi, and they'd eventually tire. I fear that my actions will eventually lead me to the Dark Side, and from there, to the depths of Darth Nihilus, and the immortality of Darth Sion. I could not allow that. I know these names might be running over your head, but rest assured, they are Sith Lords and Masters of eras long gone by.
I am not that old, nor do I possess their knowledge. I do know of their feats. You could say I learned from Darth Traya, the Betrayer. Man, when you think about it, I know about a lot of Sith Lords, and their words echo in my head every now and then. 'Power' they whisper 'is here, just a fingertip away' and the call is strong, Padawan. Make no mistake. The call is strong. I have not lived decades without knowing how to repress it, but even my strength of will is starting to fray. By the time you're reading this, you should be done with Tatooine. If things go as I foresee them, Anakin will be pleasantly surprised in finding his mother freed and employed at the Senate under Senator Padme Amidala. I couldn't do it before, not with Palpatine being there, but now everything should be solved.
Don't cry. I know, I know it might be hard, and you might be angry, and you might wonder why I pushed you away more than once, but you see, there is knowledge that isn't meant for you to know, just like there is knowledge no one else is meant to discover. I know a lot of things. I know of the greatest threats to come and of the most terrifying horrors that lurk the galaxy. I did what I could to stem the flow, but, in the end, I fear I failed at taking into account the most important thing of them all.
Prophecies need to be realized. You can't fight them, but you can misdirect them. So, there was no other choice. I'm entrusting the truth to you, Ahsoka, because I believe you alone should know. It's a heavy weight, this knowledge, but I'm sure you'll be able to live with it and grow stronger from it. The final lesson a Jedi should learn is that he, or she, should be willing to sacrifice his own life first, and if he cannot, then he is a hypocrite.
I played the game of deception from birth, Ahsoka. I am not a good man. I am not even a good Jedi. I am probably one of the most vicious Sith Lords that has ever lived, or one of the most hardcore fallen Dark Jedi. I should have let the Force run its course, but I refused to allow the deaths of thousands, of the young, of the innocent. My soft spot for them will be my downfall, Ahsoka, but so be it.
By the time you'll be done reading this, as I said, I'll be dead. If all went according to plan, Anakin Skywalker has found me on Dromund Kaas, has battled through the Sith Prophets that exist there and has found me in the temple, in the Nexus of the Dark Side of the Force. He will have battled me, already imbued in the Dark Side to the point where I doubt there will be much of my sanity left behind, and he will have killed me.
My death will bring back 'Balance' to the Force, if temporarily. That way, Anakin's prophecy will realize him as The Chosen One, and no one else will need to know that the Jedi Order and the Republic was saved by a Sith. Everything will be fine. Everyone will be happy. And Abeloth will not break free from her prison.
Well, everyone will be happy except for Anakin, but that's why I'm telling you. That's why I put you on a mission together with him to Tatooine. That's why I made sure you two got to know each other. Because you'll do the right thing, I know you'll be there to make sure he doesn't do something stupid.
And if I fail, well, if I fail and he does fall to the Dark Side...he is rash and stupid, and if you let him attack you while you're holding the High Ground, you can easily overpower him. When that happens, kill him. Do not let him live.
There can be no mercy.
Ahsoka gasped at the coldness of the words. Her hands couldn't even hold on to the Datapad any longer, as her breathing hitched. "Ahsoka?" Anakin asked, "Is everything all right back there?"
'My Master is a Sith Lord by necessity' didn't seem like the right way of breaking the argument to Anakin Skywalker. 'My Master is falling to the Dark Side on purpose in order to make your prophecy true, Chosen One' sounded a bit too venomous. 'My Master is a moron and I'm going to punch him hard on the face' sounded better.
"Ahsoka?" Anakin asked after silence was all that greeted his first query. Ahsoka bit her lips hard, to the point where she could taste the blood seeping through it, and finally relented.
"Anakin," Ahsoka whispered, "We're not going to Tatooine."
"What? Why?" Anakin asked. "Of course we are, the Jedi High Council-"
"We are heading to Dromund Kaas," Ahsoka said firmly, "We are heading there right now, and we are going to stop my Master from doing something stupid, and you will help me or rest assured I will drag this ship off the Hyperspace Routes with the Force."
"Did you just have a-all right," Anakin said, before adding, "You heard the padawan, R2! Set course for Dromund Kaas!" as he barked the order, R2 beeped and the Star Fighter quickly changed course. "Is he in pain?"
"No," Ahsoka whispered. "Not yet." She added. 'But he will be when I get within striking distance' was left unspoken. "I...I-" no, don't say 'vision', if you do, Anakin will reset the course to Tatooine because he knows how they work, because Master Shade told him, and Master Shade told him because he knew Anakin would have visions that he was not allowed to act upon. "I felt his fear," she lied. She lied, but Anakin bought it and said nothing more.
And Master Shade knew because he knew a lot of things.
He knew of Palpatine even before the war, the Datapad proved it, and because he knew and allowed it, it meant that...it meant that he was responsible for it. He was responsible for a lot of things.
Her Master was a Sith -he was just like Palpatine, good at hiding it.
Well, if that was the case, then she'd just have to stop him and find another solution. People could return from the Dark Side, and her Master was no different. Heck, he had rebounded from it again and again thanks to her, because he had chosen her on purpose.
He had chosen her for his own benefit.
The thoughts drifted across Ahsoka's mind, but she swatted them away. She would not allow her Master to play the part of the martyr, prophecy or not.
And to hell with everyone else.
Oh god no, this is where you kill Ahsoka and turn to the dark side, crushing the galaxy beneath your heel in a fit of grimdark. DON'T GIVE IN. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
That said, while it's amusing to taunt your 'dark' side with comments like this, I really do like your writing, even though I don't enjoy most of your other stories themselves.
<3
That said, while it's amusing to taunt your 'dark' side with comments like this, I really do like your writing, even though I don't enjoy most of your other stories themselves.
<3
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Richardson
CAN YOU HEAR THE PEOPLE SING?
- Location
- Yes
Awww, Ahsoka is going Tsun-Tsun on Shade. Now she only needs to knock that baka out with a well-timed smack to the head and drag him back to the temple to shake the stupid out of him, and her journey towards the anime-side will be complete!
Dragonskyt
Ashen one, hearest thou my voice, still?
- Location
- Kiln of the First Flame
Ahsoka is an idiot. Anakin is an idiot. Shade is an idiot.
They are all fricking idiots!
They are all fricking idiots!
A plan with his plan to take into account that Ahsoka now knows his plan so now he needs to plan around his plan in order to circumvent Ahsoka planning around his plan so he'll need to plan around his plan around her plan around his plan.
...
I dont feel so good.
Shade is genre savvy and he knows he's dealing with a Disney princess and hardheaded teenager. I wouldn't be surprised if he's not running a Gambit Pileup.
Wait. Wrong trope. Probably a Xanatos Gambit.
Oh, I dunno. Shade should have accounted for Asohka breaking into his room somehow.
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Dragonskyt
Ashen one, hearest thou my voice, still?
- Location
- Kiln of the First Flame
Now I have this odd idea where Shade unwillingly collects all these MC's from different universes. They all flock towards him under one banner.
And some Big Bad, who's desire was to make use of these MC's, for some twisted reason, is suddenly confused as to where the heck all these MC's disappeared to.
Instead of the Hero (Shade) having to save the MC's from the Big Bad, they are all already saved and there's nothing for the Big Bad to corrupt/mess up.
And some Big Bad, who's desire was to make use of these MC's, for some twisted reason, is suddenly confused as to where the heck all these MC's disappeared to.
Instead of the Hero (Shade) having to save the MC's from the Big Bad, they are all already saved and there's nothing for the Big Bad to corrupt/mess up.
... Bariss is Littlefinger Reborn, isn't she.
Ridiculously Average Guy
I'm you, but stronger
- Location
-
Well shit. This isn't going to go well.
Oh I am slain!
Wynaut?
- Location
- Tatooine
...wait, what the hell is Barriss saying? I can picture Shadenight gleefully writing her dialogue and thinking, "Hmm, what can Barriss say that'll trip the most 'evil' and/or 'incompetent' flags while still convincing Ahsoka to go along with her advice?"
EP II - Chapter Seven
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
Chapter Seven
Dromund Kaas was a land filled with swamps and lush jungles, and with an air of darkness around it that made Ahsoka uneasy just by looking at it through the Star-Fighter's cockpit window while they proceeded to land in one of the few clearings they could find -and which had all the signs of having been cleared recently. The transponder signal of the Ebon Hawk beeped nearby, a clear sign that her Master had already landed on the planet -he had probably left the Jedi Temple the moment he had watched their own ship leave, and all things considered, it was obvious why he had let the transponder signal of his ship active.
He wanted to be tracked to the planet.
"Let's go find him," Anakin said as he descended from the ship, Ahsoka quickly jumping down behind him. "Do you have any idea where he could be?"
Mister Fluffles meowed, and began to walk cautiously forward. "This way," Ahsoka said, holding her hands near her lightsabers, her expression wary. They had the benefit of surprise by their side. Her master wouldn't expect them so soon, and he couldn't sense them thanks to the Taozin nodules. No matter what happened now, it was all a matter of getting her Master to see reason. The troubling fact was that she hoped even against all odds that her Master could be saved.
There was little else to it but a childish hope. It was a childish hope.
Childish hopes do not survive the test of time.
It was sudden, but the swamp and the jungle drifted away beneath their very feet, leaving the place to a charred land of ashes and spitting hot fire. Moats of lava slowly pulsed by their sides, as thin strips of charred ashen land stuck in the middle of the glowing hot lakes like scar tissue on raw skin. In the distance, a tall tower cast its burning crimson eyes around the land, its fierceness and hatred growing with each passing second. Anakin stumbled on his next step, and looked around with a sense of foreboding dread. "What is this?!" Anakin asked.
"Be careful!" Ahsoka replied. "We're in Wonderland now!"
At least, it looked like a version of Wonderland, but it was darker, more rooted in malice than actual darkness. It was similar, yet distinctively different.
Mister Fluffles meowed with a tone of alarm, and Ahsoka's eyes snapped forward, to where a pair of figures stood in the charred land around them. Two men cloaked in dark robes, frayed and tattered by time, loomed like ghosts in front of them. They shrieked in a long wail that held no meaning, and long blades of thin metal rose from the burning grounds.
"Serve the Emperor above all others," they whispered harshly, and charged forward with their swords drawn.
Ahsoka rolled to the side, avoiding the plunging motion of one as the hot ground stuck ashes of charred black to her skin, while Anakin ignited his lightsaber to parry the blow of the second one. Ahsoka crouched, avoiding a swing, and jumped back igniting both of her lightsabers.
The blade of thin metal sailed through the air with the speed of a whip, and the flexibility of one. It was a sword, and yet when it struck the lightsaber it did not melt, nor bend. It simply created sparks as the strength made Ahsoka stumble on her next step, and forced her to rethink her strategy. The creature wailed again, and lifted his left hand towards her. Mister Fluffles roared as he took that as the moment to move forward, but all it resulted in was his body starting to float in the air, as he meowed in distress from his throat being constricted by the Force.
The ghostly figure stabbed at Mister Fluffles, but Ahsoka brought both of her blades down on the side of the enemy's sword, and made it stick to the ground. Spinning in mid-air, she brought them both down on the Sith's head, only for the creature to shift backwards and lift its blade in defense.
The strike that would have severed its head harmlessly hit the blade and bounced off, but in so doing Mister Fluffles dropped on the ground on all fours, lightsabers now drawn and lit. With four blades entering the fray, the robed figure would have had no choice but to enter a defensive stance.
It didn't.
As Mister Fluffles struck him, he didn't defend against the lightsabers, letting them cut his robes as his sword came crashing down on Ahsoka's guard.
Well, if she had allowed it, but she had felt the creature's strength, and she wasn't stupid. She didn't parry the blow, as much as nimbly avoid it. She couldn't use strength against such a foe, and she apparently couldn't strike him down with lightsabers. That left only one thing. Her hands both came up as the Force answered her call, and as she pushed the creature away, it answered by slamming its sword down on the ground to hold its place.
Mister Fluffles pushed his paws forward too, and in a concentrated effort they both managed, together, to send the robed and frayed figure straight into the lava of the charred landscape. The frayed figure screamed shrilly as it began to burn, bony hands clawing at its robes and trying to snuff out the flames that devoured through its body.
The screams made Ahsoka shudder as she turned to look at Skywalker, who had followed her action the moment he had seen it work. As both figures burned to ashes and disappeared from sight, Anakin neared her with his breathing quick. "What were those things?! I'm pretty sure I struck mine a dozen times."
"This is Wonderland," Ahsoka explained. "It's...it's a place. Master Shade has some control on it, but not much. When the Force is heavy, it's easier to slip inside. We should be getting closer to the tower," Ahsoka said. "It's where Master Shade probably is."
The heat stifled Ahsoka, and her skin sweated to the point where she removed her robes after just a few more steps. "Is it me, or is it getting hotter by the second?" Anakin asked with dread after a few more minutes of walking.
"Yeah," Ahsoka replied. "It is."
The stifling heat made breathing hard, but by that point even taking a step on the ashen land was enough to make Ahsoka wince. Mister Fluffles jumped back and forth on the hot surface, trying to keep as little as possible of his paws on it. The two Jedi trudged along the ashes, which crunched beneath their feet, for what felt like hours.
Finally, something different than black ashes and lava revealed itself over the horizon, a large, tall wall made of pure black stone. In front of it, an army of twitching, rotten corpses stood by with glowing, crimson eyes.
"There's a lot of them," Anakin murmured. "We can't face them all."
"My Master's beyond them," Ahsoka replied hotly. "We aren't stopping here."
"Patience Snips," Anakin hissed back. "We can't pretty much charge an army alone."
Ahsoka glanced sideways at Anakin. She then looked back at the army of rotten corpses. She looked at the lava nearby and winced at the heat emanating from it. "My Master can use the Force to nullify the heat," she said in the end in a soft whisper. "We could...cross the lake?"
Anakin's eyebrows both rose. "That's-we aren't Night, Snips."
Ahsoka bristled. "Maybe you're a defeatist, but I'm not. I say we can do it if we just try."
Anakin stared at her with a puzzled expression, which however soon melted in a resigned smirk. "I appreciate your enthusiasm, Padawan. I do have a better idea, though." His hands moved forward as he closed his eyes, and Ahsoka felt herself being lifted. "I'll join you on the other side," he added offhandedly, and before Ahsoka could protest, she found herself thrown high in the air.
The Force rippled at her passage in the air as Mister Fluffles meowed in surprise from the top of her head, holding tight to her montrals as if his life depended on it. Ahsoka merely chuckled as she 'fell horizontally' as her Master would have said, using the Force to direct her ascension and descent.
The ground neared a bit too fast for her tastes on the other side, and as she crouched in mid-air to dull her fall, she used the Force to deaden the blow on her legs. She landed firmly on the ground beyond the gates, and gasped for air. Knight Skywalker was probably as mad as her Master -seriously, who ever thought about 'throwing a padawan'?
Now she just had to wait for Skywalker to-
The ground trembled beneath her feet, and Ahsoka groaned out loud.
Seriously, couldn't she just catch a break!?
Large, clawed hands broke free from the ground as the flaming skull of a large beast emerged, soon followed by a massive, burning body with large leathery wings. A whip of fire, large and with several thongs, was firmly clasped in its right hand. It was several feet taller than Ahsoka, and bellowed with a furious roar that shook the ground. Ahsoka stared at the thing with narrow eyes. There was no talking. There wasn't even a message behind it. It was simply a creature of fire and shadows, whose only purpose was to kill her. No talking, no secret plans, no means of defeating it past a brutal showdown.
And as it swung its right arm in the air the whip came crashing down on the ground where Ahsoka had been a second before, igniting the very ashes into a molten no man's land. Flames lambasted and screamed in the air as waves of heat erupted from the creature's body. The kid's gloves were off.
This wasn't Wonderland anymore, no more than it could have been her Master's intention. This was malice, and hatred, and anger. This was darkness and power, thrumming in the depths of hell and maybe even further beneath it. This wasn't just the Force, it was power and magic, maybe even reality now. Ahsoka gasped for air as the Balrog charged at her with his massive frame, the ground shaking with each of its steps. A sword of flame appeared in its left hand, and his left arm moved to slice at her.
It took Mister Fluffles' Akul form and four lightsabers ignited to halt the blow, and even then the Akul-sized cat found itself digging his claws in the ground as it was pushed back. The whip of fire came crashing down next, igniting around Mister Fluffles' body and starting to char his fur, as with a ferocious roar, the Akul plummeted his head against that of the Balrog.
The resounding crack made the Balrog scream as he recoiled of barely a single step. The lightsabers flashed in the air, striking at the shadows which burst, and then reformed upon the body. Letting go of them, useless against such a foe, Mister Fluffles pummeled at the beast with all four of his arms. The Balrog answered in kind, flames wrapping his body and shadows enhancing it.
A furious, murderous hatred piled over Ahsoka's frame as she stared at the fight between giants that was nothing short than a test of will between her and the darkness shrouding the place.
And the Balrog wasn't even the final enemy. She could feel it, taste it in the air, and the knowledge that ripped her soul raw and made it bleed was that in the end, she was but a fly against a wall. If it was the power of the Force Nexus aiding her Master, she didn't know. What she did know was that she couldn't manage alone, and yet she had no choice but to.
This wasn't a test or a trial. Her Master had absolutely no intention of testing her like this -because he disliked teaching with pain, he disliked it, and he wasn't for this. He'd never be for this.
So this wasn't her Master.
This wasn't her Master's Wonderland. There was no Wonder here. There was nothing of shocking, or surprising. There was nothing of beautiful in a land of charred ashes and lava. This was a land of fire and ashes, and she'd be damned if she let it take hold.
"You aren't even that scary," Ahsoka bitterly shot back at the Balrog, even as Mister Fluffles meowed and was thrown in the air by the beast. She grabbed her courage with both hands, and carefully brought her lightsabers, as well as those that Mister Fluffles had dropped, to float in front of her. Six lightsabers floated around her, and as Ahsoka took a deep, centering breath, she found peace.
"There is no emotion," Ahsoka whispered as the Balrog roared, whip of fire and flames rushing forth for her. A lightsaber swatted the fire away, and a second sliced the whip. "There is peace."
The Balrog's feet dug in the ashes as it roared again, this time lowering its body to charge at her with its massive body, and its flaming sword in hand. "There is no ignorance, there is knowledge," Ahsoka said, and Mister Fluffles' fallen form twitched as its tail shot forth to grip at one of the Balrog's legs, making him stumble and lose its balance.
The Balrog's hand still gripped its sword, but a lightsaber struck his wrist, and in the moment where the shadows and the flames lost consistency, the flaming blade fell from the monster's clutch. "There is no passion, there is serenity." Ahsoka brought both hands in front of her, even as the Balrog's body neared her to the point where there was little she could have done to dodge it, even if she had wanted to.
But she didn't.
You did not face anger and hatred by avoiding it. You stood firm, feet dug in the ground, and you met passion, anger and hatred with a calm heart and a firm hand.
"There is no death," the fourth and fifth lightsaber sliced at the Balrog's frame right in its chest, "There is the Force." The sixth lightsaber punched a hole through the Balrog's skull just as its head landed an inch away from Ahsoka's own. The hulking creature of darkness exploded through Ahsoka's body, the passionate feelings passing her through like a sickly miasma, yet not touching her the slightest as the Balrog's corpse dropped down past her frame, face down on the ashen ground.
Ahsoka shuddered as she took a deep lungful of fresh air, the lakes of lava slowly cooling off as the air began to turn colder and breezier, the ashes drifting off to reveal an earthy ground below.
The gates behind her cracked and trembled, before falling down to reveal a soot covered Knight Skywalker coughing his way past them, swatting away the clouds of dust. "A cinch," he said with a light cough. "It was a cinch."
Ahsoka flatly looked back at him.
"Come on Snips," Anakin said, taking point once more. "We're nearly there, aren't we?"
"I-There's something I need to tell you, Anakin," Ahsoka said. "My Master's-He's probably-"
"Expecting me to kill him," Anakin said calmly.
Ahsoka froze on her next step. "Wait. What. You knew?!"
"Of course I do," Anakin bristled. "You think your Master's the only one who has visions? I am strong in the Force myself-highest count of Midichlorians ever seen, didn't you know?"
Ahsoka stared at Anakin with a shocked expression as the Knight simply scoffed. "But you know what? If there's one thing I've learned is that we are the only ones who get to pick our destiny. The Force can show us the future, but it is up to us to pick it up." He shrugged. "And I will refuse to kill him. It doesn't matter what he'll say, or if he'll try to kill me. I am not going to kill a friend, no matter what happens."
"But Master Shade would kill you if you turned Dark," Ahsoka blurted out, only for Anakin to stare at her and lift an eyebrow.
"You don't know your Master at all, do you Snips?" Anakin chuckled.
No. Ahsoka feared the opposite was true.
Anakin Skywalker didn't know her Master at all.
Nobody knew her Master at all.
All of the certainty she felt over her Master disappeared as if sucked away by a cold, icy breeze. Her next step was unsure, and the one after that felt as heavy as lead.
The earthy ground turned to mush, and to swamp. Even as Anakin walked surely on it, he turned when he realized she was slowing down.
"Snips? Why are you slowing down?" he asked in concern.
"I-" Ahsoka shuddered. "I just don't know anymore." There was the burning sensation of tears in her eyes.
And fear, cold, unsettling, deep, entrenching fear ensnared her soul as chains burst from the ground much to Anakin's surprise. As they clutched around Ahsoka's body tightly and dug in her skin, dragging her below the swamp, she could barely manage a scream towards Skywalker, who extended a hand, but was too late to grab hold of her.
She disappeared in the darkness, the suffocating, all-encompassing darkness.
The chains stopped digging into her skin once she was in the darkness, as if the lack of light meant she couldn't escape any longer. Her arms hugged her frame as the cold seeped through her skin like an icy storm of needles, the shudders making her skin crawl with goosebumps.
And in the darkness, Ahsoka screamed.
In the darkness, Ahsoka cried.
In the darkness, doubt ruled undisputed, unchallenged, and unquestioned.
"Will you walk into my parlour?" a deep, groveling voice growled in the pits of that darkness. "Tis the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy. The way into my parlour is up a winding stair, and I've many a curious thing to shew when you are there."
The voice grew quiet.
Ahsoka didn't move. She didn't breathe. She didn't as much as glance up from where her face was, pressed against her knees as she hugged her legs in the featureless darkness.
"Do not give me the answer you have been taught to give!" her Master had said. "Give me the answer you believe in! Knowledge taught is seldom left unchallenged by the trials of doubt, but the knowledge we believe in shall stand even against the mightiest of truths!"
"Stay calm, Padawan. Doubt is truly a frightening creature," her Master's voice had come as a whisper near her ear. "First, it silently slinks near you, and waits. The moment you are distracted, the moment you no longer pay attention to it, it starts to climb over your body. Doubt makes you worry, because doubt means there is ignorance, mistrust, fear, and accusations start to pop up. If you doubt your friends, are they really your friends? If you doubt your allies, are they really your allies? If you doubt your teachers, can you trust their teachings? And when doubt grows, it slowly paralyzes you. It constricts you, it tightens its hold, and when the time comes, it snuffs the light out of you."
"When you realize that doubt is paralyzing you," her master's voice kept coming on peacefully, at ease even, as if this was normal, "We try to fight it. The problem lies in that doubt is a self-reproducing beast. On whom do we trust, if we did not trust our previous friends? Which teachings do we believe in, if those before failed us? How can we trust once more? How can we trust, if people betray?"
Her master had told her the answer.
Hadn't he told her the answer a long, long time before?
Then why was she doubting now?
Why now, of all times, was she falling prey to doubt?
It wasn't like her at all.
This wasn't her.
No, she refused to let this be her. She had to believe.
Mister Fluffles meowed in front of her, and she could feel the light warm her face. She cracked an eye open, and then the other. Mister Fluffles was an orange ball of sunshine in the pits of darkness. Mister Fluffles' orange eyes looked straight at hers, and in the darkness around them, the clicking of thousands of fangs and legs nimbly spread. A multitude of eyes stared through the darkness, spiders as big as dogs, or larger than humans, stood around her. Mister Fluffles meowed again, lifting its tail and swishing it back and forth, looking at her with a hopeful gaze.
"I'm so stupid, ain't I?" Ahsoka mumbled, a small smile on her lips. "This was never about trusting or not my Master. This wasn't about believing in him or not. This-This is about me, isn't it?"
Believe in yourself. Not in the you who believes in me. Not the me who believes in you. Believe in the you who believes in yourself.
How far back had her Master seen?
How far back had he planned?
He hadn't lied in the Datapad.
He truly was devious, more devious than any Sith, and terrifying, horrifying, cold and calculating.
She just had to accept it.
She just had to accept it was part of him, just like she had her own darkness.
Carefully, she stood up. Crying or screaming wouldn't help her insecurities. Fear wouldn't help her judgment. She steeled her gaze on the spiders as she clenched her right hand.
It didn't matter how many enemies she had to face in front of her.
It didn't matter how pitch-black the darkness.
it didn't matter how terrifying the truth could be.
Nothing mattered, but what she decided to do.
And in that moment, in that precise moment, she wanted to punch her Master's face.
So, without further ado, Ahsoka Tano charged forward. She did not charge with a scream of fury, or a roar of challenge.
Ahsoka Tano charged forward with cold eyes and a gleam of determination that made the first of her enemies, a large spider the size of a small house, falter and twitch in fear.
When faced with determination, all but the most courageous of foes falter.
When faced with certainty, all but the most strong of enemies start to doubt.
"I'm coming, Master. So, prepare your nose for my fist!" Ahsoka yelled as she pushed through the carapace of the giant spider, emerging out of a shower of green blood and entrails to land with her feet firmly planted on solid ground once more, the air a breeze and the clouds white and fluffy up in the air.
She was out of the darkness.
The road to the tower was near its end.
Mister Fluffles meowed as he looked at her from the cobblestone road made of golden stones, as if implying she had to follow him. Ahsoka grinned and began to walk on it.
"Hey, Mister Fluffles," Ahsoka remarked, arms crossed behind her head as her steps grew light. "Do you think-Do you think Skyguy's doing fine?"
Mister Fluffles turned pensive, and then, with a calm and tiny squeak replied.
"He's the Chosen One, Ahsoka. Of course he's fine."
Ahsoka chuckled.
Then she stopped.
Then she looked down at Mister Fluffles.
And Mister Fluffles looked back up at her with a grin that was eerily reminiscing of the Cheshire Cat's one.
"Cat-like hallucinations," Ahsoka said dryly. "They grow up so fast."
Mister Fluffles, to that statement, merely giggled back.
Dromund Kaas was a land filled with swamps and lush jungles, and with an air of darkness around it that made Ahsoka uneasy just by looking at it through the Star-Fighter's cockpit window while they proceeded to land in one of the few clearings they could find -and which had all the signs of having been cleared recently. The transponder signal of the Ebon Hawk beeped nearby, a clear sign that her Master had already landed on the planet -he had probably left the Jedi Temple the moment he had watched their own ship leave, and all things considered, it was obvious why he had let the transponder signal of his ship active.
He wanted to be tracked to the planet.
"Let's go find him," Anakin said as he descended from the ship, Ahsoka quickly jumping down behind him. "Do you have any idea where he could be?"
Mister Fluffles meowed, and began to walk cautiously forward. "This way," Ahsoka said, holding her hands near her lightsabers, her expression wary. They had the benefit of surprise by their side. Her master wouldn't expect them so soon, and he couldn't sense them thanks to the Taozin nodules. No matter what happened now, it was all a matter of getting her Master to see reason. The troubling fact was that she hoped even against all odds that her Master could be saved.
There was little else to it but a childish hope. It was a childish hope.
Childish hopes do not survive the test of time.
It was sudden, but the swamp and the jungle drifted away beneath their very feet, leaving the place to a charred land of ashes and spitting hot fire. Moats of lava slowly pulsed by their sides, as thin strips of charred ashen land stuck in the middle of the glowing hot lakes like scar tissue on raw skin. In the distance, a tall tower cast its burning crimson eyes around the land, its fierceness and hatred growing with each passing second. Anakin stumbled on his next step, and looked around with a sense of foreboding dread. "What is this?!" Anakin asked.
"Be careful!" Ahsoka replied. "We're in Wonderland now!"
At least, it looked like a version of Wonderland, but it was darker, more rooted in malice than actual darkness. It was similar, yet distinctively different.
Mister Fluffles meowed with a tone of alarm, and Ahsoka's eyes snapped forward, to where a pair of figures stood in the charred land around them. Two men cloaked in dark robes, frayed and tattered by time, loomed like ghosts in front of them. They shrieked in a long wail that held no meaning, and long blades of thin metal rose from the burning grounds.
"Serve the Emperor above all others," they whispered harshly, and charged forward with their swords drawn.
Ahsoka rolled to the side, avoiding the plunging motion of one as the hot ground stuck ashes of charred black to her skin, while Anakin ignited his lightsaber to parry the blow of the second one. Ahsoka crouched, avoiding a swing, and jumped back igniting both of her lightsabers.
The blade of thin metal sailed through the air with the speed of a whip, and the flexibility of one. It was a sword, and yet when it struck the lightsaber it did not melt, nor bend. It simply created sparks as the strength made Ahsoka stumble on her next step, and forced her to rethink her strategy. The creature wailed again, and lifted his left hand towards her. Mister Fluffles roared as he took that as the moment to move forward, but all it resulted in was his body starting to float in the air, as he meowed in distress from his throat being constricted by the Force.
The ghostly figure stabbed at Mister Fluffles, but Ahsoka brought both of her blades down on the side of the enemy's sword, and made it stick to the ground. Spinning in mid-air, she brought them both down on the Sith's head, only for the creature to shift backwards and lift its blade in defense.
The strike that would have severed its head harmlessly hit the blade and bounced off, but in so doing Mister Fluffles dropped on the ground on all fours, lightsabers now drawn and lit. With four blades entering the fray, the robed figure would have had no choice but to enter a defensive stance.
It didn't.
As Mister Fluffles struck him, he didn't defend against the lightsabers, letting them cut his robes as his sword came crashing down on Ahsoka's guard.
Well, if she had allowed it, but she had felt the creature's strength, and she wasn't stupid. She didn't parry the blow, as much as nimbly avoid it. She couldn't use strength against such a foe, and she apparently couldn't strike him down with lightsabers. That left only one thing. Her hands both came up as the Force answered her call, and as she pushed the creature away, it answered by slamming its sword down on the ground to hold its place.
Mister Fluffles pushed his paws forward too, and in a concentrated effort they both managed, together, to send the robed and frayed figure straight into the lava of the charred landscape. The frayed figure screamed shrilly as it began to burn, bony hands clawing at its robes and trying to snuff out the flames that devoured through its body.
The screams made Ahsoka shudder as she turned to look at Skywalker, who had followed her action the moment he had seen it work. As both figures burned to ashes and disappeared from sight, Anakin neared her with his breathing quick. "What were those things?! I'm pretty sure I struck mine a dozen times."
"This is Wonderland," Ahsoka explained. "It's...it's a place. Master Shade has some control on it, but not much. When the Force is heavy, it's easier to slip inside. We should be getting closer to the tower," Ahsoka said. "It's where Master Shade probably is."
The heat stifled Ahsoka, and her skin sweated to the point where she removed her robes after just a few more steps. "Is it me, or is it getting hotter by the second?" Anakin asked with dread after a few more minutes of walking.
"Yeah," Ahsoka replied. "It is."
The stifling heat made breathing hard, but by that point even taking a step on the ashen land was enough to make Ahsoka wince. Mister Fluffles jumped back and forth on the hot surface, trying to keep as little as possible of his paws on it. The two Jedi trudged along the ashes, which crunched beneath their feet, for what felt like hours.
Finally, something different than black ashes and lava revealed itself over the horizon, a large, tall wall made of pure black stone. In front of it, an army of twitching, rotten corpses stood by with glowing, crimson eyes.
"There's a lot of them," Anakin murmured. "We can't face them all."
"My Master's beyond them," Ahsoka replied hotly. "We aren't stopping here."
"Patience Snips," Anakin hissed back. "We can't pretty much charge an army alone."
Ahsoka glanced sideways at Anakin. She then looked back at the army of rotten corpses. She looked at the lava nearby and winced at the heat emanating from it. "My Master can use the Force to nullify the heat," she said in the end in a soft whisper. "We could...cross the lake?"
Anakin's eyebrows both rose. "That's-we aren't Night, Snips."
Ahsoka bristled. "Maybe you're a defeatist, but I'm not. I say we can do it if we just try."
Anakin stared at her with a puzzled expression, which however soon melted in a resigned smirk. "I appreciate your enthusiasm, Padawan. I do have a better idea, though." His hands moved forward as he closed his eyes, and Ahsoka felt herself being lifted. "I'll join you on the other side," he added offhandedly, and before Ahsoka could protest, she found herself thrown high in the air.
The Force rippled at her passage in the air as Mister Fluffles meowed in surprise from the top of her head, holding tight to her montrals as if his life depended on it. Ahsoka merely chuckled as she 'fell horizontally' as her Master would have said, using the Force to direct her ascension and descent.
The ground neared a bit too fast for her tastes on the other side, and as she crouched in mid-air to dull her fall, she used the Force to deaden the blow on her legs. She landed firmly on the ground beyond the gates, and gasped for air. Knight Skywalker was probably as mad as her Master -seriously, who ever thought about 'throwing a padawan'?
Now she just had to wait for Skywalker to-
The ground trembled beneath her feet, and Ahsoka groaned out loud.
Seriously, couldn't she just catch a break!?
Large, clawed hands broke free from the ground as the flaming skull of a large beast emerged, soon followed by a massive, burning body with large leathery wings. A whip of fire, large and with several thongs, was firmly clasped in its right hand. It was several feet taller than Ahsoka, and bellowed with a furious roar that shook the ground. Ahsoka stared at the thing with narrow eyes. There was no talking. There wasn't even a message behind it. It was simply a creature of fire and shadows, whose only purpose was to kill her. No talking, no secret plans, no means of defeating it past a brutal showdown.
And as it swung its right arm in the air the whip came crashing down on the ground where Ahsoka had been a second before, igniting the very ashes into a molten no man's land. Flames lambasted and screamed in the air as waves of heat erupted from the creature's body. The kid's gloves were off.
This wasn't Wonderland anymore, no more than it could have been her Master's intention. This was malice, and hatred, and anger. This was darkness and power, thrumming in the depths of hell and maybe even further beneath it. This wasn't just the Force, it was power and magic, maybe even reality now. Ahsoka gasped for air as the Balrog charged at her with his massive frame, the ground shaking with each of its steps. A sword of flame appeared in its left hand, and his left arm moved to slice at her.
It took Mister Fluffles' Akul form and four lightsabers ignited to halt the blow, and even then the Akul-sized cat found itself digging his claws in the ground as it was pushed back. The whip of fire came crashing down next, igniting around Mister Fluffles' body and starting to char his fur, as with a ferocious roar, the Akul plummeted his head against that of the Balrog.
The resounding crack made the Balrog scream as he recoiled of barely a single step. The lightsabers flashed in the air, striking at the shadows which burst, and then reformed upon the body. Letting go of them, useless against such a foe, Mister Fluffles pummeled at the beast with all four of his arms. The Balrog answered in kind, flames wrapping his body and shadows enhancing it.
A furious, murderous hatred piled over Ahsoka's frame as she stared at the fight between giants that was nothing short than a test of will between her and the darkness shrouding the place.
And the Balrog wasn't even the final enemy. She could feel it, taste it in the air, and the knowledge that ripped her soul raw and made it bleed was that in the end, she was but a fly against a wall. If it was the power of the Force Nexus aiding her Master, she didn't know. What she did know was that she couldn't manage alone, and yet she had no choice but to.
This wasn't a test or a trial. Her Master had absolutely no intention of testing her like this -because he disliked teaching with pain, he disliked it, and he wasn't for this. He'd never be for this.
So this wasn't her Master.
This wasn't her Master's Wonderland. There was no Wonder here. There was nothing of shocking, or surprising. There was nothing of beautiful in a land of charred ashes and lava. This was a land of fire and ashes, and she'd be damned if she let it take hold.
"You aren't even that scary," Ahsoka bitterly shot back at the Balrog, even as Mister Fluffles meowed and was thrown in the air by the beast. She grabbed her courage with both hands, and carefully brought her lightsabers, as well as those that Mister Fluffles had dropped, to float in front of her. Six lightsabers floated around her, and as Ahsoka took a deep, centering breath, she found peace.
"There is no emotion," Ahsoka whispered as the Balrog roared, whip of fire and flames rushing forth for her. A lightsaber swatted the fire away, and a second sliced the whip. "There is peace."
The Balrog's feet dug in the ashes as it roared again, this time lowering its body to charge at her with its massive body, and its flaming sword in hand. "There is no ignorance, there is knowledge," Ahsoka said, and Mister Fluffles' fallen form twitched as its tail shot forth to grip at one of the Balrog's legs, making him stumble and lose its balance.
The Balrog's hand still gripped its sword, but a lightsaber struck his wrist, and in the moment where the shadows and the flames lost consistency, the flaming blade fell from the monster's clutch. "There is no passion, there is serenity." Ahsoka brought both hands in front of her, even as the Balrog's body neared her to the point where there was little she could have done to dodge it, even if she had wanted to.
But she didn't.
You did not face anger and hatred by avoiding it. You stood firm, feet dug in the ground, and you met passion, anger and hatred with a calm heart and a firm hand.
"There is no death," the fourth and fifth lightsaber sliced at the Balrog's frame right in its chest, "There is the Force." The sixth lightsaber punched a hole through the Balrog's skull just as its head landed an inch away from Ahsoka's own. The hulking creature of darkness exploded through Ahsoka's body, the passionate feelings passing her through like a sickly miasma, yet not touching her the slightest as the Balrog's corpse dropped down past her frame, face down on the ashen ground.
Ahsoka shuddered as she took a deep lungful of fresh air, the lakes of lava slowly cooling off as the air began to turn colder and breezier, the ashes drifting off to reveal an earthy ground below.
The gates behind her cracked and trembled, before falling down to reveal a soot covered Knight Skywalker coughing his way past them, swatting away the clouds of dust. "A cinch," he said with a light cough. "It was a cinch."
Ahsoka flatly looked back at him.
"Come on Snips," Anakin said, taking point once more. "We're nearly there, aren't we?"
"I-There's something I need to tell you, Anakin," Ahsoka said. "My Master's-He's probably-"
"Expecting me to kill him," Anakin said calmly.
Ahsoka froze on her next step. "Wait. What. You knew?!"
"Of course I do," Anakin bristled. "You think your Master's the only one who has visions? I am strong in the Force myself-highest count of Midichlorians ever seen, didn't you know?"
Ahsoka stared at Anakin with a shocked expression as the Knight simply scoffed. "But you know what? If there's one thing I've learned is that we are the only ones who get to pick our destiny. The Force can show us the future, but it is up to us to pick it up." He shrugged. "And I will refuse to kill him. It doesn't matter what he'll say, or if he'll try to kill me. I am not going to kill a friend, no matter what happens."
"But Master Shade would kill you if you turned Dark," Ahsoka blurted out, only for Anakin to stare at her and lift an eyebrow.
"You don't know your Master at all, do you Snips?" Anakin chuckled.
No. Ahsoka feared the opposite was true.
Anakin Skywalker didn't know her Master at all.
Nobody knew her Master at all.
All of the certainty she felt over her Master disappeared as if sucked away by a cold, icy breeze. Her next step was unsure, and the one after that felt as heavy as lead.
The earthy ground turned to mush, and to swamp. Even as Anakin walked surely on it, he turned when he realized she was slowing down.
"Snips? Why are you slowing down?" he asked in concern.
"I-" Ahsoka shuddered. "I just don't know anymore." There was the burning sensation of tears in her eyes.
And fear, cold, unsettling, deep, entrenching fear ensnared her soul as chains burst from the ground much to Anakin's surprise. As they clutched around Ahsoka's body tightly and dug in her skin, dragging her below the swamp, she could barely manage a scream towards Skywalker, who extended a hand, but was too late to grab hold of her.
She disappeared in the darkness, the suffocating, all-encompassing darkness.
The chains stopped digging into her skin once she was in the darkness, as if the lack of light meant she couldn't escape any longer. Her arms hugged her frame as the cold seeped through her skin like an icy storm of needles, the shudders making her skin crawl with goosebumps.
And in the darkness, Ahsoka screamed.
In the darkness, Ahsoka cried.
In the darkness, doubt ruled undisputed, unchallenged, and unquestioned.
"Will you walk into my parlour?" a deep, groveling voice growled in the pits of that darkness. "Tis the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy. The way into my parlour is up a winding stair, and I've many a curious thing to shew when you are there."
The voice grew quiet.
Ahsoka didn't move. She didn't breathe. She didn't as much as glance up from where her face was, pressed against her knees as she hugged her legs in the featureless darkness.
"Do not give me the answer you have been taught to give!" her Master had said. "Give me the answer you believe in! Knowledge taught is seldom left unchallenged by the trials of doubt, but the knowledge we believe in shall stand even against the mightiest of truths!"
"Stay calm, Padawan. Doubt is truly a frightening creature," her Master's voice had come as a whisper near her ear. "First, it silently slinks near you, and waits. The moment you are distracted, the moment you no longer pay attention to it, it starts to climb over your body. Doubt makes you worry, because doubt means there is ignorance, mistrust, fear, and accusations start to pop up. If you doubt your friends, are they really your friends? If you doubt your allies, are they really your allies? If you doubt your teachers, can you trust their teachings? And when doubt grows, it slowly paralyzes you. It constricts you, it tightens its hold, and when the time comes, it snuffs the light out of you."
"When you realize that doubt is paralyzing you," her master's voice kept coming on peacefully, at ease even, as if this was normal, "We try to fight it. The problem lies in that doubt is a self-reproducing beast. On whom do we trust, if we did not trust our previous friends? Which teachings do we believe in, if those before failed us? How can we trust once more? How can we trust, if people betray?"
Her master had told her the answer.
Hadn't he told her the answer a long, long time before?
Then why was she doubting now?
Why now, of all times, was she falling prey to doubt?
It wasn't like her at all.
This wasn't her.
No, she refused to let this be her. She had to believe.
Mister Fluffles meowed in front of her, and she could feel the light warm her face. She cracked an eye open, and then the other. Mister Fluffles was an orange ball of sunshine in the pits of darkness. Mister Fluffles' orange eyes looked straight at hers, and in the darkness around them, the clicking of thousands of fangs and legs nimbly spread. A multitude of eyes stared through the darkness, spiders as big as dogs, or larger than humans, stood around her. Mister Fluffles meowed again, lifting its tail and swishing it back and forth, looking at her with a hopeful gaze.
"I'm so stupid, ain't I?" Ahsoka mumbled, a small smile on her lips. "This was never about trusting or not my Master. This wasn't about believing in him or not. This-This is about me, isn't it?"
Believe in yourself. Not in the you who believes in me. Not the me who believes in you. Believe in the you who believes in yourself.
How far back had her Master seen?
How far back had he planned?
He hadn't lied in the Datapad.
He truly was devious, more devious than any Sith, and terrifying, horrifying, cold and calculating.
She just had to accept it.
She just had to accept it was part of him, just like she had her own darkness.
Carefully, she stood up. Crying or screaming wouldn't help her insecurities. Fear wouldn't help her judgment. She steeled her gaze on the spiders as she clenched her right hand.
It didn't matter how many enemies she had to face in front of her.
It didn't matter how pitch-black the darkness.
it didn't matter how terrifying the truth could be.
Nothing mattered, but what she decided to do.
And in that moment, in that precise moment, she wanted to punch her Master's face.
So, without further ado, Ahsoka Tano charged forward. She did not charge with a scream of fury, or a roar of challenge.
Ahsoka Tano charged forward with cold eyes and a gleam of determination that made the first of her enemies, a large spider the size of a small house, falter and twitch in fear.
When faced with determination, all but the most courageous of foes falter.
When faced with certainty, all but the most strong of enemies start to doubt.
"I'm coming, Master. So, prepare your nose for my fist!" Ahsoka yelled as she pushed through the carapace of the giant spider, emerging out of a shower of green blood and entrails to land with her feet firmly planted on solid ground once more, the air a breeze and the clouds white and fluffy up in the air.
She was out of the darkness.
The road to the tower was near its end.
Mister Fluffles meowed as he looked at her from the cobblestone road made of golden stones, as if implying she had to follow him. Ahsoka grinned and began to walk on it.
"Hey, Mister Fluffles," Ahsoka remarked, arms crossed behind her head as her steps grew light. "Do you think-Do you think Skyguy's doing fine?"
Mister Fluffles turned pensive, and then, with a calm and tiny squeak replied.
"He's the Chosen One, Ahsoka. Of course he's fine."
Ahsoka chuckled.
Then she stopped.
Then she looked down at Mister Fluffles.
And Mister Fluffles looked back up at her with a grin that was eerily reminiscing of the Cheshire Cat's one.
"Cat-like hallucinations," Ahsoka said dryly. "They grow up so fast."
Mister Fluffles, to that statement, merely giggled back.
Dragonskyt
Ashen one, hearest thou my voice, still?
- Location
- Kiln of the First Flame
Shade: "Why is it always the nose!?!"
Fabula Amanti
I want a Grimoire, but I got books.
- Location
- Singapore
It should be an achievement. To have your main character you write, punch you in the face.
Achievement Unlocked: Why are you punching yourself?
Achievement Unlocked: Why are you punching yourself?
Xanatos Gambit it is. Even when other jedi try to muck around with Asohka's head. Night left enough of his teachings that she'll bounce right back.
Though, he needs to avoid being punched in the nose. I don't think Xanatos ever got hit or called out on how he always made his plans succeed despite any setbacks.
Though, he needs to avoid being punched in the nose. I don't think Xanatos ever got hit or called out on how he always made his plans succeed despite any setbacks.
Ridiculously Average Guy
I'm you, but stronger
- Location
-
Even if he dies, he's forged her into his near equal in a remarkably short amount of time. Given some time, or more life-changing stuff, she'll come to surpass him.
If he survives, there's someone on hand who can beat him down.
Either way, it's a net positive.
If he survives, there's someone on hand who can beat him down.
Either way, it's a net positive.
EP II - Chapter Eight
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
Chapter Eight
Ahsoka Tano looked at the metal door that the cobblestone path finished in front of, and then she looked down at Mister Fluffles. The orange tabby cat meowed and pressed a paw against it, its claws scratching at it. There was no handle. There was no lock. Still, Ahsoka had a lightsaber. The door sizzled and with its hinges melted fell with a resounding thud on the ground, to reveal a large circular platform of stairs that seemed to be rising up to the summit of the tower.
"Peace is a lie," her Master's voice came from the top of the tower, echoing all the way down to its base. "There is only passion."
Ahsoka rushed up the stairs, taking the steps two at the time with Mister Fluffles hot on her heels.
"Through passion, I gain strength." the ground trembled and the stairway began to crumble, yet Ahsoka rushed forth, uncaring. "Through strength, I gain power." Her Master's voice drew nearer, and so did the tower seem to reach an end -it had felt much shorter than what it had seemed at first, but Ahsoka wasn't planning on pondering just how many floors the tower was. "Through power, I gain Victory." Her Master was at the end of the stairway, up above at the very end, standing in a meditative pose beneath the burning, flaming eye of Sauron that saw and understood all.
Ahsoka caught her breath, and clenched her right fist.
"Master!" Ahsoka barked.
"Through victory, my chains are broken," Master Shade opened his eyes with a snap and a glare, the crimson eyes looking at her with a viciousness she had never felt before. They were so wrong on her Master's face, it made her sick. Her Master's arms extended from his lotus position, and he floated to a stand. "The Force shall free me," he whispered in the end.
"Master," Ahsoka said. "Enough of this, please," she said. "You have to come back to the temple. This isn't you-No, well, this is you, kind of," Ahsoka hastily corrected herself. "But we can fix this. The council can fix this. Master Yoda can fix this."
Master Shade lifted an eyebrow. "There is nothing to fix, apprentice," he calmly brought up his right hand. "Except, maybe, your lack of discipline."
A lightning bolt struck through the air with the strength of a typhoon, and Ahsoka's belatedly realized that the blow hadn't been meant for her, but for Mister Fluffles.
She screamed all the same as the attack hurt her, and she clutched her body and fell down on her knees, the rushing of lightning across her body being felt as barely an echo, and yet strong all the same.
"You stole my Datapad, didn't you?" her Master spoke crisply, and as he did, he clenched his right hand. Mister Fluffles meowed shrilly, pain wracking his body whole. "Well, Apprentice," he slammed Mister Fluffles down, taking away Ahsoka's breath at the same time. "You are going to suffice."
With a sudden jerk of the hand, Master Shade threw Mister Fluffles against the side of the tower's top, and as the bones crunched, Ahsoka screamed in pain.
Clenching both fists, Ahsoka stumbled back on her feet. "No," Ahsoka whispered harshly.
"No?" Master Shade remarked. "No," he chuckled. "No, she says!" he laughed, a hand to cover his face. "You will do as I command, Apprentice."
"No, no I won't!" Ahsoka snapped. "You once told me that you chose me because I'd always do the right thing!" she screamed at him, "And the right thing isn't killing you, Master! No matter how bleak the future you saw is, it's still not worthy of this!"
"So the Apprentice would presume to know better than the Master," Master Shade hummed. His crimson eyes sparkled with a hint of smugness that had never been there before. "She would presume to be better than her Master."
Ahsoka bristled. "No," she replied. "I don't." She shook her head. "But if something's wrong, then I will say it!" she looked straight at her Master's eyes. "I believe you're wrong on this, Master! This time around, I'll be the one teaching you!"
Master Shade laughed, and as he did, both of his hands lifted up in the air. "Then...show me, Apprentice!"
Ahsoka threw one of her lightsabers forward, and as the lightning struck it in midair, she proceeded to dash in a straight line passing below the flung hilt. As she sped up, her right fist clenched.
"Now grit your teeth, Master!" Ahsoka snarled, aiming for a devastating uppercut. Her Master looked at the punch coming for his face and grinned, which in turn made Ahsoka widen her eyes. From within his robes, a clawed hand emerged to halt the attack and grip her wrist. The Togruta found herself flung high in the air as the robes of her Master opened up to reveal the Cheshire Cat emerging from his chest.
"You truly thought you'd succeed?" her Master laughed as lightning departed from his fingers once more. Ahsoka ignited her second lightsaber, holding the lightning at bay with it as she ground her teeth. "Everything you know, it is because I taught you! Everything you think of, it is because I gave it to you!" slamming both hands together, Ahsoka felt pressure against her sides and she gasped, air leaving her lungs before her body plummeted down on the ground hard. She gasped in pain, dust lifting up from the point of impact. She gurgled for air as her body trembled.
"You're a failure," her Master said harshly, walking calmly towards her. She could see him near in the corner of her eyes, even though they stung from tears brought forth by the pain she felt. "Come at me with the intent to kill me, or die."
She coughed and turned around, her arms against the ground. She took a deep breath, and brought a knee close to her chest as she pushed herself back on her feet. "I won't, Master," Ahsoka said with a small, tired smile. There was blood dripping down her lips. "No matter what you do, I won't."
A lightsaber ignited from within her Master's sleeve and shot forward. "Then," her Master whispered, locking his eyes with hers. "Die."
Ahsoka closed her eyes. She reopened them the next instant as she felt the sound of a lightsaber deflecting another. Knight Skywalker had arrived on the scene, his breathing short. "Damn," he muttered, "Stairs. I. Hate. Stairs."
"Nice of you to join us, Skywalker," her Master spoke. "Now, will you kill me?"
"Not a chance in hell, Night," Anakin shot back. "I'm bringing you back to the temple! Maybe I'll give you a cup of coffee. You're always grumpy without coffee."
Her Master's right eyebrow twitched. His lightsabers ignited, all nine of them. The Cheshire Cat grinned and turned invisible. "Gloves are off," her Master snarled, fury in his visage. "Kill me, or die. I'll just have to use Master Yoda. And if not him, I'll find someone. Maybe Darra, she's always been passionate enough. Or there's Ferus and his jealousy at being second best."
With a fluid movement of his hand, the lightsabers departed.
Knight Skywalker charged forward in turn, and as he did, Ahsoka tried to scream out a warning. She couldn't, however, because a large mace nearly shattered her head if she hadn't ducked backwards at just the right time. A figure of darkness stood in front of her, covered in armor and with a pitch-black shadow in place of a face. The figure looked at her with a snarl, pointing her mace at Ahsoka, and then charged with ferocity. The movements were large and easy to avoid, but at the same time, they prevented Ahsoka from distracting herself. She tried to strike at the hulking monstrosity, but her blows glanced off. "That's just not fair," she bitterly remarked.
The mace came down on the ground, and as it did, the cracks spread across the entire platform. Ahsoka looked down at where the mace rested, and then jumped over it. With a spin, she proceeded to kick the figure straight in the face, and then she screamed in shock when her foot sunk into the monster's face without even a thought.
"Gah! Let me go!" Ahsoka kicked the figure's helmet with her other leg, and as she did, the thing came off. There was just a blurry darkness, which soon began to evaporate beneath the light of the flaming eye. Landing on her feet, Ahsoka didn't stop her assault. Her right hand clenched tightly around her remaining lightsaber, she slammed it down to the hilt through the vaporizing darkness. As the body began to shine blue with the light of her weapon, she held on even as the suit of armor tried to pull her away.
"My body hurts, I'm tired, I want to go home," Ahsoka hissed out as she held on with one hand to a metal shoulder, "my Master's gone stupid, nothing makes sense any more, but I'll be damned if I let an overgrown piece of metal stop me!" holding on to the suit with her hands, Ahsoka pulled her body upwards in a vertical line and then plunged her hand and most of her arm through the darkness of the suit to the point where the blade emerged from the bottom of the suit.
The figure screamed and then exploded in a shower of gory and fuming bits of molten metal. Ahsoka fell on the ground next, her right arm singed. "Great," she groaned. "Another scar," she mumbled as her vision returned after the blinding white explosion to the sight of her Master having lost five of his nine lightsabers, and having to use the last four to hold back Skywalker, who was pressing his advantage with swift and precise strikes.
A slice of Anakin's blade and the sixth lightsaber clattered to the ground with the hilt cut in half. The three remaining began to furiously stab forward, yet Skywalker's skill wasn't just an empty boast. Ahsoka was in awe. With quick, precise motions and minimum waste of movements, Skywalker managed to deflect and parry the concatenate sets of attacks. Three lightsabers soon became two.
Two lightsabers soon became one.
The single lightsaber that remained had a crimson glow, and as her Master grabbed it in his hand, he held it firmly.
"Surrender Night!" Anakin snapped, his voice weary. "I'm telling you to surrender, Night! I know how this ends!"
Master Shade chuckled. "You'd think so, wouldn't you?" he clenched the lightsaber with both hands and narrowed his eyes. Ahsoka shuddered as she felt the Force ripple in the air, and as she tried -and failed- to stand up, she began to crawl forward. Her muscles weren't answering her, but this didn't mean she was going to stand still.
And then she saw.
She saw her Master attack, and she saw Skywalker lift his blade to defend. Only, her Master deactivated his lightsaber and plunged his head straight for the blade without a second of thought, dying immediately in the process.
She saw it, and her eyes widened when she realized her Master had begun to move exactly as she had seen.
"NO!" Ahsoka screamed, left hand forth. The pulse of Force rippled through the air, and as she did, Anakin's guard suddenly faltered and moved aside. Her Master's lightsaber was ripped out of his hand as it clattered on the ground, but Skywalker's blade pierced him in the shoulder all the same.
Grounding his teeth, her Master's eyes narrowed as he began to push forward.
Anakin deactivated his lightsaber just in time, but as blood sprayed out of her Master's mouth, his left fist connected with Anakin's jaw, sending him to stumble and fall backwards.
"I will not fail here!" he snarled. He clenched his right fist and lifted Anakin in the air. "You will kill me, or I will kill everyone you love," he snarled, froth coming out from his mouth. "Maybe I'll start with your mother, Anakin? Or with the senator? Senator Padme Amidala's screams will probably be heard all around Coruscant by the time I'll be done with her."
"Eh," Anakin hissed out, clutching his throat with his hands. "You need...to try...better, Night."
With the Force, Anakin freed himself and stumbled on the ground. Growling in anger, her Master pounced forward as the Cheshire Cat's claws extended from his body. Anakin's body spun in mid-air from the strength of the blow, and as the 'Chosen One' rolled on the ground and laid limp on the floor, her Master turned to look at her. "You shouldn't have come here."
He began to advance towards her, his steps slow but steady. "It's within parameters, of course, but you shouldn't have come here," he continued with a snarl. "Well, it just means I'll have to kill you."
Ahsoka cracked a smile even as she felt her body lifted by the Force. Her Master looked at her with a snarl. "Not trying to defend yourself?"
"I was once told by a very wise person..." Ahsoka murmured, "that what matters isn't something...as silly as a 'code'. What matters...is to be a good person first. I know my Master's a good person. And good persons...they don't kill others."
Her Master chuckled. "Seems like you know nothing of life, Ahsoka. Let this be my final lesson then, to a stupid padawan who can't learn the harshness of life." He brought her face close to his, and with a wicked grin that stretched from side to side, he whispered a very simple question. "Was it Barriss who told you to check in my rooms for my Datapad?"
Ahsoka closed her eyes, even as the victorious smirk of her Master told her he had acquired that knowledge from her head.
The sound of a crack resounded in the air, and then she fell limp on the ground, her eyes firmly shut by the Force as a strong pressure held her down, preventing her from moving or breathing. A wet, squishy thing fell in her robes -just like the Taozin nodule she had before, this one was in addition to the one prior. More fell on her, as her Master apparently dropped all of his over her 'corpse'.
"There," her Master's voice came through the air. "I just snapped her neck. Now, Anakin, what is it going to be? Do you still think I don't have what it takes to kill you? To kill your mother? To kill Padme?"
The air grew thick with the Force. Her Master was a veritable whirlpool of it, and as it lashed out, Ahsoka could feel Anakin falter beneath its influence.
Her Master was using his Bond to influence Anakin's thoughts. Well, she couldn't move, but this didn't mean she was going to allow it. Now that her Master had removed his Taozin amulets, it meant he could be felt. And if he could be felt, then it meant he was just about to feel something else too.
Ahsoka couldn't open her eyes, so she didn't try. She gripped at her Bond with him and concentrated, feeling and rummaging through her soul for a thought that she could use like a bullet to destabilize him, to stop him, to prevent him from committing a moron's death. And then it clicked.
There was one thing she could do.
It was obvious.
Truly.
It was really obvious.
And thus, with the furious grinding of teeth, Ahsoka used the Force to flick her Master's forehead. She willfully misjudged the strength of the blow, and as a result, she heard the tumbling back of her Master as the pressure that held her down came less. She opened her eyes in a hurry, just in time to find Knight Skywalker pounce forward with his lightsaber ignited. Yet when it came dangerously close to her Master, it stopped and turned off.
Anakin's right hand grabbed her Master's robe, and he then proceeded to slug him on the face.
"My nose! Why. Is. It. Always. My. Nose!?"
Ahsoka chuckled as she heard the sound of a fist meet a face again, and winced as the felt the pain rush through her Bond. Well, her Master had kind-of earned it. She finally felt the pressure ease up, and as she managed to get back on her knees, and from there stand up tiredly, she couldn't help but exhale in relief as the flaming eye of Sauron had all but winked out of existence. Her Master's eyes were still red, but his body was limp and the Cheshire Cat nowhere to be seen.
"You punch like a girl," her Master dutifully informed Knight Skywalker, who in turn proceeded to slug him again.
"Enough Anakin!" Ahsoka exclaimed, now slightly worried. Her Master's face was a mess of blood, but as she neared to check, she realized it was already healing by itself, the Force repairing the broken nose.
"You're coming with us back to the temple, Night," Anakin said briskly. "You have some explaining to do."
Master Shade simply smiled and shook his head. "You're beaten," Anakin hissed. "Give it up."
Her Master's right hand twitched.
Ahsoka's eyes widened.
Her Master had nine lightsabers he used as floating weapons.
But what about the first one he had ever crafted?
Anakin screamed as he lost his right arm, which fell down on the ground with a dull thud, and he fell backwards as the point of a shining orange lightsaber neared his neck. Anakin screamed in pain clutching his lost limb, and as Master Shade stepped forward, Anakin crawled backwards to the edge of the tower.
"Anakin, Anakin, Anakin," Master Shade hummed with a cheeky grin, inclining his head to the side, "Don't you know?" his smile grew wider. "You can't fight destiny and expect it not to bite you back."
Her Master brought the lightsaber back, and prepared to plunge it into Anakin's chest. In that moment, Ahsoka rushed forward. In that instant, Barriss Offee appeared from the bottom of the stairs with her lightsaber drawn.
And in a split second decision, her Master's lightsaber nimbly spun and parried the blow of the Mirialan just as Ahsoka found herself staring at her Master's back.
"And there you are," her Master whispered with a smile. "Took you long enough."
"Ahsoka! Quick!" Barriss exclaimed, "We have to defeat him before-"
"Master," Ahsoka said as she called forth a lightsaber to grip on with her right hand, "I-I have to ask," her voice was cracked. "Did you...did you use us?"
"Yes," her Master replied. "Unfortunately," he continued, "To defeat an enemy the likes of Abeloth, you need a Sith and a Jedi working together. You understand how hard it is to get them both in the same room and collaborate, don't you? And this place, technically, is called 'Beyond the Shadows' not really Wonderland."
"I understood it wasn't Wonderland from the get-go, Master," Ahsoka said dryly as she looked at Barriss, who in turn faltered while her eyes acquired the hard gleam of steel.
"So," her Master said. "What is it going to be, Ahsoka?"
"What a silly question, Master," Ahsoka replied as she lazily came to a halt right next to him. "First we deal with this 'Abeloth', who has the appearance of Barriss, and then I punch your face and bring you back to the temple."
"Very well," her Master acquiesced. "Now, en garde, Abeloth!" his left hand was limp, and yet he moved it as much as he could behind his back. His smile grew wicked as Barriss -no, Abeloth- looked at both of them in shock.
Ahsoka didn't even ponder why her Master was fighting with Count Dooku's style.
And then her Master would explain, he'd explain everything, or she would proceed to get the information out of his head with liberal usage of wasted coffee on the floor if he didn't.
Ahsoka Tano looked at the metal door that the cobblestone path finished in front of, and then she looked down at Mister Fluffles. The orange tabby cat meowed and pressed a paw against it, its claws scratching at it. There was no handle. There was no lock. Still, Ahsoka had a lightsaber. The door sizzled and with its hinges melted fell with a resounding thud on the ground, to reveal a large circular platform of stairs that seemed to be rising up to the summit of the tower.
"Peace is a lie," her Master's voice came from the top of the tower, echoing all the way down to its base. "There is only passion."
Ahsoka rushed up the stairs, taking the steps two at the time with Mister Fluffles hot on her heels.
"Through passion, I gain strength." the ground trembled and the stairway began to crumble, yet Ahsoka rushed forth, uncaring. "Through strength, I gain power." Her Master's voice drew nearer, and so did the tower seem to reach an end -it had felt much shorter than what it had seemed at first, but Ahsoka wasn't planning on pondering just how many floors the tower was. "Through power, I gain Victory." Her Master was at the end of the stairway, up above at the very end, standing in a meditative pose beneath the burning, flaming eye of Sauron that saw and understood all.
Ahsoka caught her breath, and clenched her right fist.
"Master!" Ahsoka barked.
"Through victory, my chains are broken," Master Shade opened his eyes with a snap and a glare, the crimson eyes looking at her with a viciousness she had never felt before. They were so wrong on her Master's face, it made her sick. Her Master's arms extended from his lotus position, and he floated to a stand. "The Force shall free me," he whispered in the end.
"Master," Ahsoka said. "Enough of this, please," she said. "You have to come back to the temple. This isn't you-No, well, this is you, kind of," Ahsoka hastily corrected herself. "But we can fix this. The council can fix this. Master Yoda can fix this."
Master Shade lifted an eyebrow. "There is nothing to fix, apprentice," he calmly brought up his right hand. "Except, maybe, your lack of discipline."
A lightning bolt struck through the air with the strength of a typhoon, and Ahsoka's belatedly realized that the blow hadn't been meant for her, but for Mister Fluffles.
She screamed all the same as the attack hurt her, and she clutched her body and fell down on her knees, the rushing of lightning across her body being felt as barely an echo, and yet strong all the same.
"You stole my Datapad, didn't you?" her Master spoke crisply, and as he did, he clenched his right hand. Mister Fluffles meowed shrilly, pain wracking his body whole. "Well, Apprentice," he slammed Mister Fluffles down, taking away Ahsoka's breath at the same time. "You are going to suffice."
With a sudden jerk of the hand, Master Shade threw Mister Fluffles against the side of the tower's top, and as the bones crunched, Ahsoka screamed in pain.
Clenching both fists, Ahsoka stumbled back on her feet. "No," Ahsoka whispered harshly.
"No?" Master Shade remarked. "No," he chuckled. "No, she says!" he laughed, a hand to cover his face. "You will do as I command, Apprentice."
"No, no I won't!" Ahsoka snapped. "You once told me that you chose me because I'd always do the right thing!" she screamed at him, "And the right thing isn't killing you, Master! No matter how bleak the future you saw is, it's still not worthy of this!"
"So the Apprentice would presume to know better than the Master," Master Shade hummed. His crimson eyes sparkled with a hint of smugness that had never been there before. "She would presume to be better than her Master."
Ahsoka bristled. "No," she replied. "I don't." She shook her head. "But if something's wrong, then I will say it!" she looked straight at her Master's eyes. "I believe you're wrong on this, Master! This time around, I'll be the one teaching you!"
Master Shade laughed, and as he did, both of his hands lifted up in the air. "Then...show me, Apprentice!"
Ahsoka threw one of her lightsabers forward, and as the lightning struck it in midair, she proceeded to dash in a straight line passing below the flung hilt. As she sped up, her right fist clenched.
"Now grit your teeth, Master!" Ahsoka snarled, aiming for a devastating uppercut. Her Master looked at the punch coming for his face and grinned, which in turn made Ahsoka widen her eyes. From within his robes, a clawed hand emerged to halt the attack and grip her wrist. The Togruta found herself flung high in the air as the robes of her Master opened up to reveal the Cheshire Cat emerging from his chest.
"You truly thought you'd succeed?" her Master laughed as lightning departed from his fingers once more. Ahsoka ignited her second lightsaber, holding the lightning at bay with it as she ground her teeth. "Everything you know, it is because I taught you! Everything you think of, it is because I gave it to you!" slamming both hands together, Ahsoka felt pressure against her sides and she gasped, air leaving her lungs before her body plummeted down on the ground hard. She gasped in pain, dust lifting up from the point of impact. She gurgled for air as her body trembled.
"You're a failure," her Master said harshly, walking calmly towards her. She could see him near in the corner of her eyes, even though they stung from tears brought forth by the pain she felt. "Come at me with the intent to kill me, or die."
She coughed and turned around, her arms against the ground. She took a deep breath, and brought a knee close to her chest as she pushed herself back on her feet. "I won't, Master," Ahsoka said with a small, tired smile. There was blood dripping down her lips. "No matter what you do, I won't."
A lightsaber ignited from within her Master's sleeve and shot forward. "Then," her Master whispered, locking his eyes with hers. "Die."
Ahsoka closed her eyes. She reopened them the next instant as she felt the sound of a lightsaber deflecting another. Knight Skywalker had arrived on the scene, his breathing short. "Damn," he muttered, "Stairs. I. Hate. Stairs."
"Nice of you to join us, Skywalker," her Master spoke. "Now, will you kill me?"
"Not a chance in hell, Night," Anakin shot back. "I'm bringing you back to the temple! Maybe I'll give you a cup of coffee. You're always grumpy without coffee."
Her Master's right eyebrow twitched. His lightsabers ignited, all nine of them. The Cheshire Cat grinned and turned invisible. "Gloves are off," her Master snarled, fury in his visage. "Kill me, or die. I'll just have to use Master Yoda. And if not him, I'll find someone. Maybe Darra, she's always been passionate enough. Or there's Ferus and his jealousy at being second best."
With a fluid movement of his hand, the lightsabers departed.
Knight Skywalker charged forward in turn, and as he did, Ahsoka tried to scream out a warning. She couldn't, however, because a large mace nearly shattered her head if she hadn't ducked backwards at just the right time. A figure of darkness stood in front of her, covered in armor and with a pitch-black shadow in place of a face. The figure looked at her with a snarl, pointing her mace at Ahsoka, and then charged with ferocity. The movements were large and easy to avoid, but at the same time, they prevented Ahsoka from distracting herself. She tried to strike at the hulking monstrosity, but her blows glanced off. "That's just not fair," she bitterly remarked.
The mace came down on the ground, and as it did, the cracks spread across the entire platform. Ahsoka looked down at where the mace rested, and then jumped over it. With a spin, she proceeded to kick the figure straight in the face, and then she screamed in shock when her foot sunk into the monster's face without even a thought.
"Gah! Let me go!" Ahsoka kicked the figure's helmet with her other leg, and as she did, the thing came off. There was just a blurry darkness, which soon began to evaporate beneath the light of the flaming eye. Landing on her feet, Ahsoka didn't stop her assault. Her right hand clenched tightly around her remaining lightsaber, she slammed it down to the hilt through the vaporizing darkness. As the body began to shine blue with the light of her weapon, she held on even as the suit of armor tried to pull her away.
"My body hurts, I'm tired, I want to go home," Ahsoka hissed out as she held on with one hand to a metal shoulder, "my Master's gone stupid, nothing makes sense any more, but I'll be damned if I let an overgrown piece of metal stop me!" holding on to the suit with her hands, Ahsoka pulled her body upwards in a vertical line and then plunged her hand and most of her arm through the darkness of the suit to the point where the blade emerged from the bottom of the suit.
The figure screamed and then exploded in a shower of gory and fuming bits of molten metal. Ahsoka fell on the ground next, her right arm singed. "Great," she groaned. "Another scar," she mumbled as her vision returned after the blinding white explosion to the sight of her Master having lost five of his nine lightsabers, and having to use the last four to hold back Skywalker, who was pressing his advantage with swift and precise strikes.
A slice of Anakin's blade and the sixth lightsaber clattered to the ground with the hilt cut in half. The three remaining began to furiously stab forward, yet Skywalker's skill wasn't just an empty boast. Ahsoka was in awe. With quick, precise motions and minimum waste of movements, Skywalker managed to deflect and parry the concatenate sets of attacks. Three lightsabers soon became two.
Two lightsabers soon became one.
The single lightsaber that remained had a crimson glow, and as her Master grabbed it in his hand, he held it firmly.
"Surrender Night!" Anakin snapped, his voice weary. "I'm telling you to surrender, Night! I know how this ends!"
Master Shade chuckled. "You'd think so, wouldn't you?" he clenched the lightsaber with both hands and narrowed his eyes. Ahsoka shuddered as she felt the Force ripple in the air, and as she tried -and failed- to stand up, she began to crawl forward. Her muscles weren't answering her, but this didn't mean she was going to stand still.
And then she saw.
She saw her Master attack, and she saw Skywalker lift his blade to defend. Only, her Master deactivated his lightsaber and plunged his head straight for the blade without a second of thought, dying immediately in the process.
She saw it, and her eyes widened when she realized her Master had begun to move exactly as she had seen.
"NO!" Ahsoka screamed, left hand forth. The pulse of Force rippled through the air, and as she did, Anakin's guard suddenly faltered and moved aside. Her Master's lightsaber was ripped out of his hand as it clattered on the ground, but Skywalker's blade pierced him in the shoulder all the same.
Grounding his teeth, her Master's eyes narrowed as he began to push forward.
Anakin deactivated his lightsaber just in time, but as blood sprayed out of her Master's mouth, his left fist connected with Anakin's jaw, sending him to stumble and fall backwards.
"I will not fail here!" he snarled. He clenched his right fist and lifted Anakin in the air. "You will kill me, or I will kill everyone you love," he snarled, froth coming out from his mouth. "Maybe I'll start with your mother, Anakin? Or with the senator? Senator Padme Amidala's screams will probably be heard all around Coruscant by the time I'll be done with her."
"Eh," Anakin hissed out, clutching his throat with his hands. "You need...to try...better, Night."
With the Force, Anakin freed himself and stumbled on the ground. Growling in anger, her Master pounced forward as the Cheshire Cat's claws extended from his body. Anakin's body spun in mid-air from the strength of the blow, and as the 'Chosen One' rolled on the ground and laid limp on the floor, her Master turned to look at her. "You shouldn't have come here."
He began to advance towards her, his steps slow but steady. "It's within parameters, of course, but you shouldn't have come here," he continued with a snarl. "Well, it just means I'll have to kill you."
Ahsoka cracked a smile even as she felt her body lifted by the Force. Her Master looked at her with a snarl. "Not trying to defend yourself?"
"I was once told by a very wise person..." Ahsoka murmured, "that what matters isn't something...as silly as a 'code'. What matters...is to be a good person first. I know my Master's a good person. And good persons...they don't kill others."
Her Master chuckled. "Seems like you know nothing of life, Ahsoka. Let this be my final lesson then, to a stupid padawan who can't learn the harshness of life." He brought her face close to his, and with a wicked grin that stretched from side to side, he whispered a very simple question. "Was it Barriss who told you to check in my rooms for my Datapad?"
Ahsoka closed her eyes, even as the victorious smirk of her Master told her he had acquired that knowledge from her head.
The sound of a crack resounded in the air, and then she fell limp on the ground, her eyes firmly shut by the Force as a strong pressure held her down, preventing her from moving or breathing. A wet, squishy thing fell in her robes -just like the Taozin nodule she had before, this one was in addition to the one prior. More fell on her, as her Master apparently dropped all of his over her 'corpse'.
"There," her Master's voice came through the air. "I just snapped her neck. Now, Anakin, what is it going to be? Do you still think I don't have what it takes to kill you? To kill your mother? To kill Padme?"
The air grew thick with the Force. Her Master was a veritable whirlpool of it, and as it lashed out, Ahsoka could feel Anakin falter beneath its influence.
Her Master was using his Bond to influence Anakin's thoughts. Well, she couldn't move, but this didn't mean she was going to allow it. Now that her Master had removed his Taozin amulets, it meant he could be felt. And if he could be felt, then it meant he was just about to feel something else too.
Ahsoka couldn't open her eyes, so she didn't try. She gripped at her Bond with him and concentrated, feeling and rummaging through her soul for a thought that she could use like a bullet to destabilize him, to stop him, to prevent him from committing a moron's death. And then it clicked.
There was one thing she could do.
It was obvious.
Truly.
It was really obvious.
And thus, with the furious grinding of teeth, Ahsoka used the Force to flick her Master's forehead. She willfully misjudged the strength of the blow, and as a result, she heard the tumbling back of her Master as the pressure that held her down came less. She opened her eyes in a hurry, just in time to find Knight Skywalker pounce forward with his lightsaber ignited. Yet when it came dangerously close to her Master, it stopped and turned off.
Anakin's right hand grabbed her Master's robe, and he then proceeded to slug him on the face.
"My nose! Why. Is. It. Always. My. Nose!?"
Ahsoka chuckled as she heard the sound of a fist meet a face again, and winced as the felt the pain rush through her Bond. Well, her Master had kind-of earned it. She finally felt the pressure ease up, and as she managed to get back on her knees, and from there stand up tiredly, she couldn't help but exhale in relief as the flaming eye of Sauron had all but winked out of existence. Her Master's eyes were still red, but his body was limp and the Cheshire Cat nowhere to be seen.
"You punch like a girl," her Master dutifully informed Knight Skywalker, who in turn proceeded to slug him again.
"Enough Anakin!" Ahsoka exclaimed, now slightly worried. Her Master's face was a mess of blood, but as she neared to check, she realized it was already healing by itself, the Force repairing the broken nose.
"You're coming with us back to the temple, Night," Anakin said briskly. "You have some explaining to do."
Master Shade simply smiled and shook his head. "You're beaten," Anakin hissed. "Give it up."
Her Master's right hand twitched.
Ahsoka's eyes widened.
Her Master had nine lightsabers he used as floating weapons.
But what about the first one he had ever crafted?
Anakin screamed as he lost his right arm, which fell down on the ground with a dull thud, and he fell backwards as the point of a shining orange lightsaber neared his neck. Anakin screamed in pain clutching his lost limb, and as Master Shade stepped forward, Anakin crawled backwards to the edge of the tower.
"Anakin, Anakin, Anakin," Master Shade hummed with a cheeky grin, inclining his head to the side, "Don't you know?" his smile grew wider. "You can't fight destiny and expect it not to bite you back."
Her Master brought the lightsaber back, and prepared to plunge it into Anakin's chest. In that moment, Ahsoka rushed forward. In that instant, Barriss Offee appeared from the bottom of the stairs with her lightsaber drawn.
And in a split second decision, her Master's lightsaber nimbly spun and parried the blow of the Mirialan just as Ahsoka found herself staring at her Master's back.
"And there you are," her Master whispered with a smile. "Took you long enough."
"Ahsoka! Quick!" Barriss exclaimed, "We have to defeat him before-"
"Master," Ahsoka said as she called forth a lightsaber to grip on with her right hand, "I-I have to ask," her voice was cracked. "Did you...did you use us?"
"Yes," her Master replied. "Unfortunately," he continued, "To defeat an enemy the likes of Abeloth, you need a Sith and a Jedi working together. You understand how hard it is to get them both in the same room and collaborate, don't you? And this place, technically, is called 'Beyond the Shadows' not really Wonderland."
"I understood it wasn't Wonderland from the get-go, Master," Ahsoka said dryly as she looked at Barriss, who in turn faltered while her eyes acquired the hard gleam of steel.
"So," her Master said. "What is it going to be, Ahsoka?"
"What a silly question, Master," Ahsoka replied as she lazily came to a halt right next to him. "First we deal with this 'Abeloth', who has the appearance of Barriss, and then I punch your face and bring you back to the temple."
"Very well," her Master acquiesced. "Now, en garde, Abeloth!" his left hand was limp, and yet he moved it as much as he could behind his back. His smile grew wicked as Barriss -no, Abeloth- looked at both of them in shock.
Ahsoka didn't even ponder why her Master was fighting with Count Dooku's style.
And then her Master would explain, he'd explain everything, or she would proceed to get the information out of his head with liberal usage of wasted coffee on the floor if he didn't.
Richardson
CAN YOU HEAR THE PEOPLE SING?
- Location
- Yes
"Augh! The nose! Why is is always the nose!"
Shade had better put Anakin's arm on ice, the poor lad is always losing the stupid things, and he doesn't need to lose another.
Shade had better put Anakin's arm on ice, the poor lad is always losing the stupid things, and he doesn't need to lose another.
Oh I am slain!
Wynaut?
- Location
- Tatooine
A moment of silence for Anakin's oft-abused arms. ;_;
Oh, and for all of you (like me) who were confused about Abeloth, here's her Wookiepedia entry. I didn't recognize the name at all--seems like she was only added into the lore 6 years ago. I'm not sure what her motivation is in this situation, but I guess the next few chapters will likely provide more context.
Oh, and for all of you (like me) who were confused about Abeloth, here's her Wookiepedia entry. I didn't recognize the name at all--seems like she was only added into the lore 6 years ago. I'm not sure what her motivation is in this situation, but I guess the next few chapters will likely provide more context.
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