Dragonskyt
Ashen one, hearest thou my voice, still?
- Location
- Kiln of the First Flame
Anakin lost a whole lot more in canon.
I have a very strange Master (Star Wars/SI) EPI-EPII
- Thread starter shadenight123
- Start date
Anakin lost a whole lot more in canon.
Richardson
CAN YOU HEAR THE PEOPLE SING?
- Location
- Yes
His other arm. His legs. His dignity. His hair. Little Anakin...
Uxion
The Slightly Less Depressed
- Location
- Personal Hell
Sounds like an SBer
Better than the alternative,
Arms. Not to mention legs as well.
Don't forget his skin.
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
Amusingly enough Abeloth's freedom is directly tied to the following things:
1) The Ones chilling on Mortis and once a year travelling to keep her locked.
2) No one modifying the Future.
Centerpoint station is so called because it stands at the center of a massive amount of blackholes which, all together, power said station.
The act of 'Darth Caedus' to alter the future and him succeeding in it actively made a single black hole push off-alignment. And he was just a single man. Changing some little tidbit of stuff.
Someone went on a strike and someone modified the future.
There will be repercussions.
Hefty repercussions.
Ridiculously Average Guy
I'm you, but stronger
- Location
-
Ah Annie, always losing limbs.
Richardson
CAN YOU HEAR THE PEOPLE SING?
- Location
- Yes
Might said someone be a Shade of the Night who just proceeded to crash an SSD through the 'future' by killing a certain sith lord 20ish years ahead of schedule and redeeming his would-be apprentice through applied tsun-tsun?
Fabula Amanti
I want a Grimoire, but I got books.
- Location
- Singapore
Whenever I read about time shenanigans, I switch off logic cause while it's nice to think about and have a "Eureka I Understand How Everything is Interrelated" moment, it never makes sense cause there are quite literal infinite justifications on how something could, should and would go.
I don't know... This is fun to read, and I'm enjoying the story, but Shade is just going to the Dark Side at this point because it's fun, right? Any excuse will do it seems.
He's kinda liking the Dark Side I think...
Because Abeloth? Not actually that bad unless it has help. It pretty much was stuck until idiots got drawn in to play with it.
So... Shade poked this beast for the fun, right? He's enjoying throwing out these hope spots then pulling them away real quick. Such a troll.
He's kinda liking the Dark Side I think...
Because Abeloth? Not actually that bad unless it has help. It pretty much was stuck until idiots got drawn in to play with it.
So... Shade poked this beast for the fun, right? He's enjoying throwing out these hope spots then pulling them away real quick. Such a troll.
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
I don't know... This is fun to read, and I'm enjoying the story, but Shade is just going to the Dark Side at this point because it's fun, right? Any excuse will do it seems.
He's kinda liking the Dark Side I think...
Because Abeloth? Not actually that bad unless it has help. It pretty much was stuck until idiots got drawn in to play with it.
So... Shade poked this beast for the fun, right? He's enjoying throwing out these hope spots then pulling them away real quick. Such a troll.
Not really. See, the mere act of 'Wanting to change the future' actually implied Abeloth breaking free. So you see, if you want to save the lives of hundreds of children in the Jedi Temple, and avert the Galactic Empire rising, you kind-of will change the future. Now, 'The Ones' on Mortis do an egregious job...when they're not assholes going on strike because they think Anakin's the one who should become the 'New Mom'.
(YES. EXACTLY THAT.)
So, Abeloth wasn't really a slumbering beast. She was going to wake up.
Shade simply decided that if she was going to wake up and pop out and do what she did best -aka, possess people and do shit- he'd better be there with the biggest club possible ready for when the head came out to play whack-a-mole.
The problem with 'The Force' actually being a key player was that black holes would go out of alignment, or 'a set of unfortunate coincidences' would happen to free her.
Because yep, that's Bullshit-levels of Fate.
But thankfully, the cure is Knowledge and Foresight.
And tropes.
God bless the Tropes.
And to defeat Abeloth you need to face her in the 'Beyond The Shadow' with a Sith and a Jedi -to symbolize balance, I guess- so...
Rather than engineer for another guy to fall and become Sith, why not just go with it and embrace the dark side? It's not like it's going to last much longer...
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Fabula Amanti
I want a Grimoire, but I got books.
- Location
- Singapore
The Republic should have used Tropes to combat the Separatist then. They are endless, they are everywhere and they can be abused to infinity. The best soldiers for war. Trope Wars : The Hype is as Expected.
Dragonskyt
Ashen one, hearest thou my voice, still?
- Location
- Kiln of the First Flame
Yeah, but I don't see them forgiving Shade that easily. It's all nice and easy in theory, but just a single mistake could have cost a lot.
Doing the right thing isn't always the correct thing.
Which is only a temporary defeat for her, you'll likely need the dagger from Mortis to finish her off for good.
Centerpoint was the one in the Corellian system, Sinkhole Station was the one surrounded by blackholes.
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Yeah... Abeloth was one of those EU things like Mandalorian "culture", Palpatine's immortality, and the Lost Tribe of the Sith that was seriously eye-roll inducing.
Of course, there are so many eye-roll inducing things in the EU, you might as well have one in-story that lets you play with all the fun Sith toys.
Also, by that reasoning, doesn't it mean that a lone Je'daii would have been able to kick Abeloth's ass?
Considereing that a lightsaber makes a 1-2" wide, cauterized, cut, I doubt you'd want such a shortened limb reattached.
Sci-fi medical tech is a wonderful thing. It's already been done once in story for Ashoka. Anakin, on the other hand (
) expressed preferences for cybering up.
Uxion
The Slightly Less Depressed
- Location
- Personal Hell
*Groan*Sci-fi medical tech is a wonderful thing. It's already been done once in story for Ashoka. Anakin, on the other hand (
"I knew I should have taken up on the 'Buy a cyber arm now, get an extension later' deal."
Hell, what surprised me is that, in canon, Anakin had that arm for years and he hadn't made any modifications to it. I'dve thought he'd have everything from reversible joints to concealed tools and weaponry in that thing by the time Ep 3 rolled around, a regular Swiss-army arm, if you will.
Dragonskyt
Ashen one, hearest thou my voice, still?
- Location
- Kiln of the First Flame
Or a lightsaber.
Yes, put a lightsaber in that arm! Become like Zero!
My thought on that would be just to have a backup lightsaber in a spring loaded sheathe in the arm so it could just pop out into his hand as needed.
Plus a few tiny droid-style tool arms for functionality, a flashlight, a micro-torch in one of the fingers....
EP II - Chapter Nine
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
Chapter Nine
The trio looked at each other silently, not a peep in the air. Ahsoka stood on guard, and so too was her Master. It felt strange, all things said. Her Master had fallen and yet wasn't trying to behead her. He had fallen and yet he also trusted her to follow through with his plan. He had used her, and yet he believed she'd stick with him against a fellow padawan.
Of course, the fact he had been proven right was probably the reason why he had a smug smile on his face. She was going to punch his face once this was over-it wasn't fair only Knight Skywalker got his chance. She deserved one too!
"After all-After everything he told you, everything you understood, you'd still side with him?!" Barriss spoke first, breaking her silence with her voice nothing more than a low hiss. "I-I even warned you about him!"
"Yes," Ahsoka said with a nod. "But I would pick my Master's Sith words over yours a thousand times over."
"Why?!" Barriss snapped, looking at her in disbelief. "Why would you?! I'm a Jedi just like you! I'm-"
"Dead," Ahsoka said. "You're dead."
Ahsoka looked with a sad expression at Barriss, who simply froze. She froze and then her shoulders hunched. "I am not dead," Barriss whispered harshly. "I am not."
"Be careful not to get trapped in a tank below the rubble of a collapsing droid factory," Ahsoka murmured. "My Master foretold the event. He foretold it, and he avoided that fate for me by pulling me away. All this time, he tested me. All this time, he deceived me. It's in his nature, I guess. To continuously test. Master Shen-Jon was right about him. He's a manipulative jerk and a bastard, and as long as things go his way he doesn't really care who suffers for them. He's the worst. He's the absolute worst." Ahsoka felt energy rush through her body as she called forth her other lightsaber, igniting it too. "And yet I can't help but trust him on this, because I know that, deep down, very, very deep down, he's doing the right thing."
Here Ahsoka smiled slightly. "I may not like his means, but I can certainly share his objective. I'm sorry you had to die, Barriss, be at peace as one in the Force now."
"You're sorry," Barriss bitterly said. "You're sorry I had to die?! What kind of-what type-you're no Jedi! How dare you! How dare you justify my death like that?! Who gives you the right-I'm not dead! I. AM. NOT. DEAD! I escaped! I escaped from the tank and the rubble and I was alone, and I drifted across Geonosis until I found a way out, and I returned to the temple, and there was no one, and-and I...and I...why?" she asked in the end, looking at her Master. Barriss' expression faltered, as her voice cracked and broke with a high-pitched whine. "Why did I have to die?"
Her Master remained silent for a moment, and then he sighed. He sighed, and his crimson eyes flashed brown for a second, but then they quickly returned crimson as he snarled, "You're dead," Master Shade said bluntly. "Because you're a treacherous swine who would otherwise be responsible for the bombing of the Jedi Hangar, and you'd do that by making a wife force-feed explosives to her husband. So, Barriss, you signed your death warrant and I know I'm being a hypocrite and acting on a Minority Report situation here which really makes me look like a bastard...but I knew that by playing this card, you'd fall into my web. Isn't that right, Abeloth? You thought you could stop me by using Barriss, make my padawan afraid and fear me, distrust me, and in the end bring her against me as you killed me and then laid waste to the Jedi Order from within. What you didn't account for was my padawan's speed in learning lessons."
Master Shade hummed. "And you also didn't account for this."
He charged ahead, lightsaber stabbing in the air nimbly as Barriss hastily raised her own to deflect the attack. Ahsoka charged too, spinning both of her blades and striking against her side. Barriss' skill wasn't anything to scoff at, and the Mirialan parried the attack with grace and finesse, rolling out of the way as she tried to run away only for the tower's edge to rise like tall, foreboding walls, and the stairs down to crash upwards, preventing any possible chance of escape.
"I am in control of this Force Nexus, Abeloth," Master Shade spoke crisply. "And I hold knowledge to suck out your soul from the tiny piece you gifted to Barriss here. I will devour it, suck you through it, and chew all that I can. Once I'm done devouring your powers, I will spit them out on Mortis, with that very nice dagger that seems capable of killing you, and then the game will be set." Her Master grinned. "Now, Abeloth...how about you come out and play?!"
Barriss ducked, avoiding a stabbing motion for her head. "You can't be seriously planning to follow him!" Barriss snapped. "After everything he just said! After-"
"I know that right now you're the enemy, Barriss," Ahsoka said firmly. "Or Abeloth, whatever's your name isn't important. You're misunderstanding," Ahsoka said, eyes narrow to keep Barriss in her sights, "I'm not following him. I'm doing this because it's what I believe has to be done. I'll deal with the consequences and accept the punishment if I'm wrong, but right now? This isn't me following my Master's orders. This is me putting to rest a threat for the galaxy. And a corpse walking around is clearly not a friendly neighborhood Spiderman."
Barriss' eyes furrowed at the unexpected words, and Ahsoka took that as the cue to jump over her Master's back and strike from behind at Barriss' spine, making the Mirialan gasp as a third lightsaber struck her in the heart, courtesy of Master Shade.
"I thought I taught you to fight in silence," Master Shade dryly said.
Ahsoka huffed. A sly grin settled on her face the next. Her Master was without Taozin amulets right then, and that meant she could feel him, and his Bond, and- "I'm my own master now," she said gingerly, deactivating her lightsabers.
"Ouch," Master Shade winced. "is this going to become a thing?"
"Rule," Ahsoka smiled brightly, "Of," she continued while showing her teeth, "Nat-"
Master Shade flicked a hand, and a dozen of Taozin amulets soon ended up slung around his neck once more. Ahsoka blinked and sourly looked back at him.
"It's not over yet, Ahsoka," Master Shade said as he brought down his left hand to Barriss' face. "Now, pardon me," eyes closed, her Master concentrated and Barriss' body twitched as it began to ripple with the Force. A loud scream echoed throughout the corpse, and as a pulsing force sent Ahsoka to stumble back and hit the wall, the only two figures that remained at the center of the tower were her Master and Barriss' trembling corpse.
The feeling of malice and hatred slowly came out dripping from within Barriss' body. It came out with lightning and heat, and as Ahsoka found herself shielding her vision, she could feel a violent pressure around her entire body.
When she next opened her eyes, she stood on a stone floor, within the confines of a temple filled with red and black cloth that had been charred and burnt. Corpses of cloaked figures stood all around, their throats sliced and blood pooled in a massive and thick amount over the crevices in the rock. The place was filled to the brim with the Dark Side of the Force, and Ahsoka felt physically ill -if not already hurt from her battered body- and yet as she looked around, she realized her Master was missing.
Typical. She wasn't going to make it a trend however.
A loud groan caught her attention, and when she rushed forward, all thoughts now centered on Skywalker, she knelt hastily near the maimed-no, wait a moment.
Anakin Skywalker wasn't maimed at all. Sure, he was clutching his cut arm, but it wasn't cut. It was still there, firmly planted into his shoulder.
"It hurts," Anakin hissed. "It hurts so much," he snarled, clutching it. His eyes opened fast, and as he used his 'healthy' hand to touch his other arm, he soon realized -his eyes widened- that he hadn't actually lost a limb.
"Did you punch him in the face?" Anakin asked, looking at her. Ahsoka hesitated. "Tell me you stopped him from leaving."
"I tried, but the occasion didn't present itself," Ahsoka said. "You did a pretty good job slugging him though."
"Heh, he had it coming," Anakin hissed as he stumbled on his feet. "I swear...chasing after him isn't what I planned on doing."
There was a veritable scenery of hell around them, something that seemed to have been birthed from the most vivid of nightmares. Corpses had been dragged around, crucified, limbs had been torn and there was a general air of unease mixed with quite a hefty show of will to hold one's own breakfast down, but Ahsoka managed it. She managed it, and she grimly turned to look at the only visible exit from the place.
"Come on, Knight Skywalker," Ahsoka said. "We have to leave."
Down a long, winding, path of stairs.
"Stairs," Anakin growled under his breath. "Why did it have to be stairs?"
"We're not done," Ahsoka said. "My Master spoke of Mortis before he left. Does the name ring a bell?"
"It does," Anakin acquiesced. He winced. "R2-D2 has the coordinates saved. It's a planet Night made sure I never stepped on, because he pretty adamantly referred to it as 'a key point in altering galaxy-wide events'." Anakin looked bleakly at her, his eyes narrowed in suspicion. "He went there, didn't he?"
"Yep," Ahsoka said with a nod.
"And it's our next stop," Anakin continued, his lips twitching.
Ahsoka sighed. "I know this sounds strange...but I think he wants us there. He wouldn't have told his plan otherwise. I-I think we're needed. I hope he'll have a very good explanation for everything that happens next, but a key point of it will be..." here, she looked at Anakin. "Can you do as he asks?"
Anakin froze. "You are telling me to blindly follow the orders of someone who just went Sith, lopped an arm off me after trying to raise my hackles to the point where I should have become a furious Rancor, and even after he just proved how much of it he planned and how he used us, he used all of us, you are still expecting me to follow his orders?" in his favor, Anakin did not yell. He spoke as if clearly stating facts, and Ahsoka winced as she grimaced, trying to make a nervous smile into one filled with confidence.
It failed. It failed badly.
"Well," Ahsoka said, "what does your heart say?"
"My heart," Anakin replied briskly, "Says I needed to slug him harder. My brain tells me I should call the council on his ass. And yet my guts tell me you're right, and that's the one thing that makes me angry the most," he hissed the last part out as he shook his head clear. "I'll never make it as a Jedi Master if I can't keep my calm, and I swear-he played with me until the very end."
"I had that feeling too," Ahsoka acquiesced. "I didn't think he had what it took to fight with a lightsaber, but..."
They stepped outside the temple in quiet contemplation, even as the amount of corpses seemed to finally dwindle down to just a few, it still didn't make the air any lighter. The Nexus did feel weaker, as if a large amount of it had been ripped out and removed, but it was still there, lingering in the back of their mind.
It was when they reached the place they had 'parked' their Star Fighter that they both realized something was wrong. The Ebon Hawk was parked in its place, and R2-D2 was nowhere to be seen.
"He stole R2!" Anakin snapped in disbelief. "He stole our starfighter!"
Ahsoka furrowed her brows. "How long were we knocked out? He wouldn't have had the time to-"
The ramp of the Ebon Hawk slowly slid down and opened up, to reveal a small, hobbling figure atop it.
The figure held long, green ears and a light frown on his face, as well as a neat Taozin amulet around its neck. Ahsoka stopped breathing. Anakin Skywalker's eyes, wide already, tried to pop out of their sockets -but miserably failed and stayed thus inside his skull.
Master Yoda, on the other hand, smiled warmly.
"Past his expectations, you all acted. Warmly, I share his belief now."
He inclined his head to the side, as if gesturing them on board. "Come, quickly. Precious time we have, let us not waste it."
"I don't know what's going on anymore," Ahsoka said calmly, way, way too calmly for what her tone should have been. Then again, apparently Master Yoda had somehow been a part of this all and...
AND AHSOKA WAS STUPID, AND STUPIDITY WAS AHSOKA'S NAME.
Of course Master Yoda would be part of it. He was Master Shade's Master. The Bond worked for such a thing too, and Master Yoda had held his apprentice as a Padawan for years. It was obvious he'd have to be a part of it, no, a fundamental part of it.
"H-How?!" Anakin blurted out, even as the ramp closed up behind them, and they stumbled to the driver's seat where Knight Ferus and Knight Darra stood at the commands, a grin on their faces.
"How what?" Darra asked in a sing-song voice.
"Here. You. How!?" Anakin blurted out.
"Oh, I don't know," Darra said. "I woke up just a few minutes ago. I've been following Master Yoda's orders for the time being."
"Long time, this conversation had to be," Master Yoda said with a sigh as he inputted coordinates on the Ebon Hawk's navigation computer, which beeped and accepted them, starting the lift off sequence. "Many things wrong can go. Not everything planned he has, my wayward student."
"But Master Yoda," Ahsoka said softly, "You know what is happening right now, don't you?"
Master Yoda grunted an affirmative, and exhaled a long drawn out breath. He made a small jump, and sat down on a nearby chair, the attention of everyone else in the room now on him. "There is no ignorance," Master Yoda said. "There is knowledge. One thing, important, understand you must," Master Yoda's ears flapped. He looked at all of them, from the very first to the last, and his face grew heavy. "Truth, hard is. Just, but hard. Understand this, hard will be. Not impossible, just hard. Truth of matter," he looked at all of them, "Is that your Master," he looked at Ahsoka, "Your friend," he looked at the trio of knight, "My student," he looked down as he clutched his wooden walking stick, "Not a seer, he is."
"Bullshit."
Ferus outright spoke that single word, and everyone's head, barring Master Yoda's, swiveled to look at him as if he had grown a third head and gone streaking naked through the senate of Coruscant while covered in chocolate syrup.
Master Yoda just chuckled at that.
Ahsoka swallowed. So this was the moment of truth, wasn't it? The moment where everything began to make sense, where her Master's reasoning was revealed to them, where his actions now finally began to make sense and everything clicked, and everyone understood. But if that was the case, then why was she feeling scared, rather than relieved?
The trio looked at each other silently, not a peep in the air. Ahsoka stood on guard, and so too was her Master. It felt strange, all things said. Her Master had fallen and yet wasn't trying to behead her. He had fallen and yet he also trusted her to follow through with his plan. He had used her, and yet he believed she'd stick with him against a fellow padawan.
Of course, the fact he had been proven right was probably the reason why he had a smug smile on his face. She was going to punch his face once this was over-it wasn't fair only Knight Skywalker got his chance. She deserved one too!
"After all-After everything he told you, everything you understood, you'd still side with him?!" Barriss spoke first, breaking her silence with her voice nothing more than a low hiss. "I-I even warned you about him!"
"Yes," Ahsoka said with a nod. "But I would pick my Master's Sith words over yours a thousand times over."
"Why?!" Barriss snapped, looking at her in disbelief. "Why would you?! I'm a Jedi just like you! I'm-"
"Dead," Ahsoka said. "You're dead."
Ahsoka looked with a sad expression at Barriss, who simply froze. She froze and then her shoulders hunched. "I am not dead," Barriss whispered harshly. "I am not."
"Be careful not to get trapped in a tank below the rubble of a collapsing droid factory," Ahsoka murmured. "My Master foretold the event. He foretold it, and he avoided that fate for me by pulling me away. All this time, he tested me. All this time, he deceived me. It's in his nature, I guess. To continuously test. Master Shen-Jon was right about him. He's a manipulative jerk and a bastard, and as long as things go his way he doesn't really care who suffers for them. He's the worst. He's the absolute worst." Ahsoka felt energy rush through her body as she called forth her other lightsaber, igniting it too. "And yet I can't help but trust him on this, because I know that, deep down, very, very deep down, he's doing the right thing."
Here Ahsoka smiled slightly. "I may not like his means, but I can certainly share his objective. I'm sorry you had to die, Barriss, be at peace as one in the Force now."
"You're sorry," Barriss bitterly said. "You're sorry I had to die?! What kind of-what type-you're no Jedi! How dare you! How dare you justify my death like that?! Who gives you the right-I'm not dead! I. AM. NOT. DEAD! I escaped! I escaped from the tank and the rubble and I was alone, and I drifted across Geonosis until I found a way out, and I returned to the temple, and there was no one, and-and I...and I...why?" she asked in the end, looking at her Master. Barriss' expression faltered, as her voice cracked and broke with a high-pitched whine. "Why did I have to die?"
Her Master remained silent for a moment, and then he sighed. He sighed, and his crimson eyes flashed brown for a second, but then they quickly returned crimson as he snarled, "You're dead," Master Shade said bluntly. "Because you're a treacherous swine who would otherwise be responsible for the bombing of the Jedi Hangar, and you'd do that by making a wife force-feed explosives to her husband. So, Barriss, you signed your death warrant and I know I'm being a hypocrite and acting on a Minority Report situation here which really makes me look like a bastard...but I knew that by playing this card, you'd fall into my web. Isn't that right, Abeloth? You thought you could stop me by using Barriss, make my padawan afraid and fear me, distrust me, and in the end bring her against me as you killed me and then laid waste to the Jedi Order from within. What you didn't account for was my padawan's speed in learning lessons."
Master Shade hummed. "And you also didn't account for this."
He charged ahead, lightsaber stabbing in the air nimbly as Barriss hastily raised her own to deflect the attack. Ahsoka charged too, spinning both of her blades and striking against her side. Barriss' skill wasn't anything to scoff at, and the Mirialan parried the attack with grace and finesse, rolling out of the way as she tried to run away only for the tower's edge to rise like tall, foreboding walls, and the stairs down to crash upwards, preventing any possible chance of escape.
"I am in control of this Force Nexus, Abeloth," Master Shade spoke crisply. "And I hold knowledge to suck out your soul from the tiny piece you gifted to Barriss here. I will devour it, suck you through it, and chew all that I can. Once I'm done devouring your powers, I will spit them out on Mortis, with that very nice dagger that seems capable of killing you, and then the game will be set." Her Master grinned. "Now, Abeloth...how about you come out and play?!"
Barriss ducked, avoiding a stabbing motion for her head. "You can't be seriously planning to follow him!" Barriss snapped. "After everything he just said! After-"
"I know that right now you're the enemy, Barriss," Ahsoka said firmly. "Or Abeloth, whatever's your name isn't important. You're misunderstanding," Ahsoka said, eyes narrow to keep Barriss in her sights, "I'm not following him. I'm doing this because it's what I believe has to be done. I'll deal with the consequences and accept the punishment if I'm wrong, but right now? This isn't me following my Master's orders. This is me putting to rest a threat for the galaxy. And a corpse walking around is clearly not a friendly neighborhood Spiderman."
Barriss' eyes furrowed at the unexpected words, and Ahsoka took that as the cue to jump over her Master's back and strike from behind at Barriss' spine, making the Mirialan gasp as a third lightsaber struck her in the heart, courtesy of Master Shade.
"I thought I taught you to fight in silence," Master Shade dryly said.
Ahsoka huffed. A sly grin settled on her face the next. Her Master was without Taozin amulets right then, and that meant she could feel him, and his Bond, and- "I'm my own master now," she said gingerly, deactivating her lightsabers.
"Ouch," Master Shade winced. "is this going to become a thing?"
"Rule," Ahsoka smiled brightly, "Of," she continued while showing her teeth, "Nat-"
Master Shade flicked a hand, and a dozen of Taozin amulets soon ended up slung around his neck once more. Ahsoka blinked and sourly looked back at him.
"It's not over yet, Ahsoka," Master Shade said as he brought down his left hand to Barriss' face. "Now, pardon me," eyes closed, her Master concentrated and Barriss' body twitched as it began to ripple with the Force. A loud scream echoed throughout the corpse, and as a pulsing force sent Ahsoka to stumble back and hit the wall, the only two figures that remained at the center of the tower were her Master and Barriss' trembling corpse.
The feeling of malice and hatred slowly came out dripping from within Barriss' body. It came out with lightning and heat, and as Ahsoka found herself shielding her vision, she could feel a violent pressure around her entire body.
When she next opened her eyes, she stood on a stone floor, within the confines of a temple filled with red and black cloth that had been charred and burnt. Corpses of cloaked figures stood all around, their throats sliced and blood pooled in a massive and thick amount over the crevices in the rock. The place was filled to the brim with the Dark Side of the Force, and Ahsoka felt physically ill -if not already hurt from her battered body- and yet as she looked around, she realized her Master was missing.
Typical. She wasn't going to make it a trend however.
A loud groan caught her attention, and when she rushed forward, all thoughts now centered on Skywalker, she knelt hastily near the maimed-no, wait a moment.
Anakin Skywalker wasn't maimed at all. Sure, he was clutching his cut arm, but it wasn't cut. It was still there, firmly planted into his shoulder.
"It hurts," Anakin hissed. "It hurts so much," he snarled, clutching it. His eyes opened fast, and as he used his 'healthy' hand to touch his other arm, he soon realized -his eyes widened- that he hadn't actually lost a limb.
"Did you punch him in the face?" Anakin asked, looking at her. Ahsoka hesitated. "Tell me you stopped him from leaving."
"I tried, but the occasion didn't present itself," Ahsoka said. "You did a pretty good job slugging him though."
"Heh, he had it coming," Anakin hissed as he stumbled on his feet. "I swear...chasing after him isn't what I planned on doing."
There was a veritable scenery of hell around them, something that seemed to have been birthed from the most vivid of nightmares. Corpses had been dragged around, crucified, limbs had been torn and there was a general air of unease mixed with quite a hefty show of will to hold one's own breakfast down, but Ahsoka managed it. She managed it, and she grimly turned to look at the only visible exit from the place.
"Come on, Knight Skywalker," Ahsoka said. "We have to leave."
Down a long, winding, path of stairs.
"Stairs," Anakin growled under his breath. "Why did it have to be stairs?"
"We're not done," Ahsoka said. "My Master spoke of Mortis before he left. Does the name ring a bell?"
"It does," Anakin acquiesced. He winced. "R2-D2 has the coordinates saved. It's a planet Night made sure I never stepped on, because he pretty adamantly referred to it as 'a key point in altering galaxy-wide events'." Anakin looked bleakly at her, his eyes narrowed in suspicion. "He went there, didn't he?"
"Yep," Ahsoka said with a nod.
"And it's our next stop," Anakin continued, his lips twitching.
Ahsoka sighed. "I know this sounds strange...but I think he wants us there. He wouldn't have told his plan otherwise. I-I think we're needed. I hope he'll have a very good explanation for everything that happens next, but a key point of it will be..." here, she looked at Anakin. "Can you do as he asks?"
Anakin froze. "You are telling me to blindly follow the orders of someone who just went Sith, lopped an arm off me after trying to raise my hackles to the point where I should have become a furious Rancor, and even after he just proved how much of it he planned and how he used us, he used all of us, you are still expecting me to follow his orders?" in his favor, Anakin did not yell. He spoke as if clearly stating facts, and Ahsoka winced as she grimaced, trying to make a nervous smile into one filled with confidence.
It failed. It failed badly.
"Well," Ahsoka said, "what does your heart say?"
"My heart," Anakin replied briskly, "Says I needed to slug him harder. My brain tells me I should call the council on his ass. And yet my guts tell me you're right, and that's the one thing that makes me angry the most," he hissed the last part out as he shook his head clear. "I'll never make it as a Jedi Master if I can't keep my calm, and I swear-he played with me until the very end."
"I had that feeling too," Ahsoka acquiesced. "I didn't think he had what it took to fight with a lightsaber, but..."
They stepped outside the temple in quiet contemplation, even as the amount of corpses seemed to finally dwindle down to just a few, it still didn't make the air any lighter. The Nexus did feel weaker, as if a large amount of it had been ripped out and removed, but it was still there, lingering in the back of their mind.
It was when they reached the place they had 'parked' their Star Fighter that they both realized something was wrong. The Ebon Hawk was parked in its place, and R2-D2 was nowhere to be seen.
"He stole R2!" Anakin snapped in disbelief. "He stole our starfighter!"
Ahsoka furrowed her brows. "How long were we knocked out? He wouldn't have had the time to-"
The ramp of the Ebon Hawk slowly slid down and opened up, to reveal a small, hobbling figure atop it.
The figure held long, green ears and a light frown on his face, as well as a neat Taozin amulet around its neck. Ahsoka stopped breathing. Anakin Skywalker's eyes, wide already, tried to pop out of their sockets -but miserably failed and stayed thus inside his skull.
Master Yoda, on the other hand, smiled warmly.
"Past his expectations, you all acted. Warmly, I share his belief now."
He inclined his head to the side, as if gesturing them on board. "Come, quickly. Precious time we have, let us not waste it."
"I don't know what's going on anymore," Ahsoka said calmly, way, way too calmly for what her tone should have been. Then again, apparently Master Yoda had somehow been a part of this all and...
AND AHSOKA WAS STUPID, AND STUPIDITY WAS AHSOKA'S NAME.
Of course Master Yoda would be part of it. He was Master Shade's Master. The Bond worked for such a thing too, and Master Yoda had held his apprentice as a Padawan for years. It was obvious he'd have to be a part of it, no, a fundamental part of it.
"H-How?!" Anakin blurted out, even as the ramp closed up behind them, and they stumbled to the driver's seat where Knight Ferus and Knight Darra stood at the commands, a grin on their faces.
"How what?" Darra asked in a sing-song voice.
"Here. You. How!?" Anakin blurted out.
"Oh, I don't know," Darra said. "I woke up just a few minutes ago. I've been following Master Yoda's orders for the time being."
"Long time, this conversation had to be," Master Yoda said with a sigh as he inputted coordinates on the Ebon Hawk's navigation computer, which beeped and accepted them, starting the lift off sequence. "Many things wrong can go. Not everything planned he has, my wayward student."
"But Master Yoda," Ahsoka said softly, "You know what is happening right now, don't you?"
Master Yoda grunted an affirmative, and exhaled a long drawn out breath. He made a small jump, and sat down on a nearby chair, the attention of everyone else in the room now on him. "There is no ignorance," Master Yoda said. "There is knowledge. One thing, important, understand you must," Master Yoda's ears flapped. He looked at all of them, from the very first to the last, and his face grew heavy. "Truth, hard is. Just, but hard. Understand this, hard will be. Not impossible, just hard. Truth of matter," he looked at all of them, "Is that your Master," he looked at Ahsoka, "Your friend," he looked at the trio of knight, "My student," he looked down as he clutched his wooden walking stick, "Not a seer, he is."
"Bullshit."
Ferus outright spoke that single word, and everyone's head, barring Master Yoda's, swiveled to look at him as if he had grown a third head and gone streaking naked through the senate of Coruscant while covered in chocolate syrup.
Master Yoda just chuckled at that.
Ahsoka swallowed. So this was the moment of truth, wasn't it? The moment where everything began to make sense, where her Master's reasoning was revealed to them, where his actions now finally began to make sense and everything clicked, and everyone understood. But if that was the case, then why was she feeling scared, rather than relieved?
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Oh I am slain!
Wynaut?
- Location
- Tatooine
Bwahaha, look upon your fictional nature and despair!
But of course, Yoda calmly accepts that knowledge. Best master, 10/10.
But of course, Yoda calmly accepts that knowledge. Best master, 10/10.
