*I wrote about two Wattpad pages of this the day I published it, because it had been sitting in my Star Wars stories folder for a month and I wanted to get it done! #luxsokaforever

To the Next Stage And Back – A UAAT Mini-Story 

 Eight years after Part 5 Epilogue timeline

26-year-old Ahsoka Tano awoke slowly to find herself curled up next to her long-time sweetheart, Lux Bonteri, who was wide awake. Shirtless, he looked like he had been watching over her as she slept. 

She looked herself over. She was wearing a dark blue top with spaghetti straps and a little pair of grey shorts, that seriously contrasted her blue-and-white stripped lekku and montrals. And she was so comfortable. It was nice just to be warm and cozy with Lux. And the memories of what they had been doing the night before were sweet to think about too... 

"G'morning," she mumbled, but was cut off by a kiss. Lux ran a hand up and down her back gently, pulling her to him with the other. She kissed him back tenderly, running her fingers through his hair and feeling a sort of pleasurable warmth spread throughout her body, which she would always get when they kissed. But after a few moments, they broke apart. "Wow, talk about a nice 'good morning', Lux." She smiled at him, and tried to sit up, but he pulled her down again. 

"Come on, we have a little time on our hands," he whispered, sneaking a kiss on her cheek. 

Ahsoka rolled her eyes. "I need to get the others up, Lux. Someone will notice if I'm not there to give the wake-up call." 

"Fine," he huffed.

She kissed him quickly, then got out of bed. "Lux, I need to tell you something." She turned around, putting her usual outfit down on the bed beside him.

"Hm?" he mumbled, getting up and standing next to her. "What is it, Ahsoka?"

She bit her lip, suddenly uncomfortable. "I mean, it's probably a stage that all women go through at some point, but... I want a child, Lux."

He reflected on this for a moment, then nodded. "I get it. You're not the only one of us two who wants to start a family." He rubbed her arm softly.

"It's just that we've been married for four years now, and I think that we're ready to be parents. Or, at least, I am," she said.

He kissed her briefly. "Mmh-hmn. I am too, Ahsoka. Now let's get ready."

A few days later, Ahsoka walked back to her room from a late Capture the Flag activity in the woods with the group of the youngest padawans. Over the last couple of days, their separate duties as Lookout Operator and Grand Jedi Master had been keeping them apart, and she was eager to see him.

Suddenly she felt a wave of nausea wash over her, and she had to grab onto the nearest wall to stop herself from falling over. Her head was pounding, creating a splitting headache.

"What is up with me?" she asked herself aloud, as she stumbled dizzily into her room and fell onto the bed.

The sheets were still unmade, and one pillow still smelled a little like Lux. Or at least, of the soap that he liked to use. Finding this mundanely comforting, she hugged it to her face.

I need to figure out what brought this spell on, she thought, and, keeping hold of the pillow, she initiated a Force scan. But this one was different than the ones that she usually did, because she was scanning the insides of her body, and not the surrounding area.

Ahsoka decided to start with her upper body and then to go down from there. She didn't have to go far. The first thing that she noticed was that her heart was working overtime, and... There was another heart beating along with it!

She gasped, lapsing out of it. "It... it can't be!" she whispered. There was only one thing she could do now. Lux, she sent the word towards him using the Force. I need you.

I need you! Help me!

Not even a minute later, Lux was at the door. Some part of Ahsoka's mind marveled at how quickly he had answered her call, for two reasons. Firstly, she didn't know that they could communicate telepathically. That in itself was remarkable, and a rare talent. And secondly, he would have to have the talent too, if he had understood exactly what she had wanted to tell him.

"Oh no, no, Ahsoka, what happened?" he ran over and sat down beside her, rubbing her back.

"I think I'm going to be sick!" She curled up into a ball, trying to will the Force into making it go away. Eventually, she began to feel it clearing up. She tried to sit up, shaking, but it was just easier to stay lying down.

"Ahsoka, what was that?" Lux's eyes were full of concern.

"Lux," she said, taking a deep breath, "Remember how I told you that I wanted a baby a few days ago?"

Lux went bug-eyed. "No, it can't be!"

She nodded. He had guessed correctly right away. "I'm pregnant, Lux! I'm pregnant with our child!"

Tears, which had been threatening to make an appearance ever since she had done the Force-scan, suddenly came streaming down Ahsoka's face. "I – I want so badly to have this baby, Lux, but how are we going to raise it? We can't be parents, not with the lives that we've chosen! I don't know what I'm going to do!"

He made a move to sit her up and to hold her, but she turned away, and shakily managed to stand up. She wasn't ready for comfort, not yet. After all, Lux was part of the reason that she was now pregnant and feeling so distraught. "How am I going to tell Kaylira?" she whispered, wrapping her arms around herself.

Then, she felt the Force entering her mind, soothing her concerns and calming her. Then, it chose to present her with a solution. She was quiet for a moment, thinking it over.

"Ahsoka, what is it? Please, we're married. I need you to be able to talk to me," Lux pleaded, running a hand through his bangs, something that he always did when he was worried.

She knew that he tried so hard to be the best husband that he could for her. She turned back towards him. "I know what I have to do. Governor Roshti of the Togruta colony on Kiros, he was a friend of mine. When the baby is born, we can ask him to keep him or her for a while. Then Roshti can say that he thinks that they're Force-sensitive, and I'm sure they will be, coming from Force-sensitive parents, and we can send someone to take our child back here.

"I'll use a shadow hologram of my old self to hide any traces of the pregnancy, and when the baby's old enough to be a padawan, then Kaylira should be ready to become a Jedi Knight. We can make this work, Lux." Drying her tears, she fitted herself into his arms.

Lux gave her a gentle squeeze. "I know we can. Are we going to tell Windu and Ben? And Yoda?"

"I think so. They're not going to like it, but we don't have a choice. We need to have people backing us up. We're going to have this baby, Lux!" She kissed him on the mouth. "We're going to make it!"

Nine months later...

"AAAAGHH! Ugh, it hurts!" Pale-faced and shaking, Ahsoka gripped Lux's and Obi-Wan's hands so hard she was certain that she was cutting off the blood circulation to their fingers. She had been in labor for nearly a full day now, and, even though she had a remarkable tolerance for pain, she was starting to weaken.

For the past two months, now that she was sure that she couldn't keep leading the New Jedi Order, she had gone ahead with the next phase in the plan: pretending to be seriously ill and unable to move. It had fooled everyone, even Master Zaydn Kyrulo, her second-in-command and one of her closest friends in the Order, who was to take her place until she was better. Only a select few, including her doctor, Amni Chelsu, knew about her secret pregnancy.

As her current contraction subdued, she took a deep breath, trying to stop gasping for air. Sweat was streaming down her face. "I... I can't keep this up much longer... I can't..."

She screamed again as another one hit. "I won't make it out of this..."

"No, Ahsoka, you just have to hang on. Just for a little longer," said Obi-Wan.

"You can do it. For me. For the baby." Lux put a hand on her cheek.

Masters Windu and Yoda, who had been watching from behind the glass of the room she was in, both looked at one another. Ahsoka turned to look at them. The two Jedi Masters were trying to make her experience more bearable using the Force, but it wasn't really working.

Amni rushed in, carrying a tray of medical supplies, and walked over to her. "Master Tano, I need you to get ready to push, really, really hard. Okay? Otherwise this will take a lot longer."

She nodded. Tears were beginning to join the sweat accumulating on her face. She vaguely wondered why she still had the vocal power to scream as loudly as she did, even though she had been yelling at the top of her lungs for a full day.

Another contraction, worse than any of the others, suddenly forced a shriek out of her already raw throat. She could feel the baby's need to be free, and to get out into the world. This was not going to be easy.

"Master Tano! Get ready, now! One," she said. Spots began to dance in front of her eyes.

"Two!" Ahsoka tried to fight it away, but the darkness was threatening to overwhelm her.

"Three! Push!"

One final heave, and it was over.

"It's a girl!" yelled Lux.

And then black. Nothing but kind, merciful black.

A few minutes later, Ahsoka opened her eyes again. "Lux..." she whispered, almost inaudibly. Her voice was finally starting to go from all that screaming.

"You did it, Ahsoka! You did it!" His smile on his face could have powered the whole of Coruscant for a year.

"I need to see my daughter," she said, coughing due to her sore throat.

Obi-Wan and Lux helped her sit up, and Amni placed a crying, squirming bundle into her arms. She breathed a sigh of relief. The baby was perfectly healthy, but didn't look anything like what she had expected. She had Togruta markings on her face, and her skin was a tone in between Lux's light skin and Ahsoka's more tanned color. There were tiny wisps of hair on her head, and hints of montrals at the top of her skull.

But what was strange about her was that, although her hair was brown like her father's at the roots, the stands got thicker at the ends. It as almost as if they would turn into lekku at the bottom when she got older...

But Ahsoka wouldn't think about that now. She refused to. "You're beautiful," she said, kissing the top of the baby's head. The little girl stopped crying, as if understanding that she was with her mother now.

Lux leaned over towards her. "What are we going to call her?"

"I like 'Aeja'. It suits her. The records that the Jedi Archives had of my ancestry told me it was my mother's name."

"It's perfect."

"We're a family now. And families always stick together. No matter how long it takes, no matter what we have to do, Aeja will be ours someday. I just know it." 

*The name 'Aeja' stems from two LuxSoka daughter names that I found online that I liked, 'Aeris' and 'Shia'. Her name in my story was originally going to be spelled 'Aesha', but I liked the 'Aeja' spelling better. Her full name is going to be (spoilers alert) Aeja Ontarri. The first four letters are Tano in an anagram, and the rest and the order of the letters is supposed to resemble 'Bonteri'.*