AHSOKA TANO

Ahsoka silently took her lightsabers from her belt.

Chee, whoo. Chee, whoo.

Darth Vader, whose lightsaber was already in his hand, held it at the ready. It sliced down the middle of his mask in a stark red line.

Chee, whoo. Chee, whoo.

She concentrated hard. Sidious! He had set up this whole net for her to fall right into! Now she truly dreaded what would happen to her – not for how painful it would be for her, but how others would take it. It would tear Lux apart if she were to be killed. He would do anything to get her back, even commit suicide to be with her again, and it would be the perfect way for the Sith to turn him to the Dark Side.

She would have to get out of it somehow, but how? She took a deep breath. The Force will guide me, she thought, even if it’s to my own destruction.

“You will die tonight, my old padawan, by my blade. Mark my words!” said Vader, whipping his laser sword through the air to prove the point. He said it with such certainty, just like the last time.

The future is always in motion…

“And so it begins…” she whispered. Her lightsabers flashed on, the green and green-yellow blades chasing away the shadows that were gathering around her. Sith and Jedi began to circle one another, as bits of lava flew through the air.

Then the wall blew up.

Coughing as the cloud of dust descended, Ahsoka got up. She was uninjured, having simply been knocked over, but it had been extremely unexpected. Her lightsabers were nearby, and she used the Force to bring them back into her hands. Then she waited for the cloud to go away.

As the dust started to lift, she noticed Darth Vader lying motionless under a small heap of stones. He was still alive, she could sense it plainly, but knocked unconscious. One of the flying rocks must have hit him in the right place and at the right speed.

Suddenly, she felt several other presences. Obi-Wan, some of the padawans, Chenai… but only one really stood out. Lux! He was here!

She caught sight of him running towards her, and ran towards him, too. It was… beyond description to have Lux again. She really couldn’t live without him.

Their arms linked together. Lux picked her up, twirling her around in the air. She reached down and kissed him. Their lips met, forming one sweet kiss after another. Softly and passionately, she wound her arms around him, playing with his feather-soft hair. He stopped spinning her, pulling her to him tightly, to the point that it almost hurt, but she wouldn’t have asked him to lessen his grip for anything.

Eventually, they stopped. Regretfully, Ahsoka pulled away from him, her face cushioned on one of his hands.

“Oh, Ahsoka! I – I can’t… I… I’m so sorry! I acted like a sick idiot the last time I saw you in person. Can you ever forgive–” he stammered, trying to sort through the words.

She put a finger to his lips. “I forgave you the minute I got to Tatooine. I knew that I had to let you choose your own path. And if it led away from mine, then there would be nothing I could do except get on with my life. But I’m so unbelievably happy that you found your way back to me again,” she said. She gently stroked his face with her long, tan fingers.

He kissed her finger. “I was so worried. I thought that you were going to die from what the Sith put you through!”

“Come on, that’s insulting. I’ve lasted this long, haven’t I?”

“Yes, but there are alternate scenarios that I was imagining. I lost hope that I would ever hold you like this again.” He squeezed her gently, relief in his sweet blue-gray eyes.

“Never lose hope. I always find a way back to you, you know that.” Then she heard the faintest sound of a gun being readied up above her.

In a second, she had flashed out and deflected the two shots that had been fired at them with her lightsabers. A lone figure hopped down from a cleft on a stalactite where they had been perched, putting their gun back into their pocket, and stepped into the light.

Chenai.