AHSOKA TANO            

Ahsoka made her way carefully through Separatist territory that the Republic forces had not yet freed. Suddenly she collapsed, and shivers ran up and down her spine. She could feel pain, but it was not her own: she was picking up on Lux’s agony. He was being electrocuted. 

Slowly, she got up, holding her side. Her wound was starting to bleed again, and had almost soaked through the bandage. She briefly considered ripping a length off of her long red shirt, but decided against it. It was dirty from the fighting, and overall unsanitary to use for a new bandage, which led to another thought.

 I need something that I can use as a bandage, she thought, as well as a cable gun, and a new cloak–

What is with me? Ahsoka asked herself. Lux is a hostage, and is probably being tortured, and I’m being so self-centered?!

Sighing, the former Jedi gave into her basic needs. She felt the pouch strapped to the back of her belt, which contained, now that she thought of it, enough credits to buy the required items, plus some basic provisions. But there was only one place in Iziz where one could find good-quality cable guns.

Within minutes, she had reached her destination. It was a small pawnshop that doubled as a specialty store for second-hand military products, in one of the older districts of Iziz. The place had apparently been cleared, but the owners would doubtlessly return soon. She darted inside and closed the door.

She and Lux had been there a few weeks back, before her nightmares had started. Lux had been after a certain piece of furniture for his place on Coruscant, and, seeing that a neighboring shop carried cable guns, they had popped in for the fun of it. For memories’ sake. Scanning the place, she spotted the specialized item in a corner.

It looked remarkably like her old ones back at Lux’s villa. It had the same sort of grip and design, though it was of an entirely different model. She tried holding it, and it felt food in her grasp. The proper way to hold one was to use the reverse Jedi Shien lightsaber grip, one that she favored. One would then raise their arm and push a button to fire the cable, which could extend to an impressive length.

Ahsoka also took a length of surgical gauze to apply to her rib injury. It would be easier to simply attach it on top of the bandage than to take it off and reapply it, so she did so. She grabbed a few sustenance bars for the road off a shelf and left the required sum of credits in her pouch on the table. Then, noticing something else that caught her eye, she put the last of her credits back in the pouch. The other item was a cloak of style and make similar to that of a Jedi’s, which was a shade of brown that went nicely with her clothes.

She left the pawnshop, putting on the hood. Scaling a tree, she left the rest of her food for the birds, and put the leftover gauze there too. She was about to make her way back down, but the squeaky voices of battle droids stopped her.

 “The shuttle is ready to take off. Are we leaving soon?” asked the first.

“Report back to the command ship. Count Dooku has ordered extra security for that Senator on board,” answered a second. “There might be a Jedi showing up to rescue him.”

“A Jedi? Oh no. I heard what happened to OZ 53 when he tried to stop two of those.”

“We all did, but Count Dooku says it’s only one this time.” To this the other droid perked up a little. “Prep the shuttle!”

“Roger, roger!”

Now I just need to stow away on that ship, and I can save Lux, she thought. Silently, she proceeded to creep down from her tree and towards the unsuspecting droids below.