Chapter 28

Chapter 28

THE FIELDS OF RAADA were ruined. Even Ahsoka’s inexpert eye could see it. The soil that had once been a dark brown was now bleached to an unhealthy gray, and the life that she used to sense from it was almost entirely drained. The only things in the fields that looked healthy were the hectares of little green plants, the source of so much misery.

“If we get the chance,” Ahsoka whispered to Miara, who crouched beside her, “remind me to come back here and burn this to ash.”

“I’ll help,” Miara promised. “I’ve gotten pretty good at lighting fires.”

“Come on,” Ahsoka said. “We need to be through here before the first shift starts.”

Miara had told her that the Imperials had extended the shift lengths again. Now the farmers worked for nearly the entire time there was daylight to work by, and there were rumors that once the harvest started, the Imperials were going to bring in floodlights so the farmers could work in the dark, as well. There wasn’t a lot of time, and there wasn’t much cover, so Miara led Ahsoka along the edge of the tilled ground, and as soon as they reached the outlying buildings of the town, they ducked down an alleyway.

“We’re on the opposite side of town from the Imperial compound,” Miara whispered. “We’ll have to cross the entire settlement to get to Kaeden.”

“Not we,” Ahsoka said. “Just me. I need you to go to Selda and give him this.”

She passed over the holo she’d recorded in hyperspace.

“If you can’t find Selda, find Vartan or one of the other crew leads. But make sure it’s someone you trust!”

“I want to come with you!” Miara said.

Ahsoka stopped and put a hand on each of the girl’s shoulders.

“I know you do,” she said. “I know you’d do anything for your sister right now, but I need you to listen. I can get your sister out, but my ship is too far away for us to escape Raada. And even if the three of us got away, what would happen to everyone else?”

Miara started to protest but then stopped. Ahsoka could tell she had seen reason.

“I need you to get to Selda,” she said again. “Kaeden needs you to get to Selda. Okay?”

“Okay,” Miara said. “I’ll do it.”

Ahsoka squeezed Miara’s hand around the holo and then watched the girl make her way down the street. She’d learned to walk softly since Ahsoka had last seen her, and how to use even what little cover the street offered to her advantage. Ahsoka really hated war.

She let Miara get a good head start and then struck out in the direction of the Imperial compound. She did not use cover or make any pretense of attempting to conceal her approach. The gray creature knew she was coming and knew what her target was. Stealth was impossible, and she had one shot. Her only hope was that the Empire didn’t have a secret piece hidden on the back of the board like she did.

She walked down the middle of the street, senses alert and ready for anything. Every part of her was like an energy coil, wound tight and ready for action.

She didn’t have to wait very long.

“Jedi!” A harsh voice rang out. It seemed to come from every direction at once. Ahsoka cast out with her senses, searching for the source.

“You have something I want,” she said. It would be easier if she could get the gray creature to keep talking.

“Poor little Kaeden Larte,” said the creature. Ahsoka narrowed in on his location. “So hopeful that her Jedi friend would come for her. I had to tell her that Jedi don’t have friends. Jedi don’t have attachments of any kind. They’re heartless and cold and don’t even understand what love is.”

“I don’t know who taught you about the Jedi,” Ahsoka said. “But they seem to have left out a few things. You should ask for better lessons.”

“I told Kaeden that you weren’t a real Jedi,” the creature said. There! Ahsoka had him. Now she just had to wait for the right moment. “I told her that you were probably so scared of me that you were twelve systems away and never coming back. I’m actually happy to be wrong.”

She felt him jump off the roof of the building behind her and turned. She could no more identify his species in person than she could from his picture. He was taller than she was, even with the height she’d added in the past few years, and very broadly built. He was clearly very strong, and with the body armor he wore, he was a formidable opponent. He was still wearing his helmet, and his face shield was up, as though he needed to see her clearly while they fought. That was another difference in their training, Ahsoka thought. She could fight completely blind if she had to, though blind and without her lightsabers might be pushing it.

She focused her attention on his chest, where movement began. She felt the Force flowing through her as his lightsaber flared to life. She could hear its hum, a dark counterpoint to the song of her own crystals, now quite nearby. Ahsoka cleared her mind of all distractions.

The creature struck, and Ahsoka deflected his blows before they fell. She read his feelings through the Force that connected them, and she tracked the movement of his shoulders, elbows, and wrists, pushing them away so that they always missed their targets. Furious, he doubled his efforts, striking for her head and chest.

What the gray creature lacked in finesse, he made up for in brute strength. He pushed Ahsoka back, toward the line of houses, and she let him, still taking his measure as a fighter. When she reached the front step of the house behind her, she jumped off of it, using the Force to propel herself in an elegant flip over his head. She easily avoided the frantic swing of his lightsaber as she flew over him, then landed in a crouch on the other side, ready to continue.

“Impressive,” he said.

“You’re easily impressed,” she said. “I’m only just getting started.”

She felt more people behind her and realized that someone in the Imperial compound had gotten wind of what was going on. The walls were lined with stormtroopers, all of them pointing blasters at her. At least it didn’t look like they’d added any reinforcements since she left. She ducked down a side street, out of their line of fire, and the gray creature followed her.

He held his lightsaber aloft, and it began to spin. The effect was interesting—a deadly circle of light instead of a blade—but Ahsoka wasn’t intimidated by it. The creature’s entire strategy relied on overpowering his opponent. She had other options.

“What are you?” she asked. “Who made you like this?”

“I serve the Empire,” the creature said.

“You certainly have a sense for drama,” Ahsoka said.

She reached out for him again, this time for his hands and fingers, and for the balance of weight borne by his hips and knees. She felt something awaken in her, every combat lesson Anakin had ever taught. She remembered how to stand and how to hold the blades. She pushed her opponent’s fingers too far apart and overturned his balance. She remembered, and she could make him forget. He staggered back, surprised at her power over him even at arm’s length, but not yet overcome.

“I have a sense for power,” he said. “And you do not have enough to resist me for much longer, weaponless as you are.”

That was where he was wrong. She wasn’t weaponless. No Jedi ever was.

The creature stepped toward her, close enough for her to touch. His spinning lightsaber held off attacks from the sides, but was vulnerable from the front. Just as she’d reached for her first crystal all those years ago, Ahsoka stretched out a hand.

Sensing her intent at the last moment, the Inquisitor tried to disconnect his weapon and fight her with two blades instead of one, but it was spinning too quickly for him to do it. Ahsoka’s hand landed almost gently on the cylindrical metal, and the Force was with her. The hilt cracked at her touch.

A sharp whine reached Ahsoka’s ears, the dark and light song of the crystals struggling for balance. She realized she needed to jump back even farther. She must have nicked the power connection that channeled the crystals inside his hilt, and now it was overloading. If he didn’t deactivate it soon, it was going to explode.

Before she could even consider shouting a warning, the red lightsaber burst into a mess of noise and light. Bright spots pricked at her eyes, and then all was quiet. The creature wasn’t going to bother her anymore.

He lay in the street, his face a burned mess, the shell of his lightsaber still clutched in his hands. If he’d been able to fight her with his face shield down, he might have survived the blast.

She wondered who had trained him and if there were others. Someone had twisted the potential for good in this creature and turned him to the dark side. Someone had made him like this. Someone, Ahsoka knew, who was still out there and who must be prevented from finding other children, if she could manage it. She reached down and closed his helmet, covering the ruin of his face. It was the only compassion she could show him. She had work to do.

Kneeling beside her fallen foe, Ahsoka sifted through the wreckage of his lightsaber hilt. The crystals that had powered his lightsaber were no longer contained by metal, but their song had not dimmed. She held them in one hand, almost shaking as the familiarity of them coursed through her, while the other hand retrieved the half-finished hilts she carried with her.

These lightsabers wouldn’t have the decorative handles she preferred, and her grip would be affected until she had time to truly finish them. She was missing a few key components, parts that had to be specifically made, but the creature’s ruined hilt was before her. Quickly, she picked through the wreckage again, this time paying closer attention to the inner workings of the weapon, and smiled when she found what she needed. They would do for now.

Ahsoka could hear the Imperials approaching. Her duel had made them hesitate, but now they were on high alert. She pushed aside her sense of urgency, even though she was in a hurry. Meditation came easily, as if she were sitting in safety in the Jedi Temple itself, instead of a dusty street with her enemies closing in. Her mind’s eye sorted the preassembled components and those she had just retrieved into order, locking each into place with the others. When Ahsoka opened her hands, she was not surprised to find that two lightsabers, rough and unfinished, were waiting.

They would need more work, but they were hers.

When she turned them on, they shone the brightest white.

* * *

Ahsoka found another side street that went in the direction she wanted and followed it back toward the compound. She was the Imperials’ only target now. She was going to need all the cover she could get. In her hands, her lightsabers were a reassuring weight. Her fight had given her back the focus she had lost. She wasn’t even breathing hard. This was something she could do.

She didn’t bother with taunts or banter. She had nothing to say to these people. She took the wall with a single flying leap and landed in the middle of the compound, much to the surprise of the stormtroopers on duty there. They began to fire, and she began to work her way toward the front door, easily deflecting their blaster bolts.

It took her only a few seconds to get there, her approach heralded by explosions and blaster fire, and then a few seconds more to cut the door open. Once she was in the corridor, she pushed the Force behind her, knocking everyone who pursued her off their feet. Ahead, she saw uniformed officers readying themselves to defend the inside of the compound. Apparently, all the stormtroopers were outside. She hoped they were too busy to think of calling in a Star Destroyer.

Ahsoka fought her way through the corridors, using her lightsabers to deflect blaster bolts and the Force to push her attackers out of the way. The cells were in the back of the building, she knew, and she wanted to waste as little time as she could getting to them.

Finally, she reached the prison hallway. There was a master door switch, which she activated, and the cell doors all opened. She checked to make sure there weren’t any ray shields and then went down the hall.

“Kaeden?” she called out. “Are you here?”

* * *

In her cell, Kaeden’s head snapped up and she scrambled to her feet. It was still difficult to balance with her arm, but the sound of Ahsoka’s voice encouraged her. She walked forward.

A few hapless prisoners had emerged from their cells, blocking Kaeden’s view down the corridor. Kaeden heard Ahsoka shouting orders at them to get out, to get to Selda’s cantina as soon as they could, and she followed the crowd toward her friend.

At last, Kaeden was face to face with Ahsoka. She knew her hair was a disaster, she was covered in dirt, her head wound looked terrible, and her arm was still bound uselessly to her chest—but she was on her feet. Ahsoka looked different: powerful, focused, completely beyond Kaeden’s comprehension. Ahsoka wielded a pair of bright white lightsabers, and even though it was Kaeden’s first time seeing them, she couldn’t imagine Ahsoka without them in her hands. Despite the circumstances, she smiled.

“Kaeden!” Ahsoka shouted, and ran to help her move faster.

“Ahsoka!” Kaeden ran toward her, but stopped short of throwing her good arm around Ahsoka’s shoulder. She knew that lightsabers were not to be trifled with. She could almost feel the power pouring out of Ahsoka anyway. It was amazing. “I could kiss you.”

Ahsoka stopped in her tracks. The look she shot Kaeden was mildly confused.

“Not now, I mean,” Kaeden said. She wanted to laugh for the first time in weeks but thought that might just be the hysteria setting in. “My timing is terrible and you have all those Jedi hang-ups. I just wanted you to know in case we die.”

“Oh,” said Ahsoka. “Well, thanks.” She paused. “And we are not going to die.”

“If you say so,” Kaeden agreed.

Ahsoka deactivated the lightsaber in her left hand and attached it to her belt. She kept hold of the right one. With one arm free, she supported Kaeden, and together they walked away from the cells.

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