Even the Dark Side Can't Take Our Memories

Chapter 11 - Déjà Vu

"We've found Adonis." Barriss and Ahsoka gasped and hurried to either side of Anakin to get a better view of the hologram in his hand. "Barriss, your recording of his conversation with the Kaminoan was incredibly helpful; it was enough to convince the Council that he was guilty and needed to be found." Ahsoka shoved Barriss's shoulder playfully with a congratulatory grin. Barriss blushed and smiled. "Adonis escaped to a Separatist headquarter in the Outer Rim. Thankfully, he extremely illogically flew there in a stolen Republic starfighter, which we can track; so we now know of his location and the location of Separatist headquarters we did not yet know about.

"As the original leaders of this discovery, you two, Master Luminara, and I are going to go after him."

"Wait, really?"

"Yup, Snips. And we're going now." Ahsoka and Barriss grinned at each other; just as their young, innocent selves once had, they still relished the chance to go on missions together.

Ahsoka, Barriss, Anakin, Luminara, and R2-D2 boarded a G9 Rigger freighter. The bright white stars surrounding them stretched out into long lines as R2-D2 plugged Adonis's coordinates into the hyperspace route, and they were off!

***

When the Jedi reached the small, unknown Outer Rim moon where the headquarters were located, they leapt down from the freighter, dust floating up around their feet. Barriss slipped her hand into Ahsoka's; somehow, being seemingly alone in the middle of a boulder-filled desert was worse than being surrounded by Separatist troops. This way, enemies could jump out of nowhere and attack.

"Uh - Master? Are the headquarters - like - invisible or something?" Ahsoka asked skeptically.

"Concentrate, Ahsoka. This is a good learning opportunity." Ahsoka rolled her eyes, but leant down to the ground with Barriss soon after. The girls closed their eyes and pressed their hands to the rough ground as they let themselves become one with the Force.

"Master, I think the headquarters are... underground!" Ahsoka said, her eyes still closed.

"Very good, Padawan." Meanwhile, Barriss was slowly crawling along, feeling the ground with her palms. Ahsoka, Anakin, and Luminara watched as she kept going until reaching a large boulder.

"This is the entrance. I can feel it." Luminara nodded in proud approval. All four Jedi collectively used the Force to lift up the boulder and move it to the side, revealing a large hole in the ground.

"I would think the Separatists would use a bit more security than this," Anakin scoffed. As if his words were a jinx, a fleet of Separatist droids suddenly came pouring out from the headquarter entrance! Every moment the Jedi thought the last of the droids had exited the hole, another fifty came out to protect their base.

"Retreat! Retreat! There are too many of them!" Ahsoka clutched Barriss to her chest as they ran from the entrance. This just felt like too much of a repeat of their time on Ryloth, except now they didn't have clones as backup.

"Bair? Are you okay?" Why did Ahsoka's poor, traumatized Barriss have to continuously get stuck in this situation?

Barriss nodded into Ahsoka's chest, but didn't say anything and kept her eyes shut, which, for good reason, concerned Ahsoka deeply. And that was when she saw him.

Amid the dust and debris of the abnormally outnumbered battle, Adonis stood with his arms crossed over his chest and his feet planted on the ground. "Well, well, well," he said. "My favorite Padawans." Anakin pointed his lightsaber at Adonis.

"You sure have changed, deserter. I'm shocked any of us bought your whole timid Shiny act."

"Master Skywalker, now is not the time for witty banter!" Master Luminara cried, fending off the battle droids.

"Right!" Anakin, Luminara, Barriss and Ahsoka continued running backward, Barriss in Ahsoka's arms and the rest of them deflecting gunfire.

"Padawan Offee, it is not the Jedi way to hide from the situation at hand!"

"Master, I'm sorry to object, but this situation is still a bit traumatizing for Barriss!" Ahsoka cried without taking her eyes off the droids.

The Jedi finally reached their freighter and hurried aboard, bolting off into the galaxy.

"Well, I suppose Adonis is truly lost to the Separatist side."

Ahsoka clutched Barriss to her side, both of them resolute, not considering what the future would hold - never realizing how long it would be before they would feel the touch of the other again...

______________________________________

Let me know what you think in the comments!