The Unchronicled Adventures of Ahsoka Tano, Book Seven

Chapter Forty: Casualties of War

*Okay, I'm going to warn you all now. I know that I usually write my author's notes at the end, but I had to make something very clear. Your feels ARE GOING TO DIE in this next chapter. And If you want to stop reading and unfollow me and start sending me hateful pms, I totally wouldn't blame you. But don't, please. It gets better. So just... don't kill me. THAT IS ALL, and may the Force be with you!*

ANAKIN SKYWALKER

Anakin ran towards the crash site, his long legs eating up the stretch of rocky desert separating him from it. He could feel his former padawan’s presence, but it seemed changed somehow. And he knew from experience that a Jedi only felt that way to others if they had developed some sort of mental problem, they were in horrible mental or physical pain, or if they had turned to the Dark Side…

No, Anakin thought to himself. I refuse to believe that. She couldn’t have turned, there is no one more allied with the Light than Ahsoka.

But the other two options weren’t any less grim. And that was when he felt her presence go out. Like she was… dead.

The first thing he heard disturbing the stillness was someone sobbing. He slowed his pace a little, and, after a moment of jogging, he came across Amni. She was crying to no end, and had Ahsoka’s head cradled in her lap. There was a hole, cut by a lightsaber that was slowly beginning to cool in her stomach.

Against his will, he could feel tears welling up in his eyes and his bottom lip trembling. It was exactly like Lux’s description when she had died and come back six years ago. She looked exactly like she was about to sit up and smile her scheming smile, pleased that her prank had worked.

“No, Snips…” he whispered, running a hand over her face. Her shoto lightsaber, sliced in half, was at her side, but her main green one was still intact. The tips of her dusty fingers just brushed its metal surface. “You can’t leave me. Not now. Not like this.”

And then he remembered. Lux had also said that she had come back thanks to a stone on a necklace. He had said that she hadn’t been willing to say much about it, but that it was the source of some of her powers. And where there was a will…

Anakin began to pat her shoulder and neck are down. Amni shot him a shocked look, darkly astonished that he would do something so undignified. After a moment, he found the small bump of a chain. Now Amni was really going to kill him.

He reached into her shirt just a little past the turtleneck and grabbed hold of the string. He put an arm up in a block to receive the slap that Amni had tried to deliver to the side of his face, then gave the chain a sharp yank.

The clasp broke on the first tug, and he held it up into the light to stop Amni from trying to hit him again. “What is that?” she asked, breaking off her attack.

“It’s something that might just save her,” Anakin said. Following the Force’s guidance, he placed the stone over the hole in her torso. Both the gap and the talisman began to glow, and under his fascinated gaze, the flesh began to heal.

Tearing his eyes away, he looked over at Amni. “What happened to her? And where’s Lux? Who was the man with the red lightsaber I saw?"

She blinked some tears away. “When the ship crashed, Lux was the first one I found. I dragged him outside, and I was about to go back for Ahsoka, but Maul found us. He took Lux and me hostage, and made us wait for her to wake up.” She stopped for a moment, and Anakin suddenly got an idea of the mental stress this whole ordeal had put her through.

“When she came out, they started fighting,” she continued. “He had taken my lightsaber, so I couldn’t help, but I wanted to try to get Lux out of there. So I tried to get him back to Obi-Wan’s house, but Maul came back. He cut him down right in front of me. Then he dragged me back here, to wait. I found Ahsoka’s body, and…  Master, you have to go, he’ll be back!”

He looked back at her. “I won’t leave you or Ahsoka behind.”

The hole in her flesh was knit, but she wasn’t waking up. He grabbed her hand. “Come on, Snips. You have to. For me. For Lux… well, for his memory.”

Suddenly her lips moved. He was just in time to catch the word she mouthed. Lux. Then she sat up, hacking and coughing.

“Lux! Where is he?” she said. Then her expression darkened. “I felt… Anakin, where is he? Tell me!”

“Ahsoka, I’m so sorry, but…” He tried to figure out how to say it. “He’s dead,” he said bluntly, and winced. Way to break it to your padawan that the love of her life had just been murdered in cold blood. “Maul killed him, and Lux is gone.”