Give Me Love

chapter twenty one

You had fallen asleep remembering the explosion, but soon your dream turned to something different, like someone was cranking a radio dial to switch the station.

One minute there had been fire and screaming and the distant sounds of gunfire, the next there was nothing.

No, not nothing. It was white-- pillowy, soft white-- untouched snow that dimpled with the crevices and creases of the icy ground beneath. You noticed an archway of some sort of stone, not man-made, but coming from the planet. Maybe the rib of some sort of huge animal, you thought, by the hollow indent all the way across. It was covered in snow and sprouting icicles, but that wasn't what caught your attention.

There was a figure walking under the archway. He was tall-- unnaturally so-- and dressed head to toe in black. You wished you could see his face, but it was covered in a shiny black helmet. His movements seemed heavy, robotic, like it either pained him to move or his limbs were too heavy. Still, something rang out in alarm in the pit of your gut, like a warning. Whoever this person was, he was dangerous.

The clouds rolled a stormy grey, the wind whipping a long cape behind his back as he stopped and knelt before something in the snow. A single gloved hand brushed over it, clearing it of snow, and then his fingers wrapped around it.

A lightsaber.

It was crusted in ice, but you could still make out the familiar handle. And then he stood to his full height and ignited it, and there was no doubt in your mind. That was Ahsoka's lightsaber he was holding.

He stood under the archway, dark clouds rolling overhead, wind whipping through his cape as he remained unmoving. And as you watched him stare at Ahsoka's ignited saber, you were overcome with a great sense of sadness. It was more than sadness. Grief is what you felt, an unimaginable amount, more than any you've ever felt before. Your body could hardly handle it, but it all seemed to be originating from that one man.

You woke up suddenly, quiet tears streaming down your face in steady currents. Your eyes ached and your pillow was soaked like you'd been crying for a while.

Confused, you brought a hand up to wipe them off. That awful grief you had felt was quickly slipping away, and you forgot what it had even felt like. You just remembered that it hurt.

But with the pain, the tears also left, and you tapped your comlink to get the time. Not a minute too early.

A shallow sense of satisfaction overcame you as you realized you had slept for four hours exactly, and pushing yourself out of the cot, you quickly made it up making sure to turn the pillow over so that the tear-soaked side was on the bottom. Then you straightened your clothes out and smacked your cheeks a couple times to shake off the remnants of the disturbing dream.

You were no stranger to stress dreams, and you guess that with everything happening lately, it would have been too much to ask for to be relieved of them for this one nap. So you dismissed your unease at it, shoving that image of the masked man in the barren snow holding Ahsoka's lightsaber to the furthest corner of your mind. You had other things to focus on right now.

When you got to the left docking bay of the Resolute, Anakin and Ahsoka were already there standing side by side, their arms crossed over their chests as they watched the transport ship land. The wind blew Anakin's hair and Ahsoka's lekku back, and you smiled at how they resembled each other.

As soon as the ship was down, Anakin was ushering everyone out and opening the doors. There were boxes and boxes of supplies, some of which were to restock the flagship, and others for your new mission. Dooku was rumored to be behind the sudden illness of the Princess, and following him around the galaxy from one planet to another was depleting a lot of resources.