Run, Hide, Survive

The Beginning Of Us

I breath heavily as I sprint down the long, dark alley. The shadows seem to try and grab me as they jump out from every corner. I slide across the slippery floor of the long hall, almost falling after the rainy day the Underworld had endured. I halt in front of the end of the corridor, and look back at my pursuers. Five stormtroopers, blasters ready to fire. I give them a look, and back flip over the alley wall like it was nothing, land on top of the thin wall, give them a little smirk, and a tiny wave. Right as I jump over the other side of the wall, I hear the idiots let loose on their ammo.

This time, I run in joy instead of utter fear. I end up at a dock and press a little red putton on my wrist. My starship I had ridden into battle with many times in the Clone Wars whizzed down to my side and I hopped right in. I had stolen her back when the Empire took over Coruscant, I felt I deserved to be able to keep one of the possessions I had been robbed of. I also deserved the memories.

Coruscant isn't safe anymore, I thought to myself. I stopped by my "apartment" (an abandoned warehouse,) only to retrieve my hologram and a few holopictures. I've spent hours in space now, heading for Onderon. I can't stop thinking of them. I only stare at the holopictures carefully arranged on top of my dashboard. I miss them so much.

As I land on the exotic planet, I stroll to the house in the middle of the secluded area. I put out my hand to knock, but the door just falls in. "Ok," I mutter."Just because I left for a little while doesn't mean you cant fix a door," I yell playfully at Lux. We were married a year after Order 66, but I had to leave so my family of five were not found. I flip the light switch, but the room is barely illuminated. I walk up the stairs to see if my family was upstairs. The only room upstairs is the living room, and as I walk into the large room, I see just what I feared would happen. My leaving was no help.

My legs are rubber. I start to tear up. The windows are broken, and Lux is lying on the floor. Dead. He was dead. A laser had clearly been shot through his throat, dry blood covered his chin. I sink to my knees. Suddenly, the life flickers off.

"Toran?! Mako?! Xanth?!" I yell. My lightsabers are ignited, and I am ready to fight. "Mom!" I hear Mako scream. I sprint downstairs and kick in the kitchen door, to find my children huddled in the corner wieldingkitchen knives. Relief floods my body. But my emotions are soon interrupted by when I hear footsteps at the entrance of my destroyed house.

"Sh!" I hiss at my little ones. I motion for them to stay put, but I don't think they were going anywhere anytime soon. I sneak out into the hallway leading to the entrance of our little cottage, and look around the corner, careful not to let my large montrals give me away. I see a figure in a black cloak, and-a red lightsaber! I pounce from my hiding spot, Swinging my white lightsabers at the intruder's head. They skillfully dodge my attacks, and I get a swift kick to the stomach. As I crouch down on the cold floor, I am flung into the wall at my right. They're force sensitive too! "Who are you?!"I scream. I gag as the intruder starts to choke me. I prepare myself for the end, not hearing their name when a lightsaber ignites. Strangely, I don't feel any pain. I am dropped to the floor, and I look up to find a familiar face surrounded by two strangers. "Barriss?" These were the only words I managed to get out of my mouth before everything went black.

I wake up in an unfamiliar room. I am in a warm bed with Toran, Mako, and Xanth at my bedside. Toran, the youngest of the bunch, was whining he was bored to Mako, while her twin brother sat quietly watching me like a galidyn. At the sign of my awakening of my awakening, the room quieted. I smiled at my children, and they all rushed to hug me. I later found out from Mako that we were on a ship head for Lothal. I was also wanted in room 714 thirty minutes after I woke up.

As I walked down the long hallway, I was stopped by a long time frenemy. "Forgive me, Ahsoka, but I would love to catch up with you. How have you been? Where have you been?" Barriss asked me. "Don't even approach me like that! Did you really think that I would have gotten over the fact that you betrayed my trust and almost got me killed?! 'Cause if you think that a nice little greeting will change my mind about you, you belong in an insane asylum! So stay away from me and my family!" At this I stormed off, only glancing back over my shoulder to see the shocked look on her face.

I walked through the door to find a human man and woman, sitting across from a green twi'lek and another familiar face. Wait a second. I know who he is. "Caleb Dume." I say. "Ahsoka?" he responds. "I go by Kanan now, I can't believe you survived!" he exclaimed. "Now is not the time for friendly exchange. We have serious buisness to discuss." The woman said,"My name is Mira Bridger, and this is my husband, Ephraim Bridger. On the other side of the table we have expert pilot Hera Syndullla, and- well you've met the other one." "I have a name!" Kanan mumbled. "Anyways," Mira continued,"We are the beginning of the rebellion against the Empire. We will do whatever it takes to take down the Empire. Even if it costs the lives of millions. We need your help. This is the beginning of us." she says. "I can't do this for you I'm sorry." I reply. "If we are fighting for the lives of innocents, why would we let them fall? Plus, I have a family of my own, and I am sure that I can find another way to fight the Empire without get citizens killed." I shot back at her. "What about your family Ms. Tano? They are in constant danger if you do not join our cause!" Ephraim stated. "With all do respect, I think I can handle myself and three others. But hey, thanks for the idea, maybe I'll start a rebellion of my own!" I say just to get on their nerves. They should've seen the look on their faces when I said that! Priceless! My internal laughter was soon brought to sharp stop when Mira blew up in my face. "This isn't a competition Ahsoka! This is war! And if you don't want to get the galaxy enslaved for eternity, you need to join us!" "Sounds like you need me more than I need you. But hey, if my army doesn't work out, I'll give you a holler!" I taunted. Anakin didn't call me "snips" for no reason. I gave them a mocking wave and grinned at Kanan. At that he burst into laughter. I think Hera liked me too. She gave me a little grin as I headed back to my makeshift headquarters. "How did the meeting go mommy? Are you going to fight all the bad guys?" " No honey-" Suddenly I was cut off as the ship shook violently. I grabbed the crying Toran and gave the twins the "follow me no questions" look.

As my kin and I sprinted down the gloomy corridors to the escape pods, I ran into the person I least needed to see at the time. Barriss Offee. "You know, if you played nice the Empire wouldn't have had to come put you and your pitiful team in time-out," the hag taunted me. "You always had a big mouth"I snapped. I gave the witch a quick uppercut, swift kick to the stomach, and a severed arm. The twins stared with their jaws dropped. I was relieved to see that Mako had Toran's eyes covered. I rushed them into the pod and gave Barriss one last glare. "You really lost your flare" I mumbled. "Your big mouth costed you a lot today, so let me teach you a little lesson." At that, I gave her a blade through her vocal cords. Kanan and Hera soon came running down the hallway. I quickly kicked Barriss's corpse out of sight and asked them,"Need a ride?" Kanan smiled and we boarded the pod. As I stepped in the cramped space, I had a terrible ache in my head. The force was telling me something. The feeling was familiar. It was someone close to me. Closer to me than Barriss. No. It couldn't be who I sensed. I pushed the thought away and tried to ignore the ringing I my head. I set course for Shili, and watched as the ship we were once in exploded like fireworks. The trance the reds and oranges had caught me in were interrupted when Xanth demanded to know what in the galaxy was going on. I paused a moment to think. There was no easy way to tell this to these innocent kids. But for the moment, all I could say was exactly this. "I will explain this mess when we cent to Corvala, but for now know this. We cannot trust anyone." I looked at my confused children. They had been through a lot today. And not only did they have questions to be uncovered, so did I. I decided to bring the hard news to them soft and sweet. "We run. We hide. We survive."