Star Wars: The Good Ending

Ahsoka

    Kix was slumped against the wall, only half conscious when Ahsoka found him. She rushed to his side, forgetting he probably would try to kill her. She gently tilted up his chin, noticing his eyes were open, but only the whites were actually showing. "Execute Order 66. Good soldiers follow orders. Order 66, mission, the mission, good soldiers, 66, Execute Order 66. . ." he muttered, clearly completely out of it.
    "Kix, Kix can you hear me?" she asked, trying to snap him out of whatever trance he was in. She brushed her fingertips against the temple of his head, and nearly recoiled. Just as she'd thought, someone had used the Dark Side of the Force on his mind. She frowned and waved her hand over his eyes, sending him into a peaceful sleep.
    "Freeze!"
Ahsoka went completely rigid, as she was suddenly surrounded by what had to be a dozen clone troopers. "On your knees General Tano. Let's make this quick." Jesse. Forcing herself to stay calm, she did what he asked, quickly trying to formulate some kind of plan. "Ready- Aim-"
    "No," It was Rex. for half a moment Ahsoka allowed herself to believe that maybe Rex was unaffected, but it was simply misplaced optimism. "I'll do it."
Ahsoka slowly turned to look at him. He had his helmet on, but his stance and posture displayed an uncharacteristic rigidness, and his voice had a coldness to it. "Rex, I know you. You don't want to do this. I'm your friend," she said slowly and gently, trying not to provoke him. Her eyes flitted to Kix. She could make a run for it, but dragging him along complicated matters.
    Rex had both his blasters trained on her, but he seemed to hesitate for a moment. "All Jedi are to be executed for treason," he stated, but it sounded more like a question.
    "No one committed treason Rex-" she started, trailing off when his fingers tightened around the trigger. Ahsoka swallowed hard, trying in vain to reach her friend. But it was clear his mind wasn't his own anymore. She noticed his hands shake ever so slightly, then he took a step forward. "Good soldiers-" he said, his voice strained, "Follow orders."
    Everything happened in a blur. Ahsoka's hands flew to her lightsabers and they were ignited in an instant, deflecting countless blasts coming from all directions. She leapt to her feet, trying to deflect the volley of blasts anywhere but where they came from. She couldn't run, she couldn't leave Kix, but she couldn't bring herself to hurt her attackers either.
    All she knew is that she had to think of something, because she was starting to tire, fast. She deflected a blast into a nearby wall, sending a shower of sparks falling. Finally, a bolt hit its mark, nailing her lightsaber hilt and knocking it from her grasp. She compensated as best she could with the one remaining one.
    Finally, right when she was ready to run for it, and hopefully make it out alive, the troopers down the hallway went flying into the ones on the opposite side, incapacitating nearly all of them. She knocked together the helmets of a few remaining and winced as they crumpled to the floor.
    Winded and panting, she recalled her other lightsaber back to her hand and ignited it, going back on the defensive. She expected Maul to come into view, ready to get another shot at her, but instead came a much more welcome, familiar face.
    "Master!"
Anakin stumbled towards her, a slight limp on his left leg and blood trickling down the side of his face and out of the corner of his mouth. There were burn marks on his robes, and his hair was a mess. He stopped just short of her, rubbing the left side of his torso. "You ok?" he asked.
    "Yeah," she responded slowly, only now realizing how close she was to getting shot dead. "Yeah, I'm ok."
    Anakin nodded and knelt down til he was eye level with Kix. He frowned and waved a hand in front of his eyes, quickly coming to the same conclusion as Ahsoka.
    "Did you find Maul?" she asked.
"Yeah, I did. Reese and his squad wound up breaking us up and I lost him. That's when I felt. . ." he trailed off, letting her figure out the rest. He whistled over his shoulder and R2 and R7 came rolling around the corner, beeping and whirring in distress. Anakin picked up Kix and laid him over the top of them, situating him as best he could. Ahsoka walked over to Rex who was lying on the floor after getting flung into another clone. Hesitantly, she secured his handguns to her belt and stared at her reflection in his visor, as she had so many times. "I'm sorry," she murmured, her heart feeling heavy.
    Anakin came up beside her, kneeling on the ground and putting a hand on her shoulder. She looked into his lost blue eyes and realized just how much this was tearing him up inside. Rex and all of these men had been at his side for years, and now they'd been turned into mindless droids. One last sadistic link in Palpatine's plan.
    Shots echoed down the hallways of the Citadel, reminding Ahsoka of the last time she was here. When only half their party made it out alive merely two years ago. Despite it being under Republic control now, it still felt forign and hostile in nature.
    Her old master slid an arm under Rex's and hauled him to his feet, grunting with the effort. "C'mon, let's get these two to the Med Bay."
    She nodded and ignited her lightsabers, moving quickly and quietly down the hallway, Anakin following closely behind, with the two astromechs pulling up the rear. Anakin stumbled slightly, but seemed to have no problem carrying his friend along, regardless of how badly getting shot and his fight with Maul banged him up.
    They didn't run into any more trouble as they reapproached the Medical Wing, which seemed suspicious, but the young togruta tried not to dwell on it. She cleared off the table and helped Anakin get Rex up onto it, then turned her attention to Kix, who was much worse off.
    Anakin lifted him onto the surgical pod, frowning and hovering his hand over his forehead, no doubt feeling out just how badly Maul damaged his mind.
    "He did the same thing to Jesse on Mandalore. I think he'll be okay," her words were optimistic, but her tone was solemn. She booted up the surgical pod and sifted through the files, trying to find something on brain scans. She found a program she hoped would work, and started it. The blue light of the pod reflected off Ankin's face, and Ahsoka was shocked by just how tired and haggard he looked. He was only 22, but looked 35 in the harsh lighting, not helped by the grim look he wore.
    Kix descended into the surgical pod, and Anakin worked his shoulder a couple times, as if that would help anything. "Sit down," Ahsoka ordered, pointing to a nearby chair. He obliged, probably too exhausted to argue. She did a quick bacta spray on his shoulder and handed him a couple painkillers before turning her attention back to the medical machinery.
    "You think this is gonna work?" He asked, rubbing the side of his head.
"I don't know, but if it doesn't, we're dead anyway,"she responded.
    He leaned back seemingly satisfied with this answer. Suddenly, Artoo, who'd been tapping into the prison systems, began beeping in an extremely upset manner.
    "You mean they're all honing in on our position?!" Anakin jumped to his feet.
More beeping. "Well how long do we have?"
    R2 beeped a couple more times, and Anakin shakily looked at his apprentice. His sister. "Less than ten minutes."
    Ahsoka swallowed. There was no way they could hold off an entire legion without killing anyone. They couldn't run, and for a second she considered a horrible contingency. Wipe out the entire base with everyone including them in it, or risk the entire Jedi Order, and the galaxy. Only she already knew she couldn't bring herself to do it.
    She looked to Anakin, and saw the familiar spark light in his eyes. A spark that appeared when he was about to do something incredibly stupid. Something so crazy, it just might work. His eyes flitted towards the door, and she immediately knew what he was going to do. She lunged forward to stop him, but he easily knocked her aside, running out the door and snapping it shut behind him. Ahsoka tried to open it, but it was locked. She slammed her fists against it and held her comlink to her mouth.
    "Master, what the hell do you think you're doing?!" she demanded.
"You need a distraction if this is gonna work, 'Soka. And if there's one thing I'm good at, it's getting people's attention."
    Ahsoka's eyes stung and she hit the door again. "Anakin, that's suicide! As your Grandmaster, I am ORDERING you to get back in here!"
    "Ah Snips, you know I'm bad with orders."
    "There's got to be another way!" She pleaded.
"There's not. You know there's not. We don't have time," he said plainly.
    "Then let me do it!"
Anakin sighed. "The Jedi Order needs its grandmaster, Ahsoka."
    "And your kids need their father!" she shot back, hoping that reminding him of his family would make him think rationally for once in his life.
    He paused, and was silent for a moment. "You'll take care of them, won't you?"
She pressed her eyes closed and drew a shaky breath. "Of course."
    "Tell Padme-"
"No! Please Anakin, don't make me be the one to tell-" her voice cracked.
    "I'm proud of you, Snips," he said. And that was the last thing she heard him say. Biting back tears she rested her head on the door, hoping and praying they wouldn't be his last words to her.
She quickly composed herself, knowing her only option was to continue with the plan, and trust Anakin somehow wouldn't get himself killed. It was such an Anakin thing to do, intentionally drawing the attention of an entire legion of elite soldiers bent on killing him, inside a sadistic prison meant to contain even the most powerful Jedi. Drawing a sharp breath, she turned her attention to Rex, who was beginning to stir a bit on the table.