Star Wars: The Good Ending

Ahsoka

    "I dunno Kix, that almost seems too easy," Ahsoka pointed out skeptically.
Kix looked up from the computer and shrugged. "I can't guarantee it'll work. But their chips are activated by sounds. The right sound frequency could, for lack of a better term, 'confuse' them, rendering them useless, if for a brief period of time while they recalibrate."
    "How long is, 'a brief period?" Rex questioned, crossing his arms.'
Kix sighed and rubbed the fresh bandage on the side of his head, "I'm not sure. Could be anywhere from a few days to a week. Long enough for us to find a more reliable solution."
    Rex nodded, apparently satisfied with this answer.
"Any idea how long it'll take to calibrate?"
    "Computer's estimating exactly 32 minutes," Kix responded, turning his attention back to the medical files.
    Ahsoka and Rex shared an uneasy look. A lot can happen in half an hour. But any chance is better than none. Rex tilted his head toward the opposite side of the room, indicating he wanted to talk to her where Kix couldn't hear.
    "What are we gonna do if this doesn't work?" he asked. He was good at hiding it, but Ahsoka could easily tell just how distressed he was. His own men were getting ripped through by a crazy renegade sith lord he let escape, and whoever remained were viciously hunting Anakin while he tried to buy them time to find a solution, and he was powerless to do anything to stop it.
    "I don't know, Rex. But we'll figure it out."
    Whatever he was going to say went unsaid, because at that moment, R2D2 started freaking out.
    "Is it a Republic ship?" she asked the droid.
More beeping and whirring. Ansoka quickly turned to look at Rex. "It's Black Sun Syndicate. Maul's making a run for it. It won't matter if we get this legion under control, he'll compromise the entire GAR, and put the entire Jedi Order in serious danger."
    Rex rushed back over to Kix and looked over the computer. "30 minutes."
Ahsoka bit her lip, and flipped on her comm device. "Anakin! Do you copy? Can anyone hear me?" Nothing. Just garbled static.
    "I'm going after him," She resolved, pulling her lightsabers off her belt and starting toward the door.
    "Then I'm coming with you." Rex affirmed.
"No, I need you to stay with Kix. He's in no shape to defend himself, and if something goes wrong, we're all done for."
    "But-"
"Trust me, Rex. I'll be fine. As soon as that frequency is done calibrating, transmit it to the entire GAR, ok?"
    Rex frowned, clearly unhappy with this plan, but they didn't really have any other options. He sighed and rubbed the side of his head. "Okay kid. Good luck."
    She gave him a quick salute and ran out the door, locking it behind her, and she set off to find Anakin, or Maul, whichever she came across first.
    It came down to Anakin, because he'd left a clear and obvious trail of destruction in his wake, no doubt wanting to make as much noise and get as much attention as possible. She couldn't decide at that moment if he was brilliant, or crazy. Probably both.
    She intercepted very few clones along the way, most of which she simply dodged because they were a bit tight on time. She hopped through holes in the wall and dropped through quick getaways in the floor, and as she drew nearer, the commotion got louder. The ripping of steel, blaster holes and lightsaber slashes through the walls, ripped panels, upended floors, and unconscious clones.
    The shouting came to a height as she broke away from the path and took an alternate route, trying to flank Anakin instead of fighting her way through what had to be over 200 Republic operatives at this point.
    After a few wrong turns and dead ends, she rounded a corner and ran right into him, nearly sending them both sprawling on the floor.
    Anakin slashed through yet another door panel, and whirled around to face her.
He had definitely seen better days. He had a bloody nose, blood trickling down the corner of his mouth, the faint beginnings of several bruises on the left side of his face, his hair was a singed and disheveled mess, he had black char marks all over his clothes and face, not to mention he was drenched in sweat, his hand was bleeding, and his robes were covered in burns and scorch marks.
    "What are you-" he was cut off by the door blowing open and another onslaught of blasterfire.
    "Barriss, we gotta go!" He yelled into the smoke.
Ahsoka almost choked. "Barriss?"
    As if on cue, the former Jedi Knight leapt over the half melted chunk of metal and landed gracefully next to Anakin dodging a few more stray shots as she did. She locked eyes with Ahsoka, and something seemed to pass through them. Regret? Resentment? Understanding? She didn't have time to figure it out, and quickly accepted it. Of course Barriss was here. Of course the clones wanted her dead too.
    She grabbed Anakin by the wrist and yanked him around the corner, igniting her lightsabers and deflecting more fire as the three of them retreated further down the hallway.
    "Maul's making a break for it," she relayed hurriedly. "A ship of his entered the atmosphere a few minutes ago."
    Barriss rubbed her chin thoughtfully, whatever baggage lingered between the three of them had been temporarily forgotten in favor of working together to stay alive.
    Anakin wiped the sweat off his brow with the back of his hand, sticking his hair out at a funny angle. He was wheezing something terrible, and Ahsoka remembered just how badly damaged his respiratory system was.
"Okay," he gasped, clapping her on the shoulder. He ignited his lightsaber and took off running toward what she could only assume was the Citadel landing pad.
Ahsoka looked at Barriss, who quickly turned away, and ran off after Anakin, clearly not wanting to be alone with her. Ahsoka followed, bringing up the rear. She easily caught up with Anakin, who was definitely losing steam. "How do you know where we're going?"
"Maul," he wheezed, "the Dark Side of the Force surrounds him, it's like a flare gun. I could find him with my eyes closed."
"Then why didn't you?" Ahsoka asked. Of course she could feel Maul's presence, but it felt more like a fog than something tangible she could track. Anakin laughed dryly, "I was a bit more concerned about keeping you alive."
Ahsoka threw him a scolding scowl for of course prioritizing her life over the mission, like always. He simply shrugged and kept moving forward, making all kinds of irrational twists and turns.
After a few minutes, he stumbled into a wall, pausing to catch his breath. Barriss came up beside them, glancing over her shoulder.
Ahsoka studied her for a moment, and realized just how different her old friend was now. She held herself in a much more relaxed manner, like she no longer had a rod bound to her back. Her presence in the Force was different as well, no longer exuding an air of suffocating rigidness, felt much more anxious and unsure. But she couldn't detect a trace of the Dark Side anywhere. Unlike Anakin, Who's presence felt like a swirling vortex, or a massive storm, violent and passionate, bright and powerful, yet still felt like a delicate balancing act, constantly walking the line between good and evil.
Ahsoka looked at the lightsaber in her hand for a moment before extending it to Barriss. "Here," she said plainly.
Barriss hesitated for a moment, then took it, holding it like it was a detonator set to explode any minute.
Out of nowhere, a blaster bolt zipped past her face, barely a hair away from grazing her skin.
"Time to go!" Ashoka yelled, practically shoving Anakin back along. She felt a pang of guilt as she did, seeing as he was so beaten all to hell it was a miracle he could still stand, let alone run.
She ignited her remaining saber, deflecting a few more shots before ripping out a wall to slow down their pursuers.
Barriss ignited her own lightsaber and slashed through the air, sending two more shots flying wildly off course.
As they sprinted along their course, they began to come across Maul's carnage. Unlike the Jedi, he had no qualms with killing troopers. Ahsoka winced as she remembered Captain Vaughn, who loyally accompanied her to Mandalore, only to be slaughtered by Maul in the tunnels. His dying words apologizing for a failure that wasn't his own.
As they moved, she recognized Sol, Ringo, Flash, and too many others lying sickeningly still on the floor.
Suddenly, she saw a flash of red and black sprint around the corner, the metallic clanging of his footsteps like that of a droid. Spurred on by the sighting, she raced after him, careful not to let Anakin, who was rapidly deteriorating, out of her sight.
Unfortunately, the distance between them and the pursuing clones was closing and they were quickly losing Maul. Ahsoka shooed them around a corner and slashed through the panel. She started to keep going, but felt someone grab her arm. She whipped around to see Barriss's face only inches from her own. "You two go after Maul. I'll hold them off as long as I can."
"Barriss that's suicide," Anakin wheezed clutching his side.
"Barriss, you have nothing to prove to me, I'm not leaving y-" Barriss cut her off by putting a tattooed hand over Ahsoka's mouth. "Please. Let me do this right," she pleaded. Ahsoka searched her gaze, then nodded. Barriss dropped her hand, satisfied. "I'm sorry Ahsoka. Truly, I am."
Ahsoka just nodded again, feeling choked up.
The seal on the door began to fail and Anakin hauled himself upright, gesturing to Ahsoka that it was time to go. She spared Barriss a final look, then followed her master. When she glanced over her shoulder, Barriss was facing the door, ready to meet whatever fate the Force had planned for her.
Ahsoka and Anakin finally caught back up to Maul, who thankfully seemed to be no more sure of the prison's layout than them.
But it wasn't enough. Right as they caught up to him, he ripped the door from the walls, opening the hallway up into the landing pad. Scorching hot winds blasted in from outside, and Maul paused for just a moment to look back at them before breaking for the huge black shuttle hovering just above the ground with its doors open and ready to evacuate at a moment's notice.
Ahsoka and Anakin ignited their lightsabers and sprinted ahead, desperate to stop him. Maul reached out with the Force and pulled something from his ship, some sort of short, intricate, metal rod.
Right as they pounced on him, Maul engaged his crimson blades, and the duel ensued.
Ahsoka recalled the last time she fought Maul. She'd taunted him, saying he was lucky Anakin hadn't shown up, because the way he was fighting he wouldn't have lasted long.
While that was true at the time, it wasn't now. Anakin was barely able to fight a padawan, let alone a sith. Despite that, however, he was still no easy target, using Obi-Wan's more defensive form, while Ahsoka took the offensive.
It was a blur of disorienting flashes of color, and Ahsoka was put at a disadvantage with only one lightsaber. Maul's own double bladed saber made fighting even easier than it would've been otherwise, and a supposedly easy duel was not at all in their favor.
Ahsoka parried and struck, but it felt like she was missing an arm, and she just couldn't land a blow. Not to mention Anakin was tiring fast, and it was only a matter of time before he wouldn't be able to keep up anymore.
The heat from the lava compounded with the scorching winds kept throwing her off, but for a moment she allowed herself to believe this was actually a fight they could win.
That was until Maul did something she should have expected someone as sadistic as himself to do. He disengaged Ahsoka and whirled around on Anakin who he seemed to be ignoring up until then, at least for the most part. The Zabrac slashed across his chest, from his left shoulder to the right side of his rib cage. Before the Jedi could even process what just happened, an invisible force sent him flying over the ledge of the lava river where he was just barely able to hang on with one hand.
Ahsoka lunged at Maul, screaming with rage. He parried and sidestepped her, putting a fair distance between them.
"Time for a choice, Master Tano," he hissed. Then the sith turned and leapt into the shuttle, which had already begun taking off. Ahsoka instinctively reached out with the Force to trap it midair, when she was struck by the meaning of Maul's words. A choice.
Maul or Anakin. Save her master and let the Sith escape, or persue Maul and let Anakin fall. She knew what choice she should make, the choice any Jedi would tell her was the right one, the choice Anakin would tell her was the right one. And she knew she couldn't do it.
Ahsoka closed her fingers, and let the shuttle go. She watched it leave for a fraction of a second, then rushed to her brother's side, catching him by the wrist, right as his fingers nearly slid over the edge. Heaving with the effort, she hauled Anakin back up onto the platform. She sank to her knees and the two of them watched as Maul escaped.
"Are you okay?" She asked finally.
Anakin brushed a finger over the extremely shallow gash on his chest, looking over the thin trickle of blood on his fingers.
"Yeah," he gasped for air, looking completely devastated. "Yeah Snips, I'm ok."
Ahsoka nodded and sat back on her heels, finally feeling able to breathe. Anakin coughed and recalled his lightsaber to his hand, struggling to stand up. Ahsoka quickly helped him, propping his arm up over her shoulder. "Did you warn the Order?" He asked, his voice hoarse.
"Yeah," she answered slowly, "Yeah, I warned them. They've all been ordered offworld from any clones. Most have probably made it to the outer rim by now."
"Luke and Leia?"
They started towards the doors, "They're safe, Padme took them back to Naboo, I sent Obi-Wan,  Master Yoda, Shaak Ti, Mace Windu, and Deppa Bilaba with them. They'll be ok," Ahsoka assured him. Suddenly she stopped. "Do you hear that?"
Anakin shook his head.
"Exactly, the blasters stopped," she pointed out.
She hurried toward the ripped off doors, nearly smacking right into Rex, who seemed to appear out of nowhere. Anakin must have thought that was the perfect time to pass out, with Rex just barely catching him.
"Did it work?" She asked.
Rex looked behind him like he just got punched in the gut. "Yeah, it did. It's been broadcasted to the entire GAR."
Ahsoka nodded and handed Anakin over to Rex. "Get him to the infirmary, he's in pretty bad shape. I'll-" she trailed off, looking down the hall, "I'll try and find anyone else that needs help."
Rex just nodded and quickly moved towards the medical wing, leaving Ahsoka alone.
The halls of the Citadel were completely silent, and death seemed to cling to the air.
Everyone Ahsoka came across was either already gone, or merely unconscious from the sound emissions. Until she came across someone who was neither.
Barriss Offee was slumped against the adjacent wall, staring into space, her eyes glazed over. One hand was lying slack on the floor with Ahsoka's lightsaber, and the other was on her stomach.
Blood trickled through her fingers and fell into an alarmingly large puddle on the floor.
"Barriss!" Ahsoka slid to her side and brushed the hair away from her face, trying to wake her from whatever trance was in.
Barriss's eyes seemed to focus a bit, and she smiled slightly. "Barriss!"
"Ahsoka?" She responded softly.
"Barriss you're hurt!"
"It's not-" Barriss coughed, "that bad."
"You know what?" Ahsoka started, putting pressure on the blaster wound to stop the bleeding, "You're gonna be ok. You'll be alright."
"I'm sorry, Ahsoka. For everything." Barriss whispered.
"I forgave you a long time ago."
Barriss grimaced, "Not that I deserved it."
"Maybe not. But you do after what you did today," Ahsoka resolved firmly.
"I can't say I agree." Barriss replied.
"Well I do," Ahsoka affirmed. She pulled Barriss to her feet and made for the Med Bay.

Ahsoka looked out at the plain in front of her. Each stake had a helmet on it to mark the graves of the dead.
Arid crimson clouds drifted through the sky, blotting out whatever sun the planet may have. Her heart heavy, she reached out to touch the nearest helmet, brushing her fingers over the Republic symbol painted on it.
She swallowed hard and tried to remember Jesse as he was. Before the twisted schemes of the Sith ripped his free will away from him.
She heard the clanking of shovels then someone approaching her from behind.
Rex stood silently beside her, no doubt having similar thoughts.
It'd been a week since the incident, and none of the Jedi were allowed out of hiding until every clone in the Republic had their chips removed. Of course Maul had tried to spread the order, only to find it didn't work.
Kix had been working around the clock patching up the wounded and taking chips out. Anakin and Barriss were too injured to do much, and had been resigned to the infirmary, mostly just helping Kix.
Meanwhile, Ahsoka and Rex had buried every single clone trooper they lost. Hatch, Ringo, Sol, Viper, Jesse, and too many others, all slaughtered by Maul.
Ahsoka looked out at the makeshift graveyard, "I'm sorry Rex, I'm really-" He cut her off, "None of this is your fault. Don't try and convince yourself it is, because it's not."
Ahsoka bit her lip and stared at the ground. "Was that the last one?"
"Yeah. Hopefully."
She nodded, and the two of them left the cemetery, leaving the fallen to rest.