The Unchronicled Adventures of Ahsoka Tano, Book Eight

Chapter Thirty-Nine: Tracking Dume/ Trust Descending

ANAKIN SKYWALKER

"Okay, so you're telling me that Enarion Dume is the one you were seeing in these visions of yours?"  

Anakin, Ahsoka, Christo, Captain Rex – but not Cody, as he was otherwise occupied – and Amni had assembled in a corner of the old Ballroom, and frankly, Anakin was having trouble following the conversation. 

Amni was a doctor, and therefore had a calm and perfectly neutral opinion on things she didn't know about or understand. Christo was the best person he had ever known at taking in new information and at absorbing the shock of unwelcome surprises. Rex had maintained his strict sabacc face when he was faced with the sort of information that had just been shared with the group. 

Anakin, on the other hand, was clueless. 

"Yes," Lux said, replying patiently to his question. "He's Force-sensitive. I could feel it when we spoke." 

"And apparently he's the one who kept your bank account open, Lux," Christo said, crossing his arms over his broad chest. For someone as tall and big as he was, the effect the simple gesture had was really quite impressive. "But why? Why risk your neck for a total stranger?" 

"Not a total stranger," Ahsoka reminded him. "According to what Anakin and Padme uncovered on Alderaan, he knew Mina quite well. He attended pretty much all of the parties she hosted, and visited the Bonteri estate several times before his supposed 'death'." 

"But this brings us no closer than we were before!" Lux sank into a nearby chair, exasperated. Ahsoka put a comforting hand on his shoulder, which he squeezed in one of his own. Anakin raised an eyebrow, but she shot him her I'll explain later look, and he dropped it. 

"Well, sir, in a way, it does," Rex said, speaking for the first time. Anakin looked him over, and was worried by all the lines he could see in the captain's face. It was true that Rex wouldn't be able to keep serving in the 501st for much longer. 

"What do you mean?" Ahsoka asked. 

"The best way to find anyone who doesn't want to be found is to determine their last known whereabouts, which was Naboo. But, according to what General Skywalker told us, he was planning to head back to Onderon. And if he is here, then the best place to check would either be here in Iziz, where we know he isn't, or..." 

"The base on Morvolo," Lux said, and Anakin watched as the understanding dawned on his face. "If he was at the party on Alderaan, and attended the meeting like Padme said, then he must be a Rebel sympathizer!" 

Anakin nodded. "My thoughts exactly. But how would we..."  

The shrieking of the alarm system attached to each of their comlinks suddenly flared up. The small group exchanged worried looks. There was only one thing that could mean. 

His old apprentice's plump lips set themselves into a grim line. "Invasion."

AHSOKA TANO

Ahsoka and Lux ran down the hallway towards Saw's office, which also served as the briefing room. In a minute, she was going to turn and head off towards the Trooper barracks. People were hurrying in both directions down the hall, some clutching datapads; others dressed in pilot gear... and a few even carrying weapons. 

She adjusted her lightsaber in its sheath in her sleeve, and was momentarily saddened when she remembered that she only had her one lightsaber. To this day, she missed her green-yellow shoto, and wished that she had had the time to make a new one over the last couple of months. 

The baby began to kick again, and she bit her lip. She suspected that the power-kicking that had been happening of late was directly related to her baby's Force-sensitivity. She was quite certain that in a normal pregnancy, the mother didn't feel the kicks quite as hard as she did. But there was nothing normal about her pregnancy. 

Another sharp kick began to make her eyes prickle, signifying the presence of possible tears, and she stopped, clutching her stomach. Lux ran another two steps, before he realized that she had stopped. 

"Come on! We have to hurry up–" Then he must have noticed her distraught expression. "Ahsoka, what is it? What's wrong?" 

"It's... It's nothing, Lux," she managed to mumble through her discomfort. The quickening had never been this painful before. "Just forget about it." 

"No, there's something you're not telling me." He ran a hand through his hair, extremely vexed. "Ahsoka, I thought we were past this! We need to be honest with each other! I'm trying to hold up on my end, but I don't know about you–" 

"I am being honest," she hissed in a low voice, lying through her teeth about it for the fifth time that week. "But right now, we have to put aside our differences and work through this, or we won't be alive long enough to do so." 

He sighed. "Okay. Get to the fighters in the hangar bay outside the city. I'll get what I need to done on my end." 

She nodded. "I'll see you soon." 

As Lux started up his run again and disappeared into the mass of people crowding the hall, Ahsoka ran a hand over her face. She had thought that everything was better between Lux and her, like it had been before the first fight, but she had been wrong. 

It could never be the way it was until she told him the truth.

*Ahsoka and Lux are fighting again... But will Ahsoka finally decide to tell him the truth? And what other information might surface on Morvolo? Will Lux finally get the answers he needs, both from his wife and Enarion Jarrus Dume? Or will he stay in the dark forever? You'll find out how in the next thrilling chapter of The Unchronicled Adventures Of Ahsoka Tano!

'The truth shall free us', as they say... But not always in the way that we all think. I have a feeling that the way everything falls into place will be sure to amaze...

If you have any thought, questions or predictions about what's going to happen next, send me a pm or comment!

Become a rebel fighting against the Empire and may the Force be with you,

Sharron