Elayne Starwind - Padawan of Ashoka

Chapter Seventeen

I was awake, yet I wasn't awake.

It was like one of those times where you were conscious but you didn't realize it. Your eyes were closed like you were asleep but you were still thinking.

That's how I felt. I didn't register the fact that I was awake, yet my mind was racing. The name "Tucker" kept repeating over and over.

And the familiar betrayal.

It was the same as on Yavin 4, but with more detail. I could hear more. The same mix of sadness and fear, but with more context.

I remembered how Ahsoka had told me that it was Order 66. She told me that this was the site of the twin jedi fighting their own troopers.

That's when I woke up completely.

Ahsoka was shaking me, but again, I really didn't register it until loud blasting noises actually woke me up.

"See?" Sabine said as I bolted upward. "It's effective."

I was panting heavily. I sat in Ahsoka's ship, on her couch wrapped in a warm fluffy blanket. My hair was still dripping with water and I was shivering. Ahsoka was kneeling next to me and Sabine stood nearby with her blaster pointed up.

"You're going to break the ship eventually," Ahsoka said, exasperated, though with a small smile tugging at her lips.

"Ahsoka!" I exclaimed, completely ignoring Sabine. "I-I saw it. Or heard it, really. Order 66... The one you were telling me about."

"What did you hear?" Ahsoka asked.

"I think it was the troopers," I said, straining my head to remember. "They... they thought they had killed the Jedi but she was still alive. The Jedi... she yelled a name... I think it was the name of the trooper. Tucker."

Ahsoka's eyes narrowed. "Tucker..." She said quietly. Then she looked back at me. "Anything else?"

"N-no," I said, rubbing my forehead when the palm of my hand. "No, I don't think so. Do you know Tucker?"

"Not very well," Ahsoka said. "We went on a joint mission once, but that was really it."

"Well, Tucker must've meant a whole ton to the Jedi," I said. "This weight if betrayal... I didn't know you could ever feel so betrayed."

"They were hardly 'just clones' to many Jedi," Ahsoka said, her eyes glancing down. "Many Jedi considered them friends, even brothers. I did."

Even Sabine looked somewhat sad at this, and not a sarcastic sad. Genuinely sad. Like she was also close to clones, even if she wasn't a Jedi.

"So you knew some clones?" I asked carefully, not wanting to push it. "Could they still be..."

"He's alive," Ahsoka said. "But no, we're not going to visit him. Not right now, anyways. Sabine and I have found a huge lead toward finding Ezra."

"Really?"

"Why do you sound surprised?" Sabine asked. I noticed how she wasn't as snarky as she'd been before.

"Well I- Never mind," I said and sank back into my seat.

"Anyways," Ahsoka said, "We found a village nearby. They reported seeing space whales around-"

My eyes lit up. "Space whales? Those are real? They're not just myths?!"

Sabine scoffed. "Of course they're real. Even myths come from some sort of truth, even if the myth is unbelievable."

"Oh."

"258 rotations ago," Ahsoka finished, not all at looking upset that I had just interrupted her. "And that was about the time we lost Ezra. Luckily for us, we found a scientist who lives here that studies the migration patterns of those whales. And he has an idea of where they went when they left."