Flash Fiction Month 2016

Day 5: Wrath (TCW)

Ahsoka cried out, crashing to the ground, clutching her side.
"Ahsoka!" Kaldonna called mentally. Distracted, she almost took a laser blast to the head before lifting her guard.
"Ahsoka!" she called again, reaching her conciousness into Ahsoka's for a better connection.
She only got a wave of pain for an answer, and a spiralling sensation that meant Ahsoka was falling unconcious.
She growled, and redoubled her efforts, forcing her way across the battlefront to Ahsoka's position.
Kaldonna got airborne and dragged Ahsoka's unconcious form into the cover of a nearby stack of crates.
"Ahsoka!" Kaldonna yelled. "Ahsoka, wake up!"
The Togruta stirred, but didn't wake. Kaldonna moved her hands away from her side, saw the massive burn that had charred her orange skin.
"Kriff!" she swore. "Stay with me, 'Soka, stay with me..."
Laying her scaly hands over the wound, she quelled her rage long enough to heal the worst of the damage.
A red laser blast grazed her shoulder, and the Padawan knew her time was up.
"'Soka..."
Still the other young Jedi was motionless. Her conciousness was fading from her mind.
They'd killed her.
Those bastards had killed her.
Kaldonna felt her emotions bubble out of control, breaking her barriers, flooding her brain with rage and grief.
With a roar, she flung herself back into the battle.
Battle droids were crushed, sliced and diced under the whirlwind of her pike. She was outnumbered hundreds to one. So she evened the odds, cutting down the hundreds until the only opposition in her way were the mercenaries.
The pirate band - Hondo's group of Weekway thieves - were eyeing her with fear as she approached.
Her feathers were bristling, the orange orbs of her eyes condensed to pinpricks amongst the black sclera. Her beak was twisted in a snarl of rage.
"Which one of you shot the Togruta?" she demanded in a yell. "I know one of you did it!"
They all looked at each other awkwardly.
"Ahem."
A figure, in hat and scarlet jacket, stepped forward.
"Apologies, young Jedi, I, uh, may have... misfired my blaster."
"Hondo," Kaldonna growled. "You'll pay for this."
"Let's not be hasty, my Rishii friend," Hondo insisted, raising his hands innocently.
But Kaldonna wasn't listening.
Excuses, excuses, excuses. She didn't care. She didn't want to hear it. If Hondo had killed Ahsoka, then he'd pay. His whole crew would pay.
With a terrifying screech, she lashed out at the pirates.
They all drew blasters and started firing. A few extended staffs.
None of them stood a chance.
One by one, Kaldonna cut them down.
Hondo readied his plasma staff.
He was a better warrior than all of them, but it wasn't his fighting skills which saved him.
"You know, I didn't mean to kill... Ahsoka, her name is, correct?"
"Don't you dare say her name!" Kaldonna roared. She bashed and battered at him, but his defence with the plasma staff was excellent. "You killed her!"
"It was an accident, I swear! Come now, be reasonable," he begged, grinning. "After all, revenge is not the Jedi way."
"You don't know anything!" Kaldonna screeched.
"Perhaps not," Hondo conceded, dodging another swipe of Kaldonna's blade and blocking it as it came around again. "But surely Ahsoka would not approve of you killing so many in her name?"
Kaldonna felt as though she'd been kicked in the stomach. As suddenly as it had sprang to life, her rage deserted her.
Her pike suddenly felt like a lead weight in her hands. She looked around, saw the carnage her wrath had wrought. The droids didn't worry her. But the dead pirates...
"Now, I see you can listen to reason," Hondo said, more confident now that she didn't have a lightsaber to his throat. "As, uh, compensation for my... mistake, this is what I will do. I am going to leave here, and report to my employer that we encountered a Republic army, and they destroyed our forces."
Kaldonna growled at him.
"I am not reporting you," he continued. "Besides, it would be embarrassing for the Sepratists if they knew their forces were destroyed by a... Padawan."
Hondo crossed to his speeder bike and started it up. Kaldonna made no move to stop him.
"Say something nice for me at your girlfriend's funeral," he called back as he sped away, kicking up clouds of dust in his wake.
Kaldonna deactivated her saber and returned the weapon to her back. She trudged back to where she'd left Ahsoka.
The Togrutan Padawan was exactly how she'd left her, lying on her side behind the stack of crates.
"Ahsoka," Kaldonna murmured, kneeling beside her. "I'm sorry..."
She brushed a gentle hand over Ahsoka's cheek as tears filled her eyes.
Something tickled at her mind. A brush of conciousness.
"Kal..."
Kaldonna nearly had a heart attack. She leant close, listening for the faded whisper that had almost escaped her.
"'Soka?"
"Kal."
Ahsoka's eyelids fluttered a bit, and she groaned.
Kaldonna felt her heart simultaneously lift and plummet. Ahsoka was alive; but that meant the lives she'd taken had been for nothing.
Her rage had gotten the better of her, again. And this time, the consequences were dire.
She couldn't let Ahsoka know what she'd done.
Scooping her up, Kaldonna carried the barely-concious Jedi back to their ship.