Ahsoka, Daughter of the Light (Book 4): Hidden

Chapter 10: Conquering Illusions

LUX BONTERI

"Unf!" Lux said as he hit the ground.

He quickly got up and felt around.

He wasn't dead. Somehow.

Kriff, he wasn't even wounded.

He looked around to find he wasn't even in the ice caves of Ilum anymore. He knew this place, it was the meeting building for the Onderon Rebels.

Wait, he thought, this is wrong.

"You really think he's a Jedi?" Lux heard a voice from around the corner. It was General Tandin.

"I mean, I saw him do the force-push and everything," he heard the voice of Saw Gerrera.

"Lux isn't a Jedi," said some Onderonian rebel. "He's too old. He can't do it."

"Yes I can!" Lux said, coming out from around the corner.

The small group of people in the room immediately turned their eyes.

"H-how did you get here!?" Saw said.

"I-I have no idea," he answered honestly. "I was in a cave on Ilum, then that Inquisitor attacked me, then Ahsoka came to save me, but she died, and I got knocked into a chasm, and now I'm here somehow? I'm just as confused as you are..."

"Ahsoka died!?" Tandin said.

"Well, yeah? I mean, this has been quite the odd turn of events, so I'm not even sure if she's dead, or if any of this is even real, or-"

Lux heard the activation of a double-bladed lightsaber nearby.

"Oh, you gotta be kriffing me-" Lux said before he was force-pushed back and out of the room by First Sister.

Lux tried to get back into the room, but the door shut before he could.

"Kriff!" he said, pounding the door.

"Lux!" He heard Saw scream from the other side of the door.

"Help us!" An Onderonian Rebel yelled.

But it was no use. Lux listened in agony as he heard his friends chopped one by one by First Sister.

When the noises of the slaughter stopped, Lux stepped back from the door, certain that First Sister was going to come through.

He was correct, as the door slid open and First Sister walked through.

"All your friends are dead," she taunted, "what are you going to do now?"

"I... I..." Lux struggled to get his words out of his mouth.

He backed up right into a wall.

"And don't think your Jedi friends are safe too. They will all die."

"You can't destroy the will of the people," Lux said, "Onderon will-"

"There is no Onderon," First Sister said, "there is only the Empire."

"No," Lux said, "If you kill hundreds, then thousands, if not millions, will hear their story."

"How pathetic," First Sister said.

"I- none of this is even real, is it?" Lux said. "Ahsoka wouldn't fall so quickly to you, and the chasm-"

"Shut it, boy," First Sister said, her lightsaber at his neck. "Any last words?"

"I'm not afraid anymore," Lux said, closing his eyes.

He heard First Sister raise her lightsaber for the killing blow, and then descend it upon him.

When he opened his eyes, he was back in the icy caves of Ilum. He was in a room with a large icy stalagmite with a shiny crystal on it.

Lux walked up to it, grabbed it, and looked at it.

This was his crystal, he was sure of it.

He put it in his pocket and ran down the icy hallway.