Chapter Forty Seven: The Monsters We Knew...

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Ahsoka watched the glee wash over the two DarkSiders. The two twisted souls that had become so accustomed to the taste and burn of the venom in their throats they no longer felt the pain of their barbs. But as Ahsoka watched Umbra, she could feel deep inside her a stirring, the slightest flickering of a light fighting to be rekindled. But each time Umbra seemed to wince at the twinge in her chest it was snuffed out by the black hand of envy and bitter hate. They was a familiar tone to the chords as Ahsoka listened to them reverberate in her mind. She recognized the undercurrent of doubt that led to the darkness, she recognized it as she had more than once faced it. Broken things and broken wings, tiny stars falling from the sky into the dark cold graves where they lay in wait for their next victims. Underestimating the true believer was not a mistake she would make again. Umbra believed she was serving the Force by exposing the past to Rey, making her confront the ugly truths of what she, whether she chose it or not, was a part of. Darkness exists inside all of us, Ahsoka had been naive before the purge, she had seen first hand what happened when the will of the Force was in conflict with the will of the soul. She'd felt Anakin's pain, his anger....and his shame for what he knew he'd done. She'd felt him until he fell into a shadow so dark the person she'd known no longer could exist. The good man faded away and the monster who ruled the galaxy with an iron will, and a face which became famous for striking fear in the hearts of others. Sitting there on the curved lip of stone Ahsoka listened as from behind the foggy stone prison there emerged a breathy whisper...the VOICE of the Darkside was calling. But it wasn't Ahsoka's name is was calling....

Voice of the Darkside: Rey...Rey...Come to me..

Ahsoka could feel the pull the sound of the words exterted as they drew themselves through the large horizontal cracks in the foggy stone's eye. She watched Rey looking all around her, at the ghostly memories of a life she'd already long forgotten, and they called to her. They called to the sweet gentle child who had feared to look upon deaths face, just as the other had now become it. The sound mutated as it swelled dredging up old lost memories...showing things Ahsoka had pushed down below the surface...speaking in voices that she'd silenced. Her hands shaking as she tried to push back with all her might, but they kept failing on her dropping her lower and lower.

Darth Vader: Ahsoka!

Ahsoka: Anakin. I won't leave you, not this time...

She looked at the darting yellow eye as it looked down and away from her, when it focused back in on her...there was nothing but darkness and hate in his eye. It burned with red fire as it narrowed beneath the shattered edges of the mask. The sharp distorted sounds of the monster breathing heaving breath after breath as it drew back up to full height.

Darth Vader: Then...you will DIE!

There were some monsters that couldn't be slayed. Who couldn't be tamed or even conquered. There were monsters inside them, monsters trying to crawl out of the dark corners of their souls, mosters who wanted nothing more than to wear their skins and live again. False faces and names ancient old, names that made the blood run cold....Names that were forbidden and unspoken, names of the monsters they carried inside all along no matter how far they ran or how they tried to change their faces into ones the monsters wouldn't recognize. But they were always there when she closed her eyes. The faces of friends, faces of enemies....faces of family morphed into masks of broken pictures of memories when they'd been whole. Ahsoka could hear their voices....as her eyes fell towards the murky dark watter in front of her she looked deep into its reflection as the white dimonds and the brilliant orange of the helmet rose to up through the blue black water...

Ahsoka: I don't want to hurt them....

Voice of the Darkside: But you did didn't you....JEDI. You abandoned them to their fates...Tell me did you feel their deaths? Did you smell the burning flesh as the ship crashed all around them? What was your last thought as you watched them die? Was it one of PEACE? Was it VENGENCE for your fallen JEDI brothers and sisters? Or was it ANGER? After all...you were warned weren't you....APPRENTICE!?

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