65: The Trap (IV)
“You lie,” The Togruta hissed through clenched teeth. She leveled her long green lightsaber at the alicorn. “You’re lying!”
“Search your feelings, little girl,” Luna answered, calling her own lightsabers back to her. “You know that I speak the truth. Anakin Skywalker, your master, and Darth Vader, mine, are one and the same. Stretch out with the Force. Touch my mind if you will, and discover that there is no deception in this.”
Warily, humming lightsabers held close to her chest, the Jedi lifted two fingers. Her eyes didn’t close, but Luna could feel the first hints of a mind probe. She shrugged off the outermost layer of her mental defenses, allowing her opponent a faint glimpse into her surface thoughts.
“I tell you no lie,” she continued. “Darth Vader is Anakin Skywalker. Anakin Skywalker is Darth Vader. Your master realized the futility of the light, its empty promises and moralizing pieties. Through the dark side he was reborn into a being of true consequence. A Dark Lord of the Sith.”
“That’s not true!” Her fore insisted, slightly less emphatically. “That’s impossible.”
“But it is true,” the alicorn said with a grin. “Your master came to understand the great truth of the universe, that only beings with power have meaning. The dark side alone bestows such power, the light merely reduces you to a puppet dancing the whims of the cosmos. The Jedi fell because they could not see this. They could not see that only by embracing that darkness could the universe be made right.”
“No…” she whispered. “No…”
Luna felt the Togruta redouble her efforts at probing her mind, searching for the slightest hint of a trick. In response the alicorn’s grin only broadened, and she lowered her barriers even further. She cast her own mind back to Kashyyyk, to the many things Vader had said to her there. The memories bubbled to the surface, right where the other woman could see them.
“Peace, justice, and righteous order do not come from succumbing to cosmic whimsy, from allowing yourself to be made into nothing more than an agent for the Force,” she declared. “They come when a being of great power imposes their will on the Force, and from there on the galaxy. Your master realized the quest of the Jedi was futile, and endless struggle to hold back an infinite avalanche. That is why he is what he is now.”
“It can’t be…” the other woman muttered, almost pleadingly.
“But it is. If your master were here, now, he would tell you the same things that he told me. He would ask you to join us. Since he is not, I will,” Luna’s eyes met hers, even through the helmet. “Join your master, Ahsoka Tano. Be a part of our crusade to set everything to rights, now and for all time.”
“I…” Her eyes were drifting down towards her own feet.
“Would you like to speak with him?”
Her head jerked upright. “What?”
“It can easily be arranged. Lord Vader is but a holocall away. My ship contains a direct route to his. Lower your weapons, shrug off this wretch, and I can take you right to him. I am certain your master would be most pleased to see his old apprentice once again.”
“You wanted to take my head a minute ago and now all you want is for me to talk to your master?”
“I… confess I had intended to simply eliminate you,” Luna said. “But that was before I knew who you were. I thought you were simply another simpering, self-righteous fool who needed to be destroyed before she damaged the galaxy yet further. Now I understand that you are so much more. Lay down your arms. Simply walk out of here with me, and I swear your master will welcome you back.”
The silence lay thick about that moment. All else in the prison seemed to dissolve away around the two of them. The Iktotchi, the Stormtroopers, the humming blades, the sterile lights… all of them meant less than nothing right then. It was only Luna and Ahsoka, dark and light, that mattered. The alicorn felt that this was her moment, a reward greater than any she could have imagined awaiting her on the other side. All the other woman had to do was lay down her arms, and the writhing sea of darkness that swarmed about her would sink its tendrils in. All she needed was a moment of weakness, a lone doubt, a small chink in her armor and the girl would be Vader’s not long afterwards. And the Dark Lord would be well pleased indeed. Luna felt as certain of that as she had anything in her long life.
“No.”
The moment passed.
“No,” Ahsoka repeated with more conviction. “I won’t go with you. I saw what you did on Kashyyyk, you and Vader. Wiping out entire villages… killing children… my master could never be so vile. And I heard it from his own lips. Darth Vader murdered Anakin Skywalker.”
“His dramatics aside, fact remains that my master and yours are one and the same. And he would want you back.”
“Even if you were telling the truth,” Ahsoka said with a grim expression. “My master is gone. What’s left is an imposter walking around in his body and desecrating his memory. And you’re nothing but his puppet. A tool, not a learner.”
“You are making a dire mistake, girl.”
“No, you made the mistake,” she answered. “All I came here to do was help someone. Because of you, I know I have something even more important to do.”
“And what would that be?”
Ahsoka held her green blade up between her eyes. “Avenge my master.”
“If that is to be your final word,” Luna’s sabers flared back to life. “Then you will simply have to die.”
“No,” Ahsoka said quietly. “You will.”
One moment the orange Togruta was standing there, lightsaber held aloft in a kind of salute. The next she was hurdling towards the alicorn like a bolt of lightning. Twin blades rushed up to meet the incoming blow, but the sheer impact of the attack forced them down. Ahsoka didn’t let the moment go to waste, spring a flip off Luna’s blades that put her directly behind the alicorn. She swung, and Luna dodged, but not fast enough to avoid losing the very tip of her tail. By the time she’d had a moment to cry out, Ahsoka was already gone.
If the alicorn had thought she’d seen fast before, she discovered that she had seen nothing yet. The Togruta seemed almost to be in two places at once, darting in and out from every possible angle at a speed nothing short of miraculous. The Force was with her, and the withering rain of blows felt every bit as relentless and unstoppable as the thunderstorm outside. Luna’s four sabers wheeled about franticly, spinning and swiping, but offense was the last thing on her mind. The blows rained down thick and fast, just as they had from Grievous, but unlike against the cyborg she couldn’t focus on one point of origin.
Wherever Luna didn’t want Ahsoka to be, there she was. Wherever she expected her to be, that space was empty. She was elusive and nimble, impossible to lock down for a counterattack, continuously probing and feinting and lashing out with her swords. Under such circumstances, even the defense that had held off the legendary Jedi-hunter’s assault for a time couldn’t avoid leaving gaps.
The first hit had cost her a few centimeters of tail and a good deal more hair. The next struck her front left leg near the joint, but for all the shower of sparks it raised it was glancing at best and the armor plates did their job. The third raked along her right flank as Ahsoka darted past, drawing a long but shallow streak across her blue armor and searing a few inches of wing. Luna jumped reflexively at the pain, her concentration slipping for just a moment.
All at once Ahsoka was directly in front of the princess, shoto slipping up and underneath her weakened guard. Luna twisted her head quickly as the green blade met blue helmet, carving a length furrow from the middle of the cheek to the bottom of the forehead. Her eye felt the contained heat of the plasma blade as it came within a millimeter of putting the yellow orb out.
Roaring with fury and pain, the alicorn lashed out viciously in all directions with a pulse of dark side energies. All around her, bodies went flying as the unprotected were caught in the emotional storm and tossed about like so many laves. The Togruta had her arms thrown over her face, but couldn’t entirely avoid being pushed back a good few yards, black boots scrapping against the cold metal floor.
“Backup!” Luna shouted, both through her mask and into her commlink. “Now!”
Whatever else one could say of Imperial Stormtroopers, one could not fault their dedication. Even from where they still lay sprawled out on the ground, those that still had a hold of their blasters immediately opened fire. Her green blades rose to meet the red bolts almost immediately, but it was enough to throw off her offense. For those few seconds that Ahsoka busied herself with blaster bolts, Luna gave ground, lightsabers hovering protectively about her head. Her helmet was losing function, sensors thrown off by the destruction of of on the lenses and a good deal of the internal electronic.
It didn’t take the Togruta long to finish off the initial handful of troopers that had begun shooting at her, reflecting their own bolts back at them with a practiced ease. She sent a few the princess’ way, but Luna had little trouble batting them off herself. But by the time that she was done the other Stormtoopers had regained their feet, and weaponry. The hallway echoed with the sounds of heavy footfalls.
Luna grinned as another squad of white-armored Imperials rounded the nearest corner, wasting no time in opening up on Ahsoka. Anakin’s old apprentice lunged forwards to meet them, plunging her twin blades into the nearest Imperial, then following up by slashing across another man’s chest. But she hadn’t even finished off the squad the alicorn had originally brought with her yet, much less the one that had just arrived. And there were two more racing to the scene that Luna could physically see, and even more rushing in from further away.
While Ahsoka cut the legs out from another Stormtrooper, the alicorn turned and bolted.
Blaster fire, crimson and brilliant amongst the sterile lighting of the prison, came first in a trickle. Downed men and new arrivals took aim at the Togruta, and she aimed their own bolts right back at them. Some troopers fell, but more were rushing to take their place with every passing second. The closest men ducked to the side or fell flat on their stomachs, the next ranks dropped to their knees, giving their rapidly-arriving comrades room to shoot. Fifteen Stormtroopers became twenty-five became forty became fifty, and the trickle of fire became an onrushing flood.
But if the Imperials were the storm, the Ahsoka was its eye. Her lightsabers seemed to be everywhere at once, green blurs more than solid weapons. Blasterfire exploded into sparks all around her, scorching walls, ceiling, and floor but somehow not touching the woman herself. The ex-Jedi didn’t merely weather the storm, she advanced with the slow but relentless stride of a being who knows exactly what needs to be done. Inch by inch, step by step, she made her way closer to their firing line. The Stormtroopers nearest began to attempt to inch backwards, only to rapidly discover the weight of their own line wouldn’t allow it.
Then Ahsoka took a deep breath, drew heavily on the Force, and became the storm.
Heads and limbs began to roll the moment she hit the Imperial lines, green blades carving through white armor like it was nothing more than paper. Swinging both blades in wide, sweeping arcs, the Togruta showed no hesitation in wading directly into the thick of them. In such confined quarters there was nowhere for the men to dodge, no gaps they pinpoint in her style, and so their only option was to die. And that they did.
Ahsoka’s advance was slow, but relentless and all but unstoppable. The Force flowed freely through her, showing her every bolt a split second before it was fired. Reflexes honed across dozens of battlefronts of the Clone Wars saw her sabers rising up to meet those that posed a danger even while they cleaved through armor and flesh. Stormtroopers for all their training were still human enough to scream as they died, and while she was not cruel nor did she show any mercy. Some cried out in the all-too-familiar voice of Jango Fett’s clones, but she didn’t allow herself to pay them any heed. Her lightsabers severed arms and heads alike, piercing the Imperials’ chests or simply slicing them in two. She left no wounded behind her, only piles of smoldering corpses.
The Stormtroopers’ numbers were thinning rapidly, blasterfire dying off as they did. Almost before Ahsoka herself was aware of it, she was through to the rear of their lines. A desperate man lunged at her. She pinned him to the wall with the Force, then ended his life with cut across the chest. Two more, brave or stupid, continued trying to shoot her. She deflected each of their shots into the other, aiming for the vulnerable area about the neck. The last man turned to run. She threw her lightsaber into his back.
The whole thing had lasted less than a minute.
When the last of the Imperials were dead and it became apparent that no more were coming for the moment, Ahsoka shut down her sabers. She breathed heavily, allowing the mounting fatigue to catch up with her, just for a moment. When that moment had passed, she turned back to the nearly forgotten Iktotchi, pressed as far back into a wall alcove as he physically could get and staring at her with wide, fearful eyes.
“Come on,” she motioned. “That should keep their security down for a little while. There should be a way out I can show you, but you need to move.”
“W-What about y-you?” he managed, voice little more than a frightened whisper.
“I have one more thing to take care of.”
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It seems I was mistaken.... Luna wasn't wise enough to realize throwing mooks at a force user like they would be able to stop them was a bad idea.
I hope Ahsoka will make it. Even if she escapes without rectifying Luna's view on things.
thrown off by the destruction of of on the lenses and
then ended his life with cut across the chest
1. One.
2. Then ended his life with a cut across the chest.
Broken horn, facial scar, wings atrophied to the point of uselessness, edgelord attitude . . .
Somewhere Tempest Shadow is struck by the urge to file a trademark claim, and she doesn't know why.
I know I've said it before but, Luna doesn't seem to get many "wins". This had a chance of becoming a nice solid win for Luna, but again her efforts seem pointless. It's kind of frustrating, honestly.
At this point I'm wondering if Luna is just going to order an orbital strike on the entire prison complex from the ISD above their heads.
Thank you once again for the update.
8727438
It does make you wonder what became of the Storm King, Shadow Tempest, and the Hippogriffs/Seaponies in this continuity.
Ironic. The Jedi hunter has become the hunted.
I was on the edge of my seat reading this. Luna’s been lucky, so far, to have only lost a bit of hair.
8727391
I hope she escapes, too, and maybe, sometime in the near future, meet up with Twilight. Those two together could do some serious damage to the Empire.
8727554
They really can't. To stand Shelley on his head, the Empire are many, and they are few.
This was very really good fun i am enjoying this i will admit here and now. Ahsoka is back at her prime she isn't a jedi but she isn't a sith she isn't bound by the strict laws of the jedi nor is she a crazy power hungry lunatic of the sith as to quote jango fett She's just a person trying to make her way in the universe as are we all but where she can help she will Ahsoka is an amazing Force user at this point she is able to harness both sides of the force without falling to either
Like... I'm loving this, but I feel bad for these Stormtroopers ever since I watched that one video, I forget its name. But tl;dr, the Stormtroopers are regular people, most joined up legit believing in the Empire's ability to bring order to the Galaxy while others knew exactly what they were getting into. Say what you will, but the whole of the Empire isn't completely evil and I can't help but feel bad for most of these dudes.
Anywho, good chapter, good chapter.
8727622
Right, because since when were a few people able to achieve anything against the Emp-
8728759
And yet blowing up the first Death Star didn't actually amount to very much in terms of directly undermining Imperial organization or the ability of the Empire to impose its will. What it did do was buy time for a galaxy-spanning network of planets, political families, industrialists, etc. to mobilize and bring their countervailing collective power to bear.
8729142
I’d say it did, considering the Empire in its current state collapsed in the span of a few years.