Building Attachment

Chapter 31

POV: Anakin Skywalker

I fought the dizziness that threatened to pull me out of consciousness from the lack of oxygen that occupied the ship in the aftermath of Lux's escape. Ahsoka was already out cold on the floor beside me due to a combination of hitting her head from our fall and getting the oxygen sucked out of her. The thought of joining her and leaving our ever-changing future up to fate terrified me. I had to get us out of here, I had to get her to safety before all of this came crashing down.

I gasped for breath as I struggled to pull myself onto my feet. Darkness dissolved in and out of my vision and I held on to the side of the ship to keep myself from stumbling back to the ground. I pressed my palms against the glass window of the ship and watched in horror as my vision slowly began to clear up and reveal a separatist's cruiser situated above us and starting to target us.

"Kriff!" I cursed, making my way over to the control panel and strapping in as I pulled Ahsoka into the seat next to me. I should have known Lux was still working with the separatists, I never trusted him for even a second. Worse than that, the hyperdrive seemed to have been broken and we couldn't jump into hyperspace.

I quickly took control of the ship and steered it clear of the oncoming shots aimed towards it. The oxygen supply had leveled out, but I still found myself panting and struggling to get enough air. The separatist blasts came in an endless cycle that I was confident I would have easily been able to dodge had I not been on the verge of passing out. "So much for fixing the ship," I mumbled as we got shot and I lost all control of the Twilight and it locked in to a high speed in the direction of the ocean planet Auqalverine.

After giving it as much thought as I could, I concluded that crashing on Auqalverine was a better option than being held captive by the Separatists where I would have no control over Ahsoka's safety and what they did to her. As we came closer and closer to the planet, it became clear to me that I didn't have much of a choice on the matter anyway. There was no stopping where The Twilight went at that point. 

One thing I knew for sure was that we definitely did not want to be on the ship when it plunged into the ocean waters of this planet if we wanted any chance of survival at all. Soon enough, we broke through the atmosphere and began to descend at a fast rate which created a pressure that shoved my head against the back of my seat. Every movement I made came with powerful resistance as I pried myself from my seat and crawled over to unstrap Ahsoka as fast as I could.

I securely pulled her into my arms, being careful not to let any pressure get to her neck, before slamming down on the controls to open the ship with my fist and jumping out just before The Twilight submerged into the unforgiving Auqalverine waters below.

I braced myself for impact and tightened my hold on Ahsoka's limp form dangling in my arms and looked down at the water below. Moments later, gravity crushed us deep into the wild and icy water, the splashing sound echoing through my ears and sending sudden bubbles up to the surface. I panicked, coldness rushing up my spine as I soon found my arms empty and weightless under the harsh and stormy waves.

I broke through the surface of the water and gasped for the breath that had been sucked out of me. "Ahsoka!!" I yelled as I frantically paddled my arms through the surrounding water in search of her. Since she was unconscious, I knew that if I didn't find her within seconds, she would drown. "Ahsoka!" I took one last breath and then ducked back underwater and opened my eyes to see through it. My heart leaped in my chest when I spotted her a short distance away from me and deep underwater. Not even the shard, of metal that was pulled by the current and stabbed into my leg, seemed to matter as I quickly pulled her against my chest using the force and swam back up to the surface.