Star Wars: The Good Ending

Ahsoka

    "Where are Mommy and Daddy going?" Luke asked Ahsoka as he hopped from tile to tile in the massive halls of the Jedi Temple.
    "Mommy had a senate thing and Daddy went with her, dummy. Don't you ever listen?"
    "Leia, be nice," Ahsoka chided. They passed Deppa Bilaba and her padawan, Caleb Dume. Deppa smiled at the twins goodnaturedly, and Ahsoka recalled just how much her own group of younglings from when she was little loved the Jedi Master. Ahsoka didn't talk to Caleb much, he was a couple years younger than her, about 17. They kept walking and soon enough Barriss Offee fell into step with them. She wasn't allowed a lightsaber and was basically on house arrest in the temple for the rest of her life, but she didn't seem bothered by it. Of course many Jedi were reluctant to forgive her, but holding grudges isn't exactly the Jedi way.
    "The address went well," she pointed out.
Ahsoka watched the twins run a little ways down the hall, careful not to lose sight of them. "I hope so. The attachment rule was too vague to begin with. All it did was drive us further from empathy and towards complete apathy. I understand why it's there, but I thought it would be better to encourage healthy love and compassion. It's why we became so far detached from the people, we had gotten to a point where we couldn't even identify with them anymore. We became so obsessed with the mission, the code, the bottom line, we completely lost our way."
    Barriss looked out the window thoughtfully, "I agree. Of course I knew Luminara cared for me, but I'd be lying if I said I never thought she didn't care whether I lived or died."
    Ahsoka nodded and watched as Luke and Leia ran in circles around a pillar, and it occurred to her how odd it was that they had only ever known the Jedi Order run by her. Yoda headed the Order for nearly a thousand years, although now he exclusively worked with the younglings. As for the rest of the council, they mostly resumed the tasks of most masters. Kit Fisto spent a lot of time off-world, being the main delegate to aquatic worlds. Shaak Ti recently took on a padawan, and Plo Koon had resumed searching for younglings, although Ahsoka did change the rule, and now they weren't brought to the temple until they were at least five, and had the freedom to choose a different path at any time. Of course Obi-Wan was chasing down his old enemy Darth Maul, and Mace Windu was all over the galaxy helping with reconstruction.
    "Sokaaa?" came a voice. Leia had appeared next to her, tugging on the hem of her skirt. Ahsoka scooped her niece into her arms and kept walking, turning her attention to her as she did. "What's up princess?"
    "Can we go play with the other younglings? Pleeease?"
Ahsoka shrugged. She couldn't think of a safer place for them to play other than within the walls of the Jedi Temple. "I don't see why not. I think they're learning about lightsabers today," Ahsoka teased, tickling Leia's chin. The little girl giggled excitedly and jumped down to the ground, running to catch up with her brother. Ahsoka gestured to a nearby Temple Guard to follow them, and they nodded brusquely, obliging immediately.
    Ahsoka watched them go, unable to suppress a slight smile.
"They're wonderful," Barriss pointed out.
    "That, they are," Ahsoka agreed, turning the corner to the library. She waved to Jocasta Nu as she entered, heading for the information archives. She waved at Master Sinube, who naturally was asleep at his desk. "Those two could definitely use a day with him," Ahsoka whispered to Barriss.
    "If he could stay awake for it," Barriss snickered.
Ahsoka laughed and skimmed through the files on the shelf. Barriss neatly clasped her hands behind her back. "What are you looking for?"
    "A mission report from Obi-Wan, he turned it in a few years ago. It has the details of where Maul and his brother centered his base of operations, I just remembered it last night. I wanted to see if I could find anything I missed."
    "I see," Barriss pondered. She frowned, then walked away, leaving Ahsoka by herself. Ahsoka ran her fingers over the files, looking for any specific date or name. Unfortunately, the files documenting the Clone Wars era were a bit bloated, if thorough. She began to wonder if she should just ask Jocasta, when Barriss reappeared with a file in hand.
    "Hm, what's that?" Ahsoka questioned. Barriss handed it to her and pressed the activation button. "My last mission with Luminara took place on Saleucami. We ran into trouble with some spice runners, and they had the Shadow Collective symbol on the crates. Comm- I mean, General Gree looked into it, and traced its origins to Dathomir."
    "Dathomir?" Ahsoka pondered. "Isn't that where Maul and Savage came from?"
Barriss nodded. "And this one," she passed another file to Ahsoka, "After Maul escaped custody, the 212th followed the lead to Obadia, but never found anything, just came to the conclusion it was an old base of operations. After that, the trail goes cold."
    "Huh," Ahsoka responded, swiping through the files. "We could have Quinlan Vos check it out, maybe he'll find something they didn't? He is familiar with Obadia, after all."
    Barriss shrugged. "It's worth a shot."
Ahsoka closed the files and smiled at Barriss, "He's on a mission to infiltrate a trafficking ring, but I'll contact him about it tomorrow. C'mon, let's go get something to eat, I'm starving.
   
    Dim rays of the dying sunset cast the Jedi Council Chambers in a soft, warm glow. Ahsoka Tano sat in her seat, flipping through grievance reports, trying to find anywhere they could help. Luke was making whooshing noises with his toy shuttle, and Leia was passed out in Aayla Secura's seat, using Ahsoka's cloak as a blanket. Ahsoka hummed quietly to herself, reading up on an insurgence going down on Veragis Seven.
    Suddenly, a shiver ran down her spine, and something felt off. She powered down the datapad and stood up, apprehensively looking around the room. Nothing looked out of the ordinary. She noticed however, that Leia was awake as well, looking around the room in a confused daze.
    The feeling persisted, and Ahsoka hesitantly walked over to the door, and tried to open it, to no avail. Odd, that door can only be locked from the inside. She bit her lip and held up her comm link to her face.
    "Hey Barriss, can you come unlock the door?" Nothing. Radio static. She clenched her fists and went completely rigid, as another paralyzing shiver ran down her spine.
    It happened so fast she was honestly surprised she reacted in time. The far window exploded into a shower of shattered glass. Ahsoka whipped around and used the Force to fling the shards into the adjacent walls, immediately igniting her lightsabers just in time to block a foe that seemed to melt into existence from the shadows, their crimson blade raised and ready to strike. Ahsoka slashed upward and tried to disarm her opponent, but they were ready for her. The other end of the saber ignited, illuminating the black and red tattooed face of a zabrack Ahsoka last saw three years ago at the Citadel prison, when she let him go to save Anakin. She always knew it'd come back to bite her, and somehow she was still surprised. She ducked another blow and leapt away putting a fair distance between them.
    Her heart dropped. Standing to the side of her master stood an unusually red Twi-Lek woman covered lekku to fingertips in black sith tattoos. She had a lightsaber in one hand poised at the form of a small child suspended in the air struggling to breathe. Luke made strangled crying noises, clawing at his neck. Maul stood next to Leia who was standing behind Barriss's seat, looking at Ahsoka expectantly.
    Ahsoka tightened her grip on her lightsabers and met Maul's sinister gaze unyieldingly. She tried to think of all her options, she'd beaten Maul before, but at the time he wasn't actually trying to kill her, that and it would be a 2v1 and she had no idea how formidable his apprentice was.
    Maul sighed and rolled his eyes, moving his crimson lightsaber just a little bit closer to Leia's throat.
    "Lady Tano, I happen to be a little short on time, so allow me to lay out your options for you. I'd assume you think I won't kill any of you, what good is a dead prisoner, after all. While true enough, I only need one of you alive for my plan to work."
    Maul made a signal to the twi-lek woman and she closed her fingers slightly, and suddenly Luke began to struggle even more, whimpering and clawing at his throat, making horrible choking sounds.
    "Stop it!" Leia cried, lunging forward towards her brother, only to be suspended in her tracks by Maul's free hand, "Let them go!" Ahsoka ordered, "I'll go with you willingly if you let them go!"
    "Lady Tano, you have no sway here, you become a liability as soon as the only person at risk is yourself. So, you can call off your pet-" he gestured at Leia, "and we take all three of you, or, you can try and fight, and we'll simply kill you, and the boy. The choice is yours, but I do suggest you hurry, before I lose my patience and make it for you."
    Ahsoka bit her lip and looked at Luke who was just struggling more and more, and knew she simply didn't have a choice, she couldn't play a game of chance with their lives, "How do I know you'll honor your word?"
    "Ahh, that's the thing, you don't. All you can trust is that three hostages is better than one."
    Ahsoka exhaled in defeat and disengaged her lightsabers, tossing them on the floor at Maul's feet. He grinned smugly and released Leia, handing her a pair of binders from his belt. He called Ahsoka's sabers to his hand and looked at her expectantly, his intentions clear.
    "Leia sweetie, can you come over here please?" she said, forcing a calm tone. Leia looked from Luke to Ahsoka, and surprised the grandmaster by the complete lack of fear in her eyes. All Ahsoka could detect was anger, and it staunchly reminded her of Leia's father. But she was a very smart little girl, and did what she was told, walking fearlessly towards Ahsoka.
    "We're gonna play a game, ok? I need you to go behind me, and put those to my wrists. Can you do that?"
    Leia nodded and did as she was told, securing the cuffs. Ahsoka felt something stab into her wrists, and bit back a yelp of surprise. Suddenly, a cold numbness spread through her veins, completely paralyzing her arms from the elbows down, no doubt a measure to render her incapable of using the force.
    Maul smirked, "Mandalorian technology is remarkable, isn't it? Now if you wouldn't mind?" He used Ahsoka's disengaged saber hilts to gesture out the window to the barely visible, cloaked shuttle. Biting back her anger, she herded Leia onto the shuttle, closely followed by Luke and Maul. The boy clung to Ahsoka's leg, his blue eyes wide and scared. Ahsoka considered escaping for a moment, but knew she couldn't leave the twins behind without her to protect them whatever way she could.
    They boarded the ship, and just like that, the grandmaster of the Jedi Order, and the two children of the Galactic Republic's chancellor were gone.