StarWars: Renegades -In The Name Of The Fallen

A fallen friend.

And here is another chapter. I would appreciate some criticism, though.
Ahsoka
In warm, now clean clothes and freshly showered Ahsoka returned to her companions. She found Shenna and Max in the officer's mess where they had eaten their first meal on board. Ahsoka immediately realized that something was wrong.

"Max?" she asked. 

Her master pursed his lips. 

"Shaak Ti is dead," he announced curtly. Ahsoka covered her mouth with her hands in shock.

Shenna, on the other hand, looked confused. "Who is Shaak Ti?"

"My former Master," Max explained. His voice was deprived of any emotion and his face was even blanker than usual. For others, it would be impossible to see past his mask but to Ahsoka, the lack of emotional expression answered a lot. Max was hurting.

Shenna dropped her gaze. "Ohh. I'm sorry to hear that." Ahsoka stepped closer to her friend and mentor. 

"Are you sure?" She asked softly. "I am."

"How-" "That I do not know. However, I sensed a great loss of life over Coruscant. That suggests that there was either a large scale disaster or a battle. Either way, Shaak Ti is among the casualties."

Every thought of her own vision disappeared. She knew how much she cared for Anakin and Max and how much it would hurt to lose them. Ahsoka was quite sure that it hurt Max just as much as it would her, he was just better at controlling her feelings and a lot better at hiding them. Shaak Ti had been like a mother to him.

Ahsoka glanced at Shenna who looked a bit helpless. Their eyes met for a moment and Shenna nodded before announcing that she needed to check on the engine room and left leaving them alone. "Are you alright?" she asked quietly even though she knew the answer.

"I am fine," Max announced, his voice perfectly calm. He sat down on one of the benches at the table and rested his chin on this hands, his elbows propped up on the top of the table. Ahsoka sat down next to him with her back to the table and rested her head against his shoulder.

"Do you want to talk?"

"No," came the expected reply.

"Do you want me to leave?" Ahsoka then asked.

Max visibly hesitated, "You may stay."

They set there in silence for a while. Ahsoka breathed his warm scent and felt oddly attached to her mentor. Finally, Max got up and swung his leg over the bench. 

Ahsoka caught his wrist. "Max, if I learned one thing from Master Skywalker it is that you can't meditate your problems away. Meditating is good when you are trying to focus but it's not the answer to grief. Trapping grief inside you isn't too good for the mind."

Max pursed his lips slightly. She had been dead on target. "I'll be fine."

Ahsoka gave him a small smile. "I know."

Ahsoka had no doubt that he would be fine. Max was as close to unbreakable as one could get. She knew that while he might miss his former mentor it would take a lot more than that to break his resolve. Now that she thought of it, she couldn't imagine anything that could break him.

Max sighed and sat down next-next to her and Ahsoka gently laid an arm around his waist. After a while, Max spoke. "Did you know that I would never have become a Jedi if it weren't for her?" 

Ahsoka shook her head.

"When I was around seven the council noticed the more problematic part of my nature and the council was all for exiling me from the order and handing me over to social services of the Republic. Shaak Ti stood up for me and even threatened to leave the order and train me in private if necessary. I didn't even know her name at the time. She took me in as her own from there on and later chose me as her Padawan."

Ahsoka smiled slightly, "She seems like she was a remarkable person."

"She was the best mentor I could ever ask for. I now sometimes think I betrayed her trust."

"How so?" Ahsoka asked.

Max looked at her incredulously, "I left the order and made a lot of questionable choices. My behavior on Ryloth for one."

"Don't be stupid." The padawan growled, a hint of accusation in her voice. "Yes, you made a few bad choices but then you saved me and returned to the path of a Jedi. I think that she knew that you returned to the path of the Jedi just like you know that she is now gone. You said you talked to her before coming for me so she must know that you are trying to do the right thing. I think she was proud of you." Ahsoka argued. 

She stopped when she saw the small smile on Max's lips.

"What?" She demanded. "I didn't know it would be such a big thing to you?" 

Ahsoka stuck her tongue out at Max and then started laughing. Even Max grinned which for him was the equivalent of rolling on the floor in giggling fits."

He really did look good when he smiled. After a second or two Ahsoka realized that she was staring and looked away but didn't stop laughing. "Well, I guess we can debate all day on the matter but we can definitely honor her name in our future actions." Ahsoka decided.

The rest of the journey passed painstakingly slow. What made matters worse Shaak Ti's death seemed to have flicked a switch in Max. It probably was in her best interests but Ahsoka liked to complain anyway. Max pushed her harder in combat training than ever before as if he was trying to fix all his mistakes by training her. Either they were helping Shenna do maintenance on a ship that usually had an over one hundred strong crew or they were training. Each night when she went to bed, Ahsoka felt utterly exhausted and in the morning they went straight back at it.

In the end Ahsoka had to admit though that it was worth it. By the time they left Hyperspace around Na Shadaa she was in peak physical condition. Her sense of balance had improved greatly and she had become stronger.

Her abilities in everything from hand to hand combat to light-saber dueling had also improved quite a bit.

Ahsoka sat down in the copilot's seat next to Shenna and stared off into the bluish Hyperspace. She had befriended the Twi'lek during their journey and had so far gotten along great.

Max entered the cockpit and Ahsoka sensed him standing behind her. She didn't turn around. "When are we arriving?" he asked. 

"In about..... fifteen seconds," Shenna announced. Sure enough fifteen seconds later the Corvette dropped out of Hyperspace and the image of the muddy great planet covered by cities blurred into view.

"So this is Na Shadaa?" Shenna asked.

"Yes, you'll be hard-pressed to find a higher concentration of criminals in the Galaxy," Max said darkly.

"You've been here before?" she asked.

"Yes, back when I was a Padawan. Shaak Ti and I were responsible for taking down a Black Sun narcotics operation whose product was killing hundreds if not thousands of people."

Ahsoka made a mental note of that. She wasn't surprised about this. Unlike her he hadn't been trained in the clone wars but she had heard stories about how dangerous those kind of operations in the criminal underworld were, especially for Jedi.

"Keep your eyes open out there. Shenna, Na Shadaa is safe enough at ground level but we are heading into the underworld so you are staying on board."

Shenna nodded not looking disappointed. "Alright, I need to work on the hyperdrive anyway. It would be great if you could find me a few technicians."

"I'll look into it," Max promised. 

Ahsoka hailed the spaceport while Max studied a few schematics of the city. "Ahsoka, we'll go and buy you some new clothes. After we bring the supplies back to the ship we'll look for manpower. I would like to look into the people you suggested and I also know of a private security firm that has a reputation for being trustworthy and discreet.

Wolf & Lengendary95 over and out.