The Unchronicled Adventures Of Ahsoka Tano, Book Ten

Chapter Fifty: Opposing Plans

AHSOKA TANO

For a moment, Ahsoka sat in stunned silence, unable to summon the strength to do anything but watch as her apprentice sank deeper and deeper into complete and utterly devastating hopelessness.

Kaya had always been strong, laughing everything off with a smirk and an effortless swing of her twin blue lightsabers. She had stubbornness and determination to rival Anakin Skywalker himself, and despite the self-doubt that hindered her willingness to lead, she would have made a Jedi General equal or even superior to those Ahsoka had known during the Clone Wars.

But now... she looked broken. She wasn't fighting anymore – she had accepted the apparent eventuality of the situation and resigned herself to her fate. Ahsoka longed to reassure her, but she had no idea how to do it.

"Come on." It was as if Kaya's face had been carved out of stone – it was grey and devoid of any emotion. "A full rotation on Valunn is only twenty hours, so that means noon comes a lot faster here than it does on a planet like Coruscant. And it's a long walk to Geyser Ridge."

Kaya reached for the ash-covered lip around the roof to pull herself to her feet, but Ahsoka grabbed her arm before she could get too far.

"Stop."

Ahsoka was surprised by the ring of command in her voice. She hadn't thought she would be able to summon any kind of confidence, but now that Kaya had given up hope, perhaps it would have to be her job to hope for both of them.

"I'm not going to let them take you, Kaya," she continued, gripping her apprentice's shoulders. "We'll find a way out. Like it or not, we're in this together."

"You're gonna have to do what they say if you want to get the intel Tseebo is carrying. They have Jedi, Ahsoka. Jedi who need your help."

"So you're going to back down?" Ahsoka demanded. "Just because the odds are against you? That doesn't sound like the Kaya I know."

"They want me, so that's what they'll get. We need to make sure you and Tseebo are safe for the sake of those prisoners. You need to get the information back to the Rebellion so Kanan and Ezra can go about freeing them. If we get our allies on Cialone involved, we can pull it off."

Ahsoka knew what Kaya was doing. The dark-haired apprentice was trying to fill her head with noble objectives, and courses of action she could take to fulfill them that would be callous to forgo. Kaya was hoping that eventually, she would reach the point where Ahsoka's honor and compassion bred from years of Jedi teachings would entirely prevent her from ignoring the appeal.

But Ahsoka wasn't going to get it to that point. Her job as Fulcrum meant she had to make hard choices where lives would be lost either way, but she refused to choose between captive Jedi and the life of her apprentice.

"I should face them alone," Kaya continued. "You have people who need you – some you haven't even met yet. And I don't want to be the one who pulled you into letting them down like that."

"Kaya..." Ahsoka pulled the younger woman into a hug. "I'll be fine. I promise."

Kaya shook her away, biting her lip. She hugged arms to her chest as she looked out at the smouldering ruin that had once been a safe haven, and Ahsoka could only guess at what was going through her head.

"I know it's hard. I fought in the Clone Wars, so believe me when I tell you the stakes are just as high as they were back then – maybe even higher. But lives are going to be lost either way. That's just the cost of war; the cost that I agreed to when I became Fulcrum. But I'll be damned if one of them is yours."