The Unchronicled Adventures Of Ahsoka Tano, Book Ten

Chapter Seventy-Six: Cold Feeling

AHSOKA TANO

"You look like you didn't sleep at all."

Ahsoka paused halfway to the caf maker in the small kitchen in the shuttle she had borrowed, turning to shoot her sister-in-law a dirty look. "Thanks," she replied dryly.

"What kept you up?" Janira pressed, leaning forward in her seat.

Ahsoka rubbed at her eyes – they were oddly sore this morning – and finally reached out to turn on the machine. "Bad dream."

Jani's eyes softened then. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Ahsoka opened her mouth to tell her no, that it was the last thing she wanted to talk about, but the proximity alarm went off before the words could leave her mouth. They weren't more than half an hour from Onderon now, and the shrill, persistent beeping was a built-in reminder that they needed to bring the ship back into manual control to take it out of hyperspace.

"I'll go take care of that," Jani said, rising to her feet. "I made some extra toast, and I think there's still some kwhyen oat gruel with jogun sauce in the conservator. You'll have to reheat it, but I just made it an hour ago, so it's fresh. Help yourself."

She dumped her dishes in the sink and walked off down the hallway before Ahsoka could thank her.

Well, something's definitely up with her, Ahsoka thought, watching her go. Usually she's so bright and happy. Now it's as though she's trying to rush her every gesture... Ah, it's probably just nerves. I wasn't much better for my first real command posting. Actually, no, more like the second. I was way too confident for the first, but I learned my lesson after that. I'd had a taste of some of the things that could go wrong.

"But Jani isn't some rash fourteen-year-old who was forced into conflict too early," she reminded herself aloud, shaking the thought away. "She's a smart, capable woman who just needed a little push in the right direction to be able to put her potential to good use. She'll be fine – she was practically born for this. Just like..."

Ahsoka trailed off as she realized the implications of what she had been about to say. No, she told herself. She and Steela have similarities, but that's it. They're not the same person... and I won't let what happened to her happen to my sister.

Then, she opened the door to the conservator and forced herself to think nothing more of it.

"Remind me again how this conference is supposed to work."

Ahsoka chuckled, reaching above her to make the final adjustments to real space and time as the ship dropped from lightspeed. "Jani, you must've read that invoice from Rebel Command six times now. You're like a student cramming for an evaluation, convinced you missed the one fact that'll mean the difference between a passing grade and a failing one. There's no use dwelling on what you already know."

"Humor me. Please."

"Oh, fine," Ahsoka said, unable to say no to the look on Jani's face. "It really isn't such a big thing. You're just going to meet with General Tudari – he's been standing in for you – and some of the other leaders in a corvette above the planet. We'll be at the rendezvous in a few minutes. There, you'll be briefed on what's changed since you were there and your new duties. I also heard they had some new long-term objectives for your unit they wanted to talk over with you – recruiting more to join your ranks to make up for the loss of the Partisans, for example."

Jani's unit. It felt almost strange to say, but at the same time, it fit.

"Yeah, it's going to be a busy week," Janira said with an uneasy laugh. "But at least we'll be there in time for the meetup – I'll be planetside with the other cell members and you'll be in the sector at the very least. And Father made it clear we can come visit whenever we like, provided he's not swamped with work. But even then, it's just because he feels he's being rude by not having time to play the host."

Ahsoka nodded, but she was only half-listening. She found it so odd that a signal of the highest priority – which only ever meant the confirmed presence of a Force-sensitive being – had been transmitted without coordinates detailing more than the sector. She sincerely hoped there wasn't something else she was missing here; something that was common knowledge for the Inquisitors beyond the point of needing to include it in the memo.

If anything would cause her to fail in her mission, it would be that she was an outsider, and only privy to as much on the matter as a third-person perspective allowed her.

A cold trickle of unease suddenly ran down Ahsoka's spine. She could only hope her lack of information wouldn't be as costly a disadvantage as she had a feeling it would be.

"He'll let us stay over until Lux and the kids get here; I'm sure of it," Janira finished after a moment, drawing Ahsoka from her thoughts.

But then, it hit her.

"Call Enarion," Ahsoka said, her throat closing in fear. "Now, please."

Although there were questions in her eyes, Jani nodded and pulled her communicator out of her pocket. She entered the code that would link it to her father's and set it down on the control panel before them. Her hand were half-concealed in her lap, but Ahsoka could still see them fidgeting nervously out of the corner of her eye.

Ahsoka bit her lip as it went to the answering service, glancing over at her sister-in-law. "Why isn't he picking up?"

"Father likes to go on long walks out on the grounds without his comm," Jani informed her matter-of-factly, but Ahsoka heard the slight undercurrent of unease in her voice. "He used to scare me so badly when he did it when I was young and it was getting dark. Despite the shielding and climate control, I was always so afraid some wild beast was going to get him..."

"Are you sure that's all it is? Because I sense..." Ahsoka closed her eyes and probed deeper into the cold feeling that had been winding its way tighter and tighter around her for the past few minutes, so slowly she hadn't really noticed it until now.

Suddenly, she froze. "A shadow."

"A what?" Now Jani looked genuinely afraid; her grey eyes were wide and her face was pale, and the tremor in her voice was hard to miss.

"An Inquisitor. And–" Ahsoka fought off a wave of panic as she suddenly sensed something else: four familiar presences in the Force, magnified tenfold by the one who was the least experienced out of them at forming mental shields.

"Oh, Force, they're here," she whispered. "My babies are here. The Inquisitor... it's after the kids."

*And suddenly, everything becomes clear... or, rather, almost everything. What could Ahsoka have realized so suddenly about the priority signal from the Inquisitorius? Could there be more to what she sensed than she has told Jani as of yet? And has the Inquisitor already found the kids, or is there still hope for Rebel captain and Jedi to find them first? And does Lux have any idea what's going on? Has he left yet, or is he stuck in the mess right alongside his father and children? You'll find out in the next thrilling chapter of The Unchronicled Adventures of Ahsoka Tano!

DUN DUN DUUUUNNNN

THATS WHAT IVE BEEN BUILDING UP TO FOR THE LAST COUPLE OF CHAPTERS

MWUHAHAHAHAHA

IT WASNT ENOUGH FOR LUX AND JANI AND ENARION TO HAVE INTERNAL CONFLICT ABOUT FAMILY ISSUES

NOPE

I HAD TO GET THE KIDS INVOLVED TOO

An another note, WOOHOO IM FINALLY CAUGHT UP ON MY UPDATES AFTER THE CRAZINESS THAT WAS THIS WEEK!! I meant to get this chapter up last night, but it was already like 11:30, and I still had to add more description and finish revising before I even thought about an author's note and posting it... bleh...

And of course, I couldn't resist the urge to make a small reference to myself and my general outlook on exams in the second part of the chapter. That analogy hits pretty close to home for me XD

Next chapter, which will be up later tonight because TOMORROW IS A DAY OFF, will focus on Jani stepping up a little more and taking charge... though where it'll lead, who knows ;)

Now I don't really have much to say here without taking away from what's going to be covered in the next chapter, so I'm going to sign off and go write the next chapter. It should be up sometime later this evening, so keep your eyes peeled. Until then...

Sharron