The Unchronicled Adventures Of Ahsoka Tano, Book Ten

Chapter Ninety-One: The Most Precious Things I Have

AHSOKA TANO

That night, after the conference had ended and she had curled up beside Lux in bed again, Ahsoka had had another dream.

In it, she had been a spirit wandering through ancient stone ruins upon which had been carved a variety of strange glyphs that were almost familiar. As she had moved from place to place, weaving in and out of the shadows and dusty beams of light cast by a faraway dying sun, she had seen brief but detailed flashes of what had happened there long ago.

Dark powers had grappled for dominance. Red blades had clashed. A master had fallen and risen again. A boy, ruled by good intentions and a need for revenge in equal measure, had extended his hand to give into the temptation of ultimate power.

Then, as she had watched the ruins collapse under the misfire of their own devastating power, fragments of other dreams had floated back to her:

"Only a Sith deals in absolutes."

"If I have to die, then I will! I'd die a thousand times over for you!"

"Anakin Skywalker was weak."

"Do you know... what I have become?"

She had awoken feeling a sense of anticipation, of incompletion, which had lasted most of the day so far. It was as though she had been in the middle of sharing an important thought and was cut off mid-speech. She was still waiting on an answer that would never come.

Something was coming. And Ahsoka sensed it was going to shake the foundation of everything she had ever known.

She shook the thought away, locking Anakin and Vader and everything else back into her little box. It was best and probably safest to focus on the present; not the past, not the future, and not even the immediate future.

Ahsoka closed her eyes as she breathed in the sweet-smelling air of the Cialonian forests, and, for just a moment, she felt herself drift away from all her worries, all her cares. She was perfectly at peace.

She smiled as she heard the laughs of children playing, the quiet hum of Jedi initiates learning new lightsaber forms. I created this, she thought. I gave these people a home when the Order fell. I made them strong when they were at their weakest. And because of it, in some manner at least, the Jedi ways will survive.

Suddenly, she sensed that her husband was near. His presence in the Force a whirlwind of love, sadness and the flashes of darkness that felt like the beginnings of loss. Frowning, she opened her eyes and turned to face him.

"You're leaving again, aren't you?"

Ahsoka opened her mouth to speak, but Lux answered her question before she could ask it. "Aeja told me. And she also told me she could feel through your bond that wherever it was you were going, you would be in danger."

Ahsoka sighed and crossed her arms as though hugging herself. She suddenly felt very cold, even with her warm Jedi robe. "She's probably right. She is so clever, isn't she? Sometimes, it's like she can sense things no one else can - and that's coming from a Jedi."

"Don't try to change the subject. Tell me where you're going."

She was quiet for a long moment. "We're going to a planet called Malachor."

The color drained from Lux's face. "Wait, the Malachor? The one from those old stories from what the old Jedi back during the Clone Wars called one of the darkest chapters in galactic history?"

Ahsoka saw no other way to explain herself, so she simply nodded.

"No. No way," Lux said, shaking his head adamantly. "I can't let you do that."