CAPTAIN MARVEL [✓]

Chapter Forty Four: Right Place

4 MONTHS LATER..

The battle was getting intense. But not for us, for the droids. Our forces were causing them to fall back and this had put a wide smirk on my face.

"Keep going, men! We almost got them!" I exclaimed while blocking shots and throwing it back at the droids. "You heard her, men! Keep going!"

"Wonder how the Masters are doing!" Ahsoka said as I nodded, blocking a shot that was thrown at me from a super droid. "Yeah! Think they're getting more droids than us?!"

"I don't know. How many do you have?"

"31. You?"

"42!" Ahsoka shouted with a smirk as I rolled my eyes. "Okay, you win this time, Snips."

: Ahsoka! Valerie! Pull your men back now! : I heard Master Skywalker shout through the commlink.

"What? Why?" I asked as I blocked another shot. : We have more droids coming in from the West, East, and South. More droids than just a simple army! You need to get out of there! Rex and his men are on their way with a gunship! :

"Alright! We'll be ready!"

"What? No way! Can't you see they're retreating?!" Ahsoka argued as Valerie force pushed a couple of droids away. "Ahsoka! Now's not the time to argue! Just listen to Master Skywalker or we'll all die!"

"We got this, Val!"

"NO, AHSOKA! WE DON'T!" I snapped, causing Ahsoka's eyes to wide in shock and disbelief. "I DON'T MEAN TO SNAP, AHSOKA! BUT WE'RE NOT GOING TO RISK ALL THESE MEN BECAUSE YOU BELIEVE WE CAN HOLD IT! I TRUST YOU, AHSOKA! AND WE WILL SUCCEED! BUT NOT TODAY!"

Ahsoka looked away in anger before I saw the gunship Master Skywalker sent for us and I quickly jumped off our walker. When I turned to see if Ahsoka was following, I saw she was still blocking shots.

"AHSOKA! NOW!"

"ALRIGHT!" Ahsoka snapped back before she jumped off the walker and followed the few troopers, who were still left, onto the gunship. Ahsoka and I looked down when the gunship pulled upward and saw that hundreds of droids had swarmed the walker, watching as it exploded.

"I'm sorry, Valerie.." Ahsoka mumbled as I looked down at her. "I know, Ahsoka. I know you are. But, next time, when I say we need to go, we need to go. Okay? We almost got killed and we can't let that happen again."

"I understand. I just..thought we could handle it."

"I know. And I'm glad you're confident about that, but we didn't have enough men to hold them off. We were outnumbered." I said while placing my hand on her shoulder.

"Blondie, we got word that we have to head back for Coruscant." Rex said as I nodded. "Okay. Thank you, Rex."

I felt a hand lightly touch my back and I looked to see it was Rex. "You okay?" He whispered as I looked from him at Ahsoka and sighed softly.

"No. I just..feel really bad for yelling at her. Her heart is in the right place, but it was at the wrong moment." I whispered back to him before I looked back up at him.

"We can talk more when we get back to Coruscant." I acknowledged as he nodded and I felt his hand move away from my back.

•

"So, what happened?" I asked as soon as Anakin and Ahsoka came from out of the Council room. "Well, our dear friend here has a couple weeks on guard duty." Anakin said while placing his hand on her shoulder.

"That doesn't seem so bad.."

"At the Holocron library."

"Ooo, that's bad." I said while looking at Ahsoka. She still looked down and I looked up at Master Skywalker. "Can I talk with Ahsoka for a minute?"

"Sure."

Ahsoka walked away with me, my eyes trailing to her as we did. "You know I'm not mad at you, right?"

"I kind of figured as much." Ahsoka mumbled, her eyes never leaving her feet. "Ahsoka, listen to me. I know you were trying to do the right thing. Believe me, I thought we could hold them off, too. But when Master Skywalker said that the groups of droids coming in from every direction was larger than an army, we had to pull out. Like I said on the gunship, I didn't mean to snap. But if we had stayed, our lives would have been at risk and we would have died. I'm not mad at you for having your heart in the right place, but not pulling our men out at that moment was a bad decision. And ultimately, this is what happens. Trust me, I was just like you."

"You were?"

"Yes. As a slave, we had our options. We could do what the slave masters tell us to do or we're beaten till we die. Of course, me being a child I didn't understand it much. I've had a lot of experience with making bad decisions. Some nearly costed my life.  See this here?" I began while we stopped and I lifted my sleeve, revealing no more than a dozen of lash scars up and down my forearm.

"Oh my Force.." Ahsoka said as she traced my arm along the scars. "Those are the consequences of bad decisions. All of these could have caused me to bleed to death. So, if you think this guard duty thing is bad, think about it if you were a slave."

"I don't think I want to."

"I'm not trying to scare you, Ahsoka. I'm just saying that you have to listen to Master Skywalker even if you think you can hold it. Because if you don't.." I trailed off, giving Ahsoka the hint she needed before she nodded. "Thanks for the talk, Valerie. It feels really good when I talk with you. You don't exactly scold me down like my Master does."

"Well, I'm around your age, so it's almost like I'm talking with you as a sister and he's talking to you like a father." I said as Ahsoka giggled. "Yeah. Well, at least he's better than Master Windu."

"Hey, don't let him hear you say that." I said jokingly as Ahsoka laughed. "Alright, well I can walk with you to the library. But I have to leave after that. I'd promised Master Skywalker I would go with him to the Senate building to see Padmé."

"Okay, thanks. Oh, and is Rex going to be there?" Ahsoka asked with a smirk as I rolled my eyes. "No, he's in the medical bay. Apparently, he sprained his ankle while in battle so he's resting."

"You should go see him. I know you want to.." Ahsoka said while elbowing me in my arm. I smiled before I looked at her. "You know what? I will. I think I can spaee in some time before I leave with Master Skywalker."

"Aww..you want to go see your boyfriend." Ahsoka whispered teasingly as I slapped her arm lightly. "Shut up, Ahsoka!"