In the End {1}

xxiv: Explosive Escape

Ahsoka's footsteps echoed through the room, bouncing off of the steel walls and high ceiling. Nyx stood in the middle of the platform in front of her, and Dooku stood on a platform on the other side of the room.

There was a catwalk in front of her leading to a large circular platform in the center of the room. The platform was suspended above a pool of lava. To her left was a large window looking over the rocky landscape below.

"Ahsoka Tano," Dooku hissed. "What a pleasure."

"Quiet," Nyx sneered at Dooku. He then directed his attention to Ahsoka. "I had a feeling you might show up here. Just can't get enough of me?"

She took a few steps closer out on to the catwalk and called her lightsabers to her hands. The green blades shot out of the hilts, their familiar hum calming her nerves.

"My friends. Where are they?"

Nyx laughed. "Your friends are dead, Lady Tano, as you shall be soon."

Ahsoka and Nyx began to circle each other on the center platform, their eyes locked in an icy stare.

"Not if I have anything to say about it," she spat back. "Why tear my life apart?"

"Easy," he said. "Because you let me. You were so desperate to bury your past that you didn't think about the present, which gave me countless opportunities to complete my mission."

"And what is your mission?" She was surprised at how much he was revealing to her. The longer he talked, the more time she had to figure out a way to fight Nyx and Dooku without dying in the process.

"Lord Sidious has a vision for the future: an army of force users in every corner of the galaxy, destroying any remnants of the Jedi left behind when the new order rises."

"His vision is flawed," Ahsoka said, assuming a ready position with her lightsabers.

"It's a shame you think that," Nyx said, reaching under his black cloak to reveal a gray lightsaber hilt that Ahsoka recognized almost immediately from the assassin she'd fought in the warehouse on level 1315. The blade was blood red. "You could've been commanding them at my side."

Nyx leapt forward, swinging his lightsaber in a graceful arc over her head. She blocked it easily, countering with a series of strikes she'd learned from Anakin. Since the platform they were standing on was relatively small, she limited her use of tricks and flips. One misstep and she'd be falling to her death. Nyx seemed to have the same idea. He kept his feet firmly rooted in the ground, swinging in powerful, wide strokes.

As they fought, Ahsoka fell into a familiar rhythm. Obi-Wan had always described duels as a sort of dance. There was a certain elegance to the art of lightsaber duels that Master Kenobi had always found interesting, and in this particular moment, Ahsoka understood why. Once she was able to identify some patterns in his fighting style, she was able to predict his moves, blocking them with precision and intention.

As the duel continued, they both began to tire. Ahsoka wasn't as in shape as she used to be, and her body was at its breaking point. As her blocks and strikes weakened, Nyx gained momentum and knocked her shoto from her grip. After a few more blocks and parries, her lightsaber was sent clattering across the floor.

Nyx brought his lightsaber to her shoulder, the blade humming dangerously close to her lekku.

"And now, Ahsoka Zora Tano, you die alone."

Ahsoka closed her eyes, letting the force course through her one last time. Suddenly, she felt a rush of energy as several familiar presences overwhelmed her.

"She's not alone."

She whipped her head around, careful of Nyx's blade. Behind her stood Anakin, Lux, Padme, Maggie, Ventress, Barriss, Jaryn, and a few other faces she was unfamiliar with. Anakin, Ventress, and Barriss stepped forward, lightsabers at the ready.

Ahsoka called her own sabers to her hands and smiled as the final battle began.

The room erupted in chaos. Anakin and Ventress went after Dooku while Ahsoka and Barriss squared off against Nyx. It was odd to be fighting at her side, after everything she'd done to Ahsoka, but she needed all the help she could get.

Nyx was a formidable opponent, but he was no match for Ahsoka and Barriss together. Before long, he was on his knees in front of them, his lightsaber in Barriss's left hand.

He glanced over at Dooku, Ventress, and Anakin. Dooku was struggling to hold his own, and it would only be a matter of time before he was bested, too.

"Surrender, Nyx. You are beaten," Ahsoka said, her words biting.

With a smirk on his face, Nyx pushed a button on what Ahsoka had thought was his communicator. The button set off an explosion collapsing the catwalk where Dooku, Anakin, and Ventress were fighting. The explosion caught them by surprise, not giving them enough time to react as the platform fell out from under them.

It took Ahsoka less than a second to weigh her options. She could let her master fall to his death and capture Nyx or let Nyx go and save her master. She'd already lost Anakin once; she wasn't strong enough to lose him again.

She leapt over Nyx, flipping gracefully in the air and landing close to the edge of the platform. She used the force to catch Anakin just seconds before he would've hit the lava below. Barriss followed suit, catching Ventress. Dooku, however, didn't have anyone to come to his rescue.

Ahsoka and Barriss used the force to lift Anakin and Barriss back on to the platform while Padme, Lux, and Jaryn fired their blasters at Nyx as he escaped.

The explosion must've set off a chain reaction because the ground beneath them began to shake.

"Everyone, back to the ship!" Ahsoka yelled as chunks of the ceiling fell around them.

They didn't need to be told twice. Padme led the group down a series of hallways, careful to avoid the areas of the structure that had already succumbed to the lava. Ahsoka was out of breath by the time they reached the landing platform. Using the last bit of energy she had left, she sprinted up the ramp and to the copilot's seat. Anakin slid into the pilot's chair, and after a series of quick maneuvers, they were clear of the atmosphere and made the jump to lightspeed.

A/N: They're alive! You're welcome. How, though? We'll get to that in the next chapter.

Only two more chapters to go before the book is complete! I'm not as far along on the sequel as I'd like to be (it will be called In the Shadows, by the way. Dummo if I said that already) because I may or may not have started a separate book... oopsies. I had an idea and ran with it, and the writing juice is working out a whole lot better for that novel than the sequel at the current moment.

The next update for this will probably be on Friday or Saturday! Until then, may the force be with you!