‘Two thousand twenty, two thousand twenty-one, two thousand twenty-two, two thousand twenty-three….’ Ahsoka counted each step as they plodded onward, each footfall creating a radiant arc that expanded to the edges of whatever solid materials the walkway within the foreign place was comprised. Her blue ripples converging with those of Nara and Rex ahead of her, diminishing as they collided into the translucent darkness from which they came. Each step yanking the miniscule threads of hope free of the tapestry they collectively created. Each step forward bringing them closer to another dormant doorway, then another, then another…. “I do not understand the laws of this place…” She blurted, an attempt, admittedly, to vent some frustration but also a method to cling to what hope remained.
The verbal disputes long since ceased, they had all agreed that progress for progress’ sake was worth the trek. The lack of options and the frailty of sanity involved with simply staying in one place providing a motivation of sorts that was running its course for all involved. “That would depend on how it came to be I suppose.” Nara spoke up after Ahsoka’s comment had died its last echo.
“Which we also don’t have an answer for.” Rex added, Ahsoka noticing the old clones gait struggling to maintain velocity.
“Zannah had mentioned the Zeffo, she believes they created it at the height of their ascendance.” Nara replied, composing her comment outside of the hopelessness she felt.
“How could any species create something without proper laws of physics. I mean, something created must have parameters right? Otherwise, it is cognizant of itself and therefore alive and capable of free thought.” Rex dispensed with a compilation of the thoughts that had crossed his mind over the last… ‘damn, how long has it been.’ He finished his thought. As he set his view upon the endless star fields to his right, it was only by a sense of highly trained awareness that he realized he was the only one that had continued forward. He stopped abruptly and spun around, facing the women who had both stopped in their tracks and were currently looking at him dumbfounded. “What?”
Neither Ahsoka nor Nara had anything eloquently prepared to say despite them both thinking the same thing. ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’ They thought in unison as the looked at the old clone, Ahsoka through the prism of respect and pride, Nara through adoration and a certain level of underestimation.
“It’s the only thing that makes sense to me…” Rex responded to his own statement as he turned away from the uncomfortable attention.
Both Ahsoka and Nara turned to look to one another, assuring themselves with the mutual gaze that neither had even entertained the idea. With a shoulder shrug Ahsoka turned to Rex, “It does make sense Rex, lets proceed along that path, think through its truth so to speak.” She squinted her eyes in thought, making sure the comment made sense enough to herself.
“In other words, what could that mean.” Nara recovered with a slight head shake, her mind clearly caught up in the verbal trap the Togruta had not intentionally set. Ahsoka thought through Nara’s brief and simple explanation, which had called to point precisely what she had intended. A clarity through the comment that felt akin to sharing the same thought without effort given to the task. She crossed her arms to her chest and placed her weight on her right foot as she cycled her prior memory of the place into crystal clear focus, ‘Ezra had located precisely what he meant to because he clarified the objective in both mind and spirit. I found my way back through the same avenues.’ With a thought in mind, Ahsoka raced to the next stagnant doorway only meters ahead.
Nara looked after Ahsoka’s departing form, wondering what she had missed through the short intercession as the Togruta shot past Rex and slowed at the looming doorway ahead. Rex turned to Nara ready to question what had gotten into her as the Mirialan shrugged her shoulders and motioned to follow. As they approached, they both observed Ahsoka simply staring into blank space, an unmoving starfield blinking far beyond its borders. “What did we miss?” Rex asked first.
“Think of something...anything…” Ahsoka stated, as unmoving as the starfield. “Both of you.” ‘Ezra opened the doorway without my assistance, any of us should be able to do the same.’ She thought to herself, focusing on the one elusive question that evaded her every move, ‘Ezra.’
“I don’t see anything.” Rex was the first to break the silence after a few long moments.
“Nor do I..” Nara followed soon after.
‘Or I,’ Ahsoka thought. “We may need to push beyond simply thinking it then.”
“As in what exactly?” Nara asked skeptically.
“I don’t have all the answers, were going to have to figure this out together.” Ahsoka sounded out, trying her best to conceal her frustration.
Ahsoka harkened back to some of earliest lessons, those taught by Master Yoda himself, Masters Gwo Tu Kwon and Seehi, to see beyond her thoughts, center herself around the consecration of the thought itself, to become the thought outright. She chuckled openly as the memory seemed to transcend time and space, an obtuse clash with irony itself as she stared the answer directly in its face.
“Care to let us in on the joke?” Rex said, his own frustration working its way deeply through his tone.
Ahsoka ignored the comment and drew upon the tenets remembered from so long ago as she wrapped her conscious thought into her subconscious imagination, weaving the intention of Ezra so finely that her muscles began to tense. She could sense the young man, could picture him within her mind as he cast his deep blue eyes in all directions in some desperate search for something Ahsoka could not identify. Ahsoka pushed the thought further as she squeezed her eyes shut with determination, sensing a lost fear within the swiveling form, his hair wild and mangled, the prominent scar upon his cheek ravaged with the redness of infection. The bones beneath either side protruding slightly, but nothing else as he opened his eyes wide to the fear that was encapsulating him. Ahsoka pushed her intent to its breaking point, every muscle from head to toe strained to hold her composure and willing to exert everything they had toward the shared endeavor, only to watch the image within her mind waver. “AAHHHGGG!!!” She screamed a deafening roar as the young man began to fade, the wide eyes spinning in all directions as his mouth moved, repeating the same word it seemed over and over again. Her name.
Ezra faded from her mind, dissipated within her thoughts, leaving her consciously aware of the nothingness she had achieved. She felt a hand on her shoulder as her chest heaved with deep laborious breaths, “Did...either...of you...see...anything….?” Ahsoka managed with some effort, opening her eyes.
“Ahsoka. I don’t know what you were concentrating on, but I thought of Kamino.” Rex said turning Ahsoka’s body toward the doorway.
Ahsoka was lost for words as the darkness that had been the doorway wasn’t. It was alive with color and activity. Even through its austerity, the white washed walls and perfection of every tile upon the floor, the passing figures either Kaminoan or fully armored CT’s marching in practice formations, what she saw was clearly not the unmoving star fields against the field of darkness, “Kamino…” Was all she could muster.
Nara stood beside them as open mouthed as Ahsoka was, immobile for the impossibility of it, but unsurprised given what Ahsoka had managed earlier. Both of them reached out despite the stupor to grab Rex’s shoulders before he could step through the anomaly, Ahsoka realizing it was the same situation the other two had to enact to stop her from making the same mistake.
“Let me go! If we don’t do something they’re all going to die!” Rex shouted, trying to wrestle himself free as both women applied more pressure.
“Rex...you can’t!” Ahsoka shouted into her oldest friends’ ear, exerting more force than she had wanted to but doing what was necessary to keep the man in place. She pinned his shoulder and spun quickly in front of the man, forcing him to look her in the eye. “Rex...look at me. Just look at me…” Ahsoka said in an increasingly calming tone. She could feel the sorrow and pain through the expression on his face. Tears running freely and without reserve down either cheek and his flesh reddening with each passing second. She could see the tumult within the man, the indecision within the eyes about how he should react or feel. She knew because it was his home, what any CT would consider home. She lifted a hand to turn his gaze directly into her own, Rex supplying only minimal restraint to the effort, “Remember Omega’s report Rex. It was complete annihilation from orbital bombardment. You would only be killed too.”
“Not to mention possibly orchestrating a massive paradox that would threaten to shred both space and time...you don’t even know ‘when’ this is.” Nara stated flatly to the admonishing gaze of an exasperated Togruta. “And we don’t have enough information to proceed beyond theory.” She continued anyway.
Rex said nothing as he succumbed to Ahsoka’s reason, ignoring the reality of Nara’s statement completely and fell into her hands with his head on her shoulder. Ahsoka could feel the man tearing himself apart internally, wracking sobs that bobbed his head into her Lek’ku as he let go of the strength he had been holding in reserve in one massive exhale. She felt the grief and heartache, the deep-rooted sorrow and accompanying regrets, the anguish of a thousand deaths and the agonizing grief of thousands more. He dropped all sense of control, of emotional restraint and simply let Ahsoka do what she had been begging him to do for years as he finally let her provide the foundational support he hadn’t had since parting ways with his brothers so long ago.
Even Nara felt the grief within the old man and dropped to her knees to offer her own support, regretting the logical statement after coming to understand the nature of the pain.
Ahsoka maintained a tight wrapped hug around the man for as long as he wanted her to, looking over to Nara with an affirmative head nod, and ode of appreciation for her assistance and understanding, as well as a thank you for the verbal cease fire. “Did you see anything Nara?” She asked too lightly to elicit an echo.
“Only Ani’s face. I don’t know where she is….she’s changed Ahsoka.” Nara replied, her lips turning down slightly.
“What do you mean?” Ahsoka asked, her mind suddenly curious.
“Her eyes...are not hers.” Nara said with a quizzical contortion of her own face.
“But her face is all you saw?”
Nara thought that an odd question, “Yes why?”
“It was the same with Ezra...I could see him, vaguely, but not where he was.” Ahsoka stated, turning back to face the broken man in her arms. She looked at Rex, wondering what he had done similar enough to what she had done earlier to conjure something with such emotional attachment. The memory of the steps leading away from the Jedi Temple was very singular and one of her most memorable, perhaps the same could be said of Kamino for Rex. ‘Is it the nature of the thought then? The thought itself?’ Ahsoka was still baffled.
Nara looked up from Rex’s unmoving form, “Ahsoka look.” She noted with a measured tone of alarm, nodding toward the doorway. Ahsoka swiveled her head so as not to disturb the clones lament to see the darkened doorway once again. No trace of Kamino remained, only the same star fields that had occupied the space earlier. She turned slowly back to face Nara, “I wonder if that means there is only a certain measure of time that we can interact?” The question was genuine enough.
Nara returned her gaze to the clones’ bald head, “or the thought is gone.” She added logically.
“Maybe both.” Ahsoka replied as she laid a gentle hand atop Rex’s head. ‘Can Zannah have truly nothing to add?’ the thought was also genuine enough.
“We need to know what the parameters are, and for that we are going to have to try again, because I feel there are other elements we are missing here.” Ahsoka stated, and with that decided the time wasn’t going to get any better to voice her concerns, “Nara, is there anything Zannah could offer here?”
“We have already progressed further than she was ever capable Ahsoka. She could never find the temple, and as it happens, even if she did there would not have been a way for her to open it.” Nara replied immediately, “what she does remember is star charts and glyphs that took years to decipher, if only in conjecture.”
“Surely there must be something helpful even within those memories.” Rex added, surprising them both. He smiled briefly at Ahsoka’s squeeze on his shoulder.
“She is trying Rex, keeps mumbling collective thought, collective presence.” Nara replied with a worried expression.
“Maybe a thing then and not a place, an object.” Ahsoka stated, both heads swiveling toward her.
Rex groaned quietly, “...uh, kid. I am not sure where that came from… ‘IF’ I am following correctly, Nara correct me if I am wrong, collective thought and presence would refer to a particular place that we’ve all been.”
“Or a combination of all three. A place we’ve all been, centered around an object we all know. Our ‘collective’ thought should give us a great deal of precision.” Ahsoka stated with a hurried tone, her eyes widening in some form of revelation only she could sense. “Rex do you still have Master Windu’s saber?”
Rex turned quickly to the small pack at his side and rummaged through it hurriedly, patting at his sides and pockets after returning empty handed. “All I have is a few meters of paracord, R3’s central core and some ration bars. Ahsoka quickly inventoried her own belt and the limited pockets her wardrobe offered.
“Nara, I don’t suppose….”
“Of course not. It was either lost on Conum Arnia or Ani has it if neither of you do.” Nara responded, cutting off the Togruta with a grunt.
“Well….” Ahsoka thought through her next statement, “I guess we have an opportunity then to prove me wrong.”
“What is it exactly that you propose?” Nara asked before Rex could, her expression almost unreadable.
“That we try to locate it, from the beginning…” Ahsoka trailed off in thought, wondering now if the proposition was even possible, “before Mos even acquired it.”
“That is going to be a massive stretch kid, we don’t know when, or where, it was lost to General Windu to begin with!” Rex pinpointed the obvious flaws in the haphazard chaos of Ahsoka’s verbal meanderings.
“Not exactly Rex. We do know when and precisely where. Nara I am uncertain where you would have been through Order Sixty-Six, but that should be irrelevant. You know Coruscant, specifically, The avenues of Tannat’kor.” Ahsoka conveyed through a carefully adopted expression.
“The Senate Rotunda?” Rex asked perplexed, “you are not suggesting…” he stopped himself as she raised a calming hand.
“Master Yoda had provided us with time and location, the object remained the only question mark Rex, as it was in our possession already. It was an afterthought made whole by the fact that we don’t have it now.” Ahsoka said gently, almost pleadingly to her old friend. “You and I were aboard the Tribunal…”
Rex looked down toward his knees, suddenly very grim and detached, “I won’t ever forget that Ahsoka…”
Ahsoka reached a hand toward his own, “we have made our peace with the past Rex...if anything, this place is its own trap. It feeds on those moments we dare not revisit for fear of making the same mistakes. Every bridge offers a path toward reconciliation but with it the access to do considerably more damage. Please Rex, trust me.”
“This is asinine Ahsoka!” Nara couldn’t help but shout, “your suggesting a time and place that couldn’t be anymore hostile.” She continued, struggling internally to identify whom the hostiles would in fact be.
Ahsoka turned her head slowly toward Nara without changing her expression, lips drawn and eyes wide with consideration, “not quite, I need you to trust me too Nara.” She offered, adding a creased smile in the process. She returned to the doorway before her, darkened and dormant as she closed her eyes and concentrated on the broad expanse she knew so well. “Please focus.”
With severe reservations, both Nara and Rex cast aside the doubts that vied for supremacy in their minds, both seeking a path through turbulent imaginations and beyond the fears of expected doom. Rex knew the Tannat’kor all too well, having served General Skywalker, he had received numerous commendations of his own upon its hallowed steps. Meritorious accolades from his own commanders within the Republic Army, medals of freedom and sacrifice from Republic Judicials as well as honors and laurels in the name of heroism and bravery on behalf of the 501st from several of the Senatorial committees. Tannat’kor was the closest thing to Kamino he could imagine.
Nara could only borrow heavily from Barriss’ memory, but enough so to imagine the location easy enough. Distinguishing relevance of import beyond Ahsoka’s experiment and the path she knew she needed to take toward Aborah provided the only genuine obstacle. ‘This is ludicrous.’ The thought was also genuine.
The darkness beyond the doorway began to swirl at its center, a vertical tidal pool of navy blue and rich violet that began to tear the blackness away like a consuming fire. The star fields beyond snuffed from their view as shapes began to emerge within the confines of the portrait like portal their own thoughts were beginning to create. The brilliance of the purposefully bright Tannat’kor lamps as they gleamed throughout the darkened crevasses and nooks nights darkness was determined to hide. Pristine duracreet, they all knew to be meters thick, providing the bedrock for the kilometers tall monads that spanned beyond eyesight into the upper reaches of the skies above them. As the remainder of the image settled itself into focus, all three of them cracked an eye open in search of familiarity within the scene, each of them in turn succumbing to a numbness of the soul as those goals were met with a fondness they each hadn’t realized they had been denied.
What seemed surreal to each of them as they view the window to the past, was broken only by distant shouts that sounded muffled but horrified just the same. Ahsoka looked up through the image, pinning her head to the artificial ground she had come to rely, an effort to follow the gazes and outstretched fingers of Coruscanti some twenty years ago. A shimmering rain was descending, its droplets catching the magnificence of the brilliant lamps as they tumbled irrevocably downward, a shimmering sea of refracting light, spilling a rainbow of colors amongst the drab and harsh grays of the monolithic structures framing either side. The awe and splendor Ahsoka was witnessing quickly turned to apprehension and terror when she realized the shouts where conveying a sense of dread and horror rather than the amazement she thought them to possess. The droplets grew larger as they neared the ground and finally smashed into the duracreet with shattering finality, sending an explosive shower of sharp glass shards in all directions. Rex quickly yanked at Ahsoka’s neck, pulling her head free of the torrential rain of razor-sharp shrapnel just before large sections defied their own natural origins and clanged with authority right through the portals edge, bouncing several times upon their own walkway before a final shattering splinter reduced its size.
Through the clatter and shouts of ‘cover’ on the other side, they all realized it was only the beginning of whatever danger had decided to rain down upon them from above. Horrifying screams, last second desperate shouts and the finality of gurgled breaths found their way to Ahsoka’s montral despite the ferocity of the smashing glass as it bombed the duracreet without mercy. Several more fragments found their way through the portal, skidding along the illuminated pathway before defying gravity and floating through the space beyond its edges, a sliver finding way to slash at the thick leather of her boot before she pulled herself entirely around the portals edge. As quickly as it had begun, it was over, the numerous cries for help shocking through the immediate silence with horrific reverberation.
Rex was the first to slide from his shielded stance and roll to a knee, viewing the carnage and chaos beyond, tugging quickly at Ahsoka’s elbow for her to follow. Nara circled from the other side of the protective edge and could only stare in stupefied shock. Small rivulets of blood, ranging through the color wheel under the illumination of Tannat’kor’s brilliant beams flowed without reserve toward the avenues center amid the thousands of shards of glass that had rained their lethal destruction.
“Tragic timing?” Nara whispered softly, silently wondering what relation the display could possibly have to an individual lightsaber.
“There!” Ahsoka pointed to a small golden object as it noiselessly clanged ever downward off the Senate Rotunda.
“I don’t see….” Rex began, ready to curse his eyesight before the unusual brilliance of the lights found the item for him, “Ahh.”
Nara only shook her head from the lunacy of the endeavor, the wailing tragedy of death and those close to it consuming the bulk of her attention. “What about them Ahsoka? We can’t just leave them…”
Ahsoka quickly stabbed a glance toward the fallen Coruscanti who had done nothing, in her estimation, to deserve such torturous deaths. “I don’t know that we should Nara...I didn’t expect this…”
“It happened whether you expected it to or not Ahsoka, we have a responsibility to help if we can...don’t we?” Nara was torn between righteousness, common sense, and her inclination to find her ultimate destination.
Ahsoka came to her knees as the tragedy before them all began to truly plant its roots within her psyche. She pounded at the artificiality of the ground around her, a helpless passenger to the sanctity of her own emotion as she gritted her teeth in complete frustration, watching absently as the forceful articulation of her inner turmoil carried itself out through concentric rings of blue before dissipating fully. “I don’t know that we should Nara, we are not of this time.” Ahsoka finally blurted, accepting the risks that hadn’t even been conceived before attempting to test the parameters of a place they barely knew.
The golden glimmer caught her eye a final time before she decided to interact with the portal with their initial intent, reaching a hand before her and halting the downward trajectory of the sabers hilt before focusing her intent solely upon its extraction. Centimeters from its final doom, it shot from its position horizontally, through the portals surface and into her hand with blinding speed. Ahsoka didn’t even have time to inspect the minor victory before the anguished cries and pleas for help transformed into gasps of shock and startling nervous interludes. She looked at those Coruscanti who had aided the fallen, witnessing every head angled skyward, fingers pointed toward the source of their sudden stupefaction.
“By the Light….” Rex angled his own gaze as upward as possible from his vantage upon his knees, “someone is falling!”
Ahsoka gripped the saber tight in her hand, knowing full well who it was then quickly revisited the conversation with Nara, “we have to help him, Nara I’ll need your assistance.” She said calmly.
“What happened to….” Nara began almost beside herself.
“I know, I know…” Ahsoka cut her off, gritting her teeth again as frustration began tearing at her senses. “I have to try Nara, we need the truth.”
“And they don’t?” Nara asked quickly, displaying a hand forward toward the rivulets of blood.
“I hate this place…” Rex offered indiscriminately, simply voicing his own frustrations.
Ahsoka couldn’t argue the point, the intent supporting her decision only made sense through a fluid understanding of everything since Malachor and there was only one person in the galaxy that understood that truth beyond herself. The dilemma before her now was incriminating and damning but there was no way to polish what was already tarnished beyond repair, “Rex, hand me the cord.”
Rex swiveled to stare into her eyes, the same convincing expression beyond bearing, “Ahsoka…”
“Rex, hand me the cord...please.” Ahsoka said with more determination, a stern resolve expressed through her returning gaze that Rex couldn’t deny as he lowered his shoulders in preemptive defeat before grabbing the cord and handing it to her.
Ahsoka quickly lassoed the cord loose from its tight wrap, finding an end quickly to tie about her waist. “I don’t know that I’ll be able to find my way back.” She said handing the other free end to the old clone. With a muted look of dejection he took it from her and firmed his grip as he wrapped the end several times around his clenched fist.
Ahsoka finalized the loose knot at her waist, gave Rex a quick nod, blew out a hesitant breath and stepped through the portal, her eyes already skyward as she raised her hands.
Ahsoka kicked at the loose shards of glass to clear solid footing for herself as she focused entirely on the falling body. She could feel a tense and floundering sensation as the Force energies she was trying to accumulate hesitated completely, remaining well outside her grasp to utilize. She could only grunt through the effort to draw upon them, a nervous welling of failure creeped its way throughout her as she stood there helpless to buffet the impending impact that would absolutely destroy the man. The greatest sum of her fears realized, the Force simply would not respond. A sensation she had never known before gripped her soul despite its origins within the realms of fear. Helplessness. A zero sum resolve as doom found its way unhindered into the core of who she was.
With tears streaming down her face, she could only will the body to slow its speed, noting the owner of it was very much alive through the trading of legs and, ‘a handless arm?’ Despite the sense of conclusion, she continued her pursuit of the energies that could save, bearing down through her own doubts as she seethed the determination that would not be denied. The body began to slow in its tumult, the legs and arms slowing their desperate clutch for something solid as it came to a stop three meters above the field of blood, bodies, and broken glass. Ahsoka walked forward over the crunching dusts under her boots, slipping in the small rivers of blood as she focused intently upon the body hovering in a slow circle twenty meters distant. ‘I didn’t do that…’ she thought to herself, noting the dangers her exposure could elicit only to find a robed figure extracting itself from one of the very few shadows the avenue contained. The robes were thick, tan, and clean by all standards, the sleeves of which were raised somewhat to the brown skinned hands protruding from them. The figure continued toward the hovering body as it began to sink slowly again, coming to rest upon his or her shoulder with the grace and ease of a slumbering infant.
Ahsoka could only observe as the cord about her waist tightened, pulling her backward. “No..I need to know!” She shouted, tugging back on the cord, the echo of her voiced anxiety reaching the ears of the robed individual as it stopped just prior to disappearing back into the shadows, the subtle movements about its shoulder carrying the information Ahsoka had been so adamant to learn, ‘he’s alive!’ The individual stopped abruptly a step before the shadow consumed it and turned its head toward her. Despite the hovering cowl pulled low over the individuals’ eyes, the bright lights of Tannat’kor caught the yellow tattoos directly beneath them, a white toothy grim spreading from cheek to cheek just before Quinlan Vos took the final steps into shadows embrace, Mace Windu with him. Ahsoka had no time to process the revelation as the cord yanked tight about her waist, pulling her backward and through the portal entirely.