“You know damn well what was done Ahsoka, I have been nothing but truthful since Ambria.” Nara shouted in defiance, peels of anger rustling within her veins, anger she needed to willingly control.
“Ahsoka, she’s given us no reason to doubt her.” Rex added quickly, resting a calming hand on the trembling Togruta’s shoulder. “What has changed to drive you to question her honor?”
Amid the blinding fury that prevented her from a sensible, reasonable, or common-sense approach, was a notion of doubt Ahsoka didn’t want to postulate. Like a looming cloud that presented a stark contradiction to the torrential upheaval of emotion with which she was contending, it hovered in between layers of fractured avenues of anger and fury that seemed to be the only paths available. She knew what the cloud, that vacuum of contradiction, entailed and was loathe to divest any energy into contemplating her own role in their predicament.
Ahsoka blew out a tremendous breath as she unglued her focus from the Mirialan, letting the anger run its course without another word leaving her lips, and focused on her own hands as she rolled back over to rest on her bottom. “I am sorry Nara.” She said quietly, finding the words still carrying through the air around them despite the hushed tone, an echo that presented a suitable comparison to the hollowness and emptiness within, “this is just as much my fault…” she trailed off in both speech and thought as she raised her head and looked around briefly, blowing out another exasperated breath in the process.
“I don’t follow.” Rex intervened, his own questions lying in wait regarding their present predicament as he narrowed his eyes, following Ahsoka’s gaze.
“Nothing was as it seemed, and nothing seems as it is.” Ahsoka replied, raising her hands to her mouth as she folded them together, staring beyond Nara and down a narrow path only defined by a faint, source less, blue aura.
Rex only stared at her, his expression unchanging, certain there had to be more she was either unwilling to add or afraid to. Ahsoka remained a fixture as her own echo faded into an unnatural thrum that vibrated through their chests, one that also emanated from a source unseen.
“Nara, what do you know of Cognus?” Ahsoka surprised the Mirialan with the question, still calming her own anger.
“Not much. Why?” Nara responded, the anger gone from her facial expression as she knelt at Ahsoka’s side.
“I saw her.” Ahsoka began, damning herself internally for sharing so freely but realizing they all needed to reestablish a certain level of trust in order to proceed. “And T’zar.” She continued with some hesitation, an internal war raging over the importance of the vision.
“Why would they be connected?” Nara asked in return, Rex letting his body relax as he seated himself, crossing his legs, in preparation for another conversation he wouldn’t understand.
“I don’t know, yet….something doesn’t make sense.” Ahsoka started as she narrowed her eyes, focusing again on the illuminated path then quickly behind her in the opposing direction, “because they shouldn’t be connected at all.” She added, eyeing a metallic dome directly behind Rex. “What is that?” She asked pointing over his shoulder.
Rex turned around, his nerves sparking furiously as his muscles tensed for battle. Nara straightened her back somewhat to see what Ahsoka was pointing toward. “I’d know that paint job anywhere….It’s R3...well, what’s left of him anyway.” Rex informed them both as he swung out an arm to arrest the fallen droid’s northern hemisphere, grunting with the effort to yield the head closer. “He was on the ship wasn’t he?” Rex asked quickly through his attempts to remember.
“He was….” Nara responded after a few somber moments passed between the three, her head falling into her chest as her shoulders sagged under an unseen weight.
“Oh no...Nara...I am so sorry.” Ahsoka understood, remembering that Mushi was on board the ship as well. She reached out a comforting hand and gripped the Mirialans shoulder briefly.
“I don’t mean to kill the mood, but I don’t remember anything happening to the Liberator, only being tossed into you Ahsoka and winding up here.” Rex responded, stretching a hand down his neck to inspect for phantom injuries.
“Ahsoka, where were you headed with that question?” Nara intervened, audibly forcing the conversation back on track, yet every facet of her expression seemed to sink further into despair.
Ahsoka studied the Mirialan quickly, noting the changes and somber expression, “I don’t think we freed what we thought we did on Ambria.” The admission felt good to release despite its ludicrous nature and timing.
“We didn’t free anything Ahsoka. Abeloth is contained safely in the matrix.” Nara retorted, her eyes pulling tight in a defensive swing.
“I am not so sure Nara.” Ahsoka said, beetling her eyes as she narrowed them again, pushing her thoughts beyond the conceivable, “everything about Ambria felt contrived, orchestrated.”
Rex grumbled quickly, “that’s a stretch. If it was orchestrated, there were certainly a lot of lives lost in pursuit of nothing...you heard Quinlan.”
Ahsoka glared at the old clone without hesitation, “remind you of anything?”
Rex grimaced, his cheeks puffing out slightly as he quickly inhaled the chuckle he had prepared.
“No one was willing to accept that the Clone Wars were fabricated because nobody in the galaxy could contrive something so sinister Rex, all except Palpatine. To the tune of billions of lives.” Ahsoka did her best to contain the roiling fury the memories generated without thought given to them. “What would stop the man from sacrificing another ten thousand?”
Nara lifted her head briefly as she began connecting the dots Ahsoka was laying before them, “it explains why I was there I suppose, but Zannah, Ahsoka, Zannah was real.”
“I would suggest we move forward under the assumption that nothing was Nara.”
“Ahsoka….” Rex began as Ahsoka raised a hand in thought.
“Just hear me out.” She said, pushing herself to her feet. “I am not suggesting that the battle wasn’t, I am referring to purpose.”
“Ambria was delivered to me as sanctuary Ahsoka. It presented itself as wild and free but hospitable and full of life. I saw through that, dropped the veil. I did that Ahsoka.” Nara, too, rose to her feet, the edginess within her voice returning to define the unresolved anger still simmering below her surface.
“Then perhaps there are two forces at work, forces that are either in concert or are working to subvert the other.” Ahsoka quickly added with a placating hand toward the startled and visibly upset Mirialan. “The only reason we were there at all was upon the directive of one we thought ally, however multiple purposes seemed to have been served by that action alone.” She dropped her gaze from Nara’s while crossing her arms before her chest.
“What do you mean?” Nara asked, her defensiveness draining as she allowed herself to, at the very least, entertain what was possible.
“All of us…” Ahsoka began, turning toward Rex before swinging her gaze back to Nara, “the four of us, touched a bond we hadn’t even known existed Nara.” She felt the words carrying themselves from her as her thoughts made them manifest, “sisters, allies...brothers.” She added with a hand toward Rex, “we were all connected at one point, and although he didn’t mention it, I think Master Vos felt it.”
“I did feel...something…” Rex added, his tone turning dour, melancholy, as he spoke.
“What Rex, everything is important.” Ahsoka prodded the man to continue.
“Only...only that I haven’t felt that since fighting beside you and General Skywalker ages ago.” He labored to admit, nostalgia bringing with it memories he dare never forget.
“I can admit that there was something tethering a shared purpose, but I can also explain that same connection through sorceries, meditations if you will.” Nara raised a hand, palm downward as she spoke, “it...was...the only thing Sidious freely shared.” She continued, turning her gaze downward toward her feet as her voice died through the admission.
“And therein lies the thesis to my statements Nara, we need to be asking ourselves why.” Ahsoka said quickly, “too many elements have led us...here.” She finished, her own voice falling away as she dropped her arms to her sides and swiveled between the two.
“Speaking of that, where are we?” Rex intervened, prepared to usher in more practical dialogue for the time being.
Ahsoka did not respond, and Nara simply looked around, neither ready to admit that they really had no idea.
“I have been here before, briefly...at least I think so. It looks the same.” Ahsoka said quietly, her voice simply mirroring her thoughts as she continued craning her neck, “….Ezra.”
Rex quickly turned his own gaze from the meandering path toward Ahsoka, “here?”
“Not specifically, but in this place, yes.” She responded.
“Zannah never mentioned this, only that the gateways to it needed to be destroyed.” Nara added, her own gaze settling upon an octagonal outline of the same blue aura standing erect in seemingly perfect perpendicularity to the extended pathway leading to it some meters distant. “I don’t understand either Rex.”
Ahsoka was silent a moment as she slowly walked toward the same feature Nara was focused on, her footfalls unsteady initially as she tested the substance under her feet for its stability. “It is a place, a world, where physical laws as we know them do not exist.” She said through a hushed tone, again speaking her thoughts involuntarily, “a place where the imagined can in fact become reality.” Ahsoka continued, focusing her gaze on a network of intricate geometrical patterns inlaid upon the framework of the octagonal structure. “It is a world that bridges worlds.” She said as if in trance, her mind connecting the geometry within the frame to a time and place from her past, but stopped short of excluding the others, “A world between them all.” Ahsoka spoke as she raised a hand slowly to the blackness within the frame, its edges flaring several spokes of a deep blue light toward its center. Through blinking eyes, Ahsoka quickly snatched her hand back to her side. The flaring blue light that had begun to pulse with its form of life quickly reverted back to a thin stasis that only defined the rudimentary outline against the endless black backdrop.
“What was that?” Rex said quickly, as he and Nara had slowly followed behind Ahsoka.
“Activation...I think.” Ahsoka responded.
Nara stepped up directly beside the Togruta, “reach out again Ahsoka, we need to be sure.”
Ahsoka, startled by the directive, couldn’t appropriately frame a rebuttal but remembered enough of her time here with Ezra to understand the inherent dangers it could present, “as long as we agree that we will not reach through, despite what we see.” She said turning to each as they nodded acquiescence. She drew in a deep breath and slowly raised her hand again. The thin blue outlines began to flare wider in concert with her intent, a purposeful discharge of pulsing light that remained eerily silent as streaks of the same shot forth in a circular arc toward the octagon’s center. The blackness beyond was quickly swallowed by an intense flash of white of blue light as the whole of the frame itself was consumed. Each of them shielded their eyes with a raised arm respectively, slowly dropping them as the light’s intensity began to wane to present a wavering sheet of white and blue, reminding them all of sun touched ocean waters within the four-meter high, four meter wide octagon.
A golden sphere hovered in the center of the waving colors, pulsing with the same authority the framework had only moments before. In the blink of an eye, the sphere flared with a monumental discharge, consuming the whites and blues instantly. As the three rubbed sight back into their eyes, they looked upon a view they were all familiar with. The Grand Steps to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, the Temple itself gleaming with the setting rays of the day’s sun.
“What the….” Rex uttered, the phrase imparting nothing save the sentiment shared by all.
Ahsoka scoured the image for details, looking for some hint or clue that could relate to the timeliness within. She felt a sudden wave of nostalgia as she looked upon the scene, vivid reminders in every corner and recess within of the life she had given up and a place she had never returned.
Nara felt the urge to turn her gaze away, an involuntary action that brought with it waves of grief and sorrow. Although impractical, the memories she retained through Barriss’ perspective had a much larger impact on her than she would admit, even to herself. A guilt that had been plaguing her subconscious for ages worked its way through her very soul as it seeped its malevolence directly into her emotions. Her heart grew heavy as it slammed in her chest, her shoulders pressed downward as if to push her to her feet in a groveling fashion, and her mind felt the assault of the misery and pain some facet of her past had caused. Nara dropped to a knee on the translucent ground, tightly gripping Ahsoka’s hand in the process.
Rex could only stare at the marblesque steps, the rotund columns that stretched half a kilometer into the sky at the apex of their landing. A domain of reverence, his Consulate of Generals, he felt a sudden urge to salute but his arms remained steadfast at his side as his own thoughts tore free of the oaths he had taken and dived directly into the rumors of his own legion assassinating everyone within. He could feel a single tear work its way free from his right eye as he let it fall in concert with raising his hand to Ahsoka’s shoulder.
All three of them focused on the image through different perspectives but felt secure in their personal knowledge that what was being witnessed had nothing to do with the present. The sun was too bright, the stonework too clean. The Jedi crest stood boldly, carved into the upper reaches of the massive columns, each flanked by a pair of Temple guards. No. This was not the present they were viewing, and they each knew that to be fact. What then was the significance of its presentation? They each asked the same question of themselves as a slim dark silhouette began to descend the upper reaches of the Temple landing, another quickly behind.
Ahsoka gasped as her mind let go of the grueling reason she had employed, fracturing itself from her assignment to deliver the true gravity and importance that was transpiring before her own eyes. “No…” She mumbled as the small silhouette withdrew from the shadows of the massive columns and into the light of the setting sun, knowing instantly to whom the second figure belonged. “I’ve made my decision….”
Both Rex and Nara glanced at each other briefly, conveying to one another that their own sentiments were shared. Rex gave Ahsoka’s shoulder an intentional squeeze that he held as Nara tightened her grip on Ahsoka’s hand.
Ahsoka heard the whispers before any words were uttered between herself and her former master, the whispers that contained the cold effective brutality of the shared echoes of Malachor. She could feel the words, the statements of epitaph that could never be changed that were as real and as tangible as the sabers at her waist. She could feel the ruthless truth behind them as those echoes once again rang true, Anakin’s words ricocheting through her mind before his lips even moved in the image.
“Ahsoka!” He had shouted, yet she does not heed them. Hear them? Yes.
“Ahsoka wait!” He tried again and despite her better judgement she stops and slowly turns around.
Ahsoka fought every urge to reach her hand through the image, despite the warnings agreed upon by all three of them. She understood the significance of the firmly planted hand and tight shoulder squeeze at her sides, two anchors of resolve providing her the harbor her soul needed most. What would she change anyway? The question presented itself through multiple iterations, all of them coming to the same conclusion. Nothing. The image presented nothing to her beyond recollection, or an opportunity for those at her side to truly understand her decisions of the past, but that was equally served by her own admissions which were readily given.
“We are in an extremely dangerous situation Ahsoka. This presents us the ability to change the past.” Nara was the first to break the silence from their perspective. Rex couldn’t agree more as he fought the urge to unholster a blaster and plant a bolt in his former General’s chest. “Perhaps you would not choose differently, but I do not believe that is the point in this moment.”
Ahsoka only stood her ground, unwilling to let the events impede upon her convictions, yet understood what Nara was implying, “we will never be able to divine the consequences of interference with the past Nara. If I would have chosen to stay, there is no way of knowing if anything would have changed.” Ahsoka admitted aloud for everyone’s benefit. “If Barriss would have chosen differently, what would that mean for you?”
“Only that my memories would change.” Nara responded.
“She means, what if Skywalker were eliminated from the equation before his atrocities could even take place Ahsoka.” Rex offered, pointedly driving home what he thought should have been obvious.
Ahsoka pondered the offering, delving into the furthest reaches of her subconscious as active branches began to form, scenarios that fell into numerous categories of superlative conjecture. She felt the need to follow one meandering branch of thought in extensions beyond Skywalkers removal, one in which she could mimic Ezra’s actions through an act of salvation. “What if he is removed from that reality?” She voiced her thoughts as the branch continued meandering without conclusion.
Rex had a sudden thought as the question resounded, his gaze averted from the scenario taking place and focusing on the geometry surrounding its frame. What seemed a jumble of shapes and lines initially began to make sense to him as he stared at them with more vigor, collections of small diamonds stretching through a band, protruding triangular points resting atop, and the entirety framed in sharp lines resembling Ahsoka’s facial pigmentation. “Step back.” He said quietly, the caution within his tone noted by both.
“What is it Rex?” Ahsoka asked softly, turning slightly to her left, her eyes however remaining on the smaller version of herself on the Temple stairs.
“Just a hunch.” Rex returned as he felt her body begin to acquiesce under his hand, and turning to see Nara back peddling slowly herself.
The image dispersed within the octagonal frame, returning the view beyond to the inky blackness.
“Thank you.” Rex said through a labored breath. “Look around the frame you two.” He said quietly, waiting patiently for them to catch what he had. “Please tell me how that is possible.”
“It was meant for all of us?” Nara asked, her focus entirely on the narrow band of diamonds.
“There is nothing that would have changed through any interaction with that vision.” Ahsoka said bluntly, “Rex, good catch.”
“Your comment earlier keeps nagging at me kid, two forces at work….orchestrations and contrivance.” Rex commented, his face contorted into thought, he stretched a hand before him, “This was nothing more than a distraction.”
“By whom then...and for what reason?” Nara declared, a puzzling look of complete bafflement spreading through her facial features.
“That is the question, isn’t it.” Ahsoka said, staring through the blackness the octagonal doorway had become.
“We can discuss that while we move. I respectfully suggest we get away from this particular opening...door...whatever it is.” Rex spoke up as he retreated his steps toward the destroyed astromechs severed dome. Upon reaching the charred metallic sphere he flipped it over and began searching for the upper most compartment now buried under charred wire, cable, and carbon fibers, blowing on various components randomly to remove sand from their surfaces. He reached for the repurposed thresher blade and scored the metal surrounding a small cylindrical tube several times before gripping it fully and snapping it from its bracket.
“What are you doing Rex?” Ahsoka spoke up.
“The poor guy will still serve a purpose if there is anything we may need stored in his memory core.” Rex responded, pocketing the cylinder as he stood carefully back up, teetering his balance slightly as he tried to focus on the translucence of the path under his feet, ‘I hate this place.’ He thought to himself as he re-sheathed the blade and walked back over to the pair of women, keeping them carefully in focus.
“Can’t say I argue with that logic.” Nara agreed, shrugging her shoulders slightly as she turned to Ahsoka.
“So where to?” Ahsoka asked, looking along the path in either direction as her brows narrowed. “How did we get here? There should be another doorway, a portal I suppose we should call it, back to Conum Arnia.”
“I think we were successful in our efforts after all, at least as far as Zannah was concerned, as I am pretty sure that it was destroyed.” Nara responded quickly.
Ahsoka felt the urgency within the reply but more importantly, the nonchalance and wholehearted acceptance of fact. Even Ahsoka felt some degree of trepidation concerning the inability to return from where they had come and found it curious without questioning that Nara did not appear to be at all. She could tell it was at the top of Rex’s thoughts through his mannerisms and actions, but Nara displayed an almost carefree demeanor that Ahsoka found distracting and out of place.
“Then our direction doesn’t matter. Nara choose one.” Ahsoka said letting her mind direct itself under the confines of her own intuition.
Ahsoka felt the rhythm of the Force around her, discouraged on the surface with the unintentional return to this place with no name. Internally, however, she felt a peace as the tides of the Force lapped at her feet with every step forward. A warmth, comforting and inviting, passed through her muscles and bones with every breath she took. The feelings themselves were out of place, ill-timed and wholly inconvenient given the potential gravity of their presence alone but she could not deny the comfort it brought her as they proceeded into the unknown. Thousands of thoughts seemed to stream right into, and out of, her mind, Ahsoka’s subconscious trying to draw from each the smallest fragments of interconnection and similarity. She wanted to know specifically why her instincts directed her to question the Mirialan in her company, despite her raging efforts to trust Nara’s motives. She was beginning to hear those doubts ringing with the soft whispers of coinciding guidance delivered by none other than a deceased Sith Lord, knowing Cognus truly had nothing to lose. Through the previous conversations specific to the dangers of underestimation, she was already certain Sidious was responsible for a share of their current situation, and through that admission, was already preparing for it. She could not, however, prepare for the unknown, and, admittedly, this particular place presented nothing but.
‘What else is there?’ Ahsoka questioned herself as she focused her mind down different avenues, ‘Abeloth?’ The name meant nothing whatsoever to her, ‘should it?’ she immediately asked herself. “No.” She answered aloud.
“Pardon?” Rex asked with a quizzical look.
“Nothing, nothing...just deep in thought.” Ahsoka responded, flushing through a tinge of embarrassment, ‘contain the thoughts Ahsoka,’ she told herself as she proceeded through the initial thought. ‘No, it shouldn’t mean anything at all. Cognus? Yes.’ She internalized as she drew the link then to Zannah’s possible involvement through association and, again, Nara’s insight. ‘And it comes back to trusting Nara.’ She could feel an exasperation drive through her core as all the thoughts streaming through her mind led, irrevocably, to that exact point. “Nara?” She asked.
“Yes?”
“What did Zannah tell you?” Ahsoka asked, managing her own doubts to perfection.
“That the Temples need to be destroyed.” Nara responded outright, Rex nodding in agreement.
“That’s what she told all of us Ahsoka.” He said, bolstering his own support for the statement.
“You heard Zannah?” Ahsoka turned to Rex in wild surprise.
“No, Nara told us on the shuttle.”
“She also mentioned Abeloth, Dash’a and a need to keep the Emperor far removed from her own actions.”
Nara stopped in her tracks and turned to face Ahsoka, “out with it Ahsoka. I will not continue this charade any further until we bridge some measure of trust. If your issues are with Barriss then take them up with her. If they are with some misplaced trust you put in your Zeltran friend than you are the only one to blame. I will not allow unspoken tension to tear apart what we are trying to accomplish here!”
“That is precisely my point Nara, what are we trying to accomplish?” Ahsoka fired back.
Nara’s eyes widened perceptibly as her mouth fell open, “I want to get out of here and find my sister. What are you trying to accomplish?”
Ahsoka felt an immediate rush of embarrassment and humiliation, knowing in the moment that far too much time had transpired to answer the question suitably. She knew she should have felt a compelling urge to agree with Nara’s statement without question but was dumbfounded in the moment as an irrational anger tore through her. An anger that should have been circumvented outright through empathic means and her granted ability to perceive a subject from multiple angles. She had not once taken a moment to consider Kowani’s whereabouts, a fact that stunned her to her core. Ahsoka spread a hand across her forehead as the jumbled nature of myriad thoughts came to abrupt and stagnated halt. ‘What the hell is happening to me?’ She forced herself to override the mental freeze enough to ask herself.
“Wait a minute…” Nara said, her eyes having never left Ahsoka’s, “you were ready to kill Skywalker, weren’t you?”
Nobody was prepared for the question, Nara herself expressed shock as the words echoed around them and Rex reflexively turned to Ahsoka, despondent but wanting the answer anyway.
Ahsoka wanted to placate the overriding sentiment knowing both of them had done their part to hold her back, and in the moment she had only acquiesced because it was the right thing to do. Had they not been there at all? Had she been solely cognizant of her action without the steady or guiding hand of reason and common sense there would have only been one course of action. “Yes.”