FEATURED in the "May the 4th Be With You!" Contest

Posted 5/3/19

Note: Thank you to anyone who's reading this. If you're reading this after the conclusion to The Clone Wars (2008) comes out, this short contradicts that season, as I have drawn upon the canon found in Star Wars: Labyrinth of Evil. This is speculation I had about it if Ahsoka had been in the book. I hope you enjoy the parts where I deviated from canon.

I'm not coming back.

Ahsoka clenched her slender hands around the bars of her speeder, gliding gracefully over the surface of Coruscant amidst the traffic of other atmospheric vehicles, and raised her head to the gray expanse of the sky.

Six months had passed since she'd spoken those words. Though she was still only seventeen years old, she had aged a lifetime since leaving the Order. Life had been unforgiving as she'd had to make the sudden horrible switch from a life of complete routine and order to a life of no order at all, living in the underworld. She hadn't been to the Coruscant surface in so long; the glittery skyscrapers winked at her as if she was an old friend.

She parked her vehicle at the very top of the Naboo embassy. Why she was returning to this sweet place, she didn't know. Padmé had undoubtedly heard about her decision to leave the Order and wasn't expecting her.

I'm not coming back.

One of the senator's handmaidens gathered her skirts and gasped. "My lady!" she exclaimed, turning back into the apartment.

Ahsoka shifted on her feet, awaiting Padmé. Anakin, she'd been told, was off with Obi-Wan on a top-secret mission from the Jedi Council. Soon the purpose would be public, as in recent years; the Separatists had grown even more aggressive in recent times in discovering hidden information from the Republic.

Padmé exited her bedroom, dressed in a simple black gown, her warm brown curls spilling down her back in thick waves. She rushed speechless to Ahsoka, wrapping her in a tight hug. Ahsoka returned it tightly, breathing her beautiful perfumes, drinking in her warm aura through the Force....

And the auras of two lives growing within her.

Shocked, she pulled away. Padmé regarded her with a teary smile, trembling slightly. "What are you doing here, Ahsoka?"

Believe me, Anakin had said. More than you realize, I understand wanting to walk away from the Order.

"I came to say hello," she said, stuffing her hands in the pockets of the simple jumpsuit she wore. "The war....it's...."

Padmé hushed her, stroking her montrails gently. "It'll be over soon, Ahsoka."

Ahsoka met her eyes. "Over?"

She nodded. "Anakin told me he's on a very important mission. Dooku isn't the mastermind behind this war. There is someone higher than him in command."

She frowned. "Who do they think it is?"

"I don't know anything else. But other sources seem to point to the mastermind being....here on Coruscant. In this very city."

Ahsoka had heard often enough about the Battle of Geonosis. Dooku's words about a Sith Lord being in command of the Senate stirred suspicion. Dooku left the Republic so long ago. How would he know?

Though, as she'd been reminded recently, the Separatists had been partially right about the Republic. The bitter memory of everyone on the Council abandoning her when she'd been accused of murder wove its way to the front of her mind. They had some right to be hard toward the Republic, as did she.

She opened her mouth to respond to Padmé, but before she could, an alert blazed through the room's warning speakers. "Coruscant is under attack! The planet has been blockaded! All civilians, report to the lower levels!"

Ahsoka turned to look out over the vast expanse of Coruscant. "That's impossible. Coruscant has stood for too long."

"How could we be so blind?" Padmé gasped. "Look!"

A hulking ship stood over the gray clouds, looking enormous even from Ahsoka's vantage point far below. "We have to get away from here."

How could Coruscant be blockaded? We haven't been attacked since Grievous launched the attack on the power systems a year ago. We have to have learned our lesson by now.

Her palms sweated as they turned tail and ran. Though she had left the Order, she was not above helping others, especially given Padmé's secret. And as they neared the elevator, the light of Coruscant Prime flashed against the side of a silver pontoon starfighter in the distance, flanked by vulture-droids, as it descended toward 500 Republica.

(761 words)