Ahsoka's Return

Chapter 2

Han leaned back and rubbed his face as he looked at Ahsoka. "So you were a commander in the Clone Wars?" Ahsoka nodded. "I fought on the front lines and in enemy territory many times, and I performed missions assigned by the Council." Luke puts his cup down and looks at her. "But you don't look old enough! You had to have been a child back then or something." R2 whistles, and Ahsoka grins. "I was. I became a padowan when I was fourteen." Han shook his head in disbelief. "You had to have been one heck of a kid to survive all that." Ahsoka shrugged, then looked towards the door. "Someone's coming." 

Luke looked up and grinned. "Hi Leia!" He jumped up and hugged the young woman that came through the door. Han jumped up and grabbed her around the waist and kissed her. "So how was the diplomacy today? Boring as usual?" Leia grinned and and laughed. "It was necessary, Han. You'll be glad to know I got another trip for you. You need to fly to Kashyyyk tomorrow, because they said that one of the newborns has been doing strange things." Han looked at her with an injured expression. "Are you that eager to get rid of me?" Leia looked at him. "Well, if you think it would take too long for you to get there..." Han huffed. "There's no way it would take me too long to get there! Do I have to remind you who the fastest ship in the galaxy belongs to?" 

Leia shook her head, grinning, then her eyes fell on Ahsoka. Ahsoka was staring at Leia with wide eyes. "Hello. Who are you?" Ahsoka stood up and bowed. "I'm Ahsoka Tano, and I apologize for staring. It's just, you look so much like your mother." Leia blinks. "How do you know my mother?" Ahsoka smiled sadly. "Because she was my friend, and we took care of each other." Leia looked from her to Luke and Han, who both nodded. "She's the first Jedi we've found." Luke says." Luke looks at Ahsoka nervously. "And that leads up to what I was going to ask you." Ahsoka looked at him, but her eyes seemed far away. "Would you help me to create a new Jedi Order?" Ahsoka blinked and her eyes sharpened. "Why would you want me to help you? You already know I left the old Jedi Order, maybe I was expelled." Luke shook his head. "You wouldn't have come with Han if you didn't want to find other Jedi. And Han is an amazing judge of character. If he had thought you were dangerous, then he wouldn't have brought you here." 

Ahsoka nodded slowly, then looked at Luke. "Would you be insulted if I waited until tomorrow to give you an answer?" Luke shook his head and Leia stepped forward. "Of course not! They should've showed you to a room hours ago!" Leia and Ahsoka stepped out of the room, and Han breathed out a sigh. "Wow, she's intense." Luke laughed. "She's scary, you mean." His face grew thoughtful. "But her connection to the force is amazingly strong. If she decides to stay and help, then we'll have someone who actually knows how to train younglings." Han looked at the doorway. "She was careful what she talked about. She talked about R2 and Chewie, but she didn't say anything about her master or why she left the Jedi before. Do you really think you can trust her?" Luke shrugged. "You brought her here, and she doesn't feel evil, so yes."

Leia opened a door and reached inside to turn on the light. "Here's one of the rooms we have for travelers. It's nothing fancy, but it's good enough to sleep in." Ahsoka nodded and followed Leia inside. As Leia turned on the light in the ceiling, she looked at Ahsoka. "Did you actually know my mother?" Ahsoka stared at the wall, then nodded. She turned to look at Leia and was surprised to see Leia had come up to stand behind her. Ahsoka gave her a faint smile. "She was beautiful. She worked hard for the Republic, but she wasn't blind to its faults. She could handle a blaster, and wasn't afraid to use aggressive negotiations if everything else failed." 

Ahsoka grins wider as she remembers everything Padme had done with her. "She was a diplomat, like you." Leia blinks, and starts to smile. "You're a lot like her. She would be proud of you." Leia rubs her eyes and realizes that they're full of tears. "Thank you, Ahsoka. It means a lot to learn what she was like." Leia turns to go, then steps back and gives Ahsoka a quick hug before leaving the room and closing the door. Ahsoka blinks, then grins, and sits down on the small bed in the corner. Her expression slowly clouds as she thinks about those last days in the Jedi Order. "Why didn't you leave?" She whispers as the light dims. "Why did you leave everything, master?"

In the droid repair room, C-3PO was having his joints cleaned as R2 whistled at him. "What are you saying, R2? There's a Jedi here who used to be our owner's padowan?" C-3PO shakes his head. "You need to have you circuitry checked. Luke's never had a padowan." R2 beeps angrily at him. "You remember and I don't? Since when would that happen? Everybody knows I have the better memory." R2 makes a rude noise, then whistles again. "They had my memory wiped?!" C-3PO stares at him. "Why would anyone wipe a protocol droid's memory? They might damage the data banks." R2 uttered a quick succession of beeps. "They did it to protect our master's children? Why would our master have children, and why would they be in any danger?" R2 spins around and beeps, and C-3PO stands up in shock. 

"Darth Vador?! You're saying our master was the dictator of the universe?" C-3PO laughs. "Now I know you're broken." R2 wheels over to him, but C-3PO waves his hand. "No, you're not going to show me any of your data. For all we know, it might be an infection that's scrambling you, and I don't want to take any chances." R2 makes another rude noise as C-3PO walks away. "And I don't want to hear another word about our 'old master'." As the lights turn off, R2 beeps sadly and rolls out of the room after C-3PO. He pauses in the doorway and looks down the hallway. C-3PO was walking towards the main room, and after a moment's thought, R2 turned and went in the other direction, towards Ahsoka's room.