Lineage

Chapter 1 - Running

Author's Note: And this is where the real story begins. :)

~ Amina Gila

She's drenched from the rain, the rain which poured from the sky, as if the planet itself were crying for her. It seems fitting, either way. She wants to break down and cry, but she can't afford to.

The Jedi are hunting her like a common criminal. Ahsoka dedicated her entire life to them, even if she often didn't understand them, and this is what happened.

Anakin had asked her not to run, but she didn't have a choice. What else can she do? The Jedi won't listen to her. She knows they won't, even if her master refuses to admit it. He's always been way too trusting. It's one of his biggest flaws, and sometimes she fears what will happen because of it.

He let her go though. He did, for which Ahsoka is grateful, even if she doesn't think she'll ever forget the look on his face.

"I need you to trust me now," she had said, as the wind whipped past them, lightning flashing in the distance. Coruscant is never dark, but it seemed this time it was dark except when lightning flashed, lighting the sky. Ahsoka might not have been spotted, if not for that. Maybe she could have escaped without the clones spotting her and would be safe here in the Underworld until she could find a trail.

"Ahsoka, I do trust you." Her master's voice is still ringing in her head, even as she pulls her cloak – the only dry clothes she wears, because she got it later – closer around her, careful to keep her head down. She can't afford to be seen, or her master and the Jedi and a thousand clones will instantly be on her tail. It hurts that they're chasing after her, that they refuse to believe her innocence when she's never been anything but trustworthy.

It hurts that Anakin would do this, would choose the Jedi over her. She didn't expect him to come with her, even if she admittedly did expect him to help, at first.

"I know," she had said, only moments before the clones came. She sensed Rex's approach and jumped out of the pipe onto a passing transport before the clones could try stunning her. She was far enough down to be out of their range.

They had both known at that moment that they were on opposite sides of this, yet they still loved each other. He would still look out for her, the way he always did, and she for him.

Ahsoka hadn't cried then, no matter how much she wanted to. She looked up instead, meeting his eyes one last time, as he stood at the edge of the pipe where she once was. The pure heartbreak in his expression cut her to the core, and she could've sworn his face was wet, but she doesn't know why – it was raining, after all. It probably still is, she doesn't know.

It feels like that moment they both knew something was going to change irreparably, like they're going down separate paths neither can come back from, and she hates it.

Something in the Force feels off, though. She senses a strangely dark presence nearby, but it's elusive, and largely overshadowed by the other darkness in the Underworld. She still can't shake the sensation that something is very wrong though.

The presence is dark though, too dark. Maybe it's the person behind this? She doubts it, but she can't turn down a chance to prove her innocence. She wants to find it. If this person is a Sith, they could be dangerous, and even if she's at odds with the rest of the Order, she's still a Jedi, and she will help people. If this is a Sith, she needs to stop it – him? – before anyone is hurt.

And Ahsoka rounds the corner, running, almost literally into... a cyborg?

Ugh. It's not that she has anything against those, just that the only one she actually met was the one who strangled her and nearly beheaded her when she was fourteen.