I Am No Jedi: Ahsoka x Reader

Chapter 53

Meanwhile, Aayla, Ahsoka and a handful of ARC troopers, including Bly, were tracking down Grievous. A message had been intercepted from a commando droid that revealed the general's location. They were somewhere in Theed City; no one told y/n where exactly they went.

But he couldn't shake away the feeling that something was wrong.

He knew he should have been with them, doing something useful other than 'protecting the chancellor'. He tried to tell himself that was why there seemed to be a looming veil of darkness around their mission; he wasn't there with them.

Those stupid blaster bolts barely did him any damage; rather they gave him the will to keep fighting.

At first, he had thought that Bly had been hit; he had sensed it. But no, somehow, y/n had sensed that his friend was in danger, and saved him, taking the blaster bolts for himself.

His mind had computed his own pain for Bly's. Instead of avoiding the shots, he had taken them because a subconscious part of him knew that he could use that anger to stop Grievous and save the chancellor.

y/n told himself that he had just overestimated his abilities. The blaster bolts he had received from the battles, and the horror of losing Rocco, had momentarily clouded his mind.

But now, in retrospect, he knew he could have pushed himself harder. Next time, he would use all those memories of Rocco, of Tattoo, of all the men whose names were on his skin, of all the clones that died, to his advantage. He would use the pain and fight harder.

He wished he was with Ahsoka. But he also wished he was with her, because then he could help track down Grievous and finish off the cyborg for good. Another small part of him wanted to be there for her and all his friends so he could protect them from whatever danger it was that he kept sensing and couldn't shake away.

"y/n, why don't you come in and join us?" Palpatine said from behind him. y/n had heard his approach but stayed silent, mulling in his thoughts, until the chancellor spoke.

"Of course. It would be my honour," he replied with a respectful nod, then swung his legs over the edge of the balcony.

He entered the hall and took a seat at the table which had been moved into the centre of the massive room. Anakin was lounging on the red velvet wing chair beside him, and then the chancellor took a seat opposite the two Jedi.

y/n traced his finger along one of the patterns on the surface of the dappled marble table as Anakin reached toward a platter of meilooron fruit.

"We were just talking about the Chancellor's latest escapade today," the latter said.

"Of course. This can't be the first time someone has attempted taking you hostage, can it?" y/n asked, looking up at Palpatine.

"Oh no, but I must say it happens less frequently than you would think," the chancellor gave a small chuckle. "Over the span of the war, there's only been three times, including this one. The first was an attempted kidnapping by Dooku, which actually took place on Naboo as well, but thanks to Obi-Wan, undercover as a bounty hunter, I was kept out of harm's way."

"The second?" Anakin asked with a smile.

"Senator Dowmeia and I were on parliamentary business in Coruscant when a pair of ruthless abductors took us by surprise."

"Wait – Senator Tundra Dowmeia, of Mon Cala?" y/n stammered.

Palpatine nodded.

"That was us! I mean, Ahsoka and I...we were there; we stopped the two women from capturing the Senator." y/n remembered that night; the chase through the streets of lower Coruscant, then the encounter with Martomm at the diner, and eventually eating fried nuna wings on the curb with Ahsoka. He shook his head in surprise. "I didn't know you were involved in that, too, Chancellor."