To be read as the ninth book in the series.
Years have passed. Ahsoka Tano, having stepped down from leading the New Jedi Order, has started a family with her husband, Lux Bonteri. She is actively backing the growing Rebellion against the Empire's m...
When Kaylira reached out with the Force to take the pendant from around her neck, Ahsoka didn't stop her. Kaylira sheathed Bane's lightsaber and threw Ahsoka's green one to the ground, then extended a hand to pluck it out of the air.
As it hovered above her hands, the stone began to shift, the individual pieces in green and blue and yellow shifting around on the triangular base made of fiery red stone into a design that looked almost like a burning flame.
Kaylira appeared to be completely entranced by the stone, and her eyes glimmered in wonder. But then, Ahsoka realized that it was at a wonder for all the power it could bring her.
"Foolish little Jedi. You're far too trusting," she said, a malevolent smile curling the corners of her mouth.
When she finally extended her hand and took the pendant, it began glowing a harsh golden-red color, the same as the blackened ends of her hair: both were lit from within almost like embers.
And it was spreading: up her hair it went, until her hair looked like a living flame, billowing out behind her in some breeze she couldn't see.
As she reached back and fastened the stone pendant around her neck, the air around Ahsoka grew hot and dry, as if the stone was leeching the very energy of the Force from it.
Then, Kaylira rose up into the air, surrounded by a swirling torrent of energy as the Light and Dark Side fought for control. Her apprentice basked in it, raising her arms up as if trying to touch it.
Suddenly, she began to change, flickering between girl and woman; Jedi vestments and Sith robes; Padawan and Sith Lady.
Zannah had revealed her true form at last.
Back and forth, it went – Zannah to Kaylira, Kaylira to Zannah – until the change was happening so quickly that all an onlooker would see were the features of both people, blending together to create something that was not quite one and not quite the other.
"Stop this!" Ahsoka took a step forward, her deep blue eyes widened imploringly at the shifting form before her. "Please... Just show me that she's still in there somewhere."
Suddenly, Ahsoka felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned back for a moment, and found herself looking into Padme's eyes. Except that it was not Padme – it was someone else, gazing at her through the familiar chocolate-brown orbs.
Then, Ahsoka felt something deep within her shift, as if tipping from one level of being to the next like the balance on a scale. And suddenly her mind was being flooded with wisdom and foolishness, knowledge and ignorance, peace and passion, power and powerlessness all at the same time. Padme was showing her the way.
"The Cosmic and the Living," she whispered, with a million voices backing her. "Different, yet the same. Separate... Now together."
Ahsoka rose up into the air, glowing a pure, blinding white that greatly overpowered Kaylira-Zannah's deep red. By means beyond comprehension, the light of the sunset drifting into the cavern suddenly seemed to split in two around her. On one side of Ahsoka was the blue sky of Lothal and its sun, and in the other a starry night with two moons.
Her eyes and facial markings turned a sort of gray color. But it wasn't quite color, per se. It was kind of like some sort of dark light. She felt perfectly at balance. Incredibly calm, yet so impassioned that she felt like she was going to burst.
The Opposites, the Light Side and the Dark Side, were flowing through her simultaneously. The Force, which was acting through her, told her that Zannah had disrupted the natural order of the midichlorians allied to each Side in Kaylira. Despite the fact that she seemed as Dark as one could possibly be, her last dip into the well of the Dark Side had brought her into a perfectly Neutral state.
Fifty percent Light; fifty percent Dark. With the Force as her guide, she easily matched Kaylira's simultaneous openness to both Sides. But, unlike her apprentice, that sense of neutrality made her strong.
You have transcended into the Gray Area of the Force, the thousands of voices whispered to her. You are what the Force tried to create each time when it made the Dark and the Light. You are the Jedi'ari. You are perfection.
"Kaylira," she said, and her apprentice looked up at her in fear. "You may be the Heiress, but I am more powerful than you could ever be. I am the Jedi'ari – the Perfect Unity. The Force is with me. The Force is me."
Kaylira uttered a fierce battle cry and summoned her lightsaber. Still surrounded by her dark red energy, she leapt towards her.
*Ahsoka has reached deep down inside her and found incredible new abilities, which have lain dormant for many years... Or have they? Is it possible that Ahsoka has used them before, and will use them again? If so, how? As the battle between Master and apprentice rages on, a victor must be decided. Who will win? And is it most important that this battle end in victory... or those that have yet to come? You'll find out momentarily in the next thrilling chapter of The Unchronicled Adventures of Ahsoka Tano!
YEESH, things are getting intense... And oh no, there's such a long time to wait for the next chapter!! It'll take AGES...
Just kidding, because, since I did my tests today and only had homework to wrangle with this evening, there's still one more update in the triple update I have for you all tonight! Without further ado, fair friends, let us proceed to the final chapter...
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