A Gray Jedi's Legacy ~ A SWCW's Story

Chapter 13 ~ Attack on Cato Neimoidia

Heads up... I may or may have not mixed of Cato Neimoidia with another planet... so I'm sorry for talking about plateaus and stuff when they aren't the landforms found on the planet...

I might have accidentally mixed it up with Canto Bight for some unexplainable reason... and I didn't realize until I already wrote out the whole chapter so I'm too lazy to go back and fix everything oopsie...

 By the time Ahsoka had made it to Cato Neimoidia, it was already sundown. Traveling through space and the planet's atmosphere in a bubble had been... interesting...

Nonetheless, she had finally touched down. Now all that was left was to, well, find Anakin. The Force told her of many, many signatures to her east, so she turned and began her trek. Sure, it was long, but it was nothing compared to her journey on Dantooine. That... that had been misery at its finest.

Ahsoka had a feeling she was closing in on the mass of signatures. She looked past a line of brush to see many randomly placed tents. Yes, this was absolutely Anakin's camp. There was no doubt that the erratically placed shelters were a product of his lack of strict rules. In her eyes though, that is what made him a good leader. People had respect for him because he had respect for them, and treated the clones like everyday people. He didn't see them as expendable soldiers.

The Togruta narrowed in on the strongest Force signature, which she discovered to be on one of the edges of the camp. She frowned as she saw a tent that was constructed a distance from the others. That wasn't like Anakin. He was always in the middle of his men.

Careful not to wake the sleeping men, Ahsoka slipped past the tents quietly. She finally reached Anakin's tent and was about to enter, but something stopped her dead in her tracks.

Sobbing.

Loud sobbing.

Ahsoka studied the tent and noticed that she could see a faint silhouette in the fabric. The body was bent over and...shaking? She also noticed something that Anakin was clutching firmly in his hands.

"Anakin?" Ahsoka quietly asked as she ventured into his tent. What she saw broke her heart. Anakin's normally blue, bright eyes were puffy and red, and his cheeks were damp with tears. He just looked so broken. Ahsoka hoped she would never see him in such a state again.

"Ahsoka," Anakin whispered, "you figured it out? You know how to be a Force ghost?"

"Oh Skyguy," Ahsoka laughed fondly. She walked to Anakin side and sat down beside him, resting her hand on his shoulder, "I'm no ghost."

"But...but you are," Anakin weakly argued, "you're dead. I left you on the frigate...all on your own...and then I saw it blow up to nothing. Everyone saw it. We all thought that it was a collapsing sun."

"But I didn't die," Ahsoka assured him, "I can handle myself. I'm not your responsibility, and my situation wasn't your fault. That is just the Dark Side whispering lies into your head. Never, never, believe that someone's fate is your fault. Even if I had died, I wouldn't want you take the blame."

Anakin couldn't do anything but sob. This had to be some cruel joke. He knew that Ahsoka was dead. There was no way that she survived all of those legions of droids and Grievous on her own. Blast it, he couldn't even do that.

"Look Anakin, hold my hand. It's real. I'm here," Ahsoka whispered, holding out her hand. The Jedi Knight looked between it and the Togruta's face, trying desperately to see if this was just a hoax from the Dark Side. However, when he looked into her eyes, all he saw was truth. He saw the normal spark of energy and hope that had managed to nestle itself into his Snips' eyes. It was still there. That was definitely something he knew the Dark Side could never replicate, no matter how much it tried.