That won't happen to you

Chapter 29

Anakin said nothing.

He did not know what to do.

He did not even dare to move.

Even though he had always skillfully taped it over, Ahsoka was more than a match for him by now.

And his lightsaber... it was lying in the ship.

He was such an idiot.

If it came to a fight... he would not win it without hurting Ahsoka.

And she was hurt enough as it was.

"Ahsoka" he tried to talk to her.

But she only gripped the knife more firmly.

"Where is the operator for my chip?" she asked.

"In the ship," Anakin replied.

She was no fool.

Not at all.

"Ahsoka I only want to help you. Please." the young Jedi kept trying.

"That's what they said!" she yelled at him and moved closer.

There was nothing left of the girl who had been sitting in the sand and tinkering with the technical device with childish enthusiasm.

She was powerful.

Overpowering.

And Anakin almost had to cry when he saw the hope and fighting spirit in her eyes that he had missed so much.

That was, even if it might cost him his life, a tremendous progress.

He couldn't mess it up.

He slowly stood up with his arms raised and led her inside.

She followed while she held the knife at his back.

He nodded in the direction of the remote control.

Ahsoka briefly forgot her guard, which Anakin would have liked to criticize, and reached for it.

Then she ran away.

She let Anakin live.

Of course she did.

She was a Jedi through and through.

She would never hurt an unarmed man.

Even if she thought he was her slave owner and even if she didn't even remember what a Jedi was. It was almost in her blood to be a Jedi. To embody the values. To embody the light in a galaxy that was almost swallowed by the darkness.

Ahsoka ran far. Until she found a rock and crouched behind it.

She sat there for a while until her pulse calmed down again.

Her tired, exhausted, injured body could barely take it anymore.

Only her will had brought her this far.

Driven to such strength.

She was anything but broken.

"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger," she murmured a saying whose origin she no longer knew.

She had to think of the bearded man who was in her master's shuttle when she said the sentence.

And if the word master was said or thought in connection with her present one... why did she feel so safe? Why did her feeling tell her to return to him?

Probably the chip in her stomach sent out something that confused her thoughts. She activated the pad and was amazed that it had no safety mechanism.

Someone must have been very sure of it.

She tried to deactivate her chip and almost got a shock.

Astonished she looked at the pad.

Ever since she was with this new master... her chip was absolutely and permanently... deactivated.