POV: Anakin Skywalker
I fought the dizziness that threatened to pull me out of consciousness from the lack of oxygen that occupied the ship in the aftermath of Lux's escape. Ahsoka was already out cold on the floor beside me due to a combination of hitting her head from our fall and getting the oxygen sucked out of her. The thought of joining her and leaving our ever-changing future up to fate terrified me. I had to get us out of here, I had to get her to safety before all of this came crashing down.
I gasped for breath as I struggled to pull myself onto my feet. Darkness dissolved in and out of my vision and I held on to the side of the ship to keep myself from stumbling back to the ground. I pressed my palms against the glass window of the ship and watched in horror as my vision slowly began to clear up and reveal a separatist's cruiser situated above us and starting to target us.
"Kriff!" I cursed, making my way over to the control panel and strapping in as I pulled Ahsoka into the seat next to me. I should have known Lux was still working with the separatists, I never trusted him for even a second. Worse than that, the hyperdrive seemed to have been broken and we couldn't jump into hyperspace.
I quickly took control of the ship and steered it clear of the oncoming shots aimed towards it. The oxygen supply had leveled out, but I still found myself panting and struggling to get enough air. The separatist blasts came in an endless cycle that I was confident I would have easily been able to dodge had I not been on the verge of passing out. "So much for fixing the ship," I mumbled as we got shot and I lost all control of the Twilight and it locked in to a high speed in the direction of the ocean planet Auqalverine.
After giving it as much thought as I could, I concluded that crashing on Auqalverine was a better option than being held captive by the Separatists where I would have no control over Ahsoka's safety and what they did to her. As we came closer and closer to the planet, it became clear to me that I didn't have much of a choice on the matter anyway. There was no stopping where The Twilight went at that point.
One thing I knew for sure was that we definitely did not want to be on the ship when it plunged into the ocean waters of this planet if we wanted any chance of survival at all. Soon enough, we broke through the atmosphere and began to descend at a fast rate which created a pressure that shoved my head against the back of my seat. Every movement I made came with powerful resistance as I pried myself from my seat and crawled over to unstrap Ahsoka as fast as I could.
I securely pulled her into my arms, being careful not to let any pressure get to her neck, before slamming down on the controls to open the ship with my fist and jumping out just before The Twilight submerged into the unforgiving Auqalverine waters below.
I braced myself for impact and tightened my hold on Ahsoka's limp form dangling in my arms and looked down at the water below. Moments later, gravity crushed us deep into the wild and icy water, the splashing sound echoing through my ears and sending sudden bubbles up to the surface. I panicked, coldness rushing up my spine as I soon found my arms empty and weightless under the harsh and stormy waves.
I broke through the surface of the water and gasped for the breath that had been sucked out of me. "Ahsoka!!" I yelled as I frantically paddled my arms through the surrounding water in search of her. Since she was unconscious, I knew that if I didn't find her within seconds, she would drown. "Ahsoka!" I took one last breath and then ducked back underwater and opened my eyes to see through it. My heart leaped in my chest when I spotted her a short distance away from me and deep underwater. Not even the shard, of metal that was pulled by the current and stabbed into my leg, seemed to matter as I quickly pulled her against my chest using the force and swam back up to the surface.
The pounding storm made it too dark for me to see the shore, but I could feel that it wasn't too far out and forced myself to swim there as fast as I could using energy I didn't know I had left. The rain continued to slam down on me as I lay Ahsoka down on the regretfully sandy shore and brought two of my flesh fingers to the side of her neck, checking to see if she was breathing and finding that she was not. I was stressed and cold, tired and scared of the possibility that I wouldn't be able to save the only person left in the galaxy I loved from death or my nightmares. Despite all of the darkness I was feeling, I knew I had to push through it just a little longer, I had to keep trying.
I opened her mouth and brought my hand above her lips, pushing and pulling air in and out of her lungs over and over again. "Wake- up, Ahsoka!" I gasped in a held-back cry. "Ahsoka please!" I continued desperately pumping air through her lungs until I stopped as I felt her suck in a labored breath on her own. I quickly lifted her and turned her so that her stomach was facing the ground as she coughed all of the water out of her lungs. "Ahsoka," I panted softly.
As soon as she was done coughing, I lowered her down onto my lap and listened to her breathing. She appeared to still be out cold or asleep, but I was endlessly relieved to know that she was at least alive and breathing.
The sound of thunder and intense waves brought me back into reality as I realized I needed to fast shelter and fast. Water falling into my eyes made it difficult to see as I lifted Ahsoka back into my arms and ran into the nearest small cave I could find and used the force to move a boulder over the entrance after I was securely inside.
I then lowered Ahsoka down against a large rock and ignited my lightsaber to provide a source of light. Luckily, Ahsoka's lightsabers were still safely clipped to her soaked belt and I took them off and dug both of them into the ground off to the side next to mine. It was still somewhat dark, but there was enough light to see as I sucked the cold water from Ahsoka's clothes and then my own with a wave of my hand so that we could dry off and warm up.
After I was finally convinced that Ahsoka was as comfortable as she could be, I sunk to the ground across from Ahsoka and allowed my heart rate to finally calm down.
As tired as I was, I just couldn't find it in me to sleep after everything that had happened in the last half hour. If Ahsoka were awake to know what was going through my mind, I knew she would tell me that I was just being overprotective again and that she was fine and that I needed to calm down. It comforted me to know that she was fine right now, but I also knew that the separatists were still out there and that it was only a matter of time before they found us. Minutes bled into hours as my restless mind wandered through thought after thought, most of them being about Ahsoka.
Was it really true what Lux had said on that ship? Could Ahsoka really still harbor feelings for me even after everything that had happened between us and everything she had said to keep me away? There was no room for misplaced hope in my shallowed heart, so I quickly shut the idea down. I wanted to believe that Ahsoka still felt something for me but I somehow found the possibility unlikely, especially coming from the mouth of a Separatist.
However, it was easy for me to see that Ahsoka had not been acting like herself ever since she had left me. At first, I had thought it was because she didn't want to interact with me, but then when I looked more closely, I saw that she acted that way in front of everyone. I couldn't even remember the last time I had seen her happy.
Soon I found myself thinking back to that night Ahsoka had come into my room while I was drunk. It infuriated me that I could hardly remember anything that had happened or that we had said. She had assured me that I hadn't hurt her, at least physically, but I still felt like I was missing something. Something significant. I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate my energy on the past, searching to unlock any fragmented memory I had.
I heard voices, crying and yelling at each other. I could see the glass bottle in my hand and the faint orange light from the late evening sun as it shined through the window. The voice became louder as I traveled deeper, I could almost hear what was being said. 'Why are you here," I heard faintly through a broken memory. 'I came to help you," the other voice whispered in a trace of fear.
I tried to go further but was immediately pulled from my thoughts at the sound of a sudden outward breath as my eyes snapped open. My posture tensed as I looked across the cave to see Ahsoka awake, blinking a few times as she stretched her arms and steadied her breathing. I looked away from her, taking a few calming breaths myself and hoping she couldn't see me as I pressed myself further against the wall of the cave to the palms of my hands.
After a few moments, I could feel her gaze silently lingering on the shadows shielding my face from her view. "Anakin," she whispered. I couldn't be sure if it was a question or an acknowledgment and vainly hoped that she still couldn't see me while knowing there was no use. "Anakin," she said again in a slightly louder voice.
I sighed quietly before leaning forward just enough to allow the dim-colored light to shine across my face. She looked into my eyes, an unreadable expression crossing her features as only the buzzing sound from the energy of our lightsabers loomed around us. "What happened?" she finally asked after looking away from my eyes in discomfort.
"Lux, he was working with the separatists and led an entire fleet right to us," I told her.
"Why- why would they send an entire fleet just to go after two Jedi on an escort mission?" she asked.
"I don't know, Ahsoka," I explained truthfully as my voice resorted to a low volume.
She briefly lifted her head to look at me before returning her gaze to her fidgeting fingers. "Where are we?" she whispered.
I continued shamelessly staring at her even though she had turned away, wondering what could possibly be going through her mind. "Auqalverine," I said after a moment of silence.
"And the ship?"
"It's gone," I mumbled.
This time, when she looked up at me, she didn't turn away, allowing me to see the tears welling up in her eyes. "Oh Anakin, I'm so sorry! You were right about him all along! This is all my fault-"
"Stop it," I interrupted in a low growl that sent vibrations across the small space and directly down her spine. "None of this is your fault! You were just doing what the council told you to do and you can't control what Lux does!"
She looked as if she were about to protest, but stopped as her gaze dropped down to my leg. "What in the name of the living force did you do to your leg!"
I looked down to my right calf, nearly forgetting what had happened to it in the first place and then awkwardly turning away from Ahsoka in a useless attempt to hide my injury. "Nothing."
"There's literally a piece of metal sticking out of it!" she yelled. "And there's blood from your chest soaking through your robes!" I bit the inside of my cheek hoping that she would just drop it and get some rest. "Fine don't tell me, but I'm going to patch it up whether you like it or not," she declared as she pulled the bacta solution she always carried with her from her belt.
Ahsoka stood up, walked over to where I was sitting, and kneeled back down beside me, but as she reached out to touch me, I flinched away. "Ahsoka please, I'm fine." She looked up and shot me a glare as she picked up my leg and placed it on her lap.
"This is going to hurt," she informed me as she moved her hand to the metal sticking out of my leg and pulled it out. The pain was severe, but it surprisingly didn't bother me. She finished applying the bacta solution and then tore off an already ripped piece of my tunic to wrap it securely around my leg.
Once she was finished, she carefully placed my leg back down and diverted her attention away from me. "Take off your robe," she said.
I nearly choked on my own breath at her sudden request. "What?"
"I said take it off," she demanded as she turned her head back to look at me.
I couldn't stop the heat that flushed into my cheeks, their color changing to a light shade of pink as I slowly untied my robe and pulled it off, all the while holding contact with her deep blue eyes.
As soon as the robe hit the ground, Ahsoka moved herself to sit between my knees and slid her hands into the part of my tunic, sliding it off my shoulders and revealing my skin to the cold air. I sucked in a breath as I felt the cold hit my skin, the sting of my newly exposed cuts, and Ahsoka's eyes lingering on the muscles of my chest.
"Don't get all excited on me Skyguy, I'm just treating these cuts," Ahsoka clarified with a slight edge to her voice, probably catching on to some of my stray thoughts. I hadn't heard that nickname for so long. The smoothness of her voice as it fell from her perfect lips did little to stop what she had just told me not to do.
I bit down lightly on my bottom lip and stared down intently at her soft face as her warm fingers carefully rubbed the bacta into each gash of my chest. She looked up at me every time I winced in pain, only to look back down when I met her eyes. An unintentional groan left my lips as she placed a stray hand against the muscles of my stomach to steady herself.
"Are you alright?" she asked, pausing in her treatment to look up at me and make sure she didn't hurt me. I took a few pained, deep breaths, but before she could slip away from my stare, I caught her chin with my flesh hand and forced her to look into my eyes.
Her eyes shot through me with such power, my hand fell from her face and a memory fused itself in my mind and I fell into its darkness exactly where I had left off. 'Leave me!' I could hear myself scream. A moment of silence drifted around the memory before I felt a warming presence approach. 'I- I love you,' it cried. 'now and always.'
I blinked a few times as the memory reconnected in my mind and I remembered everything she had said that night and everything I had done. "Ahsoka," I panted. Her breath hitched before she broke away from me and tore off another piece of my tunic in an attempt to avoid my intense gaze. I took a moment to catch my breath and my thoughts that were running at speeds faster than light as she tied my tunic around my chest for a bandage and secured my robe back over my shoulders.
"Ahsoka, look at me," I told her sternly.
I listened to the change in her breathing as she cautiously lay the bacta on the ground and then slowly lifted her head.
"You feel something," I whispered. "Here, left between us..."
"Anakin," she said, leaning ever so slightly away from me only for me to lean back in.
"It never left, did it Ahsoka?" I growled.
"I- it, we-" she shuddered. "What are you talking about?" she asked as a knot formed in her stomach.
I moved toward her until our faces were inches apart as I towered over her. "I remember something," I told her. "Something you said that night when I was drunk and you came into my room."
I watched as her eyes widened, realization dawning on her face. "You- you weren't supposed to remember that," she choked.
This time, she didn't back away as I closed a few more of the inches stretched between us and allowed my breath to fall over her perfect gray lips. "I'm sure that's true Ahsoka," I groaned. "But what are you going to do now that I'll never forget?"
Before I could say anything else, a desperate inwardly gasped cry left her throat as she suddenly yanked my hair through her fingers and crashed her pouted lips into my own sensitive pink where we both knew they belonged.
I closed my eyes and moaned into her lips as the warming sensation of her long-withheld affection traveled all the way up my spine. She slid her hands down from my head to my shoulders, pulling me until I fell forward and trapped her body between my chest and the ground.
I savored the sweet sound that left her lips as I ground my weight down into hers. Before I could continue, she swiftly seized control and rolled the two of us to position her on top. I closed my arms around her waist as she gripped my hair and ran her tongue across mine. A few moments passed before she suddenly separated our lips and pulled herself up through the support of my chest as she gasped for breath.
"I love you," I panted intensely from beneath her.