Ahsoka was standing in the middle of darkness. It was an empty vacuum, and she was alone. A cold feeling crept up her spine as she looked around her.
"Save me, Ahsoka!" Nyx shouted desperately. She could hear his voice echo through the vaccum.
"Lend me your strength, my love," Lux said, his voice breaking.
"I'll always be there to protect you, Snips," Anakin said. "Will you be there to protect me?"
Her surroundings came into view. She was standing in a large room, a poison dagger dripping with blood in her hand. Anakin, Nyx, and Lux were on their knees in front of her, gagged. By her feet, she saw a small notepad and pen.
Behind each of them, a version of herself came into view.
"Their blood will be on your hands," they said in unison. "There's nothing you can do to stop it!"
Ahsoka sat up with a start and rubbed her head. She was on the floor next to her bed, and she had a feeling she'd hit her head on the nightstand.
"Ouch," she muttered.
She was sure the dream she had was a vision. It had to be. There was no other explanation for its clarity, which worried Ahsoka. She felt a disturbance in the force. Something was happening that she couldn't see. Something sinister. She'd have to make a choice between saving her master, her boyfriend, or Lux (she wasn't sure what to label their relationship at this point). There was no way she'd be able to save one of them and leave the others to die. It would break her.
She pushed the vision from her mind and stood up. There would be a time to sort that out later. She had to keep her focus on the task at hand. Visiting the warehouse on level 1315 was going to bring back painful memories, and she needed to prepare herself.
She changed and wandered towards the kitchen, following the smell of Padme preparing breakfast.
"Good morning, Snips," Anakin said when she rounded the corner.
"Morning, Master. When did you get back?"
"Not too long ago. You got my message?"
She nodded. "I read an article last night about another murder matching the pattern we've been observing. It happened in a bar near the warehouse where I was captured. It can't be a coincidence. I think we should check it out and see what we find."
"I agree," he said.
"You two better be careful down there," Padme said.
"Oh, come on, we're always careful!" Anakin said.
"Uh huh. I wasn't born yesterday, Ani."
Ahsoka laughed. "We'll be careful, Padme."
Anakin stood up. "That reminds me. I have something for you, Ahsoka." He walked into the bedroom, and Ahsoka followed.
Anakin picked up a small brown box off of the dresser. He turned to Ahsoka. "Luminara didn't just give me information. She had some of her troops go out and find these for me because she felt guilty for the pain Barriss caused us both. I spent some extra time fixing them up, which is what took me so long." He opened the box to reveal Ahsoka's lightsabers.
She gasped. She thought they had been lost while she was on the run! "That must've been a huge effort! I'm sure they weren't easy to find."
She picked them up and ignited the blades. The familiar green glow and hum of her crystals soothed her nerves about what was to come later that day. She flourished the blades, feeling the comforting weight of the hilts in her hands.
"Thank you, Master."
"Of course. You didn't actually think I was going to let you go down there without them, did you?" He smirked.
She smiled softly as she clipped her sabers to her belt. "I'm ready. Let's do this."
The warehouse was exactly how Ahsoka remembered it. A red smoky haze surrounded the building, setting Ahsoka on edge. She felt cold when she looked at it, a clear indication that the dark side was present. She adjusted her cloak and followed Anakin inside.
Once inside, they split up to cover more ground. Ahsoka searched the lower levels, looking for anything out of place that could be a clue. Something was off, but Ahsoka couldn't pinpoint exactly what was causing her to feel that way. It was like she was being watched.
She checked behind a few crates and boxes. The nanodroids previously present had been removed, which made sense. Her eye was drawn to a well lit patch of the warehouse. On the floor was a small piece of paper. She walked over to it and picked it up.
Congratulations. You're catching on. I'll try to keep our meeting brief.
Ahsoka picked her head up and looked around. Barriss had lured them here, but why?
"What do you want?" She said aloud.
A shadow stepped out from behind some of the crates on a ledge above her. "I want you dead." The killer was using a vocal emulator so their voice wouldn't give away their identity. The loose-fitting cloak covered their body completely, so it was hard to tell if they were male or female and how old they might be. While she already suspected she knew the killer's identity, she had to keep other options on the table.
"Well you tried once, but I'm still here," she spat back.
"You call yourself Ashla now, yes? Tell me, why is it that you don't want people to know who you really are? Are you afraid of what people think when they find out about your past?"
She called her lightsabers to her hands, illuminating the space around her. "You don't know a thing about me." The last time she had seen Barriss, she had sensed her sadness and her anger. Now, the only thing she could sense was vengeance. She knew it was a long shot, but it was worth asking, jut to be sure. "Who are you?"
"Ah, I thought you might ask that. Before I can answer, though, you have to answer one question for me. What's your name, Ashla? Your real name."
This had to be a trap. Barriss knew her name already. She had to be recording Ahsoka say it so she could use it for something. Was knowing the killer's identity for sure worth taking that risk?
"I have other things to do today. If you don't give me what I need–"
"Okay, fine. My name is Ahsoka Zora Tano," she spat. "Now answer my question."
The killer took a step forward and jumped down to the same level as Ahsoka. "I am known as Sidious's Hand."
"So you're an assassin for the dark side now? Why?"
"Sidious offered me a venue to exact my revenge on the Jedi in a productive way. The Jedi are doomed, and once they fall, the less extraneous force users there are, the easier it will be for the new order to rise." The figure reached underneath the cloak and revealed a lightsaber. They flourished the blade in front of Ahsoka. "And he lets me use this."
She brandished her sabers in front of her, beginning to circle her opponent. "You're a Sith! And a Separatist!"
"A Sith assassin, Lady Tano. And I wouldn't stoop so low as to join with the mechanical misery you call the Separatists. No, the one I serve is the puppet master of it all. Soon, the war will end, and when it does, I will be rewarded for my work."
Ahsoka didn't dare show her uneasiness. "You lie! If the Sith were planning to take over, the Jedi would be aware of it."
The assassin stopped moving and assumed a ready stance. "I didn't come here to debate this with you. I have a job to do, and if you're going to continue to stand in the way, I'm afraid I'll have to kill you."
"Not gonna happen!"
Without waiting for a response, Ahsoka took the first swing. Their sabers clashed, and the fight was on.
Images of her last duel in this warehouse came flooding back to her as she countered each blow. She saw Barriss standing above her, wearing a mask similar to that of the assassin in front of her, as she fell through the floorboards and was face to face with crates of nanodroids. She shook her head and raised her saber to block a swing at her head.
Pushing everything else from her mind, she let her instincts take over. Her body settled into a rhythm, blocking each blow and countering with one of her own. Barriss's technique had suffered since they last fought. It lacked finesse, relying heavily on brute force instead of the calculated approach Barriss favored.
Letting her mind wander for just a second to analyze her opponent's fighting style gave the assassin an opening. The assassin kicked Ahsoka in the abdomen, causing her shoto to fall out of her gasp. She caught her breath and reestablished her balance, adjusting her stance to compensate for her missing saber.
She whipped her lightsaber around, utilizing her reverse grip as best she could. She was seriously regretting dropping her training exercises from her daily routine. She swung her saber from the side, but the assassin sidestepped the move, grabbed her wrist, and knocked her lightsaber from her hand.
She felt his foot sink into the back of her knee. He slammed into her back with his shoulder. As she fell forward, she rammed her elbow backwards and felt it hit something boney.
She tasted blood, which wasn't a good sign. She swore as she wiped it from her face and leaped to her feet. The assassin anticipated her move and thrust his knee into her stomach. The blow left Ahsoka stunned for a brief moment, giving the assassin enough time to hurl her across the floor and into some barrels. She winced as her head collided with the metal. That was definitely going to leave a mark.
As she lay there gasping for air, the assassin clipped their lightsaber to their belt and looked down at her. She couldn't see their expression, but she was sure they were pleased.
"Get away from her!" Anakin boomed, startling them both.
Ahsoka could sense the assassin's fear. "Until next time, Lady Tano." They jumped up to a ledge above them then climbed through a roof as Anakin jogged to her side.
She rubbed her head and sat up. "That went well," she muttered.
"You okay, Snips?"
She nodded. "I'll be fine. What took you so long?"
"I had problems of my own. Your little friend down here had a dozen of his buddies upstairs. They were wearing blood red armor and made good use of vibroswords."
"Sounds entertaining."
Anakin helped her to her feet. "Did you get the killer to say anything useful?"
"Whoever it is, they call themselves Sidious's Hand. Sidious has him killing off as many force-sensitives as he can so that if the Jedi Order were to fall, it would be impossible to rebuild quickly."
"Did they say anything about where they'll go next?"
"No, though I have reason to believe the attempts are going to get more personal now that the assassin knows I'm the one after them."
Anakin raised an eyebrow. "I thought we already established that the killer is Barriss? All the pieces fit, especially after you had that vision of her."
"I don't know what I saw anymore. I think we should still consider the possibility that it could be someone else. It could be Barriss, but there were some things that made me question everything I thought we knew about the assassin's identity."
She remembered her vision from earlier that morning. In her mind's eye, she saw the poison dagger in the palm of her hand, and she couldn't help but wonder if it was a warning of what was to come.