Betrayal and Innocence

An eerie silence fell upon the magnificence of the Jedi Temple; Vader looked to the younglings that lay dead around him, slain at his hand, his fingers wrapped firmly around the cold metal of his lightsaber. For a moment he stood there in the quiet… grief and remorse found no place in his darkened heart, only the cold reassurance that his secret wife Padm`e would live because of his actions. He had become one with the dark side of the Force, though him the inheritance of the Jedi Order would live on for another millennia, maybe two.
Her voice came to him like a song; it soothed the monster of his spirit for a moment. “Master?”
She said in a gentle tone of voice. He closed his eyes a moment; he knew what must be done. “Leave, Ahsoka.”



an i

He said; his voice carried the frozen chill of Hoth. “Master,” she said with importance, “a killer is loose in the Temple we must— Master?” Shock flooded her as the former Jedi turned and faced her like a menacing shadow; a tall figure wrapped in absolute darkness. She looked to the lightsaber in his grasp, and then remembered her own. Their emerald lengths hummed into existence. Vader’s blade descended and Ahsoka parried the attack to the side. She swung her own blade at the Sith but it was glanced to the side with life of its own as Vader’s blade descended. Vader began pushing her back, trying to get her into a corner, that couldn’t happen, it wouldn’t. The Force surged through her veins as she let her Togruta predator instincts resolve her actions. Now she was using the Shien reverse grip, the very thing Anakin had worked so hard to break her of. Now he might really break her. Ahsoka took a number of steps back, her blade trained on Vader, her upper lip raised in the right corner, a sign of willpower. Their blades locked in a luminous show of blue and emerald radiance. Vader’s corrupted yellow orange eyes pierced Ahsoka’s soul like harpoons. At once she realized exactly what she was combating: She was fighting the dark side itself, manifest in her mentor. Oof! He said, it seemed almost as if he were gloating in his own power. “Surrender your lightsaber. Deny the Force. Through this I will let you live.”
“No, I can’t do that.” She confessed. She truthfully couldn’t. “Then die like a dog.”
Those words may have been uttered by Grievous; the cyborg general of the Droid Army. She recovered to her feet. Their blades clashed ounce again. Vader’s blade flashed over the young Jedi’s for-arm rendering the hand of no use on the floor. With her good hand she called the lightsaber back and the spar sustained. The Force circulated around them like currents of water. A heavy booted foot knocked the wind out of her chest causing her to loose her sense of balance; she hit the floor with a firm bump! “The darkside is too powerful to be challenged by such insignificance.” Vader raised a hand; the unseen Force threw Ahsoka into mmense column, pain shot through her body as she felt her ribs shatter. She fell to the floor unable to move, blood filled her mouth, it was over… Vader approached her. A black gloved hand wrapped itself around her throat and lifted the Padawan up so that her feet were floating above the ground. She looked into those hideous yellow orange eyes, her face the image of fear…Stillness…the only sounds at hand were Ahsoka’s desperate gasps for air; and the song of one lightsaber. She waited uneasily for the blade to pierce her heart. The stillness dragged on for somewhere close to a minute…nothing happened, was she already dead?
Unexpectedly the clasp on her gullet was released and she fell to the floor. She half sat half rested on her right elbow to see Vader turning to depart. The Sith stopped and semi-faced the one he’d spared. Their eyes locked; each carried a dissimilar message. Neither said anything. He turned and left the decimated Temple to regroup with his troopers. Was she really still breathing, and why? She sat there a while relishing the calm that now flooded her, she was fortunate. Whatever the future held she would never forget the warning she had seen in those eyes, which was: You can live…for now. 　
　
　                                            -Joshua Yoder-