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unsolvedrubixscube · 1 year

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Sith Tomb

Ahsoka is starting to hate catacombs.

She can't get a signal this far underground to call for help, her montrals are constantly scraping against the low ceilings, small creatures scurry underfoot, and skeletal remains of Kel Dors leer at her as she makes her way through the winding tunnels.

Today is a bad day. Not that the past few years of constantly hiding, running, and fighting for her life is necessarily a golden standard to compare to but still, she is not having a good time.

She had stopped by Dorin to drop off stolen supplies to the Rebel cells and hand over some information in person that was too delicate to be entrusted to anyone else. Things had been going well, she’d been inspiring people, spreading hope, able to make a real impact without killing anyone, but then the Senator had died. Nolt Gi hadn’t been a great guy, he was a politician after all, but he was a proud Kel Dor who stubbornly refused to let Imperial outsiders run his planet. Which is probably why they killed him.

Of course, no one official would admit that but his death had been sudden and untimely for everyone but the Empire.

With Imperials rushing in to fill the power vacuum the Rebel cells had been forced back into hiding and Ahsoka had to find a way to get off world fast. Fortunately, the rebels had been using the catacombs to move undetected since Empire Day as it was notorious for being flooded, unstable, or both. Unfortunately, Ahsoka did not have the Kel Dors' familiarity with the tunnels and she was definitely lost.

Ahsoka emerges from the narrow tunnel she had been crawling through for the better part of an hour into an empty, high-ceiling chamber. She shines her light around. The walls are pure black slate decorated with intricate carvings and symbols laced through with hairline fractures. A support frame has been added to the corners of the room, making a metal cube. An archway stands opposite her, symbols she doesn’t recognize carved into the stone, its gaping black maw leading deeper into the crypt. On the wall beside her, several smaller entrances presumably lead to other tunnels like the one she came out of.

“Kriff.”

She definitely doesn’t remember coming this way before. So much for letting the Force guide her.

She doesn’t like the way this place feels, like someone breathing down her neck. She shudders causing the tubes of her breathing mask to shake. Time to leave.

Ahsoka spins on her heels to go back the way she came when a sound catches her attention. She pauses. There it is again. Despite the tunnels’ distortion and echoes it's the unmistakable sound of footsteps.

She wants to run towards the approaching sound but holds herself back. It could be some of the Rebellion. It could be some teenagers looking to get high. Better to be cautious. Ahsoka turns off her light, crouches behind a fallen pillar, and waits.

And waits, and waits, and waits.

Whoever it is they sure are taking their sweet time.

And then finally a cone of white light breaks the darkness.

Two figures emerge from the larger tunnel, one leaning on the other. Both of them look worse for wear; covered in dirt and cobwebs, gashes through their clothes and armor, exuding exhaustion. On both of them the white symbol of the Imperium can be seen as plain as day.

The one dressed in dark, gleaming armor of a purge trooper slowly lowers the other onto a column stump. The second figure is adorned in grays lined with red, a cloak hangs off their shoulders, a black saber hilt sits on their back, and a unique helmet obscures their face. The uniform of an Inquisitor.

Ahsoka does her best to become one with the stone walls behind her and hardly dares to breathe.

The purge trooper leans against one of the walls with a sigh and the Inquisitor starts massaging their right leg.

“Permission to speak freely Sister?” The purge trooper asks, their helmet filters hissing as they speak.

The Inquisitor grunts an affirmation not looking up.

“This place sucks glacial whale balls.”

This earns the purge trooper a brief chuckle.

“Actually, Pantora whales don’t have any external reproductive organs,” The Inquisitor says, her helmet adding a mechanical overlayer to her voice, “but yes, yes, it does.”

She turns over her wrist and a red holomap of layers and layers of branching tunnels appears in the air. The Inquisitor studies it in silence, before closing it again. She stands favoring her right leg.

“Come on Captain, it’s only a few kilometers till the surface.”

The purge trooper nods and pushes off the wall holding their arm out to the Inquisitor. She takes it and they start out of the chamber.

Ahsoka resists the urge to sigh in relief. Well, now she just has to keep far enough away from the pair to avoid detection but remain close enough to follow them out of this labyrinth. Easy.

The Inquisitor suddenly stops, tilting her head.

“Wait.”

Shit.

The Inquisitor whips around, shining her helmet light directly on Ahsoka. For a microsecond, the two groups just stare at each other. Ahsoka can only imagine what she looks like, a nearly two-meter tall figure in a dirty cloak crouching in the darkness, montrals protruding into the air, gleaming night eyes staring back.

Well, at least she has the element of surprise.

“What the-”

The purge trooper opens fire. Ahsoka leaps into the air igniting her lightsabers, doubling the light in the small space. The Inquisitor draws her blade.

Ahsoka harmlessly reflects the blaster fire into the ceiling of the chamber. Flakes of stone and dust rain down from the impacts. Her blade and the Inquisitor's clash, sending up sparks. More blaster fire from her left. Ahsoka dashes back and nearly slams into a wall. Small space, right.

Ahsoka rushes forward trying to slip past into one of the smaller tunnels but the Inquisitor becomes a wall of blazing red. She slips and parries Ahsoka’s attacks in a textbook perfect form III that’s far beyond the barely trained swings she’s used to coming from the Sith wannabes.

The purge trooper fires again and Ahsoka reflects the shots back at them. The Inquisitor is temporarily occupied dissipating the shots into the floor and walls.

Ahsoka lunges. The Inquisitor catches her blade in a cross block. The electric hiss of the blades being forced against each other fills the air. Ahsoka pushes, leaning down on the Inquisitor, taking advantage of her dual blades and size. Her opponent's blade wavers as she struggles to withstand Ahsoka's onslaught. The red plasma blade moves further and further back toward the Inquisitor’s throat.

And then the Inquisitor's leg buckles and Ahsoka flies forward, slicing through the air where her opponent’s head had been and through the stone wall and metal beam behind her.

There’s the sound of thousands of kilograms of rock shifting, a rumbling groan like the planet is crying out, the metal supports scream and buckle, then the wall collapses.

Ahsoka uses the Force to jump back into the archway, keeping her eyes on the Inquisitor. But the Inquisitor doesn’t try for a last desperate strike while scrambling to her feet. Instead, she turns away and thrust a hand at the purge trooper, flinging them down one of the smaller tunnels to safety. The wall implodes and the chamber fills with slate and rubble kicking up a storm of dust.

Ahsoka shields her eyes and retreats further down the archway. After a few moments, the sounds of falling rocks and shifting earth stop. The archway remains intact, a mountain of rubble sealing off the way Ahsoka came.

Oh, thank Force.

Ahsoka lets out a sigh of relief, filling her breathing mask with condensation. She’s alive, now she just has to figure out how to get out of here. Again.

The sound of stones scraping followed by a dull thud draws her attention. Ahsoka squints, making something moving in the dust. Saber held out in front of her, Ahsoka approaches. The white light throws stark shadows onto the figure struggling out of the loose rubble and to their feet.

The Inquisitor.

The tip of Ahsoka’s lightsaber reflects in the black visor of the Inquisitor’s helmet. Ahsoka stands ready for a Force push or saber thrust. But the Inquisitor doesn’t move, just stares. As the dust settles Ashoka can see the Inquisitor’s right ankle is twisted at an impossible angle with sparks leaping from the crushed metal. A cybernetic.

Ahsoka’s grip on her stolen saber hilt tightens. Dark side users were unstable and dangerous in the best of circumstances, and she had an injured one cornered. She should take advantage of the situation and take the Inquisitor out before she could return the favor. Besides, how many good people had died at her hands? The odds were high Nolt Gi was one of her victims. She should strike her down before this situation gets worse. It would be a just killing, one less monster in the galaxy.

She lowers her blade.

Ahsoka exhales and forces her muscles to relax.

The Dark Side is strong here. Great. The Inquisitor still hasn’t moved.

“Surrender,” Ahsoka demands.

The Inquisitor twitches, as if being woken from a daydream. She raises one hand, steadying herself with the other on the cavern wall, and speaks. Or tries to but instead static with a garbled overlay comes from the helmet's speakers.

Ahsoka blinks. The Inquisitor seems just as surprised as her.

“Uh. You want to try that again?” Ahsoka asks.

The Inquisitor tries again with longer pauses. Ahsoka thinks she can make out the word “fight” among the mess. The pair stare at each other for a second. Then the Inquisitor takes her hand off the wall and makes several intricate gestures. Ahsoka tenses but then recognizes it as Standard Galactic Hand Language. She knows how to finger spell a few letters and say “I love you” but nothing beyond that. It’s something she never had time to learn during the Clone Wars.

Ahsoka shakes her head not taking her eyes off the Inquisitor.

“I don’t understand.”

The Inquisitor stares back at her. Her helmet pops and hisses as filtered air escapes through the crack in the mask covering her lower face. And then the Inquisitor awkwardly lowers herself to the gritty cold floor. She sits there, her broken prosthetic out to one side, hands raised palms open in the universal gesture of nonaggression.

Okay then.

Ahsoka uses the Force to pull the Inquisitor’s lightsaber out of the rubble and into her hand. The Inquisitor doesn’t flinch. Ahsoka narrows her eyes. While the Inquisitor was technically defenseless it could still be a trick. She reaches out into the Force.

The Inquisitor’s mental shields are up now but the same exhaustion and bitter frustration that Ahsoka felt earlier seep through. She expects the Inquisitor's saber hilt to explode in a wave of rage but instead, it just simmers with pain and resentment.

The Inquisitor continues to sit there.

Cool. She’s got an unarmed and injured but very dangerous prisoner and is still trapped kilometers beneath the surface of a semi-Empire controlled planet. Great plan there, Tano.

A short rough static noise comes from the Inquisitor’s voice modulator, bringing Ahsoka’s attention back to her. With deliberate slowness, the Inquisitor turns her wrist over and activates the holomap again. The 3D render of the catacombs floats in the air between them. Pointing, the Inquisitor traces a rough path through the various tunnels back to the surface. The map disappears before Ahsoka can get a good look at the route.

Ahsoka narrows her eyes, waiting for the catch.

The Inquisitor nods at her mangled cybernetic leg.

And there it is.

Facing whatever did that to an Inquisitor is not her idea of a good time but neither is dying of starvation, lost and alone under a thousand kilograms of rock.

The blank face of the Inquisitor’s mask stares up at her expectantly.

“Fine,” Ahsoka mutters, slipping her pack off her shoulders, “But I’m keeping your saber and you’re wearing these.”

She pulls out a pair of stun cuffs. They aren’t Force suppressing but they’ll have to do. The Inquisitor hesitates and then nods. Ahsoka slips the links around the Inquisitor’s wrists and snaps them shut. The Inquisitor flexes her fingers then rises back to her feet. Ahsoka doesn’t try to help.

The Inquisitor tilts her head as if to ask if they shouldn’t get moving.

“No, please, after you,” Ahsoka says with a sarcastic sweeping bow.

She’s not adding “getting stabbed in the back by random Inquisitor” to her list of fun activities for the day.

The Inquisitor shrugs and continues down the archway, deeper into the cold and forbidding catacombs.

The archway widens and the stone surface takes on a smooth sheen as they walk further. Pillars and stone arches stained with watermarks appear out of the gloom every meter or so. The walls are engraved with more of the strange symbols which Ahsoka would swear she knows from somewhere. As they walk their lights reveal shallow alcoves cut into the walls beneath the arches. The only sounds are of the Inquisitor’s heavy footsteps, the hiss of air filter pumps, and the faint rustling of unseen insects.

Pausing, Ahsoka looks inside one of the alcoves. It holds a rectangular chunk of stone that has been hollowed out. Within it rests a plaster statue of an older Kel Dor. The statue’s hands are clasped together on its chest, its nostril slits and thin mouth are visible without a breathing mask, and its small eyes are closed. The wall above it is covered in runes made visible by the moss growing in the crevices. At the very top two words stand out, written larger than the rest, like a name.

With a start, Ahsoka realizes it's not a statue, it's a death plaster. This is someone’s tomb.

They’re all tombs, Ahsoka sees, glancing into the other alcoves, each holding a death plaster resting silently within its stone coffin. As they continue down the passage the familiar similarities between the Kel Dors' wrinkled faces become clear. This is a family crypt.

Ahead, the Inquisitor lets out a short burst of static, drawing Ahsoka’s attention before disappearing into a low doorway. Ahsoka hurries and follows the Inquisitor into an offshoot from the main hallway. Within is a small room, no bigger than three by three meters but each wall is home to giant carvings with a panel of runes on each side. In the center rests more a sarcophagus than a coffin, its sides inlaid with precious metals and jewels. Ahsoka frowns as her montrals pick up the rustling again. It’s louder in here but she still can’t see any insects.

Her guide apparently doesn’t notice anything amiss because the Inquisitor makes an Naboo-beeline for the back of the room and starts pulling chunks of plaster out of a poorly re-bricked section of the wall. Ahsoka could help but well, it would be an awfully tight squeeze, and who knows what else is down here? So she stands off to the side examining the incised carvings while keeping an eye out.

The carvings are also stained with mold and stormwater residue but like with the symbols the dark coloration adds to the inverted reliefs, sharpening the details instead of muddying them. All the images are of the same Kel Dor apparently completing great feats throughout their life. In one they stand at an edge of a cliff, great waves on one side, a raging thunderstorm on the other. In the next, they are wrestling a terrifying six-legged beast. Ahsoka feels her heart sink as she looks at the last and main carving of the room. The Kel Dor sits on a throne with an army kneeling to their right, and rows of collared Twi'leks and humans to their left. The Kel Dor thrusts an arm gripping a straight-bladed sword into the air. The stone around the blade is scored as if it emits heat or light.

Ahsoka remembers where she recognizes the symbols from, her Ancient Galactic History course in the section about Sith culture before the rise of Darth Bane.

This is a Sith crypt.

At the realization, Ahsoka recognizes the faint rustling for what it really is, whispers. Whispers of temptations and desires, grudges and frustrations, secrets and fears.

“All alone again,”

“Never could live up to your Master could you,”

“She’ll turn on you,”

“And still far too reckless,”

Only Jedi Masters can appear as Force ghosts after returning to the Living Force but in death, all Force users leave an echo of what they once were. These echos are stronger if the Force user’s body is preserved, trapping some of their essences in this plane of reality, which is why Jedi hold funeral pyres. A tradition the Sith do not follow.

Vaguely, Ahsoka is aware that a crypt this old and well-preserved is most likely a huge archeological find that could result in numerous discoveries about culture and teachings before the Last War, but all she wants to do is leave this place and watch it burn.

The sound of bricks hitting the stone floor stops and Ahsoka looks over to see the Inquisitor has created a gap in the stonework large enough for both of them to squeeze through. After glancing back to ensure Ahoska is watching, the Inquisitor steps through the opening. Ahsoka sighs and follows.

The rough door through the back of the mausoleum leads into another hallway like the first only damper and smelling of stagnant water. The Force users who lie here are stronger than in the last hallway. The whispers are louder now and nearly constant. If Ahsoka wanders too close to her silent companion she can start to make out voices taunting the Inquisitor.

“Do you really think you can,”

“Waste of talent,”

“Pathetic,”

“Should have stayed in,”

“Letting this place get to you,”

Ahsoka tries to stay out of earshot, it feels like an intrusion. Besides, hearing snippets of ghosts bullying the Inquisitor isn’t going to help her any.

“Help!” A voice calls out, young and desperate, from within the darkness.

The sound rings out down the hallway, echoing so Ahoska can’t tell if it came from behind them or up ahead.

The Inquisitor and Ahsoka freeze. The cry for help fades into nothing. The Inquisitor turns to Ahsoka and gives her a sharp shake of her head.

Ahsoks scowls back, crossing her arms. “I’m not that stupid.”

The reflective visor of the Inquisitor’s helmet stares at her for a beat before the Inquisitor turns and resumes walking. Ahsoka follows.

There’s no way a kid is down here and even if there was, Ahsoka would have sensed them before now. It’s a trick of the tunnels or something.

They continue down the dark and twisting hall occasionally stepping through collapsed walls or cutting down short adjacent passages. She notices the Inquisitor seems to be checking the map more often than before. Ahsoka tightens her grip on one of her lightsabers and reaches out with her senses.

Echoes of the dead Sith ebb and flow around them like flickering shadows. The breathing mask rubs at her mouth and nose, irritating the skin there. A gust of dank, humid air stirs her cloak. Under the methodical clank-thump of the Inquisitor’s broken cybernetic foot slapping against the stone floor, Ahsoka catches a steady drip — drip — drip.

Ahsoka glances up at the stone ceiling, searching the gray ceiling and stone arches for a shimmering tickle of water caught in her head-mounted light. She’d like to avoid drowning tonight, thank you very much. Fortunately, the slate slabs above and around them are found to be moldy but dry.

Ahsoka scrunches up her nose, tilting her head one way and then the other. She can’t figure out where the sound is coming from. It’s not getting any closer or further away. It’s like it’s traveling with her…

Casting her light on the Inquisitor, Ahsoka freezes as the beam of white light reveals droplets of a dark red liquid gliding down the Inquisitor’s hands before rolling off her fingers.

“Kriff,” she swears, stepping back. The Inquisitor stops and looks back at her.

“What happened? Are you hurt?” Ahsoka asks, keeping her distance but looking over the Inquisitor for more injuries. When did that happen? How?

The Inquisitor’s helmet tilts to one side if puzzled, then follows Ahsoka’s gaze. Slowly the Inquisitor raises her cuffed hands to her face. Her black gloves and uniform are drenched in blood up to her elbows, the blood glistens under the artificial light, rivulets of different colors, black, yellow, green, blue, but mostly varying shades of red flow from the Inquisitor’s hands. The whispers surrounding the Inquisitor suddenly increase in volume and intensity while the Inquisitor remains frozen, her trembling hands dripping blood.

“All your fault,”

“You had a single purpose,”

“Hypocrite,”

“How could you save them when you couldn’t even save yourself,”

Anger lashes out from the Inquisitor like a whip. The whispers are abruptly silenced and the Inquisitor storms off down the hallway, hands clenched into fists.

“Uh,” Ahsoka says, watching the retreating figure of her guide fade into the gloom of the tunnel.

Jogging a few paces, Ahoska catches up.

“It’s not real, is it?” Ahoska asks.

The Inquisitor’s pace slows a fraction. Her shoulders slump, she gives her a weary shake of her head.

They continue down the hallway for another ten minutes without issue, the steady drip-drip of the blood slowly fades away, even the taunting whispers grow silent. Ahsoka is starting to feel better about the whole ‘spelunking through a lost Sith crypt’ thing when the hallway simply ends. A stone arch and a blank slate wall stand before them, merging perfectly with the surrounding stonework, no signs of a hasty repair and paint job here. But they couldn’t have gone the wrong way! There weren’t any offshoots or turns from the passageway for them to take!

Ahsoka would think this was a shoddy attempt at a trap but the Inquisitor is mutely staring at the wall appearing just as confused as she is.

“You promised,” a voice says from behind them, young but harsh.

Igniting both lightsabers, Ashoka whips around, pointing one blade at the speaker while keeping the other blade down but angled towards the Inquisitor. The light of her blade throws harsh shadows over the aged stone and the figure before her. A human girl – no a teen, dressed in ragged clothes, covered in mud and blood stares back at her. A bit of her dark hair hangs down in a Padawan’s braid, a single charred hole in the center of her chest, her brown lifeless eyes bore into Ahsoka.

Kalifa.

The padawan she couldn’t save from Garnac’s sick hunting guild.

Oh, she hasn’t had this nightmare in a while.

Ahsoka just stares. She knows Kalifa isn’t here, not really, but she can’t tear her eyes away from the specter. She’s just so young . She was so young. Did the council really let Ahsoka and the other padawans lead missions in enemy territory at that age?

“You said you would save us,” Kalifa accuses, shaking Ahsoka from her stupor.

The light from her sabers vanishes as Ahsoka deactivates them. A Force vision couldn’t hurt them, not physically at least.

A burst of static comes from her right. Ahsoka glances over, keeping Kalifa in her line of sight. The Inquisitor raises her shackled hands to the wall and slowly lets them sink into the solid stone. More visions. The dead end isn’t real either. Ahsoka is now certain she hates this place. After being given an approving nod the Inquisitor walks into the wall leaving Ahsoka with the specter.

Ahsoka rests her hand on the spot where the Inquisitor vanished, her orange fingers standing out against the black slate. The stone that isn’t really there feels cool beneath her fingertips but gives like wet sand at the slightest pressure.

She glances back over her shoulder at the bloodied and burned vision. She’d saved O-Mer and Jinx back then but now…

“I’m sorry,” Ahsoka whispers before stepping through the mirage.

The other side of the mirage looks just like the rest of the crypt. Gray stone surrounds them. Darkness looms just outside their beams of light but it feels colder on this side like they descended another ten meters. The Inquisitor is waiting for her a healthy distance away from the entrance. A quick sweep behind them with her flashlight shows a perfectly normal and empty tunnel behind them. Kirffing Sith visions.

“Let's get moving,” Ahsoka says with a shake of her head.

A gleaming white figure stumbles out of the darkness into the halo of her light. A spike of fear and surprise radiates off the Inquisitor. Years of training are the only thing that keeps Ahsoka from screaming.

“General,” the man rasps, reaching desperately for her.

Ahsoka flinches but the man takes no notice, continuing to painstakingly make his way down the hall. As he gets closer Ahsoka can see his armor, marked with the white and blue insignia of the 501st, is warped and misshapen, some of it melted into the clone’s skin.

Ahsoka takes a step back.

It’s not real. It’s not real. It’s not real.

“Jedi,” sneers a voice on her left.

Ahsoka’s head snaps around. A gray-skinned humanoid with colorless eyes in a shattered bubble helmet bares his teeth at her. An Umbaran soldier.

“Tell us General,” the first voice choruses.

Five more ravaged clones have appeared in the hallway beyond them now. One has a single hole the size of a fist through the center of his torso. Next to him, a clone limps forward, his left arm barely attached to his shoulder, muscle and bone fragments sticking out. Another has streaks of dried blood down his face from his nose, mouth, eyes, and ears. All are missing their helmets and stare at her with desperate unseeing eyes.

“Keepers of the peace,” multiple Umbarans echo.

There are ten, twelve of them now. More broken and disfigured bodies creep toward her. All wearing tattered remains of gray and white military uniforms. Most are pocketed by blaster holes, some covered in ash or crushed, but the ones in front stand out with limbs cleanly severed, one even neatly cut in two.

It isn’t real. Ahsoka harshly reminds herself even as she and the Inquisitor step back to back.

“What did we die for?” The melted 501st soldier asks and the platoon of clones behind him repeat in unison. Ahsoka can smell his burned flesh through her breather mask.

“You slaughtered us,” hisses the dead Umbarans who now fill the tunnel behind them.

“What was it all for?” demand the clones.

It isn’t real.

The melted clone lunges forward and Ahsoka raises her arms on instinct, out of the corner of her eye she can see the Umbaran soldiers closing in on the Inquisitor. The cold fingers digging into the underside of her forearms sure feel real. The Inquisitor flinches away from the Umbarans’ grasp, shoulders past them, and starts to run. Ahsoka wrenches her arm away and breaks into a sprint.

“Murderers!” shout the Umbarans.

With this battle cry the clones and Umbarans descend on them.

Ahsoka can feel the horde rushing after them but keeps her gaze locked forward, her light on the brown sand tone of the tunnels. She catches up to the Inquisitor within moments, the cuffs keeping her arms in front of her body and her damaged cybernetic slamming harshly against the stone floor. She could outrun the Inquisitor, it would be easy, and hope the sith visions or whatever they were would be satisfied with having caught one of them.

The Inquisitor stumbles and then crashes to the ground. Ahsoka turns in time to see a charred Geonosian pulling itself out of the tunnel floor, one three-fingered hand clutching at the Inquisitor’s cape. It opens its mouth and shrieks at them.

Two quick sweeps of Ahoska’s lightsaber sever the Geonosian’s hand at the wrist, another cuts it in half. The insect-like alien dissolves into a puddle of writhing shadow. A quick glance around confirms her suspicions, the hallway looks just like the catacombs under the Geonosian weapons factory. More illusions. If she ran off on her own now she’d never get out. Grabbing the Inquisitor’s arm, Ahsoka lifts her to her feet.

“Get us out of here. I’ll cover you,” Ahsoka orders.

The Inquisitor nods and resumes her hampered stride, the red holomap leading the way. Ahsoka jogs beside her, doing her best to discourage the wartorn figures, soldiers and civilians alike, rising out of the ground and walls to beg for help or cry out for justice. All the while the horde of clone and Umbaran soldiers gain on them.

One of the more intact clone soldiers breaks away from the horde. The white blade of Ahsoka’s lightsaber cuts off the out-reaching arm of a clone before her boot lands solidly in his muck-covered chest, throwing him back into the crowd. The wave of dead soldiers stumbles but the small obstacle is soon trampled underfoot.

“They’re getting closer!” Ahsoka shouts.

The Inquisitor doesn’t reply, visor filled with the red light of the holomap. She holds up three fingers and then points to the left. Pumping her legs, Ahsoka races down the hallway passing by two dark openings and then throws herself into the third opening, the Inquisitor hot on her heels. The Inquisitor slides to a stop and gestures frantically at the floor. Under the light of the headlamps Ahsoka can make out the edges of a slab of stone on the floor roughly the size of the doorway. Raising both hands, the Inquisitor tenses and slowly one side of the stone rises into the air. Catching on, Ahsoka closes her eyes and uses the Force to lift the piece of stone face up, covering the doorway. The slab settles into place with a dull thump, cutting off the mob of dead soldiers.

Silence falls over the pair. Ahsoka adjusts her grip on her lightsabers but there’s nothing. No stamping of feet, no pounding of fists on the stone, no shouts from the other side. Absolutely nothing. Ahsoka would bet the entire pathetic amount of credits on her that if they opened the door again the hallway would be empty now. Kriffing Sith visions.

With a sigh, Ahsoka clips her lightsabers back on her belt. The Inquisitor leans against a wall, chest heaving, the cracks in her helmet hissing as she breathes.

A spotlight snaps on, dousing Ahsoka in blinding white light. Covering her eyes with her hand she can just make out a ring of figures standing in cutouts of the walls but can’t make out any features against the glare.

“Stand accused for the bombing of the Temple and twenty-six deaths, you are." The weathered voice of Master Yoda echoes in the circular chamber. "How plead to the Jedi Council, do you?”

Ahsoka can’t tell from which silhouette the voice is supposed to be coming from. Another vision, but she’s not sure what this one is trying to accomplish. Honestly, being confronted by the Council is a relief compared to the last one. Sure, it was the worst day of her life back then but now, having time to reflect on the situation and being in a similar leadership position, all Ahsoka feels is rage bubbling low in her gut.

“How do you plead?” demands the sharp voice of Master Windu.

Ahsoka scowls up into the light. She knows this isn’t real but she doubts the tomb will let them proceed until she deals with this either.

“You know what?” She says her voice echoing in the room, “Screw you. Screw all of you. I was a child. I dedicated my entire life to the order and you didn’t even give me a fair trial for my supposed crime! I had, what five minutes to change your minds? And you just handed me off to the GAR to be executed! Anakin had to run around behind your backs to flush Barriss out. Did you even try to investigate?”

An uncomfortable silence falls over the room. Ahsoka would swear she can see the Council shift in their seats.

“Clouded by the Dark Side, the situation was,” Master Yoda starts.

“That’s because everything we were doing was clouded by the Dark Side!” Ahsoka shouts. “We called ourselves keepers of peace but led wars instead of stopping them. The Republic proclaimed freedoms for all citizens but created and sustained an army of clones with no rights. We said we fought for justice and hope but looked the other way when slavery and war crimes benefited us.”

“We compromised our values, yes, but it was for the greater good. We couldn’t just stand around idly while Count Dooku grew in power,” Master Ki-Adi-Mundi’s voice says.

“Arg! You’re not listening!” Ahsoka grabs at her montrals in frustration. “Barriss had a point. The Jedi had fallen. The public had lost trust in us and they had good reason to. But we were so blinded by our self-righteousness we couldn’t see it!”

“Calm yourself Ahsoka. Giving in to anger is not the Jedi way,” Master Kenobi says.

Ahsoka curls her lip up under her breathing mask at that. Like losing her temper was comparable to their hypocrisy.

“Enough,” she snaps, “I’m done with these tricks.”

Slashing her hand through the air, Ahsoka sends out a wave of power through the room. The shadowy figures dissolve into dust and the spotlight flickers out.

After a moment the red holomap appears in the middle of the room then glows brighter and brighter until all the details are obscured. The room is painted in ruby red light accented by black shadows. Looking around Ahsoka can see a ring of crumbling statues, mostly Kel Dors but some Twi'leks and humans, sitting in alcoves carved into the wall above them.

Great. She’s been yelling at statues.

The anger bubbling dies leaving Ahsoka feeling tired, just very tired. She glances over at her audience of one and is grateful the broken helmet will prevent any smart remarks about the “inevitable downfall of the Jedi.”

The Inquisitor shifts, looking at her and then quickly looks away. Ahsoka realizes that between everything her emotional shields have slipped, ever so slightly. She’s probably radiating her frustration and hurt all over the room. Mentally she tightens them, hiding the wave of embarrassment and anger.

Ahsoka suppresses a sigh and avoids looking at the Inquisitor.

At least there’s a door now.

Ahsoka stares down at the pool of brackish water, her head light catching decaying plant matter floating on the surface. The tunnel before them slopes gently downward, keeping the filthy water safely contained in one area, but they have no idea how much of the tunnel is flooded or if it is even still connected to the surface. The brown water ripples as something moves under the surface.

“Yeah I’m not going in that,” she announces. The Inquisitor ignores her, studying the red holomap.

Ahsoka has seen enough of the map to realize the Sith tomb is built in layers of concentric rings run through with ‘spokes’ that ran to the surface. They were in one of the innermost rings now and were trying to follow the spokes out. Unfortunately, the last two spokes had terminated in walls of crumbling stone, so this was now the third dead end the Inquisitor had led them down. While Ahsoka appreciated the effort to not have them spend any more time in this creepy place than necessary she could also tell the Inquisitor was stubbornly avoiding the centermost chamber. It probably held something terrible in it but it also had a big wide tunnel that led straight to the surface.

“So, are you going to tell me why we aren’t taking the huge main tunnel out of here?”

The Inquisitor continues to stare straight ahead.

“You know I could just cut off your wrist and take the map, right?”

The black and silver helmet turns slightly, giving Ahsoka a side eye glare.

The water at their feet ripples and a black shape shoots out, flying directly for Ahsoka’s face. Her lightsaber blazes to life with a hiss. The shape suddenly swerves off to one side and hits the wall of the cavern with a wet smack. The black goo flattens against the wall, pulsing and writhing under the Inquisitor’s Force grip, but can’t break free. It looks like angry black slime mold. Yeah, there is no way she’s going in that water.

The Inquisitor hasn’t even looked up.

Ahsoka turns towards the Inquisitor directly.

“Take me to the center chamber,” she demands, leaving no room for argument.

The holomap blinks out of existence and the Inquisitor’s shoulders sag a fraction in defeat. She turns and Ahsoka follows her back down the tunnel. Behind them, Ahsoka hears a splash as the slime mold drops back into the water.

The Inquisitor stops twenty meters away from the end of the cramped tunnel they have been trudging down for over half an hour. The walls are decorated with more intricate carvings and even though patches of the plaster have fallen away, Ahsoka can tell the style is different from the ones further above in the crypt.

Cuffs rattling, the Inquisitor gestures down the hall. Ahsoka’s headlight illuminates the mouth but beyond that, all she can see is pure black void. No points for guessing where she has to go next. She steps forward but the Inquisitor reaches out, palms up, asking her to stop. Ahsoka raises an eyebrow.

Bringing her wrists together the Inquisitor opens and closes her hands quickly, letting her fingers slide past each other mimicking fangs. She makes a few other rapid hand signs Ahsoka doesn’t understand and finishes covering the visor of her mask with her hands. The Inquisitor drops her hands from her face and stares expectantly up at Ahsoka.

“I have no idea what you are trying to say,” Ahsoka says.

The Inquisitor's helmet air filters hiss in what suspiciously sounds like a sigh. Pointing at herself and then raising her hands, the Inquisitor covers her face again. This time Ahsoka feels the shift in the Force. The Inquisitor hides her Force presence, slowly enough it feels like she’s fading out of existence right before Ahsoka.

That’s actually not a bad idea.

Taking a breath, Ahsoka centers herself and snuffs out her Force signature on the exhale, like blowing out a candle. It’s a crude method compared to the Inquisitor’s but it will work just fine.

Reaching up, Ahsoka turns off her headlight. With a click, half of the illumination in the corridor disappears. There’s clearly something intelligent up ahead. No need to reveal herself just yet. Placing one hand on the tunnel wall and holding the hilt of her lightsaber with the other, Ahsoka steps out into the darkness using the Force to ‘see’ ahead of her.

After several minutes of walking a musty breeze ruffles Ahsoka’s cloak, the way must open up ahead into the central chamber she saw on the map. But as she moves closer Ahsoka can no longer ignore the pure sense of wrongness creeping up on her. The rest of the crypt had been laced with the Darkside, a cold slippery feeling tickling her spine, but this is different. This feeling is more like that staticy feeling she gets if she sits on her legs for too long. Reaching the end of the tunnel her montrals start picking up faint shuffling and snorting sounds. Ahsoka cautiously reaches out with the Force.

The space beyond is huge, an enormous circular room topped by a dome and dotted with pillars. In the center stands a giant bipedal statue, probably of a Kel Dor but Ahsoka can’t ‘see’ the details. Tendrils of power and anger rise from the base of the statue, as strong as what Ahsoka felt from an alive Ventress. This must be the tomb of a true Sith Lord, the one who founded the crypt. Multiple faint Darkside presences encircle the statue, all evenly spaced and unmoving. More death plasters, probably of apprentices or family members.

But along with the ancient dead Sith Ahsoka senses multiple living forms. Huge creatures, lumbering through the dark, fuzzy angry blobs in the Force, wreathed in the Darkside. Terentateks. Ahsoka counts four, no five, of the hunched-over bipedal creatures covered in spikes and dripping poison from their tusks. Terentateks were smaller than Rancors which meant an adult was the size of a single-story building. Ancient Sith had created the bred for a single purpose, killing Jedi.

Holding her breath and suppressing her Force signature so that it’s barely a pinprick,’Ahsoka slowly retreats from the entrance.

Ahsoka returns to the hallway and is surprised to find the Inquisitor waiting on her. The Inquisitor looks up from the floor from where she is sitting cross-legged and nods in acknowledgment. The Inquisitor’s cybernetic ankle is spread across the floor in pieces. Screws float into appropriate sockets on the ankle joint and slot themselves inside, spinning until they disappear. The Inquisitor cautiously leans on the cybernetic limb but the ankle joint falls off with a crack .

She frowns down at the Inquisitor. Not being able to repair your own cybernetics was a huge liability. Anakin would have never let her get away with slacking off like that.

“So,” Ahsoka says brightly, “There’s a huge circular room down there with multiple dead Sith and a giant statue of some ancient Dark Lord probably.”

The Inquisitor nods, not looking up.

“It’s also full of terentateks! At least five of them.”

The Inquisitor nods again, clearly having already known this. Leaning back against the wall she opens her hand summoning the holomap, ready to find them another route to the surface that avoids the chamber. Ahsoka has to admit it would be smarter to take a different route but that will add hours to their trek and she needs to get to her ship as soon as possible before any Empire goons find it.

Besides-

Ahsoka smiles wide under her mask showing off her fangs. “But not to worry. I have a plan.”

The red holomap disappears. The Inquisitor stares up at her, looking unenthused.

Ahsoka slinks deeper into the total darkness of the crypt using the Force to muffle her footsteps. She’s made it ten meters into the circular chamber without being detected by the terentateks but she can feel them nearby. Despite the total darkness she crouches behind a coffin for cover. Taking a moment to force her breathing into the square pattern Master Obi-wan taught her for clarity of mind during battle, Ahsoka takes stock of the room.

The terentateks are spread out around the room in three groups. Three were directly opposite of her on the East side of the room, one right in front of the large exit to the North, and two near a Northwest tunnel not fifty meters away from her. One of the two is injured, of course. Ahsoka can tell from the smell of burnt flesh and its pained whines followed by its mate’s answering chuffs. She can’t sense the Inquisitor’s presence at all, which she reminds herself, is all part of the plan. Besides, if the Sith-wanna-be tries to run she’ll just make it so they both meet their end down here.

Taking a deep breath Ahsoka draws herself up to her full height, releases her hold on her Force presence, and ignites her lightsabers. The two terentateks up ahead turn to stare at this new creature that suddenly appeared in their den before the blinding white light causes them to turn away.

“Dinner time! Come and get it!” Ahsoka shouts and charges.

The closest terentatek lets out an enraged screech and rushes to meet her.

Ahsoka throws herself to the ground out of the way at the last second and terentatek charges past. The second injured terentatek lunges at her, fangs bared and dripping with toxic saliva. Ahsoka leaps out of the way landing on of the smaller coffins. A moment later she launches herself into the air as a giant clawed fist slams down, crushing the stone where she was crouched.

Flipping and twisting her body, Ahsoka continues to narrowly evade the claws and tusks of her larger attackers, leading the two terentateks back towards the outer wall. She’d hoped to draw the attention of more of them but -

The ghost of pain lashes across Ahsoka’s back and then vanishes, a flash of premonition through the Force. She darts forward in time to feel claws tear through her cloak like it’s tissue paper. Spinning on her heel, Ahsoka turns to face her new opponent. A third terentatek, large enough to be a rancor and pocketed with battle scars, looms above her underlit by the harsh light of her lightsabers.

Well, kriff .

“Now!” Ahsoka shouts.

Ahsoka throws herself with the Force right as a marble pillar, big enough to weigh over fifty tons, falls right on top of the group of terentateks.

Dust and bits of pulverized stone fill the air along with a baritone scream of pain. Ahsoka can’t help but wince at the sound. It wasn’t the terentateks' fault they fed on the blood of Force-sensitives but this wasn’t a situation they could talk their way out of. Squinting, Ahsoka peers through the cloud, hoping the Inquisitor’s attack had hit all three terentateks.

Something big snorts angrily and the dust ripples six meters above Ahsoka’s head. A massive dark shape advances through the gray haze until she can make out the uneven spikes of the largest terentatek. Its forepaws slam into the ground as the terentatek unhinges its jaw, revealing rows of serrated teeth and tusks larger than her leg at the corner of its mouth, and roars.

Ahsoka runs.

Kriff, kriff, kriff, kriff.

The terentatek chases after her, biting and clawing at the space she had just occupied. Ahsoka zig-zags between the coffins hoping to slow it down but the terentatek just crushes the stone structures underfoot without a second glance. Faint pain lashes across her back before disappearing just as quickly. Ahsoka throws herself to the floor as giant claws swipe through the air above her. Her back to the statue’s base -nowhere to run or hide- Ahsoka turns to face her adversary with her own fangs bared, if she can not face death as a Jedi she will greet it as a warrior.

The terentatek towers over her, its stretched and pointed face full of bloodlust when a stone slab flies through the air and slams into the creature’s nose. The terentatek howls in pain and surprise as green blood dribbles down its face. Ahsoka’s night vision catches the barest outline of a lithe figure darting between the coffins before two more lids emerge out of the darkness and shatter over the terentatek’s head.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Ahsoka leaps up onto the base of the statue and runs across it. The terentatek howls again then its hand darts between the colossal statue’s stone legs, claws snapping shut just as Ahsoka slips out of its grasp.

Ahsoka hits the ground in a roll and continues her mad dash toward the opposite side of the room. The terentatek will have to go around the statue which will give her the precious seconds she needs to make it to another feeder tunnel, one too small for the terentatek to fit down.

And there , in the jerking wild light of her lightsaber, she can make out a dark archway on the opposite wall. Ahsoka leaps, intent on throwing herself over the smaller stone coffins when a warm body slams into her, throwing her back to the ground.

The cold stone slams into her side and Ahsoka barely has the presence of mind to turn off her lightsabers on impact. No sense in impaling herself. Staggering back to her feet and igniting her sabers the white light shows the Inquisitor on the ground next to her.

What the hell?

Ahsoka considers losing her unwanted prisoner right there when a baritone growl, low enough she can feel the vibrations in her teeth, fills the air.

Holding herself completely still, Ahsoka slowly looks up. On her left, the giant terentatek stands huffing and roaring but not advancing. To her right two normal-sized terentateks stand on their hind legs, mouths open and arms spread, in a threat display. Behind them, she can just make out two human-sized spike-covered creatures sitting in one of the open coffins. Baby terentateks, Ahsoka realizes as the small creatures whine and whimper.

She’d almost jumped into a terentatek nest .

Shame fills Ahsoka’s gut as she helps the Inquisitor to her feet. The adult terentateks continue to growl and spit at each other as Ahsoka and the Inquisitor break into a run, fleeing the standoff. The biggest one roars again at the sight of its prey escaping. Ahsoka risks a glance over her shoulder in time to see the bigger terentatek shoulder past the pair, completely ignoring the others’ claws and tusks.

Disappointed but not surprised.

They are almost at their goal, the main tunnel entrance, only they had a big problem. The tunnel is a straight shot to the surface but it is also wide and tall, probably so the builders could bring in supplies for the giant statue, but that meant it was big enough for the terentatek to follow them to the surface. Forget killing and eating them, Ahsoka would never forgive herself if one of these things made its way into a populated area.

Whipping her hand behind her, Ahsoka pushes a wave of pure Force into the oncoming creature. It slows, for a moment, but the wave shudders on contact with the creature before melting around it. The terentatek shakes off the attack like it was a stiff breeze and resumes its pace.

What are these things made of?

They’re meters away from the mouth of the tunnel now. Ahsoka frantically wracks her brain for something, anything, she can do to stop it. Why hadn’t she brought any thermal detonators?

A flicker of movement catches her eye. Ahsoka turns to see the Inquisitor, arms outstretched, closing her hand in a tight fist.

At the same moment, a loud crack rings out from behind them. Back at the center of the chamber, the ankles of the towering statue shatter, sending the enormous stone Kel Dor slowly, but inevitably, towards the ground.

Eyes growing wide with understanding, Ahsoka reaches out in the Force and pulls, speeding up the statue’s fall.

Stone groans and cracks behind them but Ahsoka doesn’t dare look back, there is nothing else they can do now.

Heart in her throat, Ahsoka sprints into the main tunnel just as the body of the statue hits the ground with a deafening crash, shaking the very floor of the tomb.

Once it’s clear the ceiling isn’t going to come down on them, she slows to a jog, then stops. Ahsoka holds her breath as she waits for the dust cloud to settle. The rubble probably covered all of the entrance but if there’s any room for the terentatek to get through, this will have all been for nothing.

The blue marble of the statue slowly comes into view. The shattered pieces lay in a heap, completely sealing off the tunnel.

It worked. They lived. They were going to live.

Ahsoka lets out a delirious little laugh.

It actually kriffing worked.

Ahsoka sags against a wall too shocked to do much but breathe. The Inquisitor looks from the blocked tunnel entrance to Ahsoka back to the rubble before slumping to the ground.

“We’re alive!” Ahsoka exclaims, then laughs a bit more.

The Inquisitor nods emphatically from the floor but shows no other signs of trying to get up.

The trek out of the crypt is uneventful in comparison. They Force leap across some pits, scare off more sentient ooze, and trudge straight through weaker visions that Ahsoka is too exhausted to be scared by.

With the adrenaline draining out of her system and the end of her journey in sight Ahsoka lets her mind wander to the issue that has been plaguing her for the last several hours. The Inquisitor.

The Inquisitor had stayed true to her word so far, even saving Ahsoka’s life a few times. Could she become an ally? An Inquisitor who was willing to look the other way would be an invaluable asset to the Rebellion. And it wasn't like this was the worst idea she’d ever had, Ahsoka had teamed up with Ventress a few times during the Clone Wars.

Besides, there is something familiar about her despite there being no way to tell her age or species from the full-body suit. Ahsoka suspects most of the Inquisitors had been younglings or even Jedi once, Third Brother had been. Is she another fallen comrade? She wasn’t full of rage and hate like the other Inquisitors Ahsoka had run into, just pain and resignation.

Could someone like that come back to the Light?

Would she even try?

Ahsoka once believed everyone had some good in them, but it's been half a decade since she’s had that kind of optimism.

Finally, four standard hours later, they crawl out of a shrubbery-covered cave entrance and back out onto the surface of Dorin.

Ahsoka stares up at the night sky above them, streaked with starlight being pulled towards the twin black holes that the planet hangs between. She feels tears pricking at the corners of her eyes. The sky has never been so beautiful.

Tearing her gaze away, Ahsoka looks at the Inquisitor standing ahead of her in the tall grass. She doesn't need Ahsoka to protect her anymore, she might still try for an ambush. Darksiders were dumb that way.

The Inquisitor turns and faces her leaving a good ten meters of field between them. Suddenly, the third lightsaber flies off Ahsoka’s belt, soaring towards the Inquisitor. The crimson blade ignites mid-flight, cuts through the chain of the cuffs, and lands in the Inquisitor’s palm.

Ahsoka snorts under her breath. Show off.

The Inquisitor bows before turning around, giving Ahsoka her back, and starting across the grassy plain.

The funny thing is it's the bow that does it.

Ahsoka’s mind whirls as a thousand tiny details click into place. Textbook perfect Form III, muffled waves of anxiety and self-hate, the tunnels of Geonosis, blood on her hands, the Council after the bombing.

It’s her.

It can’t be her.

She has to be sure.

Reaching out with the Force, Ahsoka rips the Inquisitor’s helmet off. An ebony mess of short spiky hair falls out from under it.

“-Jedi eliminated. Requesting pick up-” a clipped professional voice with a strong Coruscant accent says into the empty air.

The Inquisitor turns, painfully slowly, revealing humanoid features, grey-green skin dotted with black geometric designs, and deep haunted turquoise eyes.

Ahsoka stares, and Barriss Offee stares back.

Despite the pale bordering on sickly skin, deep worry lines, new facial tattoos, and hollows under eyes deeper than Ahsoka thought possible, it’s Barriss all the same.

Then Barriss flinches, eyes widening in alarm.

What?

Oh.

Ahsoka's screaming.

Emotions she long thought she’d released to the Force hit her with the intensity of a flash flood in a desert. Shock and fear as Anakin dragged her friend forward surrounded by Temple guards, pain as Barriss confessed to the bombing, anger that Barriss had dared frame her, and later numb hollowness at yet another loss.

Now pure, unadulterated rage fills Ahsoka. Turns out it’s easier to forgive someone when they’re dead. She knows it’s dangerous to give in to anger, that it will bring her closer to the Darkside, but she really doesn’t care.

She charges through the tall grass in long Force-assisted strides cutting the distance between her and Barriss in half before the other woman even starts to move. Ahsoka rushes forward but Barriss leaps to the side with her own impossibly long jump.

“Ahsoka,” Barriss says, voice calm but thready in the unfiltered atmosphere, “please let me-”

“I can’t believe-” Ahsoka shouts, the connection between her brain and her mouth starting to work again.

Ahsoka lunges for her. Barriss darts back just out of her reach.

“Ahsoka, please.”

“-you’ve been alive this entire time!”

Ahsoka dashes forward again and again just to have Barriss flit out of her reach to the left, then to the right, zig-zagging away from her.

Barriss holds up her hands in a placating gesture. “You have every right to be angry. Now, let's just take a moment to calm do-”

Ahsoka hits Barriss straight in the chest with a Force push. Barriss flies back through the tall grass before skidding to a stop with a very satisfying oof.

“You didn’t even try to tell me!” Ahsoka’s voice cracks on the last bit without her permission.

Barriss staggers back to her feet and Ahsoka realizes that she’s now a good twenty meters further away from her. Well that was stupid.

Even with the distance, Ahsoka can see Barriss' expression smooth over into stony resolve.

“The Crypt is still playing with our emotions, Ahsoka, you have to fight it!” Barriss calls, moving into a combat stance.

“Oh no, you don’t get to lecture me on resisting the Darkside, Inquisitor!” Ahsoka spits and snaps her hand out.

Barriss is ready, using the Force to anchor her feet to the ground, only this time Ahsoka pulls . Barriss’ eyes widen in shock as she flies through the air towards Ahsoka’s outstretched hand. Then, at the last possible second, Barriss Force pushes down, throwing herself up and over Ahsoka. The tattered remains of her cloak slip through Ahsoka’s outstretched fingers.

“Dammit, Ahsoka I’ll let you k-.”

Ahsoka doesn’t even turn around, she just bodily throws herself at the voice. She outweighs Barriss by a good thirty kilos now. She slams into the Mirialan’s waist and they both go down. It only takes a few seconds and then Barriss is pinned; Ahsoka sits on her stomach, hand at her throat, the other one drawn back in a fist, ready.

Ready to do what?

Hit an unarmed, weakened opponent, who didn’t even attack her?

Barriss’ ribcage rises and falls as she wheezes in the unfiltered air.

Ahsoka ignores the fire flowing through her veins and lowers her hand.

“Surrender,” she says, but Barriss breaks in before she can get the word fully out of her mouth.

“I surrender.”

#post clone wars #star wars #ahsoka tano #dorin #catacombs #action/adventure #horror #Force visions #are a bitch #Inquisitor (Star Wars)#fanfiction #fan fic #my writing #star wars fanfiction #the Sith who heals

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