Part 43 (2/2)

”Taria!”

Holding up her hand, she turned. It was Obi-Wan, coming toward her at a shuffling run. One look at his face and she knew. This is it.

Turning back to the men and women who'd volunteered to be the front line against Durd's droid army, she nodded.

”It's time. Gear up, people, then take your positions. And may the Force be with you. ”

Solemnly silent, the villagers loaded themselves with their a.s.sorted weaponry and headed out. Blinking back tears, Taria watched them go. But when Obi-Wan reached her she spun around and showed him nothing but a smile.

”Master Ken.o.bi! Guess what? I think we're about to host a little war. ” She skimmed a hand down her grimy black bodysuit. ”Is this suitable for the occasion, or should I find myself a dress?”

Speechless, he looked at her. And then he began to laugh. ”Come on, ” she said, taking his arm. ”Let's go kick some clanker b.u.t.t. ”

In the end it was Generator Four that brought the s.h.i.+eld cras.h.i.+ng down. Anakin felt the collapse before it happened, felt the spark and flame of its heart as it died. And because of the way he'd reconfigured the s.h.i.+eld matrix, because he couldn't do it any other way, it took every other generator down with it.

Incredibly, as the s.h.i.+eld began to collapse, the droid army ceased firing. As if it couldn't believe what was happening right in front of it. As if this were some devious Jedi trick.

I wish.

176.

The droids' immobility gave him time to drag out his lightsaber and ignite it, time to reach painfully into the Force and feel for Obi-Wan and Taria. And there they were, not far from the ruined refinery. Then he felt them separate, taking up their positions.

He watched the s.h.i.+eld fade, feeling strangely calm. The sky was empty. Mace Windu's attempt to reach them in time had failed.

A single thought. One last regret.

I'm sorry, Padme. Please forgive me.

And then Durd's army opened fire.

”Hold on, little'un!” Rex bellowed, his voice tinny through his helmet's vocoder. ”Because we are coming in hotter than hot!”

Hotter than hot didn't begin to describe it. Their guns.h.i.+p was screaming toward Anakin's location so fast Ahsoka expected the air to ignite. She was still getting used to the idea she wasn't dead. She couldn't believe they'd finally broken Grievous's blockade. But they had. Facing Dreadnaughts and battles.h.i.+ps and armored freighters and starpounders and eleven squadrons of fighters and four of the best GAR cruisers, the cowardly barve had lost his nerve. He'd turned tail and run, the move so surprising he'd made it to hypers.p.a.ce before they could stop him.

Admiral Yularen had turned the bridge's air bright blue, swearing. And then he'd set his sights on Lanteeb.

Leaving Yularen and his enhanced battle group to take care of liberating the planet, she and Master Windu were taking the 501st and the 95th to Torbel, to save Anakin and Master Ken.o.bi and Taria from the droids.

Please, please, don't let us be too late.

”Smoke!” shouted their pilot, pointing. ”That's Torbel up ahead. ”

Smoke? Precarious, Ahsoka leaned out of the open side of the larty, and saw Master Windu do the same thing on his gun- s.h.i.+p, flying beside them. The ground was whipping fast beneath them, the air cold and whistling.

Hurry, hurry. Go faster, jinx. Come on.

They flew up and over a range of low hills and there was the village, crawling with droids and engulfed in flames. She saw a scattered handful of people running, panicked, saw the droids mow them down and keep on marching. Desperate, she reached for Anakin in the Force but all she could feel was chaos and terror.

With a roaring of engines the hunting pack of thirty gun- s.h.i.+ps screamed into Torbel. Some of the droids turned and started firing. The 501st and the 95th laughed and began firing back. And then the larties were dirtside, white-armored clones spilling onto hard ground, and the clanking tinnies never knew what hit them.

Ahsoka Force-leapt from her guns.h.i.+p, lightsaber sizzling. She sensed Rex and Sergeant Coric and Checkers, wading into the fight.

May the force he with you, boys. Don't you dare get killed. Dimly she felt Master Windu engage the enemy, slicing and Force-pus.h.i.+ng droids to sc.r.a.p. He didn't need her. She bolted into the fray.

Three fast strides and she was one with the Force. She breathed it, it breathed her, she danced in its storm. Droids fell before her, but she was untouched. The air was rank with smoke and blood. More people had died here.

Not Anakin. Please.

And then she saw the bodies, but he wasn't among them. She had to stay focused. She'd have felt it if he'd died. And she'd feel it if Master Ken.o.bi died, surely. Some of the slaughtered were women, but none had blue-green hair. She could see that much as she leapt and somersaulted and slashed droids to pieces.

Anakin, I'm here. Anakin, where are you?

But she couldn't sense him. She started to despair-and then heard his voice in her memory, deep and measured. Don't be afraid, Ahsoka. fear just gets in the way.

177.

So instead of straining to find him, she gave herself to the moment and let the Force move her as it willed. Her lightsaber Hashed and dazzled and swung, faster and faster, though she felt quite slow and calm-as though this were a dojo and she couldn't actually die.

Every droid that challenged her fell to her blade.

She was aware of Master Windu, lighting. She could feel the clones of the 501st and the 95th as they hunted the length and breadth of the small, burning village. The droids she couldn't feel, but through the stinking, gusting smoke she could see the clone troops cutting them to pieces. And she felt herself drift past abandoned groundcars and gutted buildings, down ferrocrete alleys and across open ground, leaping through heat and flames, slicing apart any tinnie stupid enough to get in her way. The droids were vastly outnumbered now. They were walking sc.r.a.p metal.

She realized it had been a while since she'd come across a dead body.

Shouldn't there he more villagers? Where did they go?

And then she forgot about the people, because there he was, beside a ruined s.h.i.+eld generator. Anakin. b.l.o.o.d.y, sweaty, and still alive.

He was fighting back-to-back with Master Ken.o.bi and Taria, and stamped in their faces was a grim, desperate determination and a shared extremity of pain. A ring of droids surrounded them, moving in for the kill.

Ahsoka felt her lips peel back in a snarl.

I don't think so, you clanking barves. Not today. Not ever.

Then came a rush in the Force and Master Windu was beside her. She glanced at him and he glanced at her and that was all they needed. They knew what to do.

The look on Anakin's face, when he saw her, was the only reward she'd ever need.

EPILOGUE.Just over an hour later, Ahsoka stood in a small patch of silence on Torbel's charred village square, as Master Windu coordinated the various mopping-up phases of the mission. Since Lantibba City's Seps had surrendered almost immediately, the most complicated task was arranging for a total evacuation of Torbel's surviving villagers, all three hundred and something of them, because the place had been reduced to a smoking ruin.

The sun was going down fast, so Rex had arranged the gun- s.h.i.+ps to be positioned around the square. Their floodlights turned the dusk to noon. It was a typically efficient and thoughtful Rex action, and it made her love him more than ever.

<script>