The farm was not far away, and beyond the Beggar's Canyon, the roofs of the workers' village came into view. Near the edge of the canyon stood the small hut of old Ben. Asoka thought she should stop by and see him; the old man would surely be glad to see her. But first, she had to see her father. She quickly reached the village, or rather, they reached it, although Anakin was still in the shadows, walking slightly behind her. The boy seemed to sense through the Force that Asoka would soon need the presence of a loved one. They were already standing near identical one-story white clay buildings that had sprung up like mushrooms around a moisture-harvesting farm with tall condenser spires. It would have been difficult to find the right house, but not for someone sensitive to the Force. However, when she closed her eyes, Asoka saw something strange — a warm, familiar glow emanating from two houses: the one at the edge of the village, which was the same as the others, and the first one, which looked larger and more luxurious than the others, like a smaller copy of the Hutt palace. But for some reason, the glow in both cases was not the even yellow hue that Ahsoka usually sensed near her father, but a sickly reddish colour that spoke of a high concentration of pain and suffering. She didn't even know where to go first and decided to start with the one at the end. It was more in line with the description of a new home for someone like her father. Ahsoka climbed the steps and knocked. This time, the door opened, though not immediately, but when she heard heavy male footsteps behind it, Ahsoka was so happy that she didn't even notice whose they were, and as soon as the door swung open, she threw herself into the arms of the man standing in the doorway.
"Dad!" she cried joyfully. "I'm so glad to see you!"
But stepping back slightly, Tano felt the joy of the long-awaited reunion slowly but surely give way to awkwardness and disappointment. Before her stood not Sean, but a man of the human race who did not resemble him in the slightest: large, with grey hair, green eyes and dark skin from a deep tan, dressed in a linen shirt and grey trousers. He held a cane in one hand, leaning on it as he stood and looked at Asoka with bewilderment and even sympathy. Tano, in turn, also looked at her new acquaintance and noticed that his face was covered with abrasions and bruises, and when she looked down at his legs, she saw that his right leg was missing, replaced by a rough prosthesis made of grey metal. But what was he doing here, in her father's house?
"Hello," she began, feeling a little shy. "I'd like to see Sean Tano. Do you know where he is?"
"I know who you are," cried a nine-year-old girl, suddenly jumping in front of the man. "You're Asoka. My dad talked about you a lot."
"Dad?" Asoka said, puzzled. "I don't understand."
"My name is Kligg Lars, I'm Sean's neighbour. Let's go inside, I'll tell you everything," said the man, tapping his cane and entering the porch. He turned away very quickly, but Asoka saw sadness in the eyes of both him and the girl. She had no choice but to go inside. Anakin remained outside, hiding behind the wall of the house, but he could hear every word the man said. He felt very bad, but not as bad as Asoka did now, when the man, having made tea and placed a cup in front of her, began to tell her:
"You see, Sean had been working on this farm for several years, he was one of the best workers and everyone in the village knew it, loving him for his responsiveness and kindness towards us, but recently there have been frequent cases of theft on the farm, someone was hired to drain water from the condensers and the owner decided to keep an eye on the condensers himself.
"Why was he there?" Asoka blurted out when her father was mentioned in the past tense. Kligg didn't answer right away, taking a suspiciously long time to gather his thoughts, and Togrut even had to hurry him along:
"Tell me, please, tell me where he is!" she almost shouted in desperation, her eyes shining with growing anxiety.
"I know where he is," interrupted a girl who called herself Ouela.
"Wait, dear," the man stopped her. "I'd better tell you, even though it won't be easy." Anyway, Asoka, as I was saying, there's been a thief on the farm — Kligg stalled, not knowing how to break the news to the girl — And after staying at the condensers all evening, the owner managed to catch the suspect. He didn't even realise how wrong he was. Sean comes there every evening to pick mushrooms growing near the condensers, and that's what he was doing this time, so the owner decided that he was the thief, grabbed your father, locked him in the basement, and ordered him to be beaten until he confessed and returned the money for the stolen goods.
"He was caught almost a week ago," said Owel, sniffing. "And they didn't even doubt that he was a thief, but that's not true. My dad never steals, he's the most honest person I know!
"How could he even think such a thing?" Asoka exclaimed, jumping up from her chair. "I'll go there right away! I'll sort this out!"
"Wait, girl," Kligg stopped her. "It's not that easy to get there. They're holding him in the master's back room, in the basement. There are so many guards there, they'll never let us in. We've already tried. Twelve strong men from the village went there... only four came back..." The man sighed heavily and spread his arms. "I even lost a leg. And now I can't continue the search until I've recovered."
"We have to do something, we can't just sit here and wait," Asoka felt she had to do something immediately.
"I'm afraid there's nothing we can do," Kligg sighed again. "It's been over a week, he couldn't have survived that long. The master knows no mercy.
"I'm coming! I'll be back soon!" Asoka shouted, not listening to him any further, and flew out of the house, jumped onto her master's speeder, which she had spotted earlier in the neighbouring yard, and sped off at full speed to the other end of the village, towards the farmer's luxurious house. The Force drove her forward, showing her the right direction, but it was the Force that made the girl stop near the outbuilding, fly up to two guards of the race, activate her swords on the fly, cut off the head of one, and piercing the other through with the same sword a second later, cutting through the lock on the shed and bursting into the cool, dark room, lit only by the green and rainbow light of her blades. A small staircase led down, which the togruta descended in an instant, only to see a scene even more terrifying than her night vision. There, in the darkness of the basement, above the rotten floor, suspended between the walls on a chain, hung her beloved father. He was severely emaciated from hunger, dehydration, and beatings. Mostly by them. His face was broken, and all the parts of his body visible through his torn clothes were covered in bruises and bloody wounds, the natural caramel colour of his skin completely hidden. Broken ribs protruded from his chest, stretched out in chains. His swollen blue eyelids could barely open; he simply did not have the strength. When Sean was first seized and dragged here without anyone even bothering to listen to him, he tried in vain to refute the charges against him, but again, no one paid any attention to him. Then they began to beat him and demand that he hand over the money or the stolen goods. Sean had neither, and his explanation that he was just picking mushrooms was met with only angry sneers and more blows. When they finally got tired of beating him without getting any response, the guards hung the man on a chain and left, only to return a few hours later to continue the interrogation, which had the same result: a complete refusal to confess. At the same time, Sean saw that the guards' anger was not directed at him personally, but at the situation itself, because in between beatings, they would even talk to him and be quite polite. However, this did not correspond to what was actually happening. Today was the eighth day of this ordeal, and Sean already understood that he did not have much time left, and all he now asked of the Great Force was to see his little girl just once. And finally, in a dream or in reality?
"Dad, I'm here! Can you hear me? It's me, your Asoka! I'm coming to save you!" The familiar ringing voice barely reached the Montralls covered in dried blood. Sean even thought he was already dead and that the voice was coming from heaven. But no, the man was alive. He struggled to open his cloudy eyes, the whites darkened by blood. And what did that tortured gaze see? Standing right in front of him was a tall, slender young Togruta in Jedi clothing, holding two lightsabers in her hands. With one of them, glowing in all the colours of the rainbow, she easily cut through the chains holding him and, catching his falling body, lowered herself to the floor. Sean's head ended up on the girl's knees. She tried not to move so as not to cause her father any more pain, and he looked at her, recognising his little girl, but then their eyes met.
"Asoka... my girl," he croaked hoarsely through broken lips. "You're here... you're with me... I'm glad to see you..."
"Dad, my darling, please don't worry, save your strength, we'll talk later," said Asoka, leaning towards him. "Not now, help will be here soon."
"Asoka, you've grown up, your dream... has come true," Sean croaked, already wheezing. "I... I love you, my darling..."
His breathing faltered and stopped somewhere in his chest. The man tried to breathe, but couldn't. Then the air finally escaped, causing his chest to convulse a couple of times and then freeze, his eyes dimmed and slowly closed.
"Dad! Don't leave me! Not now! When we're finally together again! No! Not you! Not my dear dad!" Asoka broke into a cry of inexpressible despair, clutching her father's hand, trying to warm it. But Sean did not answer; he was already gone. The girl saw this, but she refused to accept it, continuing to sit next to her father, unwilling to acknowledge his death, so unbelievable did it seem. Her father, always so strong and cheerful. Could it really be him lying there lifeless, ignoring the tears of his beloved daughter dripping onto his face and cold hands? No, this was clearly not him, but some other Togrut, tortured to death, who had experienced his last moment of joy. But reality soon reminded her of itself when the sound of a speeding speeder broke through Asoka's consciousness. She understood who it belonged to, and gradually the tears of loss were replaced in her soul by a blinding rage that dug into her soul like hungry fangs, forcing her to feed on blood. Asoka understood this and did not even resist; she simply did not have the strength or the desire to do so. Instead, she had something else in mind — to trample and wipe the family of this fat boar, who was now climbing the stairs to his palace, accompanied by his dressed-up wife and frilly daughter, off the face of the earth. A second later, Asoka was already there, her swords whirring menacingly, flying left and right, indiscriminately destroying everything and everyone in their path. The guards were the first to fall, one cut in two, the other with his stomach pierced. Next came the owners, the head of the family was the first to fall, but she did not plan to start with him. Her left hand clutched the hair of the screaming wife, and her feet pushed the daughter against the wall. The master lunged at Asoka, but she threw him against another wall with the Force, deliberately keeping him conscious so that he could see what it was like to watch his loved ones die before his eyes, unable to do anything. And Asoka, with great pleasure, first dragged his wife several times in front of him, dragging her across the floor by her hair, and then beat her against the wall until she breathed her last, and at the slightest opportunity to intervene, the master received a Force blow.
"Here, you can lick her brains, they say they're delicious," Tano said maliciously and grabbed her daughter, slamming her against the wall, first with her head, then with her back, until she was in the same condition Asoka had found her father.
"Let her go," begged the unfortunate master, seeing his daughter's blood splattered on the wall. "I truly realise that I was wrong.
"Let her go? That's easy!" Asoka suddenly relented. "You wanted your daughter? Here she is!"
Lifting her with the Force, the Togrut sent the beaten girl into her father's open arms, and as soon as she was there, Asoka stabbed her in the back with both swords with an evil laugh. She fell lifeless. Realising he was completely alone, the man began to sob bitterly and fell to his knees before Tano, begging her to at least spare his life. He even added at the end:
"Can Jedi kill out of revenge?
"No, they can't!" Asoka agreed with him. "But that doesn't mean they can't throw your filthy pig carcass out of here!
No sooner said than done. With one powerful grab, the man flew from the second floor, screaming, straight into the central square of the village. But that wasn't enough for Ahsoka, and grabbing him again, she swung him around and threw him off the cliff into the canyon, listening with pleasure to his last scream as he flew towards the rocks, smashing into the sharp ledges. Asoka took a long time to catch her breath before going back down to the basement, wrapping her father's body in the ruby cloth intended as a gift for him, carefully placing it in the back seat of the speeder, and returning to the village. They were already waiting for her. Kligg, Owel, and Anakin were standing on the porch. Stop. Anakin. What was he doing here? But now was not the time for that.
"Why him? Tell me, why him? Why not someone else?" she asked no one in particular as the body was lowered into the dug-up sand in the cemetery near the village, and a white boulder was placed over the grave.
"He was a very good friend and a wonderful father, his kindness knew no bounds. Rest in peace, Sean Tano," Kligg said solemnly, while Asoka sat by the stone for a long time, solemnly vowing to herself that she would never let anyone close to her leave again, doing everything in her power to prevent it.
"Asoka, let's go inside, it's getting cold," a warm hand touched her shoulder. She turned and saw Anakin. He sat down next to her.
"This is terrible, Anakin. I can't live without him. It hurts so much, I can't put it into words. Why didn't I come sooner? I could have saved him!" Ahsoka cried desperately, pounding her fists on her knees.
"Don't blame yourself, Ahsoka, you're a really good girl, you're just like my mum," Anakin said, horrified by what she was saying. "Calm down, there, see, the pain will go away soon, I'll help you."
He spoke, quietly hugging her and resting his head on her chest.
"I'm with you, see? I won't leave you, believe me, it won't happen, I promise you," he said and stroked her head. She looked up at him, and Anakin couldn't help but lean forward slightly and, unable to control himself, touched her forehead with his lips, then did it again, only slightly lower, near her right temple, then near her forehead. Ahsoka was so overwhelmed that she didn't resist, and in her friend's warm embrace, her pain did indeed lessen slightly. She pressed herself even closer and rubbed her head against his shoulder. Anakin, taking this as a sign, leaned down again towards her face, his lips approaching their intended target, and just one more centimetre and the delicate taste of his beloved's lips would no longer be a secret to Skywalker. But then...
"Ahsoka Tano!" her teacher's angry voice rang out from the communicator speaker. "Return to Coruscant immediately!"
***
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