Time stopped. Sounds disappeared.
I was overwhelmed by a wave of pain emanating from my padawan. Everything else—the pain of others, death, fear, horror—became irrelevant. There was only her pain. And then, after a brief moment stretched into eternity, it all stopped. My senses returned, leaving me completely confused.
No!
A terrible thought struck my mind.
She must be alive! She can't die like this!
But in all this overwhelming cacophony of sensations, I couldn't distinguish her spark. All the fatigue of the past days pressed down on my shoulders, bending me toward the ground and tearing apart what remained of my inner peace. In its place, anger flared.
Bastards. There was a hospital there! The wounded! The doctors! My soldiers! Ahsoka!
The anger spread, devouring everything in its path.
Take revenge. Kill them all! Tear them apart, torture them… Destroy them! I will give you the Force!
Stop, this is wrong… What the hell?! What's happening to me?
Suddenly, I saw myself from within. The place I found myself in was… strange. It had no size, no shape. I couldn't even think of a name for it. And in the center—and at the same time everywhere around—the Force flowed.
But… it wasn't uniform. Light intertwined with Darkness, emanating from the very heart of Light. And that Darkness… it was already part of my Force. It had settled there without my notice. Had it always been there? I didn't know. I was looking at myself for the first time…like this.
Its tentacles were taking up more and more space, devouring the Light. And all of it was affecting my thoughts.
This is the Dark Side. It… calls to me… promises power… revenge… no. I can't! I don't want to!
The pain—now fully my own—rolled in waves, while somewhere outside, the echoes of countless deaths rumbled.
I don't want!
The headache became so unbearable that it felt like my skull would burst and blood pouring out through every pore.
You are mine!
Click. The disfigured face. I recognise myself in it.
I don't want to.
You are mine!
Click. Ahsoka looks at me in horror. Her wide eyes reflect my own—yellow, feral.
No!
Click. Skywalker strangling Amidala on Mustafar.
Click. I'm in his place, and instead of her—
I don't want to, I don't want to, I don't want to! Go away, you bitch!
***
Seventeen feared nothing—but now he was scared.
"Get down!" he barked to his partner, though he too sensed something that made him dive into the mud.
The air around the Jedi thickened for a heartbeat, and then an invisible wave blasted outward from the general. It twisted droids, crushing and ripping them apart. As for the organic fighters nearby… blood drenched the ground.
Lucky lifted his head.
"What was that now? Couldn't he have done that right away?" His partner's voice crackled over the internal comm, a mix of apprehension and excitement at the same time.
Shaking his head, Puck muttered back:
"Go ask him."
"I don't feel like it."
Meanwhile, the Jedi struggled to his feet and staggered forward. Alpha Seventeen followed him. The fighting died down on its own, with only distant explosions continuing to rumble. Clouds swallowed the sky, and rain began to fall.
The Jedi moved with unerring purpose, and soon they reached Commander Tano's body. She lay on her back, her lightsaber beside her. A jagged shard of metal jutted from her stomach, and a thin trickle of blood seeped from the wound. Raindrops slid down her face—making it look as though girl were crying—but she was unconscious. Her skin had turned pale, and her lips had taken on an unnatural shade.
The Jedi crouched beside her, removing his helmet. Blood and sweat streamed down his face, and his left eye was clouded red from burst capillaries.
"She's alive," he said hoarsely, running his hand over her. "She needs a doctor immediately."
"I'll call our vehicle. It has an operating room and everything necessary," Seventeen said, touching the side of his helmet.
The Jedi carefully lifted the Togruta into his arms. The clone suspected he was using this Force of his, to avoid disturbing the Togruta's wound.
"I'll go meet them. Secure the base. Contact Blam. Establish a perimeter. Then we'll gather for a briefing."
"Yes, General."
"And one more thing," the Jedi added, pausing. When he continued, his voice was stripped of emotion:
"Take no prisoners."
"Yes, sir," Seventeen replied sharply. And when the general had walked far enough away, headded quietly:
"It was long overdue."