Ahsoka floated in a sea of white mist.
The mist enveloped her from all sides, cutting off all sound and sensation, plunging the world into a deathly silence.
"Am I... dead? So this is what death feels like... How disappointing. I still failed my Master. He must be heartbroken... And I never even became a true Jedi Knight..."
Suddenly, the swirling mist began to shimmer with iridescent colors, and faint noises gradually intensified.
The white chaos was instantly replaced by a universe-like darkness.
But this darkness held no stars.
Before Ahsoka could recover from her shock, a series of incomprehensible visions flashed before her eyes. Were these illusions?
The previous illusion hadn't perfectly mirrored reality. What would this one reveal?
Below her flowed massive, shifting sand dunes, hindering her progress.
She glanced back and saw, in the fading light of dusk, two lightsabers locked in fierce combat— a nearly transparent white blade intertwining with a vivid crimson one—
—!
Two massive fleets clashed in a desperate battle above the planet's asteroid belt.
She piloted her fighter, weaving through the battlefield, executing daring evasive maneuvers—
—ah—!
A frigid wind, mixed with snowflakes, lashed her face. The hum of lightsabers echoed in her ears as scalding blood spread across the icy surface—
—a—!
An overwhelming sense of loneliness enveloped her. Dim light filtered through barred windows, and heavy shackles restrained her limbs—
—sok—!
"Master?" Ahsoka called out hesitantly, her voice echoing in the void.
"Yes, it's me. Whew, it took a lot of effort to establish this connection." Solo's voice carried a trace of fatigue, yet it remained remarkably clear.
"What happened to me?"
"You... were injured, but it wasn't serious. The surgery is already done."
"I remember intense pain in my abdomen. But just before I lost consciousness, I heard your voice, and the pain eased considerably."
"Yes, you took a direct hit from a shrapnel fragment. You'll be fine; it's not serious. You'll be back to normal in a few days."
"The battle! Master, what happened in the battle? What's going on?" Ahsoka asked urgently.
"Don't worry, we... didn't lose."
"Uh, Master, how can we say that? Shouldn't I have lost consciousness?" Only then did she realize she was still immersed in that peculiar mist.
"I'm not entirely sure myself. I was meditating—well, Ahsoka, rest well and focus on recovering your strength."
"Okay, Master."
Finally, a warm force enveloped her, dispelling all the cold and anxiety.
A smile blossomed on Ahsoka's lips, her heart filled with profound peace.
Master is here. Everything will be alright.
Solo lay on his bunk, the darkness of the cabin helping him focus as he mentally reviewed everything that had happened recently.
"Let's summarize," he thought. First, he needed to sort out the sequence of events after Ahsoka's injury.
Before that, everything had been relatively clear.
The moment he saw Ahsoka injured, all his focus shattered, overwhelmed by waves of intense pain emanating from her.
By the way, how was this pain being transmitted?
It completely shattered his inner calm and concentration.
But then... came the assault of the Dark Side of the Force.
It was cunning and merciless, nearly making him yield completely, almost causing him to lose control.
He dared not imagine the consequences if he had truly been consumed by the darkness at that moment.
But a mere injury to his apprentice shouldn't have provoked such a violent reaction—unless he had subconsciously transferred Ahsoka's pain onto himself.
Though he had never heard of such an ability, it seemed to be the only reasonable explanation.
What happened next was even more bizarre.
After successfully resisting the Dark Side's temptation, he somehow regained his composure.
But what exactly was that sudden, invisible wave?
The destruction of the battle droids was one thing, but the organic enemies exploding from within was a gruesome spectacle, too horrific for anyone with weak nerves to witness.
He needed to understand the principle behind this ability.
This time, fortunately, no friendly personnel were harmed, but we might not be so lucky next time.
Solo attempted to recall his state during the incident through meditation, trying to sense the changes in the power within him—
Once again, he found himself in that formless void.
But this time, the light within it was even brighter.
The darkness hadn't completely vanished, but it no longer spread like an octopus' tentacles. Instead, it had shrunk into a small spot, with only a thin tendril still reaching into the light.
After exiting his meditation, Solo fell into deep thought: "What does this mean? Could it be that I expelled the excess dark power from my body, unleashing it as an energy wave that caused the destruction? And Li Norega mentioned the enemy organic soldiers fell into chaos... Wait a minute. In the records of Combat Meditation, the Sith used similar techniques to plant fear and chaos in enemy ranks. These methods seem to achieve a similar effect. This ability is truly powerful, but I don't want to experience it again."
"Is it possible to completely purge the residual dark power from my body, to eradicate it root and branch?" Solo tried, but failed utterly. He couldn't even touch that small fragment of darkness.
"It seems I have to accept reality. Now it's become a part of my body."
Moreover, he found it hard to imagine himself becoming a flawless, incorruptible exemplar of the Jedi.
Heroes are born of their times, and in the brutal crucible of war, maintaining pristine moral purity was simply unrealistic.
Come to think of it, what did Saruman say again?
"White! White is only good at the beginning. White cloth can be dyed, white paper can be written upon, and even a beam of white light refracts into a rainbow within a single drop of ordinary water!"
Gandalf replied, "But then it is no longer white."
It seemed these legendary figures still held profound insights on certain matters.
Then there was his mental conversation with Ahsoka. The very act defied conventional logic, and her account of the pain vanishing was even more inconceivable.
How exactly was this accomplished?
Solo began searching his memory for relevant knowledge and records. As expected, the answers were far from definitive.
Regarding Ahsoka's pain vanishing, although the explanation was more specific, it remained equally unsettling.
What Solo had done most closely resembled the Force Drain technique, except instead of absorbing life energy, he had absorbed pure pain.
Tsk, this ability was truly obscure and difficult to comprehend.
As for his mental conversation with Ahsoka, there were two possible explanations.
The first possibility was what was called Combat Fusion, or Force Fusion.
In his memory, he had read two documents with different names but identical core content.
This was a Light Side technique that allowed the consciousnesses of multiple Force-sensitive individuals to be linked through the Force, even allowing them to draw energy from each other. This might explain why he was able to take away Ahsoka's pain.
However, this technique was rarely practiced due to its extreme danger.
People like Joruus had used it multiple times, but it often led to the user controlling the consciousness, and even the body, of the other Force-sensitive individuals.
But his situation with Ahsoka was not like that.
The second possibility was a Force Bond, also called a Force Bond or Jedi Kinship. This was a natural connection formed through the Force.
The strength of the bond depended on the individuals' sensitivity to the Force, meaning that the stronger both parties' Force abilities were, the stronger the bond would be.
Although most living beings, including Force users, possessed only a very weak version of this ability, it was said that some people were born with a special talent for it.
This sounded more like the truth.
They could communicate, and feel each other's pain.
But—how was this bond formed?
Ahsoka's exceptional talent was understandable, but Solo himself wasn't a particularly gifted Force-sensitive. Wait!
Blood transfusion!
Could this cross-species blood transfusion have established a familial bond between them?
It wasn't impossible.
What a fuss over nothing...
But all these possibilities were too vague, and the facts themselves were murky.
After all, this wasn't a game with precisely quantified parameters to reference.
The Force had no specific attributes, no fixed parameters, and its power was virtually limitless. Therefore, speculation could go on endlessly.
"Forget it. I'll look into it later."
Solo shook his head. He didn't have time to dwell on these thoughts; it was time to assess the practical benefits.
What could this Force Bond bring them?
He recalled Master Drake saying, "Through this connection, two Force users can influence each other over great distances, exchanging sensations, thoughts, and images, and achieving greater coordination in combat."
"The Force flows freely through this bond, sometimes allowing one's will to support the other, or borrowing the other's strengths to compensate for one's own weaknesses."
This could be used for teaching, and it might also help Solo restrain Ahsoka, who sometimes acted too impulsively in battle. Perhaps this bond could help her regain her composure in time.
Right. He needed to find an opportunity to test the range of this connection.
In short, everything was still a mystery.
But from now on, he had to observe such anomalies more closely and engage in more frequent self-reflection.
An excess of the Dark Side within one's body was never a good thing; he had heard the warnings before.
"General," a Lieutenant's voice interrupted Solo's thoughts. "Everything's ready, Commander. All vehicles have been fully loaded."
"Good. I'm on my way."
Solo jumped down from the bunk, picked up his helmet, and put it on.
A distinct surge of energy rippled through the Force, followed by Miro's urgent report: "General, a powerful electromagnetic pulse has been detected!"
"It's over," Solo said slowly, his voice grim.
They had been underway for nearly an hour, already seventy kilometers beyond the base's defensive perimeter.
Just as Li Norega had predicted, the enemy had anticipated their breakout, but they hadn't anticipated the sheer scale of the operation.
During the breakout, they had used their ammunition without reservation, all vehicles firing their weapons at full capacity, just to buy the clones left behind at the base a few more moments to evacuate.
Thanks to everyone's supreme effort, they had successfully packed nearly 20,000 clone troopers into the transport vehicles—4,000 more than originally planned.
Even so, over six thousand clone troopers remained at the base under Zillo's command.
They had taken all the technicians, mechanics, and wounded, leaving fewer than two fully combat-capable brigades.
Still, this was better than nothing. The amount of useful supplies they could actually take was far less than expected.
During the breakout, they conservatively estimated that they had defeated and destroyed approximately three thousand Jabim militiamen and over ten thousand battle droids.
The convoy, composed of various armored vehicles, sped southward, striving to escape the combat zone as quickly as possible.
The enemy continued to jam their communications, but even without contact, they knew Zillo's forces couldn't hold out much longer.
Then, the earth-shattering explosion arrived as expected.
"Thirty-three minutes," Li Norega reported, his voice precise. "The margin of error is no more than a few seconds."
"Gentlemen," Solo said, removing his helmet, his voice heavy, "let us observe a moment of silence for our fallen comrades."
The command cabin fell into a deathly silence, broken only by the rumble of the engines echoing through the air.
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