Chapter 23 - The Truth beneath The Rose

“What did you need here in such a hurry for? Is something wrong?” he asked.
“No, nothings wrong,” she said, standing up from her bed. “In fact…everything is…perfect. I just need to know something.”
“Anything,” Kiro said.
“When we were kidnapped by Aero, I want to know what your were thinking. I know you’ve told me before, but I really want to know…every detail.”
Kiro let out a breath and walked to meet her in the middle of the room.
“I couldn’t get my thoughts off you,” he said. “Even when I was being tortured to the point of near-death…I was just hoping that you were all right.”
“I’m not talking about that,” she said. “I’m talking about when you saw me kill Echo.”
“Oh…that…,” he said. “At that moment, I hated you. I didn’t believe you could do something like that. My brain told me that I should never talk or see you again. But in the back of my mind I knew something wasn’t right. When I saw you walk in and you barely had a scratch on you, I knew Aero was up to something. He was forcing you to do that, and I didn’t know why you were going along with it, but I knew that you had some big master plan to save us all. I could feel it, and apparently my feeling was right…for the second time in my life.”
Ash smiled. A tear came down her face.
“What was the first time?” she asked.
He came closer and wrapped his arms around her.
“When I knew that I loved you,” he said.
Ash gasped.
“You have no idea how badly I needed to hear that,” she said and went in and kissed him. Kiro held her tightly, running his hands through her hair.
Then Ash backed away.
“Kiro, there was something about that time I never told you,” she said, still holding him.
“Hit me,” he said, giving her his crooked Corellian smile.
“That day before, I attempted to escape…emphasis on the ‘attempted’,” she said laughing. “Aero caught up with me on the top level of the building. It was storming pretty badly and there was no were for me to go. Before I knew it, Aero hit me with a shot of Force Lightning right in the shoulder, and because I was soaked wet, it amplified the force of the shock. I fell of the side of the building Kiro,” she said.
Kiro was staring at her with a blank face.
“Why didn’t you ever tell me that?” he asked in complete shock.
“There’s more,” Ash said. “Aero caught me. I didn’t know why, but as you know he apparently wasn’t done using me. He threw me to the other side of the ledge. I knew there was only one way to save you guys, and I took that option. I jumped off the building, thinking that if I died Aero would let you go.”
“Ash…you could’ve killed yourself! Why in blazes would you even think about that?”
“I was thinking like a crazed teenage Jedi. My emotions were going haywire because I didn’t have you and I acted on my first guess. But I didn’t want you to go through anymore physical pain, or Xiang for that matter. In my mind, I was doing what was best for everyone.”
Kiro took her in and she was afraid he would never let go.
“Please…don’t ever, ever do that again!” he said. Ash swore that he was crying. He had no idea that he had come that close to losing her and he hadn’t even known about it.
“Don’t worry, I’ve learned my lesson,” Ash said. “But you’ve got to look at it from my view. I did that for you. I sacrificed my life so that you might have yours. I love you that much.”
“I understand completely,” he said. “But that just makes me never want to let go of you again.”
Then Kiro pushed her away slightly to look at her face.
“Wait…,” he said, confused. “How did you survive the fall?”
“Aero used the force to catch me. I was pretty mad at the time,” Ash said.
“Then I owe him thanks before the next time I kick his butt,” Kiro said. Ash laughed.
“I would like that,” she said.

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