The Padawan and the Rebel

The Padawan: Capture (Part Two)

Days and weeks continued to pass, and Adhara grew stronger in the Force. She refused to lose another clone.

She could protect them with both lightsabers. With only one. She could do it blindfolded or in the dark. And every time, dripping in sweat, Trap would tell her to stay strong and Aitor would radiate pride, telling her she would make a strong dark side wielder if she gave into her pain. She could tell Dooku was growing tired of trying to break her, but Aitor's resolve seemed stronger every day.

The droids threw her in her cell after a particularly hard session, where she spent the morning screaming from electrocution and heat, and the afternoon straining her body to the breaking point protecting the clones. She immediately dropped to her knees in the cell, her bones mush, and swallowed back tears. She thought of Ahsoka, bright and lively and vibrant, and let it ease some of the breaking. Let her pretend she was happy and whole.

There was a creak as the door of her cell opened, and her head shot up to see Aitor slip in. Immediately, her lips pulled back into a snarl.

"Get out, Aitor. Now."

"Please, Addie." He wrung his hands in front of him. "Hear me out."

"I don't even want to look at you, I sure as hell don't want to hear whatever you have to say."

But still, he dropped to his knees, purple eyes staring into her own. Her heart shuddered to see those eyes, so familiar, on such a sinister face. "We can make this stop, Adhara. We can stop your pain. You just have to join me."

Adhara bared her teeth. "How many times do I have to tell you? I will never join you."

"I hate seeing you in pain." His voice was hard. "But if you join me you can stop it. You can stop hurting us both."

"Or you can stop hurting me." She couldn't help it -- her voice broke. "Why are you doing this to me, Aitor? I'm your sister."

Aitor's face tightened, and he withdrew, shaking his head. "I won't lose you, Addie. I'll do what I have to."

Adhara let her eyes flutter shut. Tried to block Aitor out, even though he was right there. "You have already lost me."

And she had lost herself, a little more, everyday.

Ahsoka. Where are you?

I miss you.

I can't carry on without you.

Where are you?

Ahsoka.

Ahsoka.

Ahsoka.

She thought about all the people on Coruscant that she missed: Obi-Wan, Rex, Anakin, Cody, but Ahsoka most of all. She took Ahsoka for granted, she knew now. She had been lucky, to get to know her as Younglings. Even luckier to become Obi-Wan's apprentice, and to get to spend endless days with Ahsoka.

It seemed as though her luck had ran out.

She exhaled slowly, leaning her head back again the cool wall, eyelids fluttering closed. Would the Force listen to her, if she spoke to it? If she asked it to save her, or to ease her into oblivion? If she begged for it to do something?

Perhaps it did hear her, because sleep chased her into the peace of nothing.

***

When Adhara woke, she knew something was off.

She could feel it in the Force that thrummed through her and through the complex, as if warning her, and immediately she was on her knees, still chained to the floor, but ears straining for any hint of what was going on. She reached for her sabers, only to remember that they were not there, and that she was a prisoner. Trapped.