The Padawan and the Rebel

The Padawan: Capture (Part Three)

It was more than Adhara deserved.

"I'm sorry, Ash." she whispered the words. "I can't."

Ahsoka's face tightened. "Fine." she rose to her feet, her limbs tight. "Fine. But don't say I didn't try." She turned to walk away, shoulders rigid, and Adhara's chest tightened. She hadn't realized how lonely she'd been, alone in her mind, but watching Ahsoka walk away threatened to split her soul wide open. Threatened to plunge her into an abyss she would not crawl her way out of.

Maybe that was dramatic. Maybe it was selfish, to want Ahsoka to stay, to help bear the weight of her pain.

Maybe she just didn't want to be alone, or watch Ahsoka walk away.

Adhara caught her arm, chest heaving. Hands tightening on Ahsoka's skin. "Do you know what kept me sane? What kept me alive? What kept me breathing when I didn't think I had any breaths left?"

Ahsoka stopped, turning back only slightly. Meeting Adhara's eyes for only a moment. "What?"

"You."

A pause. a gut-wrenching, aching pause that threatened to make Adhara's world come undone.

"Me?"Her voice was low.

Adhara nodded. "You were the only thing that calmed me. the only thing that gave me hope when the world felt hopeless."

Ahsoka turned back to her, those blue eyes intense, like they always were. That sucked Adhara in and took her straight to her home, to a place where her soul eased.

"What did they do to you?" She asked, and this time, Adhara was honest.

"Everything," she breathed.

Ahsoka stepped closer, so close there was only a breath between them, and it felt like every pound of Adhara's heart closed the space, beating against Ahsoka's chest.

"Can I undo it?" Ahsoka asked.

Adhara shook her head. "You can't. But you can help me, just by staying."

A wry smile pulled at her lips, that smile Adhara loved. It was a glimmer of light. "Addie dear, you know I could never leave."

Adhara smiled, and it felt like a shift into the light. Like a movement away from the shadows, with Ahsoka at her side.

***

The world was red.

Red, and red, and more red.

Adhara didn't remember the colour red hurting her so much. But whenever it touched her skin  it sent pain searing through her body. She could see red laser bullets and red lightsabers.

Red eyes.

"Good morning, Adhara," Dooku said.

His words were red, too, floating across the room and spearing into her side, burrowing under her skin. Adhara, screamed, writhing.

Then the world tilted, and the shade of red dipped into burgundy, causing her pupils to dilate. she blinked, forcing her eyes to adjust, and then two red blades split the darkness out of the same hilt.

Her blood, red, ran cold.

"Aitor?"

He stalked towards her, his voice a rumble. The words dug into her skin, too, nestling against her soul. It sounded like a hundred Aitor's screaming at her from all directions, forcing her to come undone.

"Join me. Don't leave me again."

"Do you expect me to apologize?"

"You are weak, just like the Jedi! You always were!"