It's Commander Tano, Not Padawan

Chapter 7

"Ahsoka!"

No, no! She couldn't let them catch her. She was being framed!

She looked down only a split second before she began cutting open the pipeline.

She couldn't go back!

The dank, wet sewage seeped into her clothes and ran down her montrals. The urge to gag was so strong but there wasn't time. She had to move.

The wall behind her curved giving her just enough protection to breathe, if only for a moment.

Then she ran.

Finally, an opening.

She stopped short, feeling Anakin nearing. Ahsoka knew she should jump. She had to. There was no other option. They didn't believe her.

"Ahsoka, what are you doing?"

Anakin, no. Now was not the time.

"You didn't even try to come and help me." Why couldn't she just jump? Anakin was hunting her like a dog. She couldn't go back, then would be no way she'd be able to figure out what was happening to her.

"They wouldn't let me in to talk to you!"

That had never stopped him before.

"You could have if you tried!" She didn't care that she sounded like a child. Anakin left her. Her Master abandoned her. Her brother.

"How would that look, Ahsoka, huh?"

Stay back, Master. She knew he was just trying to get closer to grab her. Her panic was a palpable presence, even to herself.

"Forcing my way in would've made you look even more guilty." Kark, she didn't want to listen to him.

But his words stabbed her as if he had physically dealt the blow with his own saber.

"I'm not guilty!" Her words sounded louder than she remembered.

"I'm not guilty!" She flung herself up onto her elbows, her chest heaving, eyes painfully wide.

"Ahsoka, cyar'ika, look at me. Look at me."

At the voice, her head flung to stare at its source.

Kriff, she loved those golden-brown eyes.

She was safe. Flinging her arms around him, Ahsoka buried her face against his neck, deeply breathing in his scent.

She was safe.

A hesitant, rough hand started rubbing her open back, and she couldn't stop the tears. "Rex." Ahsoka hated the way she hiccupped when his name came out of her mouth.

"Hey, cyar'ika." His lips spoke on her montrals, almost like he was kissing them, but she knew that wasn't it.

"Rex, kriff, I'm sorry – I, I don't know –"

"Ahsoka," His surprisingly soft mouth was still resting against the white and 501st blue chevron of her skin. "You have nothing to apologize for. Just breathe."

She didn't say how she didn't think she could do anything else. Focusing on what Rex told her to do, Ahsoka breathed in through her nose, out through her mouth. Over and over again till she couldn't hear her own blood rushing.

Her hands were still shaking though, so she simply squeezed them tighter behind her Captain. Ahsoka didn't know what she would do without him.

After some time, she noticed just how tightly they were pushed to each other in his dim room. His arm was wrapped around her, hand still steadily circling her back. Her whole body pressed on his, nearly on top of him.