ahsoka || a fanfiction

ii

The silence is absolute; even the young Togruta has stopped crying now. She and her mother look at me, both with those familiar features...
"Who are you?" I ask, unable to stop myself. They don't answer.

"Ahsoka, please-" Anakin starts.

"No," I interrupt sharply. "I've come this far to find them..."

"Ahsoka, this mission isn't about you, or them," Anakin says, more forcefully this time. "It's about saving Shili from separatists, then leaving-"

"That's all anything ever is to you, isn't it?" I snap. "Completing your mission, then rushing back to Coruscant as a hero, and Padme-"

"Don't you start about that," Anakin warns sharply. He glances furtively at the clones. I'm the only one who knows his secret, and he'd like to keep it that way, but for me it's the only thing I can hold against him.

"Can you please tell me who you are?" I repeat, ignoring Anakin and turning back to the Togruta. Then the droids seem to snap out of a trance, their mechanical parts clanking as they straighten up and brandish their whips.
"No!" I shout as a droid prepares to continue its beating on the girl.
This time I really do take out my lightsabers, which I know at once to be a mistake, but I don't even care. The droids that escape the bright green blades flee, obviously going to tell the separatists that there are Jedi on Shili, but most of the droids are now lying in a heap on the ground. Togruta everywhere cry out in shock; many cover younglings or back into houses. Anakin grabs my arm and pulls me roughly behind a shabby hut.

"What were you thinking?!" he hisses in my face.

"I- I don't know, I just - I needed to know," I respond quietly.
His features soften and he relaxes his grip; I slump to the ground, not bothering to stand.
"I didn't even get to talk to them," I whisper, my face in my hands.

"They might not even be your - your family," Anakin says, stumbling on the last word. He sits down next to me, gazing at me with his electric blue eyes.

"Oh come on," I say, slightly impatient. "How many other Togruta have you seen that look like them? Like me," I add softly.

"Well," Anakin struggles for words, "that's true. But - Ahsoka, we're Jedi, we can't have emotional attachments like that-"

"You hypocrite!" I shriek; Anakin motions for me to keep my voice down.

"That's diff-"

"It is not different!"

"Fine," Anakin says firmly, "I'm a hypocrite, but please, for your own safety-"

"Since when has anything bad ever happened to you?" I sneer.

"It's not about that," Anakin replies quietly. "If you have attachments you have more chance of going to the Dark Side."

"I- oh," I say, my eyes dropping onto the hard ground. "I'm sorry. It's just...well, you know."

"Yeah," Anakin says, raising his head and turning to look at the blood red Suns dipping below the horizon. "Yeah, I know."
We sit there in silence for a while, before he says suddenly, "Come on! Ugh, I can't believe I let you get away with this! We've got work to do."

"Oh yeah," I say, jumping to my feet instantly.

Back in the Main Street, everything is back to normal – not necessarily a good thing, considering the amount of Togruta being tortured and forced to harvest by hand.

"We've go to stay hidden," Anakin whispers, drawing his cloak around him. "The separatists will know by now that we're here." He didn't say that it was my fault, which I was grateful for.

"Where are we going now?" I ask.

"We have to wait until evening to do anything," Anakin replies, "because both the separatists and the Togruta will be asleep. The we'll have to find out where the separatists are and imprison them, but first we'll destroy their source of droids so they can't use them against us."

"Okay," I say.
It's a simple plan, but I'm not happy with just doing that. I want to find out who my family are, but I know that if I say this to Anakin he'll just remind me that Jedi aren't supposed to have any attachments.
Making sure Anakin is preoccupied with res the plan to the clones, I stick my head out from the side of the building. The Togruta who look exactly like me are being beaten again, probably because the droids are blaming what just happened on them. I look back at Anakin; he's in the middle of an animated discussion. Perfect, I think.
I dash out into the street, careful not to draw too much attention to myself. When I'm only a couple of metres away from the droid, I raise my arm, stretching out my hand-

"Ahsoka! What are you doing?! I thought I told you to stay here!" Anakin says angrily, trying to keep his voice down.
I don't reply.
Anakin looks at me sternly, then says, "Whatever. Just stop it, okay? The only thing you're doing is endangering lives. Come on, it's nearly dusk," he adds, pulling me back into the rapidly growing shadows.

After a while, the harvesting Togruta heave their baskets onto their shoulders and start making their way towards where some droids are collecting them. Among the mass of colourful Togruta, I spot Sora, handing over her basket. She hurries away from the crowd and down a side street, glancing around herself fearfully.
Anakin motions to follow her.
Sora keeps shuffling along, unaware of us following metres behind her. Suddenly she turns right and disappears from view into a small shabby hut.Charlie trailed off, sat down, and started attacking his roast chicken, throwing furtive looks at the others. Anakin, the clones, and I hurry forwards just before Sora closes the door.

"It's you," she says, as if she can't believe we remembered what she said. She's obviously regretting it more and more.

"Yes, it's us," Anakin relies calmly. "We don't mean to trouble you and your family, and if our visit puts you in any danger we will leave immediately."

"Oh very well, come in," Sora grumbles, moving aside so we can walk in and shutting the door firmly behind us.

"Don't worry, we won't be here for long," Anakin assures. "Once we decide what we're doing tomorrow, we can find our own place to sleep. It's just safest for us here at the moment."

Two young female Togruta are sitting on the worn carpet in the middle of the room, eyeing us curiously.

"Hello," I say, waving with my hand.

They don't respond immediately, then the older one, with bright blue skin, says, "You look like my friend."

"Oh, do I really?" I ask, sitting down next to them and pretending to be interested.

"Yeah, you do," the other one, a magenta skinned, agrees.

"And her mother as well," the blue one adds.

Then I realise who they must be talking about.
"Do you know them?" I ask, now actually interested.

"Oh yes, of course we do," the blue one says happily. "They were our best frie-"

"There will be no talk of those traitors Zanette Tano and her daughter here," Sora says suddenly and severely, with a sideways glance at me.