Heyo, human beings from outer space!
I'm honestly not sure where this came from or if I like it.
Trigger warning for blood.
Read on if you dare.
She was by no means old.
Young, actually- she was very young. She could be no more than sixteen.
And she was a Togruta, which was further puzzling.
"You stupid trash!" she shouted at, what he assumed, was a speeder bike. "I'm going to rip you to shreds, grind you to dust, and spread you in the sands of Tatooine to be stomped on by banthas!"
"Um, hello?" he was hesitant to approach her, as any sane person should be. Or, maybe he wasn't sane. Any sane person would leave her be. But there was something about her voice that drew him in.
She kicked the speeder a few times (how did that not hurt her foot?), grumbling and snarling at it. "Trash, trash, trash! It's going to take me years to repair you."
"Excuse me?"
She ignored him further, giving the speeder a final whack before snatching some tools and tinkering with the machine.
"Do you need some help?" he offered. "I'm a mechanic, I have a shop around the corner if you wanna bring it in."
"I'm fine, thanks," she snorted, muttering something incoherent afterwords.
"It won't cost you much. I am experienced, too, and I could fix your-"
"I'm good, don't need help," she repeated.
"Are you sure? We could-"
"I can handle this by myself," she assured him.
"How about you-"
"I'm fine!" She shouted, whirling around to face him.
He froze. Her face had twisted into some sort of snarl or glare, her sharp teeth showed, and oh... those eyes. They were like nothing he had ever seen before. But there was something almost eerie about them. They looked old. They shone beautifully, but they also looked worn. Exposed.
"You should go on your way," she recommended. "You're wasting your time with me, I don't need help."
"No, I always make sure that my clients-"
"I'm not your client. Get lost!" She looked like she could punch a hole right through him.
"Alright, fine, just trying to do my job," he held his palms up as if to surrender.
She rolled her eyes at him and went back to work on her speeder. She, once again, looked very young. No more than sixteen. But her eyes looked much older. Perhaps she had seen much more than any person her age should see.
He hadn't realized he had stayed and watched her until a yelp broke him out of his thoughts.
"Ackh-" she gasped, dropping her tool and gripping her right palm and wrist with her left hand. She smacked the speeder with her left hand. "Ugh, look what you've done," then she mumbled something along the lines of, "Now I'm talking to speeders. Great. I'm losing my mind."
"Uh, I know you told me to get lost, but are you okay?" he grinned sheepishly as she turned to face him again.
"I'm fine, thanks," she said, rolling her eyes. "You're as bad as Anakin."
"Anakin?"
"Nah, you're just some lousy business boy trying to get the best of me," she snorted.
"Excuse me?!" he fired back.
"Yeah, you're a mechanic," she told him nonchalantly. She winced, gripping her palm again. "You're trying to get me to buy your assistance in fixing this speeder. Well, I'll have you know that I am very capable of fixing my own speeder."
That's when he saw her right palm. Blood smeared it, oozing from a cleft across her hand. He bit back an angry report.
"Actually," he said in a matter-of-fact tone. "I was going to offer you some bandages and cream for that cut. I'm a mechanic, but I'm also a neighborhood fellow who takes care of children and their booboos. So, will you let me help you?"
"I'm not a neighborhood child with a skinned knee," she hissed, seemingly unaware of the blood that had started dripping off her palm and onto the ground.
"Seriously, that looks really bad," he pointed to her hand. "I'd get it taken care of before it got infected if I was you."
"I've had worse." More and more blood polled on the ground from her hand.
"How 'worse'?"
"A lot worse," she narrowed her eyes at the nosy boy in front of her.
"How much worse is that?"
"Oh my Force it's literally just a cut!" She blurted.
"How much worse have you had?" he repeated.
"Try me," she challenged.
"Uhh, getting electroculted.
"Yup."
"Falling from a really high hight."
"Yep."
"Broken a bone."
"Uh-huh."
"Gotten third-degree burns."
She snorted, "Oh, yeah."
"Spranged an ankle."
"Yes."
"Gotten a fracture."
"Done that."
"Been shot with a blaster."
"Too many times to count."
"Been in a spaceship crash."
She laughed. "Boy have I ever."
"How many?"
"Too many to count."
He thought of one that would surely get her. "Okay, have you been in a coma?"
"Yup. Multiple."
"You've been in a coma?! You've been in multiple comas?! You're so young!" He exclaimed.
"Hey!" She snapped. "You're not much older!"
"But I'm still older," he smirked.
"I could be older. I don know how old you are," she bit.
"But I'm still taller."
She gave him a look that could curdle milk. "Get out of my way before I turn you inside-out!"
"But your speeder-"
"I'll be back, now out of my way!" She shoved past him. "And if you touch it you're a dead man."
He watched her storm off, then looked back to her speeder. Well, he hadn't listened to her before. Why start now? He dragged the speeder to his shop and started working on it right away. It was very beat up.
The girl returned a while later, fuming. He could've sworn that if she'd been any angrier, smoke would be seeping from her skin.
"Okami!" she boomed. "Where is my speeder bike?!!"
"Right here, ma'am," he replied, his voice almost wavering.
"What have you done?!" she gestured dramatically at the mostly-repaired speeder.
"I fixed it," he glanced at the bike.
"Exactly," she hissed. "Don't you get it?"
"I don't think I do."
"No duh, detective."
"Then why did you ask?"
"That's not the point!" She facepalmed, taking a deep breath and trying to calm down a little.
"Okay, elaborate," he prompted.
"You just stole my only mode of transportation. I don't have any credits to pay for it, and now I owe you. Dept will do me no good," she suddenly looked very frail. "Fine. I'll go find some other way to travel."
"I could give you a disscount," he offered.
"You could leave me alone and never talk to me again," she suggested, walking towards the door. "Congratulations, you have another product to sell."
"Wait, I didn't get your name," he called after her.
"You don't need it, Okami," she retorted.
"Nyx, actually. Okami is the family name," Nyx corrected.
"Well, Nyx, It was not a pleasure doing business with you. Farewell," she tossed over her shoulder. She muttered something incoherent under her breath.
As she was about to march out the door, three men blocked her way. "Scuse us, little lady," they pushed past her.
"Excuse me?" she demanded. "No one has any right of calling me that!"
"Says who? You're just a harmless, little girl," the men snorted.
"Call me that again and you'll be sorry," she threatened.
"Sure..."
Before anyone knew what was happening, she lunged forward and sunk her teeth and nails into the man. Nyx could hardly keep up as she threw a series of punches and kicks at the men. It ended quickly with the men running away from the store.
"Jerks."
Nyx clapped slowly from behind her. She turned around, somehow looking much less infuriated.
"Impressive," Nyx commented.
"Thanks, I needed that," she smirked, but quickly wiped it off her face. "Crud! I'm turning into an Anakin!"
"And that is..." he prompted.
"None of your business," she finished. She glared straight into his eyes, her old ones unable to hide the exhaustion in them.
"You look tired," he tried.
"Sorry about scaring your customers off," she changed the subject. She quickly added, "Not that you don't do that already."
"It's okay, I didn't like those guys anyway," Nyx ignored the second part. "You look tired."
"I'm fine," she blinked hard. "Just adjusting, ya know? I can't live off of caf anymore."
"And you used to?" Nyx assumed.
"Most of the time, yes," she chuckled dryly. "Sometimes my, uh, brothers would get mad at me and wrestle me down."
"You have brothers?"
"Sure do," she crossed her arms.
"How many?"
"Too many," she smiled. A genuine smile. Not a smirk, not a devilish grin, but a smile. A worn smile to match her old eyes, but a genuine one.
"You close to them?" Nyx wanted to know.
"Yeah, we have lots of memories. But now their gone," her smile faded.
"What happened to them?" Nyx couldn't help but ask.
"More like what happened to me," she looked at him sadly. "Tragedy."
"So, your speeder's on the house," Nyx decided. "If you tell me your name."
She sighed. "Ahsoka. My name is Ahsoka Tano."
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Word Count:
Published: Feb. 10, 2022
Yeah, still dunno what that is.
Lemme know if you want an alternate ending or a part two or whatever.
And requests are open! Feel free to message me or comment!
Bye, peoples!