Heyo, human beings from outer space!
Lookie here I'm still going strong and it's already day three. Three days in a row, whoohoo!
This was requested by and the prompt is "Forced to Choose"
Read on if you dare.
Ahsoka didn't know what was happening. One minute, everything was fine, and she was fighting in a battle on a typical afternoon in the great, war-ridden galaxy. But then the next minute, all she could see was blue and all she could feel was white-hot, blinding pain. There was screaming, shouting, hands on her face.
She just wished everyone would shut up and go away so she could figure out what was happening. She tried to blink, tried to see, but everything was a suspicious tint of red.
And then a sharp pain ripped through her and she couldn't fight any longer as the darkness finally dragged her under.
🪐🪐🪐
Ahsoka knew the feeling. The feeling of fighting nail and tooth just to wake up could only mean one thing: strong painkillers. Very strong painkillers. Lots of very strong painkillers.
Every time Ashoka almost made it to the surface, almost opened her eyes, it dragged her down again and she had to wait idly to regain enough energy to try and wake herself.
Finally, finally, she could feel again. She could feel her lungs filling with and puffing out air, she could feel her eyes twitching.
And then she finally mustered up all her strength and managed to drag her eyes open to find herself in the Halls of Healing. Anakin was there, by her side, as he always was. So was Obi-Wan, which also was expected. Then there was Rex. Not so expected, but not so uncommon, either. But what had Ahsoka's insides twisting with panic was the woman sitting on the other side of the bed, the woman that normally made her whole day brighter when they saw each other. Padme
If Padme was there, that meant something was wrong. Very wrong.
"Hey, Ahsoka," Anakin said in his gentlest of tones. "How're you feeling?"
"What happened? What's going on?" Ahsoka croaked out in a panic. "Something's wrong. Am I going to die?"
"No, no, of course not," Anakin said. "You think I'd be this calm if you were about to die?"
Okay, he had a point.
"Then what's happening?" Ahsoka said.
"You need rest," Anakin said quickly.
"No," Ahsoka pleaded. "I need to know what happened."
Anakin started to protest, but Obi-Wan held up his hand. "Anakin, it isn't an elaborate secret, and you can't keep her from it."
Ahsoka's insides were positively knotting with panic. She looked at everyone in the room. Anakin and Obi-Wan were staring at each other as if having a telepathic debate (they probably were), Rex's jaw was set and his expression was grave, and Padme's eyes went watery with tears.
Finally, after tense moments that may as well have dragged into years, Anakin nodded to Padme. Padme gave him a nod back, small and timid, and pulled at the edge of the course blanket on top of her.
Ahsoka expected to see her leg wrapped in bandages, majorly screwed up, but her left leg was perfectly fine other than a few bruises. Padme tugged the blanket back further, folding it over so Ahsoka could see the bottom half of her legs.
But nothing but her perfectly-fine left leg was there. Ahsoka looked up at everyone with confusion.
"I don't get it," she said. "It looks fine."
Padme, wiping her eyes, folded the blanket almost all the way off of Ahsoka, and Ahsoka's vision swam from the sudden shock.
Her right leg was gone. All that was left was a little stub a few inches below her knee.
And Anakin and Padme held her as she cried.
🪐🪐🪐
"I don't want to learn to walk again," Ahsoka told Anakin two weeks later, as they watched the specialist who'd just ordered her customized leg step out of the room.
"No?" said Anakin. "What, you want to be stuck sitting in a pod all day? Never get back on your feet?"
"No, I'd like to sprout another leg," Ahsoka said, her nose tingling as tears welled up in her eyes.
Anakin chuckled darkly. "I get it. I was scared when I got my arm chopped off. But don't worry, you'll hardly notice a difference."
"But it's different for me," Ahsoka said, trying and failing to swallow back a sob. "I have to learn how to walk again!"
"I know, I know," Anakin said, "but you'll be able to feel with your new leg and everything. It won't take long to learn to walk again."
Tears leaked from Ahsoka's eyes and she sniffed, looking down to try to hide her tears from Anakin, even if she knew it was pointless.
"Ahsoka, look at me," Anakin said. His fingers brushed her chin and he lifted her head so their eyes connected. "For all the years I've known you, you've never backed out of anything. You aren't a quitter, Ahsoka. Don't sit there and tell me you're backing out just because you got hurt."
"Very hurt," Ahsoka corrected.
"But you aren't a quitter," Anakin said. "Ahsoka Tano, look into my eyes and tell me that you're not a quitter."
Ahsoka took in a shaky breath and Anakin wiped away her tears.
"Ahsoka."
"I'm... I'm not a quitter," Ahsoka said.
"Okay, then tomorrow, when they bring in your leg, you're going to learn to walk again," Anakin said. "And it's going to be a breeze for you."
Very slowly, Ahsoka nodded. "Okay."
🪐🪐🪐
Ahsoka shifted her weight forward onto her new prosthetic leg, lost her balance, and took an involuntary dive to the floor. Anakin, thankfully, grabbed her before she hit the ground and pulled her back to her feet before she could gasp.
"It takes a minute to get used to, but you'll catch on, I promise," Anakin said.
Ahsoka's gaze darted to the ground and she bit the inside of her cheek. What if he was wrong? What if she never caught on?
"Try again," Anakin prompted when she continued to cling to his arm, balancing on her flesh leg, and made no attempt to move.
Ahsoka shook her head slowly. "I already tried. A lot of times. I'm done."
"Ahsoka–"
"Anakin," Ahsoka bit. "I'm done for today. I'm tired. I don't want to do this anymore."
Anakin sighed and steered her to sit down on the bed. Tears welled up in Ahsoka's eyes as he knelt down in front of her and anchored down her attention.
"Ahsoka," he said, his voice gentle and soft, "this is really, really hard for you and it's a big rush trying to get you to walk so fast again... I get it. You're tired and we're pushing you further than we should. But you need to make a choice. You need to chose to walk again, and you need to choose to put all your effort into it. No one can make that choice for you."
She sniffed and licked her chapped lips.
"Or," Anakin said, his tone rising just a bit, "you could choose not to. It's up to you, Ahsoka."
Several beats of silence passed, the tension growing with every thrum of Ahsoka's aching heart.
"I want to walk again," Ahsoka said. "I'm not a quitter."
Anakin smiled. "Alright. So take two tomorrow after you get some rest?"
"No, I want to try again now," Ahsoka said. Her spirits and wounded confidence renewed, she let Anakin help her to her feet and ignored that stupid, proud smirk that told her everything in his plan was working as he'd wanted it to.
Taking a deep breath, Ahsoka centered herself in the Force. She could feel Anakin, pulsing with pride and confidence. She could feel the others in the room, the healer and the specialist, whose presences were positively dwarfed by Anakin's. She could feel herself, bitter but determined. Through her prosthetic leg, she could feel the coolness of the floor. She moved every toe, every little muscle in her foot, and then she lifted it.
It hung heavily from her knee unlike her flesh leg would and it clanked to the floor with much less grace than she'd planned it to. She shifted her weight over and felt as though she was trying to balance on a thin beam extended above a cage of rancors. She wobbled and felt herself tip forward.
Anakin righted her and she all but shoved him away. She had to do this for herself.
She tried again and again, each time losing her balance. But finally, finally, she got it. She took one, single, little step without falling and she'd done it all on her own. In her excitement she tried another... and went crashing straight into Anakin's open arms.
"You did it, Snips!" Anakin beamed, almost more excited than she was. He didn't let her dwell on the failed step right after the good one, instead, overwhelming her with his excitement through the Force and a huge grin on his face.
"I think that's enough for today," Ahsoka said, and this time Anakin didn't try to talk her out of it.
She'd done it, she'd taken a step. Only one, but it was a start.
Things could only get better from here.
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Word Count: 1,519
Published 3 June 2023
Peoples I'm almost done with Febuwhump, all the days completed... now that's it's June, but we'll ignore that part.
Requests are open, feel free to message me or make a comment if you have any ideas!
Bye, peoples!