"In Need of Wings"
Chapter the First
Three months.
Three months ago to the day, actually.
It had felt like a much longer time. But that is how long it had been since Ahsoka Tano walked away from the Jedi Order. Three months since she was betrayed by the people she had grown to trust the most, save for only one—Anakin. The same person she walked away from after all they had been together. Even all this time later, Ahsoka could still feel their connection was strong.
One would think that six months would have dulled the pain by now. Guess not.
Ahsoka Tano kicked the repulsorlift engine of her speeder in frustration.
"Shit! Dammit! Shit!" She sat on the ground and continued to curse under her breath. She had been scratched up and bruised all around because of the crash, and she had badly sprained her right wrist. She snarled and kicked it again. Bad move; her shin was already badly bruised.
She fumed as she thought of what the dealer had said. "Like new quality, guaranteed!" How did she fall for that so easily? How did she become so gullible? But the dealer did sound very convincing after all…
This whole living on her own on Coruscant wasn't turning out as well as Ahsoka thought it would. In retrospect, she should have found a companion and started somewhere easier, not decided to wander the city all on her own. At the time, it sounded like an adventure.
"Adventure, my ass," she muttered.
She had no other choice but to leave the scrap pile that used to be her new speeder behind, and make her way back home by taking the train. Her home—too strong a word in this current circumstance—was an apartment deeper into the city on the lower levels of Coruscant. Barely an apartment at all. The best she could afford was small, cramped, filthy, with one small window looking out to the city. She hated it so much. But what else could she do?
Certainly a far cry from the Jedi Temple. Not that living there was first-class luxury all the time. But at least the Temple didn't reek of mold, smoke, and waste. Or have leaky faucets that sometimes had less water and more of oil or some other unidentifiable liquid. Or noisy neighbors stumbling down the halls vomiting and arguing and who knows what else at three in the morning. Suffice it to say Ahsoka could not imagine how anyone could survive living in such conditions as long as she had, much less longer than three months.
She kicked a stray bolt on the ground, stuck her hands in her pockets, and pulled her hood over her head to hide the scratches and bruises on her face she now found quite embarrassing. She began walking down the street to find the nearest train station, muttering to herself about how stupid she was for letting herself get swindled. It would not be so terrible if it hadn't been the first time. But honestly Ahsoka was getting tired of being taken advantaged of in this regard.
Several minutes into her walk down the narrow, darkening streets of the city, Ahsoka began to feel tension in the air. As if a potential threat was arriving. But she seemed to get his sense on and off when she was around certain characters, and her best option was to keep moving.
This time, however, the tension was growing stronger. Ahsoka walked a little faster, keeping her head lowered. She almost collided into a tall Trandoshan thug in front of her. Before Ahsoka could mutter an apology and be on her way, she felt his thick scaly hand on her shoulder. She was shoved back against the wall.
"Hey, watch it!" Ahsoka snapped.
"You should watch it, youngling," the Trandoshan hissed.
Ahsoka glanced to her left and noticed three other thugs approaching them. They seemed to know the Trandoshan. One of them grabbed Ahsoka's other shoulder. The way he grinned at her sent an icy chill down Ahsoka's spine. She should have known this would be a bad area to be walking through.
"She's lean meat, but she'll do," one of them hissed.
"Get your ugly paws off me, sleemo!" Ahsoka snapped. She was about to shove both of them away when she remembered her wrist had been sprained. This would make a fight much more difficult, especially if she was up against four large Trandoshans.
"What do you say? Beat the fight out of her first?"
"Come on, pretty little girl. Squeal for me." One of them yanked back her hood.
"Don't you touch me!" Ahsoka screamed. As she realized what was about to happen, she grew more and more terrified.
One of the Trandoshans was about to grab the front of her shirt, when Ahsoka heard the sound of a blaster being fired. The Trandoshan went down and the other three turned to see who it was. In the shadows, Ahsoka could barely make out the silhouette of a faintly familiar figure.
Using the Trandoshan's confusion to her advantage, Ahsoka kneed one of them in the groin and kicked the other in the kneecap. The silhouette opened fire on two of them, but the remaining Trandoshan ran into the shadows to attack them in time. Ahsoka pulled her hood over her head again and watched, feeling confused as to who her rescuer was. She could not think of anybody who fit.
As her anonymous rescuer slipped out of a would-be deadly blow from the Trandoshan, a glint of light from the neon pulse sign above illuminated red eyes and a dark snarl. The silhouette suffered but one wavering blow from the Trandoshan before finishing him off as well. Ahsoka groaned and wondered if her day could possibly get any worse than this. And considering who had just happened to be in the same vicinity as of today, it definitely could get worse, a lot worse.
You have got to be kidding me.
"Cad Bane…" Ahsoka snarled.
He turned towards her and stepped into the light. Now there was no mistaking who it was. She'd recognize that ugly hat anywhere.
"Padawan Tano," he said coldly. "I've been looking for you."
Quickly, Ahsoka grabbed her weapon with her injured hand. It did not register to mind to ask as to why bounty hunter scum would rescue her from a group of thugs, except for the most obvious reason of course: he had far worse plans for her. And Ahsoka wasn't about to find out what his plans were.
A/N: The beginning of this chapter was inspired by the newly released footage from Star Wars Celebration last week, where Ahsoka was driving a speeder that gradually broke down.
I have been wanting to write a fic about Cad Bane and Ahsoka for a long time, but last week finally inspired how I wanted to kick off the story.