Another doc I have lying around. This is an OC. Not my main OC, though they share the same name and general appearance. Also, this story is slightly AU.
"Tori! Get over here! You're not done polishing my leather sofa!"
"A sofa isn't polished. You know that."
"In my house, it is!"
"This isn't your house. It's the Duchess of Mandalore's, being used by you to manipulate orphans you find on the streets." Sometimes, Ol' Hag couldn't see reason, even if it was placed right in front of her grimy, cracked glasses.
"It is my house! The Duchess gave it to me! And about time, too…"
Ol' Hag also thought that she was entitled to anything she wanted.
"The sofa will be ruined if it's polished."
"No! It'll be ruined if you polish it wrong!"
"That's because there's no right way to polish it. And if there is, you don't know it and neither do I."
"I do know the right way to polish it!"
Tori sighed. "Fine."
Tori was twelve, would be in eighth grade if she had been allowed to go to school, had black hair, black eyes and skin that could not be affected by sunlight. And she was being used.
She had learned to read and write from a kind library user when she was five. She was treated like a slave, doing horrible jobs after all the other kids in the orphanage left for school like the aforementioned polishing of Ms. Haggerr's (otherwise known as Ol' Hag) old, crumbling leather sofa. The worst part? It was real leather, not the low-priced, resilient synthetic fabrics on the market that were so commonly used nowadays. Tori shuddered at the thought of hunting helpful, sweet animals for their fur. Animals were innocent creatures that were just trying to survive! Humans had no right to meddle with that!
"Get on with your polishing! You're doing it wrong!"
Tori realized her mind had been drifting. She got back to work.
"No, no! You're doing it wrong again!"
"Alright. Tell me the right way." Ol' Hag didn't notice her rolling her eyes.
"Hold on. It's almost time for the other children to come home. And I've got to give them any mail they've gotten!"
Ol' Hag didn't exactly get the concept of email. Or even holo-mail.
She hobbled out of the door to check the letters that had been delivered. There were only a few.
"Hmmm, one for Pana, one for Alex, one for Percy..." Ol' Hag muttered, then glanced back.
"Tori, get back to work! I want my sofa gleaming by the time the other kids get home!" Tori quickly ducked behind the door.
"Hello, Ms. Haggerr! Did I get any mail today?"
"Yes, Alex! Here you go."
"Thank you, Ms. Haggerr."
Kiss-up.
Next was Odysseus. Then Parrott came in. Then… Most didn't get letters. People didn't use paper much anymore.
"Hey, where's Tori?"
"In the back room behind me. She was bad at school, so they had to send her home again."
"Oh. May I see her?"
"No. I put her in seclusion." Ol' Hag thought she was a Catholic nun. The woman had no end of flaws.
"Oh. Well, then, I'll be on my bunk doing homework. Could you tell me when she comes out?" That was Pana. The only one here who cared about her even a tiny bit.
"Of course." Pana left.
"Oh! Wait, Pana. You got a letter."
"Oh, thank you!"
Ol' Hag hobbled into the room, leaning on her gnarled cane. "Get back to work," she snarled.
"Fine."
"And do it quickly!"
"Alright." Jeez, what was her problem?
She resumed rubbing the sofa with the wet washcloth she held. Ol' Hag hobbled out and left Tori to think. Soon she was done 'polishing' the piece of furniture that had occupied her all day.
"I'm done."
"Hmph. I doubt it."
Ol' Hag came into the room and bent over to inspect. She was strict, but Tori knew how to beat her.
She extended two fingers and flicked them inwards, silently commanding the old woman to let her go.
"Hmph. You can go. Tell Pana you're out." Haggerr didn't notice Tori's satisfied smile, or the way she walked out.
Like a queen claiming her kingdom.
On Coruscant
The darkness again.
It attacked her, somehow, without knowing it did. Its anger, its pain, the hatred and oppression bound her, infiltrated her, squeezed her. She couldn't move. She couldn't breathe. The pain. Whips, now. There were whips, all around her, cracking against her back. Suddenly they faded. She felt aches in her muscles, muscles overused, muscles stretched and pulled to their limits and then through to even more pain...
Ahsoka tore herself from the cloud that had been around her since the day she was born. Soaked in sweat, breathing hard, she rolled off her bottom bunk in the girl's dorm. She grabbed a T-shirt and jeans and the necessary undergarments and ran into the bathroom to change. She emerged from the bathroom, exited the dorm, and headed straight for Master Yoda's meditation chambers, where she knew she would find the venerable Jedi Master. Slowing as she approached the entryway, she saw the door drift open and a soft, gravelly voice come from within.
"Come in, come in."
"Master Yoda." The youngling entered the chamber and bowed to the little green alien.
"Ahsoka Tano. A nightmare, I sense. The darkness?"
Ahsoka sat down on the cushioned pad. "Yes, the darkness." She had gotten used to Yoda's mind reading.
"Perhaps, reveal itself, this presence will. Time, we must give it." Ahsoka nodded and relaxed. "Ready, you must be, when it comes. For now, practice, you must. Peace, you must feel. Your eyes, close. Your feelings, reach out with." The Padawan did as he said, letting the words flow over her.
2 days later, on Christophsis
Ahsoka felt the carrier settle on the ground and her stomach got even more tense. She felt vaguely like she was going to throw up, which was generally not good. But today was the day she got her new Master!
The new Padawan was interrupted by the hatch opening. She immediately stood up and waited at the doorway. Good first impressions were vital. Two men were arguing near a hologram. One was a ginger, but not pale or freckled. He wore a standard white Jedi battle suit. His companion, however...
His companion looked like conflict eternal.
Wrong.
She walked over to the two men. They were deep in discussion, but the man in white sensed her presence. "We can't - oh, hello there. I didn't see you."
The Wrong sneered. "They brought a youngling into a war zone?"
Ahsoka started. "I am a..." The Wrong stared at her with his icy blue eyes, freezing her throat. "Never mind," she managed to choke out.
"Exactly what were you going to say?" His voice was just as cold as his eyes. Maybe even colder.
"Nothing…" she managed to say, but very softly.
"Tell me. NOW."
"I'm a Padawan learner. Please don't kill me," she squeaked out.
The man in white sighed. "You're being too hard on her. You were just like her when you came to be my apprentice."
"Not funny, Master. Now, girl, why are you here? And if you're really a Padawan learner, then where's your master?"
"Thi-this is my first day," Ahsoka managed to murmur. Her shyness was attacking again.
Apparently the Wrong had heard her. "So you don't have a master yet."
"I do, but I haven't met him yet." She said it quietly. Breathing hard, she squeezed her eyes shut against the Wrong's assault.
"Oh? Obi-Wan! Seems your new apprentice is here."
"Alright. It seems we haven't introduced ourselves properly. Why don't you go first?" the man in white said.
Gathering a deep breath, Ahsoka started. "My name is Ahsoka Tano. I'm the new Padawan learner."
"And I am Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, your new master." He spoke smoothly and efficiently, being much less fearful than she was. Though how he wasn't, Ahsoka was not sure.
"I, ah, appreciate the offer, but my master, I was told, was Jedi Knight Skywalker."
"WHAT?!"
The both spun around to find that the one who had yelled was the Wrong.
"Oh. Um, sorry?" she said, rather surprised.
"I'm Jedi Knight Skywalker!"
The new Padawan felt her throat tighten. She could already hear his slicing words wound her ears every time she slipped.
"Obi-Wan, what did you do?" That was Skywalker.
"What do you mean? I didn't do anything." Master Kenobi that time.
The Knight and the Master began arguing, words filled with anger flying from the mouth of Skywalker, reason itself infused in the reproach of Kenobi. Ahsoka was glad to be out of the spotlight for once. She turned to the hologram.
Maybe I can win his favor by fixing it.
She opened the panel underneath the surface. If it was a hardware problem, it was no problem. If it was a software problem...well, that was no problem either.
The insides checked out. Must be the programming. She hit a button, and a keyboard came out of a slot. The new Padawan typed a few words in, then hit the error.
"Aha. Jamming." The holo couldn't pick up on any of the frequencies around that it was authorized. So Ahsoka decided to let the holo onto another frequency.
One that was supposedly protected from everything.
She typed a few commands, and she was in.
Ahsoka turned to the arguing Jedi, unaware that they had been watching her. The Padawan saw their scrutinizing faces, and her words of triumph died in her throat.
"I, uh, fixed the hologram."
Skywalker walked over. Too close. His wrongness radiated off of him like cold off an ice cube. It didn't exactly sit well with her. In fact, it attacked her - so hard she saw black and keeled over.
30 minutes later
"Uhh. What happened?"
"You blacked out. I hope you get over the habit." The voice woke up her up like a bucket of ice water. It was as cold as one. Sure enough, she looked up and found Skywalker looking down his nose at her. She quickly looked around and found she was still at the hologram. This time, though, a clone with a buzz cut and blond hair was checking her over.
"You okay there? I saw you black out. What happened?"
"I'm...sensitive to heat. High fevers might kill me." That wasn't a lie.
"High fevers could kill anyone. It's not an excuse." That was Skywalker again. Her master. "We've got to disable that shield. You up for the job? Or will I have to leave you here?"
His tone made it clear that he wasn't asking.
Later that evening
Ahsoka glumly played through the loop from the Clone Wars movie she had stored on her computer. It was the scene where Master Skywalker and Yoda were talking. The movie version of Ahsoka stood by them.
"Master Skywalker, do you wish to keep this apprentice?"
"You know what? I think I do." Then Master Skywalker and Ahsoka in the movie walked away together, smiling.
The real Ahsoka couldn't take it anymore. She turned off the computer and curled up on her bed, trying to fight the tears that threatened to overwhelm her. She fell asleep like that.
Her dream was just like always-the dark presence flooding her, attacking her. No! she screamed. I already have too much! Stop! Without thinking, she released her rejection into the mix. Then another presence came up. No, wait, it wasn't another presence, it was the dark presence, except this was different, the actual mind. The two worlds of thought collided and hung on together, suffering through the pain, the anger, the fear. Each wisp of agonizing emotion went through them, and, on the other side, fell dead, like a stone, its potency gone. Somehow, they suffered through it. It was long, it was horrible, but they got through it. In the end, they just hung on to each other, holding each other up through their weakness and strife. Then all of a sudden it was over.
Ahsoka lay in bed a long time, thinking over the strange turn her nightmare had taken. About the girl. She had seen critical information in her mind. Her name. Her description. Her address.
Master Yoda needed to know about this.
The new Padawan swung her legs out of bed. Rummaging through her drawers, she found an old T-shirt and some ripped jeans. It would have to do.
She quietly tiptoed out of her room. The door to Skywalker's room was right in front of hers. To her left was the kitchen and living area - and the door. To her right was the balcony.
Don't be awake, don't be awake, don't be awake…
There was a light on in the kitchen.
Don't be awake don't be awake don't be awake…
She heard a noise.
DON'T BE AWAKE DON'T BE AWAKE DON'T BE AWAKE…
"Ashoka?"
He was awake.