What about me?! I believed in you – I stood by you!

I know you believe in me, Anakin… And I'm grateful for that. But this isn't about you – I can't stay here any longer… Not now.

The Jedi order is your life! You can't just… Throw it away like this! Ahsoka, you are making a mistake!

Maybe, but I have to I have to sort this out on my own – without the Jedi Counsel… And without you.

The terrible memories mocked Ahsoka's reeling mind, tearing into the already fraying fabric of her mind – the real torture came from the mind; Ahsoka knew that the cruelty of her own thoughts could never be matched by any physical discomfort the Weequay slavers could inflict upon her.

You wanted to be alone, and now you are. You've done a fine job of standing on your own two feet, Ahsoka Tano, The Togruta thought.

Cracking her blurry, watery eyes, she rose her head only just enough to spot the cup on the crate, just beyond what would normally be arm's reach.

Focus… Focus. You may not be able to escape, but... Ahsoka thought to herself.

The Togruta tried to banish the terrible feelings of extreme soreness in her muscles from hanging so long from the shackles, and the lingering pain from cruel blows in her cheek, ribs, and stomach from days before.

Again, Ahsoka tried to picture the cup in her mind – she tried to tear her thoughts away from her own thoughts and the tingling in her body, and focused them on the cup.

Ordinarily, the feat of willing the cup to her mouth would have been a trifle, even considering she never technically ascended past Padawan status – but with her scrambled mind unable to focus, she knew she stood as good a chance of spilling the cup by accident; it would be the final insult to her mental state that she couldn't bear.

Come on… Focus! Think! There… There is no emotion – there is… Justice? No, knowledge…?

The Jedi Code – at one time, it had been the cornerstone, the central guiding light in Ahsoka's life… And now, it too was a terribly painful reminder of days long gone by; more frighteningly, she couldn't tell if the inability to focus on it was a sign of how severely her brain had been injured… Or how far she'd fallen from those once-sacred teachings.

What about me? Anakin's voice, so full of hurt and betrayal, pierced through Ahsoka's mind like a meteor; the imaginary statement echoed so loudly in her mind that her actual body flinched, and her already tenuous concentration shattered – the cup rattled on the table, probably falling over and spilling out its contents – and the Togruta wheezed a sharp sob, defeated.

The hard rim of the cup grazed her lips, startling Ahsoka.

"Easy… Easy." The voice was quiet and gentle – too startled to think and too surprised to drink, Ahsoka recoiled away from the presence before her, and the human standing before her obligingly pulled the cup away to keep her from bumping and spilling it as she did so.

"Easy! It's okay…" The human replied softly; at first, Ahsoka blinked in bewilderment – she had seen no one else enter when the pirates left, and hadn't been awake when he first arrived.

Ahsoka paused – it was the human from before, and he was here now, inexplicably. Any wariness of melted completely away when the Togruta's eyes locked with his a moment later.

She didn't need her higher powers to see the genuine concern for her within the human's hazel brown eyes – he seemed to be mesmerized by something; when Ahsoka guessed what it might be, she glanced away, clearing her throat self-consciously.

Carefully, almost timidly, the human bent his index finger, and used the knuckle to brush against her cheek… To wipe the wad of spit the pirate had left on her, away. Or a tear…?

Again, he raised the cup carefully – although it was room temperature, and there was precious little of it to fully sate her thirst, Ahsoka drank gratefully, choking on the first sip as the water eased her dry, cracked throat.

"Take it easy… That's it." Graykill encouraged. By the time she finished a precious few seconds later, the human glanced at the cup with obvious displeasure – he probably realized it would not have done much to sate her terrible thirst.

Ahsoka merely steadied her breathing, working her throat and wishing she had more to drink. "...Thhhhhank you." The Togruta rasped, letting gratitude bleed heavily into her tone.

The human's eyes widened in disbelief. "You… You can talk!" He mumbled to himself in wonder, as gaze left hers, sinking lower to her neck.; initially, the comment struck Ahsoka as odd.

"Whyyyyyy… Wouldnnnn't I…?" The Togruta slurred.

"…Because you're wearing a neural disrupting collar!" The human responded as if it were obvious, and dropping his gaze to her throat.

Neural disrupting collars were often employed as cheap methods of restraint on frontier worlds by law enforcement and by bounty hunters, slavers, and pirates, to temporarily reduce intelligent sentient captives to the mental capacity of a drunken infant or in some cases a vegetable.

Evidently, Ahsoka's mind – finely honed by her training as a Padawan – had resisted some of the collar's effects, resulting in the outward appearance that she had lost her Force sensitivity.

"That collar is turned up all the way. I didn't think a person could even have a rational thought with one on, let alone speak!" He breathed, in disbelief.

Relief of the highest degree flooded Ahsoka – Oh, Ihaven't lost my Force sensitivity after all!! She was alright! The relief was so powerful she began to sob again; tears of joy cascaded down her cheeks, taking the human momentarily aback.

"Wh… What…?" He mumbled. "W… Was it something I said?" He asked – technically, yes, it was, but Ahsoka realized saying so might give the human the wrong impression; thus, she merely shook her head.

"…I don't guess they've been feeding you." Graykill muttered rhetorically, seeing her sorry condition; Ahsoka's stomach rumbled – she nodded.

"Well… I suspected as much. Here, I brought you something to eat; can your species tolerate roasted Nuna?" The human asked; Ahsoka nodded.

"C-collar…" Ahsoka pleaded to the human, who paused, wincing in sympathy.

"I'd… I'd remove it if I could, but I can't." He responded. "These Pirates usually arm the collars with a self-destruct device. If I don't have the key-chip to remove it with, it will probably blow your entire neck off." He responded, gently brushing aside her Lekku to study it further.

Although the action of touching another species' Lekku without prompting was generally considered rude, in this case Ahsoka hardly cared – in fact it was highly probable the human had hardly seen many species of the like this far on the outer rim to begin with.

"––However," He said, twitching his hand slightly, "––I can dial down the strength of the disrupting field. There… How's that?" The human asked; the reduction of the collar's interference with her nerves was met with an immediate clearing of her altered mental state – it felt more and more like the haze cleared from Ahsoka's mind, until she felt nothing more than a light buzz. Evidently, the collar couldn't be completely deactivated.

"Mmph… Much better." Ahsoka mumbled; her voice cracked with relief – she retained her connection to the Force.

"Then here." The human said, "I brought something for you." The human producing a small bundle from his dirty and threadbare shirt that Ahsoka could only hope was food. However, the human paused as he unwrapped it, glancing at her.

"...Do you think the pirates would notice if we freed you from those shackles and put you in a cage where you can lay down, instead?" He asked, glancing at an empty cage with thick dura-steel bars nearby.

Although the muscles Ashoka's arms burned and cried out for mercy, she hesitated for several moments, building the courage to respond. "…I don't want to risk it. You've already risked too much already, and you'd draw too much suspicion." She declined, though she dearly wished she could rest her arms.

"They won't know it's me." The human replied, confidently. "Theoretically, us slaves don't even know any of the security codes around the base, so I doubt they'd ever suspect anything." He responded.

Ahsoka paused, as he approached. Hanging from the wall, Ahsoka paused – the temptation to give into the human's offer reared its head again.

A moment later, the human hesitantly, almost timidly approached, carefully taking her cheek in his hand, and bringing her eyes up to him. "Are you sure you don't want down from there? I… Hate to see you this way."

Again, Ahsoka glanced away, flushing blue – however, the terrible pain in her muscles had reached a crisis point, and not even her training to ignore pain was doing the Togruta good anymore. Evidently picking up on the fact that something was preventing her from accepting, the human turned away.

"...I'm going to get you down from there. Hold on." He decided on his own, turning away from her and seeking out a glowing, orange-screened control panel on the far side of the room.

After studying the panels for a moment and fiddling with the controls, he guessed at the series of buttons on the control panel; finally, with a metallic thud, the shackles around her raw wrists retreated into the wall, depositing Ahsoka onto the floor in a heap – she had not the strength to catch herself.

Immediately the human helped turn her onto her back; the Togruta's arms, sore to the point of utter useless from days of being held aloft, would not support their own weight let alone allow her to pick herself up.

Ahsoka let out a whining gasp of pain, baring her teeth and doing her best to cradle her noodle-like arms against her chest – even her legs felt like painful mush. The agony was tempered only by a faint sense of relief from the strain of the shackles, and a healthy dose of humiliation.

Shame and embarrassment filled Ahsoka at being in such pitiful condition; however, if the human seemed bothered by it in the least, he did not show it – again, he tenderly wiped her the tears of pain from her dirty face as soon as they appeared.

"Come on. Let's get you somewhere you can rest, and eat. All I was able to sneak away was a sandwich, but it'll hold you over until later. I'm sorry." The human said, half carrying, half-dragging Ahsoka to the cage where she could lay down, and at least try to rest her arms and legs.

When the pain was not so great as to prevent her from speaking through gritted teeth, Ahsoka, now propped up against the dura-steel bars of the cage, turned her eyes toward the human.

"You shouldn't be doing this. They'll kill you if they find out you're helping me." She protested weakly.

"Oh, come on… The only thing I 'shouldn't have done' is wait so long to come to you." The human dismissed, with a helpless grin.

The human unwrapped the bundle and produced the sandwich; Ahsoka tried to lift her arms – they were useless. Again, Ahsoka flushed blue; she had been a great commander in the clone wars, had held her own against Sith Lords in combat, freed whole planets from the iron thumb of occupation, destroyed countless enemies of the republic, and thwarted numerous plots and ploys by the Confederacy of Independent Systems… And now, she was too weak to feed herself.

"You know…" The human said, tactfully offering the sandwich up and pausing as the Togruta's sharp fangs easily sliced through the stale bread and tough meat, "...You make a terrible prisoner." He remarked.

Even cold, and made from the partially burnt trimmings that were normally cast off as scraps by the pirates to their animals, as the first food Ahsoka had to eat in days, it tasted absolutely delicious – she started to dismiss the odd comment, until he spoke again.

"...You aren't willing to give up like the rest of us, and you don't seem to scare easy. It's no wonder the Weequay hate you." He remarked, quietly; although she was starving, the Togruta slowed her chewing some as she pondered his observation – though she may be a Jedi no longer, Ahsoka knew she still retained the same fierce spark of vigor and obstinacy that years of being padawan to Anakin had instilled within her.

However, the painful memory of her master, almost certainly a victim of Chancellor Palpatine's insidious Order 66, stung her – she pushed it far away.

"Where planet are you from?" The human eventually asked; pretending to chew to buy herself some time, Ahsoka let her mind work.

"I was captured on Corva Yag." She responded – the answer was vague, but truthful.

"Okaaay… But that's not your homeworld, is it?" The human observed, raising an eyebrow ever so slightly.

"It's not?" Ahsoka asked, trying to keep her tone neutral.

"I may not know much about your species, but I know that there aren't any Togruta colonies on Corva Yag. In fact, now that I think about it, you're the first Togruta I've seen or heard of wandering this far on the outer rim since the clone wars."

Ahsoka swallowed, and it wasn't just because she was done with her bite of sandwich. The human studied her for a moment, the shrugged.

"...Forget I asked, I guess." He said with a bland shrug, offering her another bite of the sandwich; almost like a nervous tick, the human constantly glanced toward the door, nervously watching for any sign of approach – a strong sense of guilt began to fill Ahsoka.

"I… I have my reasons for keeping to myself – good ones." The Togruta mumbled, apologetically. The human pondered this for a moment, then shrugged, offering her another bite of sandwich.

"...It won't matter soon unless we can get you out of there. I'm not very concerned for myself – I've been a slave here for a while now; they keep me around because I'm good with a hydro-spanner and don't complain when they assign me work they don't feel like doing themselves…" He said; unfortunately, Ahsoka was nearing the end of her meager ration of food.

"...You on the other hand… Somebody's bound to notice you starting to get better instead of worse, and I don't know what they plan to do once they figure out you're not going to die on your own. Eventually they're going to figure something's up, and when that happens things could get ugly." The human said; in spite of Ahsoka's secretive evasion of his only question, a look of aggrieved pity crossed his face, and it was tough to see.

The Togruta's mind worked – her situation was slightly improved now thanks to the human's help. "...Do you think you can somehow maybe convince them to give me a chance at helping out? I'm good with my hands too." Ahsoka asked, giving silent thanks to all the countless hours she sometimes whiled away, learning the art of tinkering from Anakin.

"I wish I could, but… Well, you're… Marked for death." The human replied, visibly extremely agitated by the notion; a cold emptiness filled Ahsoka, and her head sagged against the cold bars of her cage.

Gingerly feeding the Togruta the last morsel of food, the human collected his things and beat a hasty retreat from the cage, hesitating as he drew the heavy dura-steel cage door shut and locking it behind him, sealing the Togruta inside. Still, he approached her side once again.

"I'll be back again as soon as I can, but I can't stay any longer tonight." The human replied, and Ahsoka paused, hoisting her head laboriously to look at him; she sighed shakily, realizing her death sentence was more or less official now – no ordinary human slave could do anything to save her from a mob of heavily armed pirates.

"...Don't worry about me." She tried to smile reassuringly, "I'm sure I'll figure something out on my own." A tear trickled trickled out of the Togruta's orange and white cheek, and the human's hazel eyes followed it down.

"...There's no point in you risking your life for me when it's not you they want to kill. It's not your fault I'm in this predicament." Ahsoka mumbled; the human worked his hand through the bars and squeezed Ahsoka's useless hand – it trembled.

"I… I'm through being a slave; I can't handle the senseless abuse anymore. I've been trying to work out a plan for escape for awhile now and have been waiting for the right chance to spring it; an escape attempt will make me a marked man anyway, so neither of us have anything to lose anymore. I'm already working on trying to get you out of there." He said through a tight voice that made it difficult for Ahsoka to speak, again.

"I… I'm used to sacrificing for others – I don't want to slow you down." She replied, weakly; with the collar's intrusion greatly reduced, the gravity of the Togruta's helpless situation and poor lot in life only weighed more heavily on her now than ever before. She could finally sense she was nearing the end of her not-inconsiderable endurance.

"I saw the you stand up to these pirates even after they've mistreated you. Your fearlessness and courage are inspiring; you're part of the reason I finally want to try escaping." He replied, glancing again at the door.

"This isn't over 'til it's over, and it's not yet over. Don't give up. Never give up." The human implored, and then without another word, the human crept off, leaving Ahsoka to ponder his words in the dark, to the throbbing of her aching arms and legs.

Ahsoka's held as he reached the prisoner hold door… Then she relaxed slightly when she saw no Weequay stood guarding the door.

As the door shut behind the human, the Togruta was left alone with her thoughts. Don't give up – never give up. It was a curious choice of words.

Where did he come from? She wondered; she had been too preoccupied with her own misery to have paid much attention, but he certainly had not arrived with the two Weequay that had come to harass her.

Never give up. The words echoed in her mind, along with the promise of food and water.

Technically, he's right… I'm not so bad off. I still have my connection to the Force – if I can get this collar off, then I may fully regain the use of my mind… The Togruta realized.

Never give up. Never give up. Never give up… Though it took great effort, Ahsoka once more pushed away doubt and fear, and began to repeat the mantra in her world-weary mind.

o[#########*##]==================================================

One half of Graykill fully expected to get blasted in the guts by a furious pirate the moment he reached the first hallway intersection outside the prisoner hold, so that he would die a slow and painful death.

The other half of Graykill – the one comprised of blind optimism – clung rigidly to the prayers that his painstaking study of the pirates over the long months of his enslavement had been correct, complete, and thorough.

The extremely strong and unmistakable pungent odor of Weequayan liquor began to greet Graykill's nose across the base, relieving him considerably; as he had hoped, the Captain's departure from the base had resulted in a considerable relaxation of discipline – by now, even Brekk was probably beginning to nip the bottle himself, as well.

A healthy fear of what would happen to him if caught up past curfew remained, and thus Graykill continued to creep with all the skill and concentration he could muster; however, insanity struck as he approached a guard asleep right in the hallway back to the slave quarters least likely to be guarded very heavily.

Graykill's heart pounded; his eyes shifted to the half-empty jug of spirits tucked loosely in the crook of the pirate's arm – he was likely proper drunk, but, still… All it took was one errant footstep or even a stir on the part of the Guard to doom him for sure.

Swallowing deeply, Graykill crept forward.

==================================================[##*#########]o

Upon Graykill's return – finally – there was of course complete silence as he arrived in the darkness of the slave quarters.

Undoubtedly, a slave or two was probably still awake, if only to see what would happen to Graykill; however, none dared to stop or speak to him… And none of them would even think of doing so until at least morning, when roll was taken and public executions were normally performed.

In spite of that fear, the heady thrill of having finally made the first truly worthwhile move in this treacherous game of Dejarik eased Graykill's mind. Slightly.