He's Not Our Enemy
Disclaimer: I own nothing, all credit goes to George Lucas and Lucasarts.
Summary: After vanishing from the Jedi temple ten years ago, Anakin Skywalker is found. The Jedi imprison him until he decides to tell them what happened to him. After getting lost after fleeing from some of her abusive class mates, Ahsoka stumbles into Anakin's room and discovers a side to the force she never knew.
One Day Til Competition, Ahsoka Tano
Mornings aren't as bad as the actual day. That's the first thing I think of when I wake up from a long sleep that cured the headache I had going on. No; mornings are just the warm up to the hells of the actual day and the nights are the times when the universe is saying 'rest now because tomorrow is going to be one hell of a ride'. Yes, that is how I would sum up mornings. Force only knows why I was thinking about that when I woke up, probably something I sensed in the middle of the night. Sometimes I wish that my dreams couldn't be tampered by the force. It only serves to make life more complicated, if that is at all possible, and draw people down a path that they do not want to go down.
Force, why am I thinking about this at six o'clock in the morning? I'm turning into Master Yoda. Just to double check, I look down at myself to make sure that I am not green or impossibly short. Nope. I'm still me. I must be going mad.
Rubbing my tired eyes, I slowly look around the room for a moment and sit up in bed. Oh what I would give to be able to stay in bed for a few more hours. With a yawn, I lazily push back the covers and get out of bed. It is still dark out, being winter, and that only makes me wish even more that I was still asleep. I didn't have any dreams last night, which is odd. Force sensitives are always having dreams or visions about the future and the force never stops speaking to us even whilst we are unconscious. I must have just gotten lucky for once and been spared a bad dream about the war. It's a little concerning to know that even Jedi younglings who have not so much as glimpsed a piece of the war can have bad dreams about it.
After doing some routine stretches, I retrieve my day wear and change in the 'fresher, making sure to do all the necessities before I return to my room. My chrono says that it is twenty past six already, meaning that I took more time than I realised to get ready for the day. Not wanting to miss out on a big breakfast, I quickly snatch my datapad off of the bedside table and stuff it into my pocket before half walking half running out of the room. There's only one day left until my competition and I don't want to waste too much time staying in my room and dragging my feet around.
Unlike yesterday, when I enter the mess hall I can see that the twins have taken up their usual spot on a table to the right of the room. They smile at me as I come in and I hastily get my breakfast before joining them at their table. Todays breakfast is slightly different from the others that we usually have. I don't think I've ever known the temple to break routine before. Today we have water and porridge which makes me wonder if our food budget has been cut or something. Why would they be giving us this cheap stuff when they could just use food replicators? The Jedi masters are always telling us to have big meals so that we have enough energy to complete the tasks expected of us in our Jedi training. As far as I know, water and gloopy porridge does not count as a good meal for breakfast.
"Morning, 'Soka." The twins chorus. "How was your day yesterday?"
"It was okay, I guess." I say, if 'okay' covers being teleported from one place to another. "Where were you two yesterday? Hanging around the turbolift all day?"
They snort. "If only," Kay grumbles. "No. We had a test that took us the whole day to complete because of the revision we were forced to do. What did you do?"
I shrug my shoulders. "Just practiced saber combat for the competition."
"Oh yeah, your competition's tomorrow isn't it?" Jay asks. "Good luck, 'Soka. Make sure you get that git Slimo for us won't you?"
A smirk works its way onto my face. "He won't know what's hit him." I promise.
"You wouldn't happen to know what happened to him yesterday, would you?" Kay questions with a frown on his face.
Yesterday? Nope. Absolutley nothing happened that would have made me want to watch out for him, other than his training saber exploding for 'no reason' and Anakin teleporting me away from him to right outside his door. "No." I lie. "Why?"
"He's been running around the temple telling everyone who will listen that you tried to kill him by setting off an explosion in the south-east wing even though there's no evidence of an explosion anywhere in the temple. Honestly, sometimes I think that we play too many pranks on him. The idiots finally lost his mind."
Somehow I think that all of the strange things going on around me are what's causing Slimo to lose his mind, not that I'm going to tell anyone else that. It's a wonder that neither of the twins have brought up the issue about what happened in the vents and in the room of a thousand fountains, though they might just be respecting my feelings by not pressuring me to talk about it. I have absolutely zero ideas on what happened in both places and there is no reason for me to even bother thinking about it still. Hiding a grimace at the thought of what happened those two times, I do my best to eat my breakfast without gagging on the disgusting porridge that's flavour is worsened by the water.
Jay coughs deliberately from his seat and I raise my head to look at him only to see that he is not looking at me. I cannot help but think that life is so cruel when I see that he is glaring at someone behind me. Someone who, unfortunately, turns out to be Slimo. I turn around to look at him instead of sense him. Eye contact has always helped me figure out when someone is going to attack more than the force though I do try to get a mixture of the two just to be sure.
"Tano."
Why is it that he always greets me that way? It's like he wants me to give him a reason to hate me, not that he doesn't have enough already in his mind. After all, he is the worst bully that I know of.
"What do you want, Slimo?" I ask with narrowed eyes.
His glare increases a few notches, probably because he just doesn't like me, and he bares his teeth a little. It doesn't work so well if you don't have teeth that are mostly all canines. "I want you to know that those pesky friends of yours won't be able to keep you safe. I don't know what you did to my training saber but you won't get away with it. You will be punished."
Before I can so much as speak, the twins are out of their seats and move so that they are in front of me. "You want to say that again?" Jay asks threateningly.
Slimo scoffs at them. "Should I be frightened by you losers?" He is really getting on my nerves now so I stand also. A few people are looking are way now and this could very easily become an all out fight and our place in the order would most definitely be at stake.
"Don't bother with him," I tell the twins. "He's not worth it."
Slimo snarls. "I'm worth more than you'll ever be, Tano." He growls and I really consider the option of punching him until he can't so much as utter a word. However, I don't get the chance.
It might have been because of the fact that the twins were standing in front of me. It might have been the fact that they shoved me back into my seat at the same moment they sat down on either side of me with protective expressions, or it might have been the fact that there were about a hundred plates, cups and pieces of cutlery flying through the air that prevented me from doing it. Now, I'll admit that when Jedi younglings get angry we often use the force by accident but whoever did this seriously needs to meditate and get a grip on their emotions. I know it wasn't me, because I think I would notice something like that, and the twins didn't move a muscle apart from the sitting down thing.
My mind is barely able to comprehend what is going on in front of, and over, me right now. One moment we were just arguing and making threats to one another the next every thing that wasn't attached to something was flying in the air. Common sense has us all ducking under the tables and taking cover whilst the commotion over our heads is making some of the younger initiates scared. I head for the door, the most sensible option, with the twins right on my tail and we manage to avoid being hit by any of the projectiles flying through the air and get out of the mess unscaved.
We run through the corridors until, coincidentally, we reach the one that I have been using for the past three weeks to get to and from Anakin's room. I don't really know why I decided that this was a good place to stop, maybe it just feels like the safest place for me to be and was the closest to Anakin that I could get without taking the twins with me so I subconsciously thought this was a good place to stop. We've been running for about three minutes, since the mess hall isn't directly linked to this corridor, and the speed at which we were running means that we have used up a lot of energy. The only sound in the empty corridor is our heavy breathing and I repeatedly thank the force for making this corridor one of the frequently deserted ones.
"What... in the hell... was that?" Kay gasps out through his desperate breathing.
I swallow and shake my head thoroughly, still breathing heavily. "No idea," I manage to say. "I couldn't sense who did it. Did you?"
They both shake their heads. "There were so many people in the room and I could only sense something strange through the force when it happened." Jay replies. "I hope everyone else got out okay. It wasn't exactly my main priority to be checking after we'd gotten out of there."
Before I can even respond to that they both stiffen for a fraction of a second before tackling me to the ground. Why they did it I have no idea, but my gut is telling me that the saber which just sailed past our heads has something to do with it. It's green blade misses us by inches and I am able to forgive and forget the fact that I have been crushed under the weight of both the twins. Simultaneously, they both roll off of me and jump to their feet to face whoever it is that has thrown the saber at us. I am in the process of getting to my own feet when I have to duck under the saber as it comes back around and sails through the air with the twins doing the same thing.
When I am able to stand, this time without needing to duck under any oncoming lightsabers, I can see the person who has attacked us. It's a wonder that I didn't sense them first, though that was probably because I was distracted, and I immediately wish that we had not taken a path that went past one of the main corridors from the halls of healing. The reason for that? Standing in front of us are the younglings who attacked us in the room of a thousand fountains. A few have bandages in certain areas such as wrists and arms but other than that they look pretty healthy and the looks on their faces show how much they want to kill us.
I swear violently in my head and glance towards the vent cover to see if it would be a nice escape route. It isn't secured very tightly so we could probably just jump right in and it would swing shut behind us... but then I would have to decide where to hide myself and the twins unless they have any ideas or I give up my secret.
"Well..." Kay says, igniting his lightsaber. "You seem to have healed up nicely."
They growl like a pack of nexus in response. "It's a shame that none of you will heal anywhere near as quickly as we have," The tallest one says with menace.
In an unspoken agreement, the group of younglings lunge forwards and I send a message through the force for the twins to follow me before running and jumping into the vent. It's a small entrance and my head and arms throb slightly from the metal covering hitting them when I dove into the vent but that is really the least of my problems right now. I swear, my life was much less complicated when there was no mention of a competition to see who will get to go and retrieve their lightsaber crystal.
I move to the side just in time for two Corellian humanoids to come sailing through the swinging vent cover and land in a crouched position, from which they straighten up to stand.
"Run?" I suggest when a loud crashing sound indicates the failure of the enemy younglings who have tried to follow us.
The vent cover swings open and we can see the face of a furious, not to mention ugly, youngling.
"Run." The twins agree at the same time before bolting.
I follow them at a sprint and cannot help but notice that the route they are taking leads in the direction of Anakin's room. This day could not possibly get any worse if they decide to barge right into his room and demand an explanation from me when I tell them that he is my mentor. I'll just lie and say that he prefers not to wear a Jedi tunic or something like that. I've discovered that it isn't hard to make up a story for someone that no one knows that well.
The sounds of people entering the vents behind us only make me even more certain that this is the worst day I have ever had to date. First the plates, cups and cutlery go flying around the mess hall like there's a tornado in the room and now we're being chased by some vengeful younglings. The Jedi council should really pay more attention to what the younglings in the temple get up to when the war is over, they'd certainly learn a lot about why there are so many under-achieving younglings.
"We should split up," Kay says when we turn a corner and come to a cross roads in the vents. One direction specifically leads straight to Anakin's room.
"I'll go that way," I immediately offer, pointing to that particular direction.
They nod. "I'll take the right one. Jay, you should take the south one so that they will have to stretch out their numbers, if we're lucky there shouldn't be more than two pursuing any one of us. Once we lose them we'll go to class. 'Soka, you just hide somewhere until they've gone. Got it?"
"Loud and clear."
"Right, see you later."
Wasting no time at all, I run off in my designated direction and sprint at a fast pace so that I can reach Anakin's room as quickly as possible. Once I'm there the younglings won't be able to do a thing and I can only hope that he won't turn them to dust with the wave of a hand. Oh well; Anakin will understand why I don't want them killed or maimed... what am I saying? Anakin won't understand at all. His answer to me telling him about anyone who has ever hurt me is 'who are they' and 'I'm going to kill them if I ever see them'. It's like he wants the galaxy bowing at his feet though I can picture him wanting that very easily.
I run for ten more minutes before I finally slow my pace to a fast walk. There are many things that people know in this world and one of them is this. A breakfast consisting of gloopy porridge and water is not a good enough source of energy when I am being pursued by blood thirsty younglings out for revenge about something that nobody can explain. Actually, Anakin could probably explain what happened but he isn't very forthcoming with his knowledge about things like that when he doesn't want to be. The amount of secrets he has could outweigh those of a professional bounty hunter any day of the week.
After fifteen minutes of walking at the pace of a five year old running, I come to a stop at the vent cover which leads into the corridor with Anakin's room at the end and stretch out my senses through the force to see if those younglings are still after me. I find something that I did not expect and quickly shield my force presence when I realise that I am sensing the presences of Master Plo and Master Windu. They are both in Anakin's room for some reason. I mentally slap myself when I realise why they are both inside. They are trying to convince Anakin to help them with the dark force wielder.
I know that Anakin won't help them for a lot of reasons but I settle on the main two. One; it is illegal for a force wielder to attack another force wielder without being provoked first. Two; it is early in the morning and I know from experience that Anakin is far from a morning person so he will hardly go agreeing to anything when he's grumpy and grouchy. Sure enough, a few minutes later the two Jedi masters exit his room with solemn expressions on their faces. Anakin has quite obviously turned them down again.
The moment they have both passed the vent cover and turned the corner into another corridor, I climb out of the vent and quietly make my way towards Anakin's room just in-case they hear me and come back. When I knock I can sense that Anakin is irritated from inside and he opens the door after a few long seconds of him muttering things that I do not understand from in his room.
"Hey, Snips." Anakin greets me when he opens the door and I walk inside. "You're a little early, aren't you?"
I shrug my shoulders. "There were a few problems that made me come earlier than I would have thought."
He archs both eyebrows. "What kind of problems?"
Unable to help myself, I shift nervously on my feet. "Well... those younglings from the room of a thousand fountains chased me and the twins so we had to split up and I came here because it seemed like the safest place to be," I explain. "What did you say to Master Plo and Master Windu?"
It's his turn to shrug his shoulders. "Nothing much, just that I wouldn't help them kill one of my own kind and any other excuses I could come up with. Now, go back to what you were saying about those younglings."
"They attacked me and the twins but we escaped through the vents, split up and I came here. None of them were able to keep track of me so everything's fine."
Anakin snorts. "Fine? It'll be fine when you teach those little termites to stay away from you. A good beating should do it."
I roll my eyes. "Whatever," I say. "What are we going to do today?"
He frowns in thought for the few seconds that it takes for him to come up with a schedule for the day. I swear Anakin's brain runs a mile a minute. "First we have breakfast. Those Jedi masters of yours woke me up and I haven't had anything to eat yet and I can sense that you haven't had a very good breakfast."
"Tell me about it." I mumble.
"Then we'll just do a final run through of everything before I send you back to your room at eight for an early nights sleep."
At least he knows what he's doing. "Okay, that doesn't sound so bad." I say. "What's for breakfast?"
"Either pancakes, eggs and bacon or something that I come up with whilst I'm in the kitchenette." Anakin replies. "Go and sit in the lounge. I'll be there in a minute or so."
Pancakes, eggs and bacon or something that he comes up with whilst he's in the kitchenette? Sounds a hell of a lot better than the rubbish I had for breakfast. Well, for the part of breakfast that didn't involve objects flying around the room trying to impale anyone who was in their way. Come to think of it, I didn't see anyone who wasn't hiding under the tables when that fiasco started so there shouldn't be any injuries... should there? Me and the twins got out unharmed so it shouldn't be too hard for some of the more experienced younglings to get the younger ones out without harm.
I sit on one of the sofas in the lounge, the one that I have deemed most comfortable, and wait for Anakin to make whatever it is he thinks is edible. The good thing about Anakin making food, or choosing food in this case, is that he always decides upon the things that taste delicious and far better than anything I eat in the mess hall. Although, now that I think about it, any type of food that doesn't come from the mess hall tastes like heaven to me so I wouldn't be the one to judge in that department. I'm sure I've said that to someone before but right now it just seems like the most sensible thing to remember.
"Take your pick." Anakin says as he walks back into the room with two massive trays of food floating behind him. They both land gently on the coffee table side by side. "I couldn't decide and got too hungry to care."
I nod in response. "I can see that."
On the trays are loads, and I mean loads, of pieces of toast, eggs, bacon, a wide variety of fruits and some bread rolls. His stomach must go into overdrive when he's woken up early because I don't think I've ever seen him eat this much food before. True, Anakin does eat more than the average person but he's never eaten this much around me. Jedi don't eat this much, no where near, but I don't really know anyone outside of the order and I can only assume that most people eat way less than two trays of food for breakfast... right? Oh well, one day I'll figure out exactly how much food it is normal for people to eat instead of the Jedi average. That is, when I'm a padawan I'll figure it out and I just know that I will be a padawan. I have to be.
I decide to play it safe and pick up a piece of toast. "What exactly are we going to do today? Because you weren't very specific when you told me at the door."
"Polish everything off." Anakin replies. "Plus you need more practice with your lightsaber. That reverse grip is just... terrible."
I narrow my eyes at him. "It isn't 'terrible', just uncommon. Besides, it's worked well for me so far and I'm not about to change my fighting style any time soon."
Anakin rolls his eyes. "Yeah, well, we'll see."
Like he's going to get me to change the way I wield a lightsaber. I resist the urge to make another of my 'snippy comments', as he calls them, and continue to eat. It takes around an hour just to finish of the massive meal, which I'm sure Anakin loved judging by the look on his face, and he conjures up a hologram projector with the map of the competition area being displayed. I still don't know where in the universe he got it but I'm not about to ask since it might be my only hope of staying alive.
"So, how much of what I told you a week ago do you remember?" Anakin asks.
I think for a second. "Turn around the moment the competition starts and run into the forest... that's about it, other than the stuff about acklays and the other creatures in there."
Anakin nods slowly. "Right. Well, I'd better show you all of the places where the challenges and clues are."
After a long and very intuitive session of Anakin basically telling me what I need to do and where to go to survive the competition, I head back to my room for some sleep. According to Anakin, an early night consists of leaving his room at seven o'clock and going to sleep the moment I get to my room which is a lot earlier than he said the first time.
I am far from tired when I get back to my room at eight o'clock but Anakin gave me something that would ensure I fell asleep before quarter past, force knows why he has something like that on him, so I need to get changed into my sleep wear rather quickly if I don't want to pass out on the 'fresher floor. Casually dumping my datapad on the table, I rush into the 'fresher and get changed at record speeds. Before I know it, I am under the covers of my bed and staring at the chrono. It's ten past eight already and in five minutes I will be sound asleep.
Tomorrow is the day of the competition and I have to get to the hanger by seven-thirty so that Master Yoda can lead us to the place where the competition will be held. I have a sinking feeling that we will be closer to the temple than any place off planet because, as Anakin pointed out, my clan might very well be non-existent by the end and there has to be a well equipped medical centre nearby to treat our wounds.
With one last yawn, I watch as the numbers on the chrono flicker to eight fifteen and my eyes begin to droop at once. Anakin really needs to tell me about all of these 'sleeping remedies' that he has because if this is some kind of drug then it will be picked up by the medical droid who will most definitely be treating me tomorrow. Oh well; I'm tired, it's a big day tomorrow and I'm seconds from sleep. The best thing that I can do right now is hope for the best.