hoo boy i messed up for art class. Our culminating activity was due about an hour ago. I'm turning it in tmrw bc I am not done, and I shall lie about having family issues I needed to take care of. I didnt work on it enough outside of class so i spent four-ish hours tonight finishing it. Oh well, moral of the story is do ur hw kids. It really says a lot about me that i actually considered editing and posting this chapter before doing the hw.

Anyways, enjoy the fruits of my labor 3

Chapter Nine: Barfight

Ahsoka sat on the barstool, pretending to be looking at her drink as she used the Force to get a sense of her surroundings. She was on a reconnaissance mission, no more, so she had left her lightsaber behind. It was risky to be sure, but she was armed with a blaster in case things got rough. This bar allowed its patrons to carry weapons, so people realizing she had one would not arouse suspicion the way discovery of her sabers would. Besides, she liked the thrill it provided to this otherwise boring mission.

On the stool beside her sat Rex facing the rest of the bar. He was pretending to be enjoying his drink as he leaned against the countertop, but the togruta knew better. He was keeping an eye out for any activity to report, and their system worked quite well. They would occasionally strike up light chat, both of them knowing it was all for show, and then break off and pretend to drink some more. The clone had a fashionable cloth tied around the lower half of his face to obscure his features, identical to his brothers to the eyes of most. Not to Ahsoka, though. She could tell them apart easily after spending so much time with them all. The Commander was a favourite of the boys.

The padawan took another sip of her drink- she had ordered something light and had allowed the ice to dilute it. She was young and, frankly, skinny; she couldn't afford to get muddled by drink on this mission. The bartender had given her a few odd looks over the course of the night, but he had ultimately refused to say anything about her refusal to drink fast enough to buy multiple rounds. That was the pro of being in a crime-infested galaxy: the bartenders know when to stay quiet.

Just as she was about to turn to her companion for more talking, a hand on her shoulder made her pause. She turned to face a large weequay man, and she fought not to show her disgust at what was ultimately going to be an annoying confrontation. Normally she would sass up right away, but this mission was more important that the vindication earned at insulting entitled men. She put on her best fake smile and asked, "What can I help you with?"

He smirked, swaying on his feet a bit. Great, he was drunk. "You could lose blondie over there and join us for some fun."

Her smile faded a bit, but she fought to remain calm. Did he seriously not realize she was sixteen? Rex glared at them but didn't say anything, waiting for her cue.

"I'm sorry, but I'm perfectly fine here."

Knowing it would likely be useless, the padawan turned back to the counter to take a sip of her drink- she really wanted it now. As expected, the weequay put a hand back on her shoulder, leaning in front of her on her left, smile having also faded. "What, playing hard to get? I know some girls like you, schuttas who think you can walk all over me. Drop the act."

She jerked herself out of his grasp, standing up. "I said that I wasn't interested. Go away."

At this point people were staring, and the bartender had moved far away from where they stood. Men behind the weequay glowered and crossed their arms, definitely trying to intimidate her. They had no idea who they were dealing with. By now Rex had decided his inaction was enough and stood up, walking over to the Weequay with a glare.

He growled, "She told you to leave her alone."

The weequay got up in Rex's face as his buddies closed in around them. "I don't care, blondie." With that he pushed the clone and things started to happen very quickly. Ahsoka let out a cry of outrage and tried to get between them but was stopped by two of the men grabbing her arms and holding her back. Now a fight was really breaking out, patrons scrambling out of the way as Rex aimed a punch at the Weequay's face. It was blocked and they started to brawl, the togruta held helpless in the grasp of two of the men.

After a moment of struggle she remembered that she was a Jedi and could take them all easily, not that the Captain wasn't capable himself. She bashed her head into the face of one of the men holding her, simultaneously stepping on his foot with her steel-toed boot. He cried out and released her, and she elbowed the other in the gut. She wriggled from his grasp, turning with her fists up to see them staggering away. It was truly hilarious to see them running from a teen girl, especially after they had tried to push her around.

She turned to Rex, who had already dealt with the weequay and was now fighting the last of his friends, who were losing pitifully. He disposed of them both rather quickly, turning back to his Commander. "Should we… leave?"

She sighed. "Yeah, that might be best."

Ahsoka was grumpy on the ride back, to say the least. The mission had been completely blown, all because some guy couldn't handle being denied when he made advances. Advances on a girl who was sixteen, far too young for the clearly adult man. Why was it that so many humanoid men just assumed togruta and twi'lek women were theirs for the taking? It was so degrading to constantly be viewed as an object or lesser for her species and gender. There were so many who would see her in cages because they thought they were above her. It was what she fought for, really; the ability to keep those without enough strength to do it themselves safe. The Jedi Order was meant to help those that could not help themselves.

Rex had clearly noticed her agitation, though he hadn't said anything about it yet. He seemed to be avoiding confronting her, hoping that she would tell him what was bothering her herself. They were on a transport, alone, in hyperspace; this was as good a time as any. He kept shooting her glances he hoped would prompt her into speaking, but enough was enough and he had to do it himself.

"Commander," he began, "you've clearly got something on your mind. What is it?"

She sighed, loosening her hands' tight grip on the yoke. "The mission. I completely blew it."

"That's not true at all. It was that pirate that made things bad."

"But if I had just handled it differently-"

He stopped her. "No. You did everything right, he needed to learn to take no for an answer! It's scum like that in the galaxy that I'm fighting to stop. I've seen too many people manipulated by the likes of them to let you experience the same."

She was touched. "Thanks, Rex," she replied gruffly. "I just get all messed up about this stuff. Sometimes it's hard to remember that I didn't ask for that."

The Captain nodded, both of them continuing to stare at the void of hyperspace. It was going to be difficult to explain that their cover had been blown because of some pirates taking an interest in the Commander, but they would have to anyway. It was honestly infuriating to have to deal with that kind of attitude. And it scared him, the thought of what would have happened had they not been trained military combatants. He shuddered to think of what they would have done to his vod'ika in that scenario. There were alarmingly few people who would have even tried to help, instead just ignoring the whole thing. This galaxy needed to be rid of its filth, Separatists first.

The padawan felt a bit better now, a little more relaxed in her chair. She was still dreading giving this report, but at least she could feel more assured that she had done nothing wrong. Perhaps when she graduated to knighthood she would bring this topic before the council. After the war was won they could focus on smaller things like the mistreatment of her and her people as well as slavery. It was a big issue to tackle, but it needed to be addressed. Her people were suffering because of a kriffed up mindset that was difficult to alter, and something must be done about it.

Ahsoka needed to work out some of her agitation. Sitting at the steering yoke would relieve none of her anger or stress, so she got up and started stretching. Rex watched in amusement as she went through her exercises, neither of them having actually done much in the way of physical exertion. The barfight had been about it, and she hadn't even done much. That was not to say that she was incapable of holding her own, she had merely been preoccupied whilst he had dealt with most of them.

The teen went through her stretches quickly, not really needing to do them and merely wanting the busywork. She sat back down and sighed. This was gonna be a long ride back to Coruscant.

End of chapter!

Notes:

-I realized like halfway thru it was gonna be such a short chapter oml

-Idk i felt like addressing the racism that exists in the star wars universe did i do a good job

-That one weequay woke up and chose violence

-wow look this bitch has no more ideas for chapter notes

Tune in next week for one-shot 10 3