They are far from home.
The jedi padawan torn from her war. The bionic supersoldier trapped in a part of the galaxy he never knew existed before. Two lives disrupted for the crude pleasure of a hunter's game.
She saw him when they were dropped on the island. Cages of people reduced to prey. The ship opened fire and every victim ran, but he, he raised his hands and an energy shield formed from them.
So she followed him into the jungle.
He's still waiting to wake up and find this nightmare has ended. He knows he should have been more cautious, and caution was the cause of all of this anyways. He may have not believed Leo's story completely then, but he agreed that the proton fuser needed to be carefully destroyed.
He wasn't careful enough. He didn't escape being brought into a far distant part of the galaxy. A stranger, alone, without any money or resources. Trying to defend himself against the reptilian alien resulted in a companion sneaking up from behind and ensnaring him in some kind of electrical net. And then the cage.
And now he's running for his life.
There's footsteps gaining quickly behind, so he turns and throws up his shield, lowers it as the alien vaults into view. A girl, that if he had to guess would be about his age, if her species aged the same as humans. Her breathing is barely strained, and her toned athletic form betrays she's not just any victim.
"What are you?" she sputters, and the question catches him off guard
He catches his breath, and knows he could say nothing and just walk away. But he remembers the dead strewn on the beach.
"I'm bionic," he says, because he knows he'll have to take many more risks if he's ever to get home.
She only nods as if that explains everything, because though there are a dozen more questions she has on her mind they'd only interfere with staying alive. "We should keep moving."
He's the one who nods this time, and they make their way deeper into the tangle. He pauses as he pushes a branch out of their way. "What's your name?" he asks, keeping his voice fairly low.
"Ahsoka Tano, and yours?"
"Chase Davenport."
...
It occurs to him that he's already failed his purpose. The bionic hero he was engineered to be, the one who puts their life on the line to save others. The corpse strewn on the forest floor would accuse otherwise. And he finds himself clenching his fist.
"We could have stopped them."
The words spill from Ahsoka's lips before Chase can utter them himself. He takes one last look at the woman's fallen body, a hole burned through her chest. His gut twists.
Kalifa has already begun to walk away. "No, Ahsoka, We're not saviors here. Here we are survivors." The young girl turns, allowing her anger to fade. "If they had spotted us we would be dead right now.
"We'll never get out of here if we just keep hiding. We have to act." Ahsoka declares.
Jinx fixes his gaze on the ground. "There were other padawans here who thought as you do now."
"Alright, where are they?"
"They're dead!" is Kalifa's outburst, clenching her teeth and furiously crossing her arms.
"Just because they failed, doesn't mean we will." Ahsoka argues.
"You don't understand, it's not that we don't want to fight. We're younglings." The other boy sighs in defeat. "They have every advantage."
"And by not fighting you simply prolong the inevitable," Chase reasons, because it's the sick reality that needs addressed. "At least if we fight back, there's a chance to get off this blasted planet, to go home."
"The only chance you'll have is to get your head mounted as a trophy. There's only one way to live to see the morning here, and that's by doing exactly what we do."
Ahsoka frowns, her expression one of disgust. "I can't do that. My master would never forgive me for running and hiding in a situation like this."
"Don't overestimate your abilities," Kalifa warns.
"I'm not," Ahsoka replies, voice suddenly soft. She turns briefly towards Chase.
It feels like a mere formality with how quickly he responds "I'm with you."
...
He finds himself in awe. The ease with which she tears the rifle from the trandoshan's hands and lifts him up in the air with her mind, choking him.
She launches her attack fiercely, but the reptilian manages to throw her off across the forest floor.
Chase drops in from behind, landing a blow to the back of the knee. His opponent crumbles momentarily. He aims his next kick hard into its eye. It yelps, but manages to grab a hold of his ankle, throwing Chase hard against a tree. His head and back flare intensely.
The reptilian grabs the rifle, smile twisting on its face. He aims it at Ahsoka.
It's the young Kalifa who saves them, and it takes several minutes for it to sink in just how close to death they'd come.
...
She sees them chanting in the dark, warm amber light. The young trandoshan, Dar, whose name they're crying, leans back his head to let a roaring shriek pierce through the air.
She wakes, her breathing heavy, looking around in the darkness at the still sleeping younglings. She sighs, ready to let herself drift back off to sleep when she notices who's missing.
Soft, faintly green moonlight illuminates the entrance. The bionic teen is just outside, gun dismantled by his side.
"Still working on that rifle?"
He looks up, light reflecting off his hazel eyes. He turns back to his work. "If we can reactivate it, we'll at least have some advantage." He returns his gaze to her. "I didn't mean to wake you."
"You didn't," she replies, and fluidly seats herself beside him. "So how did someone like you end up here anyways?"
He shrugs. "It's a bit of a bizarre story."
"Tell me," is what she encourages, and he obliges. And when he's finished he's asking about her, and the Jedi Order and everything about this part of cosmos. And they barely notice when the dawn begins to creep over the sky.