Author's Note: Here you go, Chapter 2! Much longer, more excitement. There's no trigger warning for this chapter, but please. If you read it and think something definitely should be, don't hesitate to PM me! That applies for any fic I'll ever write. Because I'm human, and I make mistakes, and I'd much rather someone who's more knowledgeable than I let me know so I can fix it, instead of accidentally hurting someone. Now. Enjoy!


Chapter II

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Anakin flinch like he'd been slapped. Obi-wan put a hand on his shoulder, and she noticed him lean into it, ever so slightly. She filed the information away.

"You are my student, and I am your Master," she continued, imitating the Count's voice as best she could. "You were on a mission, and that mission had a less than desirable outcome. Your injuries are the work of those who wield the laser-swords. Somehow you escaped, but the medical droids say you may never recover your memory."

"What a load of - "

"Anakin! Sit down."

Ahsoka looked directly at the Jedi, watching as Anakin let himself be pushed back to sitting by Obi-wan's hand. He was breathing hard.

Ahsoka tugged on the collar, her anxiety starting to mount now that she was looking directly at them. The metal dug further into the raw, reddened marks already encircling her neck, but she didn't care.

"After that, the pattern was simple. Eat, train, chores, tally, punishment. Repeat."

"Punishment? Why would Dooku... do that if you were already doing what he said?" Anakin's voice was somehow incredulous and affronted at the same time.

She looked at him sharply. "Have you never made a mistake, Jedi? Did your Master not need to teach you better?"

Obi-wan covered a sudden, violent cough, and Anakin casually cuffed him on the shoulder, never taking his eyes off Ahsoka. He did grumble almost incoherently though. "Force, you even sound like Dooku. The pattern was simple. Did your Master not need to teach you better?" His thoughts seemed to turn further inward, now only speaking to himself. "You don't sound like Ahsoka."

The orange Jedi cleared his throat from his standing position next to Obi-wan.

"I made many mistakes," she continued. "My stance. My footwork. Dinner wasn't cooked right, I didn't finish my repair fast enough." Her voice got more and more bitter as she listed things. "It all added up, one way or another." She stood up, her fury at her abandonment beginning to take hold of her. Tug, tug. Her voice rose in volume as she continued. "The best I could hope for was no gag. In the cold cave where the shadows were my only companions." Her passion left her as she envisioned the other place. The place she'd spent most of her nights. Now she yanked on the collar, imagining she could hear the crashing ocean waves all around her. "More often than not, though…" She trailed off a moment, her voice too thick with memory and fear for her liking. "More often," Tug. "Then not, I spent the night in Despair."

She shivered despite herself, working her jaw in memory of the gag. She touched the metal pieces still attached to her cheeks, half-fearing she'd revealed too much and the metal would snick into place. Perhaps she'd been too emotional and the Jedi would silence her until she could get them under control.

Instead, the Jedi remained frozen to their seats.

"Ahsoka - " Anakin started, voice tight with emotion, but Obi-wan held up his hand.

"Ahsoka," Obi-wan said in a much softer voice. "This is going to be hard to hear but… everything Dooku told you was a lie."

She blinked, her brain frozen. Everything went very still. "You're lying," she heard herself say.

Obi-wan just shook his head solemnly.

There was a kind of roaring in her ears, and suddenly Anakin was in front of her mouthing words that she couldn't hear. He thumped her back, and the force of the blow and the burning feeling on her skin had her gasping for air. She hadn't realized she'd stopped breathing.

"Lied to me?" She rasped, shaking her head. "No. He would never." She couldn't wrap her head around it.

But then, she'd thought the same thing about him ever leaving her. And look what happened.

She shook her head, trying to work her thoughts through the fog of pain that enveloped her. Anakin hadn't even hit her that hard. Just hard enough to restart her breathing. But her back had never actually healed in the first place.

A warrior must always push through pain, though. You never knew when it would be a matter of life and death. In the hands of her enemies, that could be right now. She straightened her spine, clenching one fist, and giving the collar a tug with the other. Maybe she could distract herself with a different kind of pain.

The orange Jedi noticed something was off though. "Padawan, are you in pain?"

She cocked her head at him, not understanding why he asked. Didn't everyone have pain that never fully went away? "Yes," she answered matter-of-factly.

"Ahsoka, why didn't you say so?! Of course, you were Dooku's prisoner, why wouldn't you be?" Anakin sounded incensed. "Who let you get onboard the ship without immediately taking you to the infirmary?"

Obi-wan spoke up. "Anakin, that was you."

A pause. "Oh." He deflated, his anger gone in an instant, clearly replaced by guilt at himself.

Ahsoka was highly confused at their reactions. It had never mattered to her Master if she was in pain. Why should it matter to the ones who inflicted it?

"My Master always said a warrior pushes through the pain. I don't know why my wounds and burns should matter to the ones who gave them to me!"

Anakin was outraged. "Well, he's not a very good Master then, is he? And we would never hurt you li - did you say burns?"

Before she could stop him - she blamed the fog in her brain - he reached down and lifted up the back of her shirt.

She ignored his shocked gasp in her haste to get away, jumping out of the bunk, only to have to grab for the nearby table to keep from crashing. Am I drugged? Why can I not even stand? Now she was mad.

"What have you done to me?" She demanded, clutching the edge of the table for support. "Why can't I stand?"

"Ahsoka, it's been a very trying day for you. Your body and mind have reached their limits," Obi-wan said, coming towards her with an outstretched hand. She batted it away.

Anakin took a step forward. "I can't believe - " He swallowed thickly. Ahsoka gave his face a quick look and was surprised to see how upset he looked. "I can't believe you would think that I - that we could do something so - " He gestured at her back. "Like that to you."

For some reason, this Jedi's distress made her distressed. Not knowing what to say to him, she turned back to Obi-wan. "You're wrong. I am stronger than this." Her voice cracked, her flash of anger giving way to unreasoned fear. A dark room flashed before her eyes, the walls covered in terrifying things. Things that burned. Things that tore, things that sliced her open, made her scream as her chains rattled. I don't know this place.

Except… she did.

She clutched her head, falling heavily to the floor. "No, no, no," she murmured. Her eyes were open but unseeing, her gaze turned inward. "No, take it away. Red light, where is the red light?" Where was the red glow that usually smoothed these kinds of thoughts away? She would endure any headache it wanted if only she never had to see that room again.

"Ahsoka!"

"Ahsoka, what red light?"

"Padawan, let us help you."

Voices all around her, shadowy shapes crowding in, but she paid it all no mind.

"Master? Master?" She called plaintively, wanting him to swoop in and deliver her from these sights and sounds she didn't know what to do with. Even though she knew he would have done nothing but spurn her in her present condition.

She felt herself lifted up, and imagined her Master must have heard her call. She curled into the arms that surrounded her. "Thank you, Master." The whisper was the last she remembered to do before the dark overtook her.