More time went on, forming a rhythmic pulse in Ahsoka's mind. She became stronger, more comfortable, more friendly, and more bored.
Not that the people around her were boring. In fact, her colleagues were the most interesting thing in her day unless the occasional thug decided to try and rob her. Rya, in particular, was making more conversation than ever. Behind closed doors, she would give Ahsoka, or as she was known now by, Tano updates on how her mother was doing.
"She's moving more often now," she told her a few days after the visit. "Her big cuts and bruises are a little sore still, she says, but all of the small ones are healing fast. That cream you brought is working wonders."
"Have you gone in to the Department of Licensing yet?" She asked, and Rya nodded, looking around to make sure no one else was listening.
"The day after you came, I went. They told me it would take a while as you said, but at least we got started." Rya looked down. "The only thing is that Mom will have to back to work soon. I almost wish she wasn't healing."
Normally, Ahsoka would question why someone would not want to work, but not with Rya's mother. She just nodded, and they both went back to their jobs.
Ahsoka had grown fond of the job itself, too. Except for the regular prods and pokes from Granger, Tano was accepted into the workforce and became known for her quick work and her dependability. The customer who had dropped off his ship for repairs gave a wonderful review on the shop website, and within a week, a new customer came in, saying that the first one had recommended that he stop by. He dropped off his own ship, and a few days later, he actually called Fuller and reported that his ship was working better than it had in months. Already, the community around Gauges and Gears was adapting to Ahsoka. If anyone remembered who she had been, they didn't bring it up.
Fuller had been keeping an eye on Ahsoka too. He made sure that she was transitioning well, and Ahsoka suspected that he was encouraging Wheeler to do the same. Now that she had a steady paycheck coming in she was feeling a little more relaxed, much more than she had in the past year.
The only problem? As soon as work was over, she was bored out of her mind.
She had eaten out again with the others, but it was expensive, and Ahsoka knew that eating at home was better for her diet. She had explored the Chasm a little bit more, but the majority of people there felt dangerous to Ahsoka, and she didn't want to pick a fight with any of them. Even with her blaster, she wasn't keen about messing with bounty hunters if she didn't have to. Cleaning the house definitely had its reward, but there was only so much of the house to clean. She was already working over 42 hours a week at the shop, so she wanted to find something else to fill her time, but so far, she hadn't found anything.
Ahsoka had tried to avoid meditating, except for her usual sessions at night. All she normally felt was herself, a hyper-active presence amongst the sea of non-sensitive civilians. This would have been fine, but Ahsoka wasn't trying to fend off Darkness every night or learn how to become a stronger Jedi either. All there was to feel was walls, and people, and flickering lights out on the street. There wasn't any wildlife or nature to connect with, no new sights to see or challenges to face. Her 'training' on Dromund Kaas had kept her occupied enough, but now? She had nothing to focus on. Nothing except herself, and she was getting tired of herself.
She finished wiping down the counter and flopped on the couch, groaning at her own sense of uselessness. She needed to find a way to engage herself, but when she tried to come up with ideas, her mind blanked. It was like she was trying to speak with someone on a comlink and all she was getting back was static.
If only I could just run away, to somewhere different, she thought. I'm so tired of seeing the same streets every day.
...Well, she couldn't run away, but she could run. Nothing was stopping her from doing that.
She always ran to work, not because she was trying to evade bounty hunters, but because she could. Sometimes, she would deviate from her normal path and get some extra cardio in, but she felt cramped underground. She hadn't seen the sky in weeks.
Ahsoka pulled out her HoloNet projector and checked the calendar. It had been nearly three weeks since she had escaped to the Lower Levels. She also noted that her birthday happened to be today as well. I had forgotten about that, she remarked. I guess I can drink, now.
No one had seen her face, or the Inquisitor's, in three weeks. Maybe I can chance a run. Just for an hour or so, to get some fresh air.
She grabbed a few credits and stuffed them in her pocket instead of her bag. She didn't want to run with that bouncing on her back the whole time, and she didn't think she would need them either. Sliding her blaster into its holster, she raced out the door and to the shaft. After a few minutes, a cargo ship rose from the bottom of the planet, and Ahsoka caught a ride going up. If anyone saw her camping out on the top of the ship, they didn't bother her for it.
The higher Ahsoka rose, the more she began to grin. The air, although nothing compared to non-industrialized systems, was already a little bit crisper than down in the depths of the Chasm. She looked up, and she noticed that the sky was a dark blue, with a few pink clouds hiding on the side of her view. It was sunset.
How long has it been since I've seen a sunset? Ahsoka wondered, trying to recall the last time she had been able to relax and enjoy the fading colors as they slipped over the horizon. As the ship approached the surface, she also remembered that she hadn't seen a night sky, or rainfall, or a sunrise, or...really anything, since she left to go to Dromund Kaas. She had gotten accustomed to seeing the ceiling of the level instead of stars, or the moon, or the sun. Ahsoka jumped off the ship and turned to the west, and was nearly blinded by the last rays of the daylight. Has it always been this bright?
The sunset only lasted for a few glorious seconds, before the star disappeared, and the sky began to fade to black. A few stars could already be seen in the east, through the lanes of overhead traffic. Ahsoka turned and studied the surface, remembering all she had left behind.
The buildings hadn't changed much, to their credit. Private ships and subways were still flying through the air, shuttling people wherever they needed to be. The detention center was still thriving, and clones were milling about the perimeter, keeping watch for escapees. Off in the distance, she could feel the Jedi Temple settling down for the night, and the Senate Building, wrapping up the afternoon's events.
No. It wasn't the surface that had changed so much. It was Ahsoka.
She recalled what...was it Wheeler? Luce? Had said when they told her that she wasn't a surfacer anymore. She certainly didn't feel like one. It probably didn't help that she was standing a kilometer away from the center of the city, but she felt so removed from the life she had once led. All of this used to be normal for her. Now it felt...she wasn't sure how it felt. Strange? Exaggerated? Shallow? She had no idea.
After the initial shock of her return, she set off towards the city. It had been a long time since she had gone on a rooftop run, and she wasn't about to waste the opportunity. When she approached the first building, she leaped and soared through the air, landing lightly on her toes on the edge of the roof. Springing forward and farther up, she smiled as the wind brushed against her face. Mortis, she missed this.
She jumped up the nearby skyscraper and clung to the rim of the roof with one hand as she looked out over the thick of the city. This was Coruscant as she had known it. It was bright and loud and bountiful, and nothing seemed out of place. The neon on the sides of clubs and casinos attracted tourists by the hundreds, and every one of them seemed dressed for a night out on the town. It was a picture-perfect scene, as long as you didn't look too closely.
Before she could ponder it further, she reset her feet and took one last look behind her. Ahsoka couldn't dive headfirst out of a gunship anymore, but she could jump off of skyscrapers. She extended her body and arched backward, closing her eyes and trying to envision a squad of troopers falling after her. Her heart pounded as her body raced down, but she caught herself on the next building over and landed without so much as a thud. She let herself enjoy the moment, before looking forwards and sprinting on.
For the next several minutes, she raced around the city, flipping over obstacles (even though she didn't need to) and jumping off of cliffs (even though it probably gave a few people heart attacks). She let her legs tell her where to go and cherished the return of the burn in her calves as the stars came to join her. Ahsoka hadn't had the freedom to run like this in ages, but there was nothing in her way now. No power-greedy Sith Lords, no strict Jedi Masters, no ceilings, no walls. Just her and the wind, and the occasional screaming pedestrian when they saw a body free-falling off a building.
It was nearly half an hour before she gave herself a break. She slowed to a stop and sat down, dangling her legs over the side of a five-story building. It was high enough that most people wouldn't see her unless they were looking up. Leaning back, she stared up at the stars and tried to remember their names. There weren't too many, so it wasn't difficult. She had to admit, this was nothing compared to Shili, or Ryloth, or Felucia, or a hundred other systems she could have named, but it was something. She would take what she could get.
Looking back down at the street, she began studying the people that passed beneath her. Their outfits made them look like a sea of color, bright neons, and patterns that intermixed with one another. After seeing her colleagues in their work clothes for a few weeks, the party clothes of the surface looked flamboyant to Ahsoka, giving the pedestrians a superficial look. It's so inconvenient, she thought. It's not like they would work in those clothes and no one would want to go home and change between work and play.
The casino she was sitting on top of was known for its customers. Every night, it was filled to the brim, and sometimes, staff would even have to stand outside to filter who could come in and gamble. Of course, the upper class got in first. After all, the catering was expensive, and the stakes were high at nearly every table. The people admitted in the doors were normally dressed in decorative, elaborate suits and dresses, with heels as long as their foot and accessories bigger than their heads. Women were caked in makeup, and men were linking arms with as many high-status accomplices as possible. Everyone was trying to outshine everyone else, and it made Ahsoka gag.
She had gone in a few times to find criminals or bounty hunters, and she had seen other saloons of the same atmosphere. It astounded her how much energy some people put into their appearance, especially when she had never done so herself. If Ahsoka had wanted to look nice as a Jedi, she put on a robe. If she was required to supervise a gala as the Inquisitor, she had shined her armor and gone on her way. The closest she had ever gotten to looking like that was when she had dressed up as a slave for the mission to Zygeria, and she had no intention of doing that again anytime soon.
Up in the sky, where no one would pay attention to her, it was easy to call out the others on the ground for how they looked. Now, though, Ahsoka wasn't sure she wanted to. After knowing the stories of her coworkers, and seeing what life was like so far under the surface, she wondered if this life was the same when no one else was looking. Coruscant looked wonderful in pictures, sure, but surely not everyone lived the life they advertised on nights like these. Did it matter that she was living kilometers beneath the surface, or did everyone face the same problems, no matter who they were? Was the man rolling the dice for the jackpot struggling to make ends meet? Was the woman at the bar drinking shots selling herself to survive? Would the waiter over at table six be able to eat that night? Did the bartender have a family to go home to?
Maybe the surface just covers up the same problems the Lower Levels don't bother to hide, Ahsoka thought. All my life, everyone has told me about how horrible life is down there, but how closely did they look at their own life up here before they started pointing fingers below their feet?