"Watch where you're going, Tano," he growled, glaring at her and rolling off from on top of her. It was the first thing he had said to her all week.
"I apologize, I did not see you come in," she replied, but she knew it wouldn't do any good.
He crawled up to his feet and dusted himself off. "Whatever," he dismissed her and kept on walking. Ahsoka decided to go out on a limb.
"If this is about Saturday," she began, "I apologize for lashing out. That shouldn't have happened, I lost control that day-"
Granger laughed. "Oh, please, what else would I expect from a Jedi?" He taunted her, and Ahsoka knew trying to mend her mistake was pointless. If he wasn't going to accept what she wanted to say, she could not force him to.
She was about to walk out herself, but he wasn't done insulting her. "Why don't you run on back to your magic friends?" He suggested. "And your clone buddies, I bet they would like to see you too."
Ahsoka shut the door, refusing to let his words manipulate her. She wasn't making the same mistake twice, and certainly not that mistake.
Returning to work, she brought out her orange toolbox and tried to push the exchange out of her mind. A few minutes later, Granger walked out of the garage, sneering at her. His mentality seemed to have switched from not wanting anything to do with her to wanting to make her feel terrible. Little did he know that she was capable of feeling horrible without his help.
Since she had been at work the whole morning, she decided to leave early too. A market run was needed anyways since her food supply was running slightly low. Ahsoka also needed more glass cleaner and a few other cleaning supplies. Not to mention, after Saturday, her medical supplies needed replenishing. Jake had taken a large chunk of what she had. If only they weren't so expensive!
In the staff room, she pulled her bag from her locker and holstered her blaster on her hip. After it had malfunctioned with the thugs she had repaired it, but she was going to need a new one sooner or later because this one was falling apart. Buying a new one might have been cheaper than finding the parts to repair it.
She didn't have time to think about it though, because guess who decided to come back to agonize her?
"Leaving so soon?" Granger asked, blocking the door. "I wanted to have a little chat."
That would be the first time in a month, she wanted to say but chose not to. "About what?"
He grinned. "About you, and the Jedi. Tell me, why not go running back to the Order? Why stay here, where no one else likes you?"
"Believe it or not, the Jedi Order doesn't want me back. They expelled me, and I left," she explained. Actually, Ahsoka was pretty sure he already knew, but talking about it was better than the stink eye she had been getting for four days.
Granger seemed to think that was hilarious. "You're not even good enough for them! What the hell did you do that not even the Jedi would take you back?"
"What did the Jedi do that you think so lowly of them?" She asked in return since everyone and their droid knew what she had done.
"What didn't they do?" he retorted, caught off guard by the question, but not unprepared. "Always fighting, and going to God knows where poking their noses in other people's lives."
Ahsoka had five different responses that would have gotten her punched, most of which were along the lines of 'Look who's talking'. "Has it ever crossed your mind that they might be trying to help?"
Clearly not. "Trying to help ruin my life? Yeah. The world would be better off without them."
"So you're trying to get rid of them, starting with me," she concluded. "It makes sense. I'm the only ex-Jedi without a lightsaber."
"You can't keep your hands to yourselves, can you?" He went on, ignoring her. "Do you have any idea how many kids' lives you've ruined? How many people have had to drop everything because of you? Oh, wait, let me guess, they don't teach you that in magic school! Because none of you care! I could walk off the edge of a building and none of them would do a thing, 'cause I'm not one of them! I wasn't one of the chosen ones, destined to save the universe."
Ahsoka was this close, this close, to saying that there was only one Chosen One, but again, she held her tongue. It was best to let him rant, and she wasn't about to explain the prophecy of the Chosen One. If she really wanted to, she would have told him that apparently they didn't always care about their own members either, especially when they got arrested for treason.
"Do you know how many people you've killed? How many homes you've destroyed with your little war? How long before everyone dies and there's nothing left to fight for? How long before you finally crawl back into your Temple and leave us alone? Huh? Or are you here to stay?"
She let him breathe and calm down a little before responding in a cool, collected voice. "I am not allowed to go back, and my job is here. I am not leaving this place unless I die. If you want me to return to the Jedi Temple, you may ask for an audience with the Jedi High Council."
Granger really let loose now. He guffawed and laughed so hard he doubled over. "Ask for an audienc-maybe that's how I should have asked when I tried the first time! Maybe they would have let me in!"
He glared at her and pointed out the door. "You don't think I've tried to talk to them? Why do you think I snuck on a ship to travel halfway across the galaxy to Coruscant, 'cause it sure as hell wasn't to come work here! They won't listen! I tried to tell them I wanted to find my sister, but did they care? NO! THEY SURE AS HELL DID NOT!"
Ahsoka's eyes widened. His sister, well, of course, they wouldn't have let him in, Jedi can't have attachments. Still, though, halfway across the galaxy? No wonder he hates the Jedi. "They took your sister as a child," she murmured.
"I tried to get into their stupid Temple, Tano!" He was full-on yelling now, right in her face. "Nothing worked! Their stupid magic stopped me from getting any farther than the freaking pillars on the front porch, and I had no way to get inside, so I stayed, as long as I could, before they told me to get out! I had no choice but to move down here because I told my parents I was coming back with Kalifa, or not at all!"
"I was coming back with Kalifa, or not at all!"
"I was coming back with Kalifa, or not at all!"
Ahsoka fell onto her knees, the memory playing in her mind. She couldn't hear anything else, not even Granger, who was still shouting at her. All she could hear were Kalifa's gasps, telling her to protect O-Mer and Jinx. All she could see were her eyes closing and the girl's head falling to the side as life left her body.
She clung to the chair next to her, trying to remind herself that she wasn't on Island Four anymore and that she was almost two years after the Trandoshans had kidnapped her. Eventually, after a minute, her vision cleared, but the echos of Dar's father vowing to seek revenge still rang in her mind.
Granger had made no move to help her but he was staring at her, wondering why she had been unbothered by everything he had said until now. It wasn't until he saw the faintest hint of tears in her eyes that he started to worry.
Ahsoka could barely speak, but she forced the words out. "Kalifa was on a training mission, but her group was ambushed by Trandoshans, hunters who killed for sport. I was taken by the same people, years later." She looked up at him, meeting his eyes.
He staggered backward. "You knew Kalifa. You knew her?"
She shook her head. "Barely. She and two others found me, and they helped me survive the hunt, but..."
"But what?" He insisted. "Tell me what happened to her!"
"Dar shot her," she admitted, the tears falling out of her eyes. "She was going to make it, but I killed the Trandoshan who had fired on her. His father wanted revenge, and she..." Ahsoka swallowed and forced herself to finish, for Granger's sake. "Dar's father hit her. The shot went straight through her chest."
She closed her eyes, waiting for the retaliation Granger was sure to dole out for his sister's death. After a few seconds, though, all she heard was the door slamming. When she looked up again, Granger was gone.
Ahsoka leaned against the lockers and tried to comprehend what had happened. Kalifa had been Granger's sister the whole time. He never knew what happened to her.
That night, she had nightmares again, but this time, she watched Kalifa die.
Over
and over
and over again.