Episode 4
Waking Nightmare
Fresh air, whispering trees, the distant call of ocean birds and salt on humid wind so thick she could taste it.
She took a deep breath, relishing the rare moment of peace and inhaling the heady aroma of -Blood, blood, fire, burning flesh- worn metal, the tangy hint of sweat, oil, and open sky. His scent.
Even when his handsome face faded little by little in her memory, no matter how hard she tried to hold, she never could forget his scent.
She had read somewhere that if Togrutas found the scent of another member of the opposite sex pleasant it meant they were a desirable mate. Even though he was not a member of her race she found his scent (and the rest of him) very desirable indeed.
Ahsoka had wondered if the same thing worked for humans…
The young Togruta Padawan drew in another long deep breath and let out a languid content sigh, her eyes closed and head tilted back, soaking up the sun like a lounging tooka. This was why when Master Skywalker spoke she nearly jumped out of her skin.
"Beaches are weird."
Coughing to cover how badly he had startled her Ahsoka scrunched her nose in confusion at the -broken, twisted, monstrous- young man sitting off the edge of the Wookie hut next to her.
"What?" She asked, the rounded bubble of a laugh tittering at the edge of her voice, not knowing where his declaration was going but already familiar with her Skyguy's insightful tangents.
She wondered if odd trains of thought was a human thing too.
"Why?" She asked, fighting to keep the fond grin off her face watching his contemplative expression grow serious as he pondered the significance behind his odd statement.
The off pair were sitting on an elevated Wookie hut overlooking the Kachirho beachhead, their legs swinging free to the wind several hundred feet above the ground. Her actual Master Obi-Wan Kenobi and the rest of the 212th couldn't spare the troops to support the 501's Special Operations into the heart of the CIS Kashyyk campaign, but they could spare her.
Ahsoka preferred it this way truthfully. Back when she suffered under Master Krell's tutelage –"I will break you, little kitten"- the boys of the 501st were her family, and since becoming Kenobi's apprentice she had missed them terribly. But she was content knowing that Anakin led them now that Krell is gone. –"No one will ever want you, a worthless little whore!"-
Sometimes though she can't help but wonder what it would have been like if she had become Skywalker's apprentice instead. -…I left him I left him I left him I left him I….-
"Well,"
Ahsoka turned her attention to the older man's face, her traitorous eyes darting between his lips and dexterous fingers as he spoke, hands waving to the shoreline stretching out below them.
"Water, I'm a fan of. We all need it, we all drink it-"
"-but not this water," Ahsoka chirped. "It being an ocean and all."
"Hush," Anakin chided, throwing her a playful smirk. "I'm trying to impart upon you just a fraction of my invaluable wisdom, young one."
"I'm seventeen you senile old man."
"And I'm twenty two." He shot back. Ahsoka guffawed at his offended glare that crumbled away into a -harsh, mechanical rasping- chuckle as he joined in her amusement.
"Anyway, where was I before I was rudely interrupted?"
"Something about water and whining about sand like a little bitch?" Ahsoka drawled, head rolling back lazily to soak up more sun.
A focused Force blast gently thumped the underside of her nose and Ahsoka was powerless to stop the tiny mousy sneeze that followed. She pointed a glare down at her scrunched nose, cerulean eyes crossing hilariously before fixing the culprit beside her with an angry stare. Anakin on the other hand was too busy laughing to care. The twit was on his back holding his aching sides and doing absolutely nothing to hide his mirth.
"Wha-What was that?" He asked breathlessly, between guffaws. "You-you're I didn't know a person can even make a sound like that! That sneeze was adorable!"
"You're a jerk." She huffed, crossing her arms, and doing her best to ignore the funny things his deep rolling -scraping, heaving, artificial- laughter was doing to her insides. "Can you quit laughing and just get on with your lesson O' great and venerable Master Jedi?"
"Right, right." Anakin wheezed, leveling himself off the floor waving off the cranky Togruta girl. He coughed and cleared his throat, though his voice was still cracking a little from his laughter. "So. Beaches-"
"-And water-" Ahsoka supplied.
"-And sand." Anakin's breathless expression darkened into a comically grave scowl -sky blue eyes bleeding Sith gold- that had Ahsoka swallowing a snort. It wasn't a giggle. She did not giggle. Jedi did not giggle. And Anakin is not funny. Really. Honest.
"Sand?" She asked. He nodded solemnly, clearly basking in her attention and amusement.
"Yes." He drew himself up, broad armored shoulders squared and chest out in an overexaggerated imitation of Obi-Wan psyching himself up for a lecture.
"You see my young Padawan, beaches are nature's paradox." He looked like he was having way too much fun playing the part of Master, mechno-hand waving around the air -bare metal claws scraping the wind- as if pointing to an unseen holoprojector displaying some fictional lesson. "Water is wet."
"Really? Wow Master Skywalker I had no idea." Ahsoka drawled, rolling her eyes so hard she almost pulled a muscle.
"Don't make me boop you again." He threatened, poking a mechno finger into her side, aiming for the ticklish spot below her ribs. Ahsoka batted the offending appendage away and put her hands up in defeat. Satisfied in his victory Anakin continued.
"Well, I mean of all two things to find together, water and sand?" He gestured to the pristine white coastline with a torn look of disdain as if the very shore had personally affronted him. "I love water, but sand? Nope. Not for me. Because on a beach, to get to the water you have to walk over all that sand, so by the time you get to the water your covered in the stuff. It's coarse, and rough, irritating and it gets everywhere… but at least you can wash it off. But that's not the worse part!"
"No?" Ahsoka prompted, fighting her smile.
"No." Anakin continued grim shadows etched into the lines around his eye as he imparted his wisdom. "The worst part is when you get out of the water, you gotta walk back over the shore and get covered in sand all over again!"
Ahsoka tittered, purring laughter rumbling from deep in her breast and up her throat. "You- you're hopeless!"
"It's a travesty!"
"The fact that the Hero with No Fear is scared of sand is a travesty."
Anakin chuckled, matching her grin with a lopsided smile - jagged metal teeth stabbing from his grinning maw- . "Well even I have a flaw, as close to perfection as I am." Ahsoka snorted as he added. "Otherwise it wouldn't be fair for the rest of you mere mortals."
"Gee thanks." Ahsoka deadpanned. Anakin chortled and she thumped him in the arm, then the pair lapsed into a comfortable silence.
"You know," Ahsoka began, drawing Anakin's brilliant blue -sick, bloodshot- eyes. "sand I don't mind so much, though I'm not a huge fan of water."
Anakin quirked a brow. "Yesterday weren't you telling me about when you were involved in the Mon Cala civil war?"
"Hey, just 'cuz I can swim doesn't mean I like it." Ahsoka gave him a sheepish shrug. "Being underwater for long stretches of time messes with my hearing." She trailed a thumb over the web of healed cracks spread over her left montral. The hollow bone like ossicones give her and other Togruta a kind of passive echolocation, making her hearing sensitive. Water, air pressure and other factors can mess with her hearing and balance horribly, making it a kind of double edged sword.
"I was slapping and shaking my head like a dog for days after we left because I thought I still felt water pressing around my horns. That and it feels slimy and cold when it gets on your clothes." She pulled a face and stuck out a tongue. "Just… ick. No thank you."
Anakin snorted then gave her another considering look. One she recognized when he was contemplating telling her about his past. She ate up every morsel of information about his life and kept them close to her chest. It made her feel special and… wanted, knowing things that he hasn't told anyone else outside of perhaps Obi-Wan.
He seemed to have come to a decision because his handsome face softened and he carded a hand though the honey brown locks that framed his ethereal blue eyes.
"I hated getting sand in my hair as a kid." He admitted, his voice going soft almost as though he was afraid to poke at the memories he was sharing lest they bite back. Ahsoka felt an aching sorrow ripple through their Force bond and she had to blink back tears, tears that she wasn't entirely sure were her own.
Home, death, sun, dunes, love, hope, home, mother, hurt, pain, pain, blood, agony, too late, too late, I'm too LATE! So sorry, I'm so sorry-
Wrestling herself from the tide of emotions flooding her mind (This was Anakin muted behind ironclad mental shields and she shuddered to think of the maelstrom that lay on his side of the bond) she calmed her beating heart and relaxed, trying to bleed the residual hurt and pain out into the Force.
She must have flinched because Anakin realized that his emotions were leaking out from his mental shields and his defenses slammed shut, offering respite from the emotional onslaught.
This wasn't the first time something like this happened. In fact this was a very mild incident compared to a couple of times in the past. The flashes and snippets of feelings and images she gets are almost always the same, or at least similar. She is just too scared to ask. A large part of her almost doesn't want to know, but the rest of her wants to be there for him. to ease his pain and hurt, even just a little bit. Just like he had done for her.
They sat in silence as she recovered. She distracted herself with studying his hair and she found it wasn't that hard.
Glowing azure eyes roamed across the forest of massive trees to where the shore melded into the sun painted ocean. A ray of dappled sunlight lit up Anakin's form melting his light brunette hair into strands of gold - And scorching his skin black. Once tanned flesh charred and cracked, blood and puss bubbled and frothed, dribbling down his arms, chest, and face, staining his blue tunic, clone armor, and bleach white skull- and Ahsoka was conflicted on which view was more beautiful.
When did I find hair attractive of all things? It's like… skin spaghetti, right?
She was struck with the overwhelming urge to run her fingers through his light brunette locks and find out. She wondered if it was as soft as it looked.
She also wondered where she had left her brain, because she clearly lost her bloody mind for even considering fondling her friend (and a Jedi Master no less!) in broad daylight.
Ugh, hormones. Growing up sucks.
He noticed her unusually intense inspection and cocked an eyebrow. She felt heat darken her leeku and scorch her orange cheeks a dusty hazel but he didn't seem to notice her embarrassment for getting caught staring. She was just thankful he couldn't read the weird thoughts running through her head. That would have been mortifying.
However, in a rare display of self-consciousness he swallowed and ran his fingers through his hair, sweeping aside an adventurous strand of honey brown hair.
"Well, then I believe I may have discovered a solution." Anakin proclaimed, breaking the silence, unaware that he had just saved herself from her own stupid crush and him from a very awkward conversation about skin spaghetti.
"Oh?" She asked, stuffing her lusty daydreams and weird awkwardness in a mental box and throwing away the key, at least until she bunked down and spent the night cringing at herself. "And what is that?"
"If I need to get to the water then I can just hitch a ride on your back over the sand!"
Ahsoka rolled her eyes, the tension in her shoulders relaxing as he drew her back into their conversation. "And what about me and the water?" She asked playfully.
Anakin smiled and rested a hand on her shoulder and Ahsoka jumped from the giddy warmth that blossomed from his touch. She had to suppress a full-body shudder as the warmth spread to the rest of her, trickled through her veins and pooled into a molten mess just below her navel.
Unaware of the effect he had on the poor girl, Anakin answered in a low voice -hate spilling hot from his tongue- , " If you ever find yourself in over your head and drowning, just reach out and take my hand." He squeezed her shoulder affectionately. "I'll be there to pull you up. I'll even carry you from the water myself if I have to."
The heat in her belly apparently decided it would better make an appearance on her face and Ahsoka turned her head away so he couldn't see the way her cheeks colored from orange to deep red and the blue stripes on her leeku flush a deep purple. Once she got her (stupid, stupid, stupid!) blush under control and gathered her scattered wits she mulled his words over in her head and let out a scoff.
Brushing his hand from her shoulder (and only briefly mourning the loss of contact) she fixed him with a look of exasperated disbelief. "No. You're not doing that."
Anakin's eyebrows rose and disappeared behind his hair. "I'm not doing what?"
Crossing her arms and squaring her shoulders she deepened her voice in a mocking, passable imitation of him and said, "Turning your stupid "Beaches are weird." Statement into some kind of deep, meaningful lesson. Nah uh. You," She poked a finger into his armored chest. "are the weird one, Anakin Skywalker. And when we get to the beach I dare you to try and jump on my back." She added with a little growl and another finger poke.
"Awww, I love you too Snips." Anakin drawled, completely unconcerned with the predatory Togruta female baring her sharp teeth inches from his face.
He tilted his head and flashed her another lopsided grin. "You gotta work on your snarl though, tiger. 'cuz the only thing you're making me afraid of is my heart bursting from how cute that was. Like a tooka hissing at a cucumber- ow! Ow! Ow! Okay, okay! Quit hitting me! I'm threatened! I consider myself threatened!"
Ahsoka's ire was only mollified upon seeing the infuriating young man cowering, his arms raised above his head and pleading for mercy. She took pity on the silly male and crossed her arms with a huff, putting on an air of irritation.
It only lasted for a few seconds when she glanced over at his smug grin, azure eyes sparkling with laughter. Her façade crumbled and she mirrored his grin. He rested his hand on her back and she drank in the rare moment of affection, her unease for her past and her immediate future unraveling, for the moment at least.
"Love you Snips." Anakin murmured, though this time the words were spoken in a somber, reverent tone. One she had only heard from him when he was absolutely serious. He was the only person to ever say them to her. Not even Master Plo had ever uttered them. Love wasn't the Jedi way. It was an attachment. A risk. A direct path to the Dark Side. It was dangerous. It was wrong… and yet…
"I-I love you too Skyguy."
And yet she said them anyway. Because she did. Not in the same way he loved her but it was enough. She mattered to someone. Two someones really. Obi-Wan never said the words to her either but she heard Anakin tell Obi-Wan he loved the man on several occasions and she knew he cared deeply for her as much as his former apprentice, he just wasn't so vocal about it.
Serious moment or not she couldn't resist one last parting shot.
"You're still weird though."
"Why you-!"
Ahsoka descended into a fit of giggles as Anakin pounced on her, tickling her sides ruthlessly and for one beautiful moment her world stood still and she felt loved.
And it was enough.
"Eeeek! Hahaha! Stop! Stop!" Ahsoka squealed, the wooden hut floor cool against her back, tight body-glove clothed legs tangled with Anakin's long limbs, trapping them in a grappling lock on reflex. She savored the way his muscled limbs flexed and bowed above her, against her, as they playfully fought for dominance. His armored body dragged delightfully against her clothed skin as he struggled to free himself. Ahsoka's hands were planted on his broad chest, as she weakly pushed up against his weight as his fingers danced along her ticklish stomach, her lungs and cheeks aching, breathless from laughter.
She wiggled up beneath him until she was face-to-face with him, wrapped her legs around his middle and pulled her thighs taut, catching him off guard and squeezing the breath from his lungs. She looked up at his face, a cocky smirk blooming on her lips. her expression faltered, her own breath stolen.
She found herself staring up into a pair of glowing sky blue eyes, a deeper glittering sapphire then the ocean below. The smile on his face shadowed by the curtain of honey brown hair made golden by the sunlight trickling through.
Is this a dream?
Ahsoka swallowed thickly, and sucked down air, her breath still ragged from her laughter. A mistake that was, as his intoxicating scent was the only thing for her to breath in.
this… this is too good to be a dream.
"Ahsoka…." Anakin whispered, his breath rolled hot over her cheek, sparking an electric heat across her skin and setting her heart off on a rapid skipping rhythm against her ribs as his face strayed closer, lips scant inches from hers.
Her hands moved on their own. Her calloused palms trailed from their place on his chest over the crest of his muscled pecs, fingers tracing the junction where his neck meets his collarbone. She found herself enraptured by the way his pulse leapt from his throat against her palm as her hands slid up, up, up, up over his strong jaw and tickled across his cheeks until her hands came to rest, slender orange fingers cupping his face, her left thumb trailing the scar down his brow from his fight with Ventress on Naboo a year prior.
Please don't let this be a dream.
Her eyes fluttered closed almost on their own accord as she leaned in, to close the distance between them, her heartbeat ramping up pounding wildly in her montral.
A sudden stab of pain in her side broke the young togruta from this blissful, fantastic moment.
"Ow." Ahsoka sucked in a sharp breath, "Hey, you're holding on too tight." She husked against his jaw. She drew him closer again but the pain turned to a lance of agony crackling through her stomach and ripped a path up her spine.
Ahsoka's back arched against his chest, her hand snapped from Anakin's face to her stomach. her hand was met with gloved fingers as Anakin's thumb curled into her flank. She tried to pry his hand from her side but his fingers only clenched tighter. She could actually feel his wicked claws cut into her skin and dig into her flesh.
"Ow! Anakin, you're hurting me!"
Her last vestiges of happy contentment was replaced by raw animalistic terror as Anakin's claws curled deeper and deeper, crimson blood spilled from the ragged hole in her side and splatter across her legs, chest, arms, hand, and face as she screamed and thrashed in a blind panic.
Then the memories. Obi-Wan's stricken face when he told her the news, and the cold, dead Force Bond that hung cut and frayed from where she had severed it when she left the Jedi. The Siege of Mandalore. Order 66. Her years on the run, biting at the ankles of a twisted ugly image of the Republic-turned Empire she had fought and killed for.
Pain. Her memories crashed over her with a crushing, suffocating agony both physical and emotional so deep it left her drowning and tasting blood on her lips.
In a fit of desperation Ahsoka raked her nails across Anakin's face, his skin peeling away and shredding like old flimsi. She felt the ragged remnants of Anakin's face flaking away between her fingers, dry and rotten. She saw the cold metal skull sneering down at her with a mouth full of jagged steel knives and two Sith gold orbs burning in their empty sockets. Another horrified, hysterical scream ripped from her throat.
"YOU DID THIS TO ME!" The Nightmare roared, unrestrained fury and hate dragging their sharp blades across her flesh. Anakin's rotten breath came up a horrible mechanical rasp that ground the air and burned her nose.
"Please!" Ahsoka begged. The anger and hurt the bleed from her decaying friend tore her heart more than the fear she felt. Even if he was this monster, even if he was killing her Ahsoka had to make him understand.
"I had no choice! When Barriss framed me and after the-the trail I had t-to get away from the Order! I had to find my own way, without them. Without you!" Hot helpless tears blurred her vision and spilled down her cheeks. "B-but that didn't mean I didn't love you!"
"YOU PUSHED ME AWAY!"
"YOU DIED!" She screamed back, the sieve that sealed away her grief and guilt cracked open, her sadness and pain flaring into blind anger. "I always meant to come back but… But when I finally did you were already gone! "
At this point Ahsoka wasn't even thinking about what she was saying, the sieve now thrown open wide and all of her hate and self-loathing spewed from her mouth in a flood, much like the tears spilling from her eyes as she stared up at the monstrous image of the man above her. "You left me f-first! You kriffing died and left me all alone you selfish bastard!"
Cold metal claws curled around her face and slammed the back of her head against the bloodsoaked floor. Ashoka choked from the sudden pain. She nearly swallowed her tongue and her sharp teeth clacked together hard. Through the ringing in her montral she heard the Nightmare's terrible mechanical breathing.
"Then, perhaps you would like to join me in the dark?" The Nightmare cooed, voice deep and jagged like oil over sandpaper. The words slithered into her montral, curling around her brain like oily eels as they bit and chewed at her will.
Terror bleed anew in her heart as the thing that was once the man she loved tilted its metal skull and nashed its blade-like teeth in a devilish grin.
Scared as she knew what was going to happen next she would not give this perversion of a sweet memory what it wanted. If she did she felt like she would lose what little she had left of him if she did.
"No." She breathed in a tiny defiant and terrified whisper.
The Nightmare's skull contorted in rage and the coals of glowing gold flared hot with fury and for a moment she thought it would kill her then and there, but then the sith-light faded and it calmed itself. The Nightmare dug its claws around her face and peeled her head from the floor, her montral pried painfully from where they had dug into the splintered wood until their faces were scant inches apart.
"Then…" The Nightmare whispered in a sweet voice, its terrible rasping breaths scratching at her mind. "You will be like me."
Then with deliberate slowness he curled his claws further into the gaping hole in her stomach tearing an agony filled scream from her raw throat. The Nightmare opened his jaw, the rows of jagged knives glistening with blood and saliva inches form Ahsoka's face. The heaving, mechanical rasp of his booming voice scarring her heart with fear. She struggled and thrashed harder under Anakin's weight as his skull reared back and roared
"THEN YOU WILL DIE."
The Nightmare bared his teeth and lunged, jaws tearing into her face-
Ahsoka woke up.
Her back was sticky, her clothes soaked through and suctioned to her skin, the fluid thick, grainy and viscous. Just like blood.
She freaked.
Throwing herself to her feet Ahsoka's hands fumbled for her lightsabers, only for her fingers to snag and tangle with her blaster that for a moment felt foreign and wrong. Her breathing came up fast, panicked, and shallow as adrenaline poured through her veins, making the unfamiliar swamp that surrounded her blur and pulse in time with her slamming heart.
This was wrong, she realized. It's so dark. Why is it so dark? Is it night? Already? It was barely daybreak. Wait, this isn't wroshyr tree she had been leaning against. This wasn't Kashyyk. The air here was humid but there's no salt. Where's the beachhead? The clones? The 501st? where's Anakin-?
She gasped in pain, her hand flying from her holster to the bandaged hole in her side. When she looked up the world began to spin, and her knees were wet and mucky. When had she fallen? She had been standing last she checked. What's going on?
The swamp blurred and her spinning world tilted violently.
"Commander?!" She heard a voice- a clone she realized, she just couldn't nail down a name. She looked up and saw a dark blob separate from the black outline tree trunk beside her and stagger over. Who was he? She couldn't remember. Her brain wasn't working, her thoughts not cooperating. She thought she felt the clone-blob put his hand on her shoulder but the sensation felt miles away. The only sensation she felt sure of was her stomach punching her diaphragm.
"I- I don't feel so good." Her arm hooked the clone's and she doubled over on her remaining hand and knees and puked. She vaguely noted the vomit that splattered her arm upon impact. She tried to suck in a breath but her stomach threw another sucker-punch into her ribs and more of her half-digested Togruta-safe protein ration bars made their soggy reappearance. Tears followed unbidden to the acrid burn of acid up her throat while she could do nothing more but ride out her bout of nausea.
"S-stop. Stop, stop, please stop." She begged between every clench of her rebelling stomach. who she was talking to she didn't know but in her delirium she didn't really care.
She must have spent ten minutes puking her guts up, but finally her heaving abated. Somewhere about halfway through she had felt a hand patting her between her shoulder blades. She took all the comfort she could get from the touch and it helped ground her enough to find some state of equilibrium.
"You alright?" She heard the clone ask.
Ahsoka took a few more ragged breaths to assess herself and wipe the chunky spittle dribbling from her lips. Piecemeal jerked back in surprise when she shoved his arm away and started to wrestle her jacket and soaked shirt from her body as if they were strangling her. The wet sensation had become too much. All she felt was blood, blood, blood-!
She flung her jacket away but her shirt got hung up under her leeku, draping the slimy material over her face. A sound somewhere between a whimper and a growl escaped her throat and her motions became frantic and desperate. with a snarl she took the shirt and ripped the collar wide and pulled the shirt free, leaving her gray sports bra and the swath of filthy and bloody bandages around his middle. Her nostrils flared and her chest heaved as if she had just run a marathon, her ripped shirt crumpled in both fists in her lap.
Catching her breath she swallowed, winced a little at the burn in her throat and answered croaked, "Yeah." She trailed a hand down the throbbing wound on her stomach and sat up straight, her legs folded under her butt in a quasi-seiza as if she were still a Padawan Learner at meditation lessons.
"Yeah, I'm…" She burped and spat out a lingering piece of old food. "Better." Though she could only really see his outline she flashed a grateful smile over her shoulder. "Thanks Piecemeal."
After emptying her stomach she did feel better, or at the very least her mind clearer, even if she did still have a headache knocking against her skull. She thought back to the surreal confusion of forgetting where and when she was upon waking up and a tiny sliver of cruel panic poked her from the back of her mind, mocking her for her weakness.
She didn't want to admit it but she had been scared. The surreal sense of confusion she had felt from being ripped from her 17 year old body and thrown in a pitch black swamp 5 years later so abruptly really screwed her up. Her mind was still fighting to sort out what was real and what was not. Lucid nightmares were the worst, especially when she woke up somber without a single drop of booze within a hundred miles.
Piecemeal's weathered brown face pulled into a frown seeing the strong young woman so badly rattled. He sympathized. This war is taking its toll on them all. It broke his heart seeing this woman he had witnessed grow from a sassy twig of girl into a tempered warrior be brought so low. She had lost so much. Her Master (General Kenobi, not that prick Krell. No one missed that one), the Jedi Order, her troops, even the man he knew she had loved more than a brother and friend.
"What-" Ahsoka hacked and spat another chunk of food from her mouth, "-what time is it?"
Piecemeal quickly wiped his expression from his face. If he knew one thing it was his Commander hated to be pitied. He couldn't see very well through the gloom, but he saw Ahsoka's reflective eyes shine through the gloom. It was a reminder that Togruta are predators, she could see much better than him.
Noting that she was trying to change the subject from her bout of violent nausea he decided to drop it issue (for now) and checked the chrono on his wrist. "It's a bit before dawn I think. We've only been asleep for a couple hours."
Ahsoka still felt like crap, a deep throbbing ache radiated from her joints and her eyes felt weight down by the bags that hung below them like lead weights. nevertheless she nodded, checked her utility belt for all its bells and whistles and her blaster seated in her holster. She levered herself to her feet with a strained grunt, body protesting like a cranky babe woken from a nap and stubbornly ignoring the throbbing wound in her side when she twisted oddly straightening up. A wet wind rolled over her exposed skin and she shivered.
Ahsoka looked down at her torn shirt then instead chose to scoop up her discarded jacket and slip it over her undergarments instead. The jacket was only marginally less slimy but at the very least it wasn't plastered across her skin. Just thinking about the grainy sticky feeling similar to blood soaked clothes pressing around her body sent shivers down her spine that had nothing to do with the cold.
Tucking her shoulders and crossing her arms to ward off the chill and the uncomfortable hot flashes running down her stomach she said, "We should get moving."
She limped over to where she had tucked the stolen BARC speeder under a large gnarled tree root and started the vehicle. The repulsorlift engine ignited with a growl, drowning out the ambient howl and chirp of surrounding nocturnal wildlife. Keeping the illuminator off she coasted over and helped her one-legged companion on the speeder behind her and took off at a cautious pace, her eyes darting between the datamap built in between the handlebars and the dark swamp rolling past..
"How far to that settlement you found on that map?" Piecemeal asked against the back of her montral.
"A few dozen klicks south by southwest." Ahsoka answered over the whine of the engine after checking the distance. "These Scavver's home is closer and to the northwest so I think it best to go somewhere else for help."
"I hope these people at least have a long range comm terminal." Piecemeal muttered. "We need to call for pick-up and get these Star Destroyer plans to Rebel Command as soon as possible."
"Worst case we just steal a ship." Ahsoka shrugged. "I don't like the thought but with inquisitors on our asses it's not like we have the luxury of choice."
"You're right." She felt Piecemeal sigh heavily against her montral. "Wish we had a few of the 501st Shield-brothers with us about now. Even that hag Ventriss struggled against us back in the day."
"Isn't that how you lost your leg?" Ahsoka asked.
"Well, yeah, sure. But I did break her nose." Ahsoka could hear the smirk in Piecemeal's voice. "If I get my paws on another leg and an electro-baton I'll do the same to those inquisitors too."
"Hopefully without losing your other leg this time."
Piecemeal chuckled, then started laughing.
"What I said wasn't that funny." Ahsoka grossed, a little concerned for her friend's sense of humor.
"No, no. not that." Piecemeal cortled. "I'm just remembering the stupid look on that red-blade's face when you hit him with the speeder and skipped him like an angry stone!" He laughed.
Ahsoka snorted, grinning smugly. "That was pretty good, wasn't it?"
After putting some distance between their resting place Ahsoka switched the illuminator on and opened up the throttle, cutting a wave of murky water in their wake.
Dawn lit up the sky half an hour later, pink and green fire rising over the horizon to meet them. Bands of light spilled through between the spindly sea of decayed trees in rays of viridescent gold as wisps of mist rose from the murky water. The waking morning sparked a tiny cinder of nagging recognition in the back of Ahsoka's mind. This sky felt familiar for some reason, but the answer clung to the clouded fog of her memory, dancing just at the edge of recognition.
Ahsoka turned her head a little to speak over the rush of wind. "Piece?"
"Hm?"
"Does this place look… I dunno, familiar to you?"
"Commander, we've trudged through how many swamp planets during the war?" Piecemeal asked sardonically. "When you've seen one, you've seen them all."
"Hmph, true." Ahsoka relented, turning her eyes back to the landscape speeding by. Still, she was sure she had been to this planet before. The Datamap was no help, only containing whatever shorthand for the region or location the BARC's previous owner had punched in before she had "requisitioned" it. She glanced down at the blinking point on the map they were headed towards eloquently christened "Whores R herre!" and scowled.
Despite the distasteful label it was the closest location beside the coordinate point the previous owner named "home" and their best shot at finding a way off this mudball. Her wound throbbed and with it a hot flash that trickled and rolled through her body in a sickly boiling wave.
Okay. Patch ourselves up first, then find a way home.
"I think I see it." Piecemeal pointed past her shoulder to a swooping tower topped with what looked like a viewing platform stabbing out of the sea of trees and into the pastel morning sky at an odd angle.
"That doesn't look like a town or village to me." Ahsoka replied over the wind. She peeled to the right and slowed their speed in a more cautious approach. "It almost looks like the comm tower to a Providence."
She could feel Peicemeal's confused look and furrowed brow bouncing off the back of her blue striped montral. "What would an old Seppie warship be doing way out in the middle of nowhere on this skugg-hole?"
"Same reason we're here," Ahsoka answered as their speeder broke from the treeline. Though she knew from personal experience just how daunting an image it can invoke she was still caught off guard (and perhaps a little cowed) by the sheer size of the decayed CIS dreadnought carcass listing half submerged in the mire. "It wasn't on purpose."
The Providence-class Dreadnought was over a mile and a third long, (some 2,100 meters in length Ahsoka dimly recalled from her initial briefings as a Padawan years ago) however this particular specimen looked to have been spread over a good three or four square miles of the swamp. Large sections of the downed vessel were missing from the main body, ripped free upon planetary impact and stabbing from the acrid wetlands in a macabre rendition of a bug splatting against a windshield, guts spilled out and exoskeleton shattered.
Life, however, once again proved that it can be as stubborn as a Skywalker, literally building from the remains of the destroyed dreadnought. Pinpricks of light flickered from the titanic wreckage in the waking dawn, and from what Ahsoka could see a veritable city had pushed itself out from the inside of the downed dreadnought's main hull.
She was suddenly struck by an aching need to be surrounded by strong durasteel walls and somewhere with good booze (Hell, she'd settle for the local gut-rot at this point, just to stop the tremble in her hands).
Ahsoka, roused at the thought of alcohol, spotted what looked like the main gate into the settlement built in front of the Providence's starboard hanger door and quickly arced the speeder towards the flickering points of light on the hangar interior. She got a few hundred yards from the scavenged durasteel gates sunken into the mire when a gravelly voice called from the battlements.
"Halt! 'o be a-goin' dere? Whassyer bus'ness?"
Ahsoka drew the speeder to a halt and narrowed her eyes towards the top of the gate and spotted, of all things, a Gungan goggling down on her with eye stalks narrowed in suspicion. Dreadful suspicion of her own welled up like stomach acid but she pushed it aside.
"Just a couple travellers looking to trade!" She replied, trying to make herself as non-threatening as possible.
The Gungan scoffed. "An' whatcha doin' outta dere in da night? Don'cha knowin' 'bout the Lost thatin' be a-stalkin' da wastes?"
Lost? Thinking back Ahsoka did vaguely recall hearing one of the Scavvers say something about a lost… something or other. It seemed whatever this "lost" was it is something to be concerned about.
"I…" Ahsoka went to shrug and flinched when the motion pulled at her blaster wound. she settled for what she hoped was a convincing cock of her head, "I guess we just got lucky." With more effort than she would care to admit she smoothed her pained grimace and asked, "So. you gonna let us inside?"
The Gungan studied her appearance then glanced at Piecemeal peeking over her shoulder. The guard grunted and waved them in. "Openna dat gate."
Ahsoka tried and failed to muster a charming smile in the Gungan's direction and glided the BARC speeder through the rattling gate and into the hangar.
Ahsoka was impressed with what she saw once inside. What was left of the dreadnought interior was repurposed and converted into a sort of town square and marketplace. Stalls were packed wall to wall and stacked on top of each other in a ramshackle and precarious manner, some of them even reaching all the way to the ceiling in places. Despite the way many of the stalls and thrown together structures leaned and wobbled under the early morning foot traffic nothing fell over (yet). Still, Ahsoka was going to keep her feet firmly on the ground as much as possible.
Pulling into a speeder parking spot just inside the hangar Ahsoka swung her legs off the BARC but stopped Piecemeal from dismounting, pushing the amputee back into his seat with a hand on his shoulder.
"You can't walk without your metal leg." Ahsoka reminded him. Piecemeal didn't look put out being manhandled, though the way his brow furrowed told Ahsoka he didn't appreciate being told to stay and speeder-sit like a rambunctious child.
Ahsoka sighed and scrubbed her face with her palm wearily adding, "Look, I'll get patched up and try to find you a replacement. then we can hunt down a comm terminal or wherever they keep their ships in this trash pile, yeah?"
"Just make sure whatever peg-leg you grab for me has padding. stump chaffing is a scragging bitch." Piecemeal assented reluctantly, drew his blaster from his hip and placed it in his lap and added, "Stay safe in here. This place smells… off somehow."
Ahsoka looked over her shoulder and asked, "Off how?"
"I dunno, it's just I've never seen a settlement this size have this many armed guards," He gestured to the heavily guarded corridors leading to the aft and bow of the vessel. ",unless they had something to protect."
Ahsoka rolled her eyes. "Have you seen where we are? And with whatever these "lost" things they keep talking about out there I'd want a lot of guards too."
"Sure, sure. Then explain why the guards are facing the inside of the hangar?" The grizzled clone pushed, fingers curling and uncurling around his blaster anxiously.
"You're just being paranoid-" Ahsoka scoffed. Though, even as she said the words she gave the armed goons strutting the upper catwalk lining the hangar walls a second glance. One of them caught her gaze and glowered back.
She felt her anxiety and her blood pressure spike, and suddenly being surrounded by durasteel walls didn't make her feel so safe anymore, though the thought of a drink seemed even more attractive by the second. She really should have just stayed in bed on Corellia...
"-Hopefully."
