Content warnings: past grooming and trafficking, past substance abuse/drug addiction, past teenage pregnancy, past infant loss, and Miraj Scintel being a creep.
Ahsoka felt like an idiot as she walked through the palace with a chain connecting her ankles together, making the most horrible clanking sound with every step.
Honestly, she felt like the ghost of Jacob Marley, ready to haunt her former business partner for being a miserable, money-hoarding git. Obi-Wan would probably laugh if he knew she was comparing her situation to that of a fictional character in a book that he let her borrow.
It had been the only way Caelum said she was allowed to walk around without a guard pressing a gun to the back of her head.
If that was the alternative, Ahsoka would suck up the humiliation.
Thankfully, Miel and Jiang hadn't made a big deal about it as they walked with her to complete their daily chores. The former had already caught her twice when Ahsoka took too wide a step and nearly face-planted the mosaic floor.
Jiang had snickered both times but quickly helped her find her footing.
Ahsoka would have no luck trying to escape like this.
She didn't quite mind at that moment, as they were only doing mundane tasks like dusting decorations and tidying the many different rooms. She was trying to scope out the layout of the corridors, but it was too intricate to keep track of.
Ahsoka was keeping her eyes peeled for Anakin and the others, but they hadn't seen anyone since they started that morning. She was worried about him, and the other colonists still missing, but she couldn't dwell on things that she had no power over.
"I was on Tatooine before I came here," Miel was saying, "I worked for an old man on a moisture farm. Long hours in the sun, but he was alright, I suppose. He never did worse than hit me occasionally."
It now made sense why Miel was so tanned. Ahsoka couldn't help but wonder if she and Anakin had ever crossed paths, considering they were similar ages, but remembered that Tatooine was a huge planet with thousands of slaves.
"Have you always been a slave?" Ahsoka asked, helping Jiang dust a large glass table covered in fake fruits. Apparently, it was a pretty common aspect of Zygerrian interior design as every room had one.
They were working inside a lavishly decorated living room with velvet sofas and an animal hide rug. It almost looked like something out of a fairy tale. It was half the size of the Resolute's mess hall, and the ceiling was high and arched like the Council Chambers.
"If you consider the foster system imprisonment, then yes." Miel sighed, reaching to dust a high painting of a former Zygerrian monarch.
"You get chucked onto the streets when you turn sixteen. I managed to haggle a barmaid job on Tatooine. I got an older boyfriend, who was actually a pimp, and by the time I realised what was happening, I was pregnant and had no way to leave the planet."
"So, how did you end up here?" Ahsoka asked.
Molec must've somehow bought Miel, or else she would still be on Tatooine. The thought of maybe Anakin and his mother being sold to Molec made Ahsoka feel unwell.
Miel put the duster down, looking at Ahsoka with sorrow in her eyes. "My daughter became very ill, and when I begged my owner to organise for a doctor to come, he refused. She died that night, and I ran away. I asked a Marshal in the closest town to help me, and he promised to send me somewhere safe."
Miel looked around the room, "He sent me here, right into Molec's waiting arms."
Ahsoka felt repulsed. This woman had been failed by those who should've helped her. To be trafficked into slavery, not once, but twice, was abhorrent.
"The first year was terrible." Miel winced, as if remembering was too painful. "I fought against Molec and the others; I took every opportunity to escape."
"What made you stop fighting?" Ahsoka asked.
Miel and Jiang shared a look, the latter slightly shaking her head. Miel glanced away.
"You don't need to know the details, Blue. There was an incident with a former slave, that's all I'll say."
The human sighed, "After long enough, I tried to see the positives. I've always wanted to see the galaxy. Master Molec sometimes takes me with him to different slave markets, it's like sightseeing."
That was hardly a positive.
Ahsoka would hardly consider slave markets as a tourist hotspot, but she supposed that anything other than these palace walls would be a welcome change in scenery.
"He would take Convor," Jiang spoke up, "But she gets motion sickness just by looking at a ship. She's never left Zygerria."
"She was born into slavery, wasn't she?" Ahsoka asked. There was no other excuse for Convor to be so naïve about the galaxy.
The woman's motion sickness probably worked in Molec's favour. He didn't have to worry about her having any desire to see what was beyond Zygerria if she couldn't stand the thought of hyperspace.
Miel nodded, confirming her suspicions. "It's sad, really, that she doesn't know any different, but at least she's happy."
Ahsoka supposed that Miel wasn't wrong. Was it really so bad for Convor to want to be with Molec, even if she was still a slave?
She had awkwardly apologised to the older Togruta that morning about her outburst the night before. Convor graciously accepted her apology, even going so far as to tightly hug the girl. Ahsoka was grateful for her forgiveness.
"Does she love him?" Ahsoka breached.
She wasn't sure why she asked, considering she knew nearly nothing about love other than what she'd heard in stories. She was pretty sure Anakin was in love with a particular Senator, though she had never interrogated him about it.
"Yes," Miel sighed, "But I don't think he loves her back, at least not in the same way."
"Convor's parents were also slaves of the Molec family," Jiang added. "They were his father's first purchase when he became Prime Minister, back when it was still illegal to own slaves here."
Ahsoka nodded. She figured he must've bought most of his slaves whilst it was still illegal on Zygerria. She couldn't imagine how many slaves Molec would own if he could buy them from any corner of the galaxy.
"Convor watched Molec grow up, she was his gift when he reached maturity." Jiang scowled, "He sounds like he was worse when he was a bit of a brawler."
"What about you?" Ahsoka turned to the Kiffar, trying not to imagine a younger version of Molec. "You're surely only a few years older than me. How did you end up here?"
She thought Jiang might close herself off, but she didn't. It was obvious that the Kiffar distanced herself from the other girls, but she was relatively easy to get along with once she started talking.
"I went to Coruscant after the Kiff War ended and mixed with the wrong crowd, thought I could trust someone who I clearly shouldn't have." She shrugged, "I'll live with my choices. It's not like I was going to be anything else anyways. I was a drug addict, destined to die in a gutter or rot in prison."
Ahsoka knew that all Kiffars had addictive personalities, and many struggled with substance abuse during the Kiff War. Even Master Quinlan Vos, who had grown up on Coruscant, had battled addiction as a teenager.
When the surviving population of Kiffu and Kiffex came to Coruscant, the government gave them an ultimatum. Sign up for the GAR and put a life of drugs and crime behind them, or permanently lose their Republic citizenships.
Obi-Wan once explained to her that she shouldn't judge people for their pasts. Ahsoka knew many of the veterans personally and wouldn't ever think badly of them for their records.
However, there was something she didn't understand about Jiang and Miel.
Ahsoka looked between the two women, "I don't mean to sound rude, but you both act like you're content with your circumstances."
She really didn't want to push herself into their private business, but it was baffling how okay these two semi-level-headed women were with being slaves.
Miel gave her a small smile, "Sometimes, it's easier to let go of any leftover hope, rather than clinging onto it. We've both been disappointed by people we thought we could depend on. Who's to say that wouldn't happen again if we were to leave?"
"You could make a new life for yourself," Ahsoka tried, "You don't have to rely on others."
"And leave Convor behind?" The human lifted an eyebrow, "She wouldn't survive in the outside world. Here, we are at least protected from the dangers of the galaxy."
"You're slaves!" Ahsoka raised her voice, once again feeling the same frustration that she felt the day before. "You cannot convince me that you're safe here."
Miel didn't react to her raised voice, and gently lifted her hand. "I told you before that I admire your spirit. I have to look at the positives. I have a warm bed here, I'm fed well, it's a better life than one on the streets."
Ahsoka begged to differ.
She'd rather anything over a life where she was seen as someone else's property. How come these women couldn't understand that?
"You'll learn soon enough, Blue," Miel assured her, "Things become easier when you give in."
Ahsoka shook her head, "My Master would never forgive me."
Anakin would be appalled if she even showed Molec a hint of submissiveness. He had taught her to respect herself, and trained her to fight the galaxy's most dangerous criminals and bounty hunters.
If he found out that she had willingly submitted to a slaver, he would never speak to her again.
Miel was looking at her with a frown.
"I thought you said you've never been a slave?"
She didn't even realise her mistake, too wound up in frustration.
She hadn't meant to let that word slip like that. Her brain short-circuited as she tried to come up with an excuse.
"She means her Jedi teacher," Jiang inputted, her hands propped on her hips.
Ahsoka gawked at the Kiffar, "How did you-"
"Wait, you're a Jedi?" Miel turned to her.
"Jiang," Ahsoka narrowed her eyes at the dark-haired girl, "Who told you?"
As far as she knew, only Caelum and Luna knew that she was a Jedi. She hadn't wanted to tell the others, out of fear that they would maybe be angry at her, or resent her for not being able to help them.
After learning how unfair the galaxy had treated these women, even before they came into Molec's ownership, Ahsoka certainly didn't want to mention that she was a proclaimed peacekeeper who was supposed to protect the innocent.
Jedi were supposed to be humble and put the needs of others before their own, all the while they lived in a high-security Temple.
Ahsoka had never gone a day without food, and as much as she complained about her studies, she knew she was lucky to receive such a high-quality education.
She had a long list of adults who she could trust, and there hadn't been a safeguarding concern within the Temple in almost fifty years thanks to thorough background checks on anyone who would interact with Padawans and younglings.
It was probably the safest place in the galaxy for a young woman.
"After the Jedi were captured in the arena, the guards used me that night," Jiang explained, and Ahsoka remembered the masses of bruises covering her body. "I heard them mention a female Togruta who tried to attack the Queen. The next day, you showed up."
"Listen," Ahsoka stumbled over her words, "We were only supposed to find out where the Togruta colonists were so the Republic could rescue them. Things went wrong, and now I'm here."
"You came to save the Kiros colonists?" Miel questioned, "Why? Kiros isn't part of the Republic. I heard Luna say that they joined the CIS, right before they were brought to Zygerria."
"It was part of Dooku's trap to sell the colonists into slavery." Ahsoka bit out, "The Republic is trying to save them. We don't care where their loyalties lie- nobody deserves to be enslaved."
"Is that what you really think?" Jiang asked, "Are you sure this isn't about the Republic wanting to make the colonists believe that they care so they'll side with them? There are a lot of slaves in this galaxy. We could all do with the Jedi coming to rescue us."
Ahsoka recoiled. "It's not like that."
She could feel herself getting defensive.
It wasn't like civilians had never outspokenly criticised the Republic in front of her, but they usually reverted their comments after watching the Jedi demonstrate their role as peacekeepers.
That was the case with the Lurmen people on Maridun anyway.
Here, Ahsoka couldn't prove that the Jedi were trying their best to end suffering across the galaxy. The lives of these women had been bad even before they had been bought by Molec.
It would be dangerously naïve to try to suggest that the Jedi were omnipotent saviours.
"We can't save everyone," she admitted, holding her head low, "but we'll always try to protect as many innocent lives as we can."
Miel snorted, apparently not convinced. Jiang stared at Ahsoka a moment longer, her mouth opening as if to speak, only to be interrupted by the entrance doors slamming open.
Two guards stood opposite each other, the first jabbing his staff into the floor, "Her Royal Highness."
Ahsoka's heart sank.
She hadn't seen the Queen since the arena, and she wasn't keen to be reunited.
Yet, she might know where Anakin or the others were.
Distracted, Ahsoka didn't notice her two companions kneeling with their heads bowed until Miel poked her foot.
Ahsoka resentfully lowered herself to the floor as easily as she could with her feet chained together, though she refused to avert her gaze from the Queen as she strode inside the room.
"I thought I could hear chatter," Scintel's voice echoed around them, beady eyes quickly focusing on Ahsoka. "Ah, Skywalker's pretty pet. I assume you have been well-behaved for Atai."
She stopped a short distance away from the girls, and Ahsoka resisted the urge to bare her teeth.
"You only need to look at that Kiffar's ugly face to know it isn't in your best interest to rebel against him."
Ahsoka couldn't help herself from biting back, "I'm not threatened by Molec, or by you."
"How very Jedi-like, all fearless and heroic," Scintel crooned, "You are much like Skywalker."
"Where is he?" Ahsoka demanded.
The Queen took a step closer, and Jiang visibly flinched next to her. Scintel didn't notice, too focused on staring at Ahsoka like a piece of meat. "All I can assure you is that your friends are being well looked after, especially Skywalker."
The implication of her words left Ahsoka feeling sick to her stomach.
She looked past the Queen, noticing that the guards were barricading the doors. Even if she wanted to, she would have no way to overpower the Queen, plus two Zygerrian guards, whilst her feet were shackled.
"You're so beautiful, young one." Scintel continued, "I do not swing in that direction, but I can appreciate what Atai sees in you. I couldn't dare send you off for manual labour."
Bite me, Ahsoka wanted to say, but she remained silent. She tried to pretend that Scintel's words had no power over her.
"As you were, ladies," the Queen said, signalling her departure. "I will leave you to your chores."
Jiang and Miel spoke in unison, "Thank you, your majesty."