I do not own Star Wars!

...

She'd spent approximately half a standard day in the isolated room. The anxiety and fear she felt hadn't died down whatsoever. She felt the crippling terror rushing through her body, the deep, trembling worry. She'd tried to contact Anakin through the Force - for some reason she couldn't reach him, or anyone, through a Force bond. She'd tried to bend the bars with the Force, attempted to break the windows too. Nothing had worked. The Padawan didn't know whether it was possible to cut off the Force connection somehow, but she assumed it was. Anakin and she shared a very strong bond, there was no way she'd just not be able to contact him - something was definitely cutting her connection to the Force. She felt stripped without the Force to guide her.

In the hours she had been sat in the room, she'd inspected it over and over again. She was mindful to keep an eye on the lightly flashing camera in the corner of the room, too.

What the hell was she being sold for? A million thoughts washed through her head. There were so many awful and disgusting possibilities and it made her sick to her stomach. She was being thrown into the unknown and it was terrifying. She'd never felt fear as strong as this before; it was overwhelming.

Her jumped every time someone walked past the door, every time even a small noise echoed down the halls outside the room.

She was terrified. Any minute now she could be dragged down to a torture chamber and strapped to a chair for them to do whatever they wanted to her. Images of the poor search team flickered in her raging mind and felt her stomach churn even more. Her heartbeat was erratic.

Would she die here? Could she withstand the torture before Anakin found her and rescued her from these scum?

Ahsoka's eyes widened. Did Anakin even know she was missing? Had he noticed yet?

The Togruta had no way of telling the time in her cell, but she guessed Anakin must've left Padmé's apartment by now. If so he surely would've seen that her speeder was still parked up.

Ahsoka chewed on her lip as she thought. She had parked her speeder in a corner... There was a strong chance that Anakin wouldn't have even noticed that her speeder was still there.

She was screwed. She knew that much and it left an awful, sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Suddenly the sound of metal hitting metal clanged throughout the room and Ahsoka almost jumped out of her skin. She quickly backed away into a corner and clenched her fists, ready to know the living daylight out of someone.

Two men with black fabric covering all of their facial features apart from their eyes entered the room, standing in the way of the door, preventing any kind of escape attempts.

Perhaps conforming to their orders would be the best thing to do, Ahsoka mused.

She didn't know much about The Strangers yet so perhaps it would be safer to just do what they say while she tried to gather up some information.

"You're coming with us, Togruta. The Governor would like to see you." One of them spoke gruffly, pulling out a pair of handcuffs with light bloodstains on them, most likely from people struggling in them and causing friction between the skin and metal.

Despite the fear the teenager felt, she couldn't resist a snarky comment. "Is the Governor too lazy to get up off his ass to see me himself?"

The two large men ignored her and advanced towards her. Ahsoka simply held out her arms and winced slightly when the men slammed the cuffs on, forcing her arms behind her back, nipping the skin on her wrists. They were certainly tighter than they had looked.

As they walked out of the room, the Padawan sandwiched between the two burly men, Ahsoka made an effort to remember everything about her new surroundings. She was searching for any potential exits, anything she could possibly use as a weapon.

Ahsoka was confused by her surroundings - it seemed like this prison (or whatever it actually is) was fairly behind when it came to modern technology. Perhaps it was because it was a prison, but then again, modern prisons and buildings had electronic doors and key cards or fingerprint readers. Here, the doors had to be opens manually with keys, which was extremely uncommon these days.

She wanted to conform to these people. If she did, maybe they'd form some sort of trust in her. Similarly to how merchants trust regular customers, they know that they follow the rules and conform. Ahsoka hoped her method would work. She could hopefully catch them off guard and leg it out of there.

After a few twists and turns, a few flights of stairs, they arrived outside of a door. The men opened the door, quickly yanked off her handcuffs and pushed the girl in, causing her to stumble slightly.

She looked up to see a plain room with nothing but a chair in it. The Governor sat in the seat and seemed to have been waiting quite patiently for her. There was a small pile of folded clothes stacked neatly next to his feet.

She waited for the masked man to speak.

He stood slowly, "It's time for your inspection, Padawan Tano." He looked her up and down, taking note of her slightly dirty outfit, "And a change of clothes, too. Luckily we have some new ones for you here." He nodded his head to the stack below him.

Ahsoka raised a brow, making sure to keep her distance from him, "Thanks, I guess?"

He chuckled before replying, "I'll need you to take your clothes off."

Ahsoka blinked, unable to think of any words to reply to such a digesting request. She felt fear course through her, the blood running through her veins turning cold.

He shook his head in an amused way. Since Ahsoka could see his face she had to read his emotions through body language. "Just the top layers, Jedi. I have no interest in what you have hidden elsewhere."

Ahsoka just stood still, nervous to be undressing in front of someone. It was something she had never done before, so it was new to her. It was especially nerve wracking because of who she was undressing in front of.

The man in front of her signed irritably and spoke through gritted teeth, "I will turn away if you wish but either way I see you in just undergarments so it'd be rather pointless." He glanced at the girl's face and then swivelled around, clearly annoyed.

Ahsoka reluctantly pulled off her boots. She placed them down on the right side of her then slowly began to pull down her tights, as the lump in her throats seemed to get bigger, making her feel that little bit more uncomfortable. She felt more than uncomfortable, in fact; she was mortified.

She stood next to the clumpy pile that were her clothes, covering her chest that was over covered by a bra. She felt extremely exposed and she hated it. Stood in front of an unknown man, the leader of a goddamn torture organisation - she felt like an animal in a cage, only there for the spectators enjoyment.

The Governor turned back to the Togruta. "There is no need to be anxious. All I'm doing is a quick inspection and asking a few questions. As long as you comply with orders and follow the rules, you'll be fine."

Ahsoka was sceptic, for obvious reasons. He seemed a lot more calm and collected than how Anakin had once described him. Perhaps he had multiple personalities or had a mental illness.

Ahsoka hesitantly moved her arms down to her sides. She hated feeling this open, this exposed. She was a Jedi, a peacekeeper, a warrior - not some possession or a caged animal.

The masked man circled around her a few times, obviously inspecting her. She hated the way his eyes scanned over her; however, they did not linger in any unwanted places, which was a relief. He must've meant it when he said he want interested.

Ahsoka was frozen with fear, she could barely hear his voice as he spoke, "You fight hard in the war. I can see that. You have a lot of scars and past wounds from the battlefield." He said quizzically, seemingly sounding very interested.

Ahsoka gulped before replying, remembering her plan to conform and gain trust, or at least a good reputation, "in the Commander of the 501st Battalion. I've done a lot, seen a lot... As you can imagine."

"You're extremely physically fit. You're all muscle. How long have you been part of the Jedi Order and when did you start your official physical training?" We waved his hands around as he spoke, giving Ahsoka the impression that he was indeed interested.

Ahsoka narrowed her eyes at him, confused by his random and irrelevant questions. "I was brought to the Temple when I was three... And I was around six when the training started. I'm not sure, I don't really remember." She said, trying to hide the tremble in her voice.

Ahsoka assessed him and it was as if he was writing notes in his mind, carefully analysing each word she said.

He hummed as if deep in thought, "Tell me about this." He gently grazed his fingertip over the circular shaped scar on her shoulder. She shivered uncomfortably and twitched, as if his touch were burning her. She felt shivers all over her body, and she knew it wasn't because she exposed because of the lack of clothes.

Flashbacks overcame her. "It was during the battle of Onderon. I was trying to save a Rebel leader from falling to her death. A fallen gunship shot me with it's main cannon." She kept a hard and expressionless face as she spoke, not wanting to seem affected by the painful memories.

"On a scale of one to ten, how bad was the pain when you were shot?"

Ahsoka raised her brow as he continued to circle her, picking out more of her battle wounds. "About an eight I guess? I don't know, it was so sudden - it was during a tense battle so I had plenty of adrenaline rushing through me."

Ahsoka was very unsure about this man. He was strange and seemed to be interested in even stranger things.

He tapped a light patch of skin just above Ahsoka's elbow, on the back of her arm, "And this? It seems to be a peculiar wound."

Ahsoka sensed a pattern coming along - he wanted to know the stories and levels of pain with every wound she had ever suffered. This man was definitely strange - and not in a good way. It only made her more uneasy.

She tried to keep the story short, as she was beginning to feel more and more uncomfortable around him, "After the second battle of Genosis. The crew on board our ship became infected with brainwashing worms and the only way to kill them was with the cold. The ship got so cold that everything was covered with ice. I passed out against a wall after killing the parasites and my skin got stuck to the dry ice. The skin was torn off when I was moved by the clones when the show had docked."

"So you passed out because of the cold?" He asked.

"Yes." It'd been so cold she hasn't been able to function properly - her fighting skills had been sloppy and uncoordinated, she could barely breathe. She never wanted to feel cold like that again.

Despite not being able to see the Governor's face, she could tell he was fascinated. The way he tilted her head ever so slightly and the way he seemed to focus on her face as she spoke indicated this. It was creepy - very creepy.

His questions continued and the more he asked, the more fear she felt. He seemed obsessed with the idea of pain and hurting. It was disturbing.

After he'd finished the inspection, he handed her the new clothes. Ahsoka pulled them on quickly before even looking at them. She just wanted to cover up and get out of that room, as far away from that man as she could possibly get.

He clapped his hands and the same two guards from before entered the room. The Governor looked directly at her before the guards snapped the cuffs on her again, "You've been through a lot, Ahsoka Tano. You'll last long here. Perhaps you'll be the longest out of everyone we've had here."

She felt her heartbeat increase tenfold. "What?"

She was dragged out of the room by the men and the door slammed shut, silencing her. She had been panicking so much that she hadn't taken in her surroundings like she had intended to do. Before she knew it she was roughly thrown back into her cell again, where she landed heavily on her back.

The cuffs had been taken off her now-red wrists. The worry she felt right now was almost overwhelming. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed the darkness through the window - she knew she should try and get some sleep but her body and mind were too awake to even think about sleep.

She had no doubt about what was going to happen to her. She'd end up like the research team - tortured to death, mutilated so much that she would be unrecognisable by the end of it all.

Would they come for her in the night while she was sleeping? Drag her through he halls by her wrists and throw her into a blood stained room?

She felt so paranoid she couldn't even keep her eyes closed for over two minutes. Every tiny noise she heard, her heart pounded impossibly harder. She could feel tiredness creeping up on her body but she just couldn't fall asleep. She was too scared for her life, for what was going to happen to her.

She knew that she shouldn't be feeling these emotions but she didn't care; she knew she was stuck in a hole that she couldn't climb out of and she knew bad things were going to happen to her. She wanted to just accept it but she couldn't - she was petrified.

She craved Anakin and Obi-Wan's presence - they always seemed to calm her down or make her feel more comfortable when she needed it. She knew that they probably didn't even know that she was missing but it didn't stop her wanting thief comfort. She needed someone to pull the fear out of her body and banish it. She longed to feel safe and warm.

Would she ever feel safe again?

...

Anakin hopped out of his speeded and made his way into the Jedi Temple. He was in a good mood and it was radiating off him. He'd had an excellent night at Padmé's and he loved nothing more than spending time with his wife. He knew Ahsoka would be shocked to see him in such a great mood so he tried to calm himself a little as he walked though the sacred halls.

When he arrived at their shared quarters, he was surprised to find the whole place empty.

He checked her room to see if she was resting. Her room was empty, still messy and unorganised as usual. That girl didn't have a lot of things but Force, she still managed to make it look like a Rancor had crashed through.

He reached out with the Force, sensing for Ahsoka's bubbly aura.

He sensed nothing. Now he was starting to get a little worried. She said she was going home, hadn't she?

Frowning, he commed Obi-Wan. "Obi-Wan, this is Anakin. Have you seen Ahsoka around? She's not in her quarters I can't sense her... at all, Master." He said, feeling the anxiety creeping up on him.

"No, I haven't Anakin." His voice crackled through the comlink.

"I have a bad feeling about this Obi-Wan. Can you meet with me in the next standard hour?" He responded, his anxiety only growing worse as he tried reaching Ahsoka again, only to receive no reply.

Anakin waited a short moment before his former Master replied, "I can meet you now, Anakin. You're in your quarters, I assume?"

"Yeah. See you soon." Anakin said quickly.

...

Obi-Wan arrived outside Anakin's quarters no less than five minutes later. He too, has tried to contact Ahsoka through the Force. He couldn't even feel a slight murmur of her Force signature. She was strong with the Force, especially for someone of her age - she was usually easy to pinpoint through her signature.

But he felt nothing at all. He was pretty certain she was off-world.

He walked in without knocking and found Anakin pacing in the small living area.

"Anakin, don't get so paranoid. Ahsoka is old enough to go off-world when she feels like it." He was anxious too but he wanted to calm Anakin - after all, this could all just be nothing. Ahsoka was reckless after all, she did tend to run off at times to go run some errands but never without letting one of them know.

"I'm not so sure, Obi-Wan." Anakin ran his hand through his hair as he spoke, "I feel a disturbance in the Force. It's warning me, I sense a strong feeling of danger. And it's near."

Obi-Wan understood, having felt a slight disturbance himself. "Before we jump to conclusions let's just take a look around. Ahsoka may have left some indication as to where she's gone. Let's take a look in her room." He suggested calmly, hoping that his calm aura would slow the younger Jedi's mind down.

They both entered Ahsoka's room and Obi-Wan didn't bother to comment on the state of if. He presumed Anakin's didn't look much different.

There wasn't exactly a lot to search through - as a Jedi, Ahsoka wasn't allowed many possessions.

There was no indication that Ahsoka had left them a note or anything. The bed appeared to have been slept in, due to its messiness. However, Obi-Wan didn't take Ahsoka as the type to make her bed up every day.

"There's nothing here," Anakin confirmed.

They started to leave, but Anakin suddenly stopped just as they were walking back into the living space. Obi-Wan had to stop abruptly too, so she didn't crash into the younger man's back.

"Wait a second..." He mumbled to himself, pushing past Obi-Wan without excusing himself.

Obi-Wan brushed off his former Padawan's rudeness and followed him, interest sparking up in him. "What's wrong, Anakin?"

Anakin stopped and brushed his hand over the small cabinet next to Ahsoka's bed. "Her speeder keys aren't here..."

Obi-Wan felt slightly confused. "Okay... but we already know she is off planet, don't we? The Force is telling us that much. We can't even feel a murmur of her in the Force."

"It's just strange. She left Padmé's pretty late last night and there's no way Ahsoka would get up this early and drive off somewhere. She doesn't usually wake up until around," he glanced at the small chrono on the wall, "now actually."

Obi-Wan raised a brow slightly. "I don't know what you're getting at, Anakin."

He thought for a moment, as if struggling to find the words that he wanted to say, "What if she never made it back?"

"This may be a difficult task, but let's retrace the steps. You last saw her at Senator Amidala's last night. So let's start there."

Anakin nodded in agreement.

...

So that's it for this chapter! I hope you enjoyed!

Just a quick note about the Governor - I understand he is acting different at times, either like a maniac or calm. I wanted to portray him as having multiple personalities, depending on how he's feeling. More will be revealed in coming chapters, obviously.

As mentioned in my previous one-shot "Old Friends or Enemies", I've been having computer problems. So I've had to write this story on my phone and do it all that way. So I apologise if there are any grammar mistakes, I find it a lot more difficult to write on a phone than a computor. Anyway, hope you enjoyed!

Please review! It helps motivate me!