Sorry I kind of left you all with a cliff hanger in the last chapter. I wouldn't kill Ahsoka...not yet anyway. ;) Disclaimer- I don't own Star Wars the Clone Wars or any of its characters.
Chapter 11
Ahsoka POV
Eavesdropping had become one of Ahsoka's skills during the time that she was tortured. At moments like this one she would pretend to be asleep in the lab chair and listen to General Grievous talk to Fowar about her.
"We're not sure how her condition is going to progress from here." She heard Fowar state clearly.
"What is that supposed to mean? Is she going to be okay or not?" General Grievous growled at the scientist, and ordered him to leave. At first Ahsoka thought it was a strange thing for him to say, but she realized that he needed her alive. She was the only way he could get the information he needed.
She decided to speak up. They obviously thought something bad was going to happen to her when in fact she was wide awake and eavesdropping on them. "I have a feeling that she's going to live," Ahsoka mumbled as she opened her eyes.
Her eyes were shocked at what they saw. She wasn't in the lab. She was in…it looked like the medical wing at the Jedi Temple. But it couldn't be the medical wing. It had to be a hallucination. Ahsoka was still a prisoner of General Grievous. And this was just a really vivid hallucination.
Grievous wasn't in the room, and neither as Giya or Fowar. The only person she saw was Fake Anakin in the corner gaping at her.
She scoffed. "What's your problem? It's not like we haven't been here before." Ahsoka tested whatever restraints she had on to realize only her arms were bound. Her legs were free of bindings, and she prepared to put up a fight when General Grievous came back in.
Fake Anakin walked over to Ahsoka's side and dropped to his knees. 'This is new,' Ahsoka thought to herself and raised an eyebrow. "Ahsoka I need you to listen to me," he pleaded. She pondered on how strange this was compared to usual Fake Anakin. "You're not on Omwat anymore. You're at the Jedi Temple. You're safe now."
Anakin POV
Ahsoka sneered. "Sure I am. Yeah, next you're going to tell me you're not a hallucination and I haven't been tortured for the last who knows how long," she mocked.
"Ahsoka… I'm real."
"No you're not," she said it like a fact. "You're my mind and the drugs playing tricks on me."
"I'm not a hallucination Snips. I'm real. I am completely 100% real, and I am right here next to you." He tried to reach over and comfortingly touch his Padawan's arm, but she flinched, and tried to cringe away from him. Anakin tore his hand back immediately. He could guess that the Anakin she hallucinated for torture went further than to just yell at her. The thought tore at Anakin's insides.
"I'll give you points for creativity; this is the best story line you've tried to convince me of yet. Especially with the whole room attire to go along with it."
She thought the medical bay was a hallucination. She thought Anakin was a hallucination. And the Jedi Knight had no idea how to convince her otherwise.
"This is real Ahsoka. I know you don't believe it and you don't believe me, but I need you to try and consider that this maybe real."
Her eyebrows furrowed. "So untie my arms. Prove it to me."
And he did. He also apologized for them and said the others were afraid she would hurt herself. Her arms were free after a few moments of Anakin fiddling at the ties and Ahsoka grabbed her wrists protectively. "I still don't believe you."
"I don't understand, why not?" asked Anakin.
Ahsoka looked up at the ceiling and sighed. "This has happened before. One time it was you telling me that giving information is what the Order would want. Another time it was you hitting me and calling me a disgrace to pity me into talking. This is just another play in the book. And I'm not falling for it."
"But this isn't a play book anymore. Ahsoka you escaped on Omwat and found Master Unduli and Barriss. They rushed you back here to Coruscant and you need to believe that because it's the truth."
Ahsoka started to shake her head but Anakin didn't let her. He grabbed her right hand and pulled it so that it was between both of his. "Ahsoka focus on this. Do you feel this?" he gently squeezed her hand. "This is real. This right here is real."
She started to shake her head again, but Anakin kept going. "Remember everything that we've done, all of the battles we fought. Remember all the times that we had to fight or flee because I was an idiot and accidentally got us discovered by the Separatists. All the times that I told you not to do something, but you did it anyway, which I'm pretty sure was just to annoy me." He smiled. "I know what you went through-"
"No you don't," she interrupted. "You have no idea what I went through."
"Okay, then I don't know. But I want you to look at me one more time and tell me that I'm not real. If you can do that, well then you can believe whatever you want."
Ahsoka POV
Ahsoka looked up at him; her eyes were probably filled with different emotions. She didn't know what to believe. But when she looked up at the man above her, she considered that he couldn't be a hallucination.
Fake Anakin never had the gleam that the real Anakin had in his eyes. He could never really smile or show emotion in his voice. This was different. This seemed real.
Then she saw her hand.
She didn't know why she didn't see it before. Ahsoka's left hand was 70% metal from the wrist to her fingertips. The three fingers on the left side of her hand were gone, only leaving her pointer finger and thumb. Where the skin met the metal it was laced into the surface in a delicate fashion.
"What happened to my hand?" Ahsoka stared wide eyed as she tested out her hand in front of her.
A voice from the door answered her. "You had blood poisoning. Your wrist was worse than your leg, and the doctors couldn't save all of your hand."
Why hadn't she noticed her wrist right after Anakin had untied her? Why only then did she realize something was wrong? Was it-was it because she'd only just accepted that this might not all be a hallucination? Part of her was still hesitant though.
Ahsoka quickly looked down the bed to her leg. She saw that it had the same metal covering laced into it. It took a minute to process but then Ahsoka looked up to recognize Obi-Wan Kenobi standing in the doorway looking at his old Padawan and his Padawan.
His face had the same concern for her that Anakin's did. But there was one person that Ahsoka never hallucinated about, and that was Master Kenobi. For some reason he never visited her when she was held captive. So if she was still captive why would he be here now?
"So we're on Coruscant?" She said as a way to say 'okay so I may believe you,' to her master.
Anakin's smile widened at finally getting through to his Padawan, even if she still was a bit hesitant. "Yes we are."
"Then I want to see Coruscant," she started to rise up out of the infirmary bed, but he pushed her back down again.
He held his hands out warily, keeping her from getting up. "Whoa easy there Snips. You're not in a good enough condition."
Ahsoka raised her eyebrows but didn't try to get up again. She secretly didn't want to know what was wrong with her. What if she was dying? She didn't want to die. She'd just made it out alive. Maybe.
Dr. Reed interrupted and came in to check on Ahsoka to see that she was awake. Obi-Wan sat down next to Anakin and they listened as the doctor went over her medical charts. "You had blood poisoning in the wounds on your wrist and thigh. Also we found a number of poisons in your blood stream. So far we've identified 16 of them, with only 5 still left unidentified. We have more tests running now, so we should have answers soon."
"I'm afraid that is all we have for now. We're treating you with the antitoxins right now, and your stats are great. You're also being given Neyba, and your regular Ectohazmith treatment. You're recovery is still a mystery to us though."
"What do you mean?" Anakin questioned from beside her.
Dr. Reed sighed, which definitely wasn't a good sign. "Of the 16 toxins we've identified, 7 of those are narcotics. And one of which was analyzed to be HAR250, which is the worst hallucinogenic in the recorded existence. A few of the others aren't that far behind on the level of threat either."
'It's nice to know I was given the good stuff,' Ahsoka thought to herself.
"And now that you're awake I need to ask you a few questions," Dr. Reed flipped a page on her clipboard.
But the doctor didn't get to ask any of questions. Because right as the first question was going to come out, Ahsoka started having a seizure.
A/N- Thanks so much for reading and I think I may just ruin you all by delaying updates to every three days. I don't know yet. I'll decide later. In case you're confused I'll explain the beginning. Ahsoka still has all of the drugs in her system and they're still having an affect on her. That's why in the beginning she thought she was hearing General Grievous when it was actually Anakin.
Anyway, thanks for reading. I right now am currently reading The 39 Deaths of Adam Strand by Gregory Galloway. It seems cool so far. I wasn't that impressed with this weeks episode of Doctor Who, The Caretaker. Next week's episode looks like it'll be good though. -Saraphine
