AN: My finals are over, school's finally out for me! This means more updates :) :) Sorry for the late one. :(
The sun shone high in the sky, spreading it's light and warmth around Ahsoka as she gazed up at it, refusing to acknowledge that it was so bright it made her eyes ache. It's pastel pink and orange colors spread about the planet like they brought hope and and even joy.
Ahsoka wished that sun could offer her company, or someone would, because when she had woken in the morning her head had ceased to hurt, leaving her glad but the moment she swung back the thin, starched sheets, Anakin's hands clasped her shoulders and pressed her back down, despite her angry protests. Cala had stood behind him, her round face alight with amusement at the older girl.
"Why can't I leave?" Ahsoka flinched when she realized how angry and rough she sounded, but with a steadying sigh, she continued to give the medical droid a hard stare. Her fingers smoothed the sheet with her own restlessness as if it would prove that she was well enough to go.
"I can't, Padawan Tano. It's against my orders." The droid's clanky movements seemed uncomfortably awkward as it turned to her. It's hands clasped and unclasped with nervousness as he handed her a glass that contained a cloudy colored liquid that smelled rotten and foul. Ahsoka grimaced as she gazed at it, and the droid grunted, "Drink it, Miss. I won't be having your Master in here, angry again."
Ahsoka swirled the liquid, watching it splash up the sides. She set it down on the nightstand, "It won't help me." She murmured. The droid gave her an enraged look, or as enraged as a droid could actually be, and Ahsoka smiled a mirthless smile.
"Miss, it's your own Master's orders." The droid begged, fear in it's own voice box.
Ahsoka shrugged, tossing the suggestion away with ease, "I'll follow his orders when he learns how to follow them himself. Don't do this, Snips." Ahsoka mimicked, "But then he goes and does just what he told me not to!" Ahsoka slammed the glass onto the night stand with gusto, and liquid splashed up and onto the table.
It was odd, blabbing her troubles to a nervous Med droid who had no business to know a thing about her, but it had re-opened that well of hurt and anger inside of her. Ahsoka thrust back the covers and walked to the window so she could gaze up at the sky.
The droid stared at her as though she had broken some terrible law, "M-miss, if you would please return to your bed...and take your medicine..."
He clanked over to her, but Ahsoka waved him off, "I'm close enough. If I faint, I'll fall on the bed." She was only joking, but at least the Med droid seemed reassured. He seemed to acknowledge that the girl certainly looked healthy, and that he had no authority over her.
Ahsoka gazed at the sky, her blue eyes narrowing a bit as her worries tumbled back towards her. Ahsoka inwardly groaned so the droid wouldn't hear, then let her chin drop to the sill of the window. Tears stung at her eyes, but she didn't let them fall.
Jealousy. Sorrow. Fear. Ahsoka moaned, placing her hands on her headtails. She gave a stiff, half-hearted yank and allowed the pain to travel down her spine. A faint, sharp feeling near the top of her head reminded her of her loss of hearing a few weeks back...if it was weeks. It seemed so long ago.
In fact, though the dreams were only weeks and nights ago, they seemed forever away. The voice seemed far off, too. Ahsoka frowned, feeling her legs tremble slightly. Something was wrong. Ahsoka hesitated, her blue eyes illuminating in the sun, and she turned. The light seemed to switch off from her body, leaving her face dark. The med Droid went about his work with ease.
Join me, Child. The Voice was sweet this time, Together, we can defeat your worries. Ahsoka moved over to her bed, hardly aware of anything in her captivated state. She sat, stiff as a puppet. The Droid glanced at her, but apparently sensing nothing wrong, returned to his work.
Ahsoka remained for a long time, feeling her body breathe in and out, feeling oddly stiff and achy. She leaned back slowly until she felt her headtails gently touch the pillow, then she curled up tightly into a ball, eyes still wide open, "Who are you?"
The Droid turned the Togruta, an odd look in his eyes, "Miss?" His movements seemed all too slow, almost stiff and disjointed, and a sudden jolt of disgust traveled through Ahsoka's body. It was almost alike the disgust she felt for C-3PO. She and 3PO did not get along, mainly because Ahsoka had no patience for his worrisome personality.
Ahsoka's lips moved, but she refused to be a marionette, and she spoke to the Voice, rather the irksome Med droid, "You're Sith. I won't join you." It felt like the end of everything as the moment passed, leaving Ahsoka and the Droid alone. Ahsoka hoisted herself back up, blinking.
"What's 'Sith'?" The Droid asked nonchalantly, sensors acutely aware as though he had been asked to report of Ahsoka's every word. Ahsoka shot him a Look. The Med droid sunk back, it's body moving surprisingly quick for such a stiff object.
"Nothing." Ahsoka stood back up and began to move back to the window, almost as if everything was normal and nothing had occurred. Her feet moved silently, like a hunter, every sense aware to the situation. She could feel the Force, deep and foreboding.
"I'd prefer it if you went back to bed." The Droid's voice was so nervous that Ahsoka almost laughed. She ignored him, however, and continued to the window.
But it felt like her leg gave out, or something, because her body crumpled to the floor in a tangled mess of lekku and limbs, and the Voice encouraged, Join me, Little One, for I can make your life complete.
Ahsoka bared her teeth, and whispered so quietly that the droid couldn't her, "No." She would not be controlled by this. Ahsoka tottered to her feet and fell onto the cot, burying her face into the pillow, "Stop." She whispered again, "I hate you!" That was easy, hating the man who did this to her. Hate was the path to the Dark Side, but...this time, it would save her.
Ah, you refuse to accept? The Voice sounded amused, it's sweet sound becoming lower and sinister. It wove through her mind, looking for things to use against her, but Ahsoka blocked it.
"Miss!" The Med Droid was loud, and it brought Ahsoka vaguely back to reality. The Droid shoved the smoky water at the Togruta, and practically begged, "Drink it, please...your Master..." Ahsoka tilted her head back and gulped, even though she knew it would hardly help. It left her throat rasping and burning, and Ahsoka handed it back to him. The droid, relieved, moved away.
Ahsoka curled herself ball so small it caused a cramp in her back, "I said no." She murmured, "Why don't you listen?"
There was a second's pause, a moment between shock and no surprise at all, then the Voice came once more, Fine, then, my child. I would have loved you, second to no one. But you chose the hard way, and if you wish to survive...well, I was offering you a second chance. And it sunk back, a snake coiling back onto its tail with satisfaction. The strike had been delivered, the venom must finish the job.
It wasn't over. Ahsoka lay immobile, hearing sounds, but no words. She felt the cool metal of the Med droid's hands on her back, heard his garbled voice calling her as though the world would end if she didn't obey. She smelled the disgusting stench of the smoke-colored liquid deep and putrid in her nose. It could almost revive her, Ahsoka thought, but it was more than the matter of waking. Die, Jedi, die.
She felt stiff, smooth hands on her shoulder, hands she knew so very well. Her bleary blue eyes opened, and she searched through her blurred vision for the man. His Force Signature wrapped around her comfortingly, and she met his bright green eyes that gleamed. "..." A indistinguishable sound rose out of her throat, and the man held a finger to her lips.
Die, Jedi, die, Jedi.
"No talkin', Chil'." He murmured, "Don't say a thing...I know. I know what's goin' on. You gotta fight this, Lil' one." The man's almost white hair looked silvery and ghostlike as he shut the curtains, "Your Master's comin', so's Obi-Wan at some point. He wants to see if he can help you. Cala's not."
Ahsoka's lips were pale, and she supposed the question hardly mattered, because it was more for humorous affect, "No more...liquid?" The foul smell was jerked away from under her nose, and Ahsoka gave a relieved sigh.
The man laughed, his laugh dull, but chime-like, "Not a bit." And then he whispered, "Your Master's here, Chil'." Die, Jedi, Die. "I'll be out in the hall. I'll see you soon."
"Cala?"
"You'll see her soon enough, Ahsoka, Soon enough." And his voice faded into the blackness, leaving Ahsoka alone.
It was so real as the lights came to focus, so true. There was a sun in the afternoon sky, it's heat beating down onto her back. Ahsoka looked up at it, joyful at being out. A brook ran clear and unmuddied, and Ahsoka knelt beside it for a sip of water to quech her first. It tasted foul, scarred with something disgusting. Ahsoka spat it out, feeling a burning sensation as it landed on her knee.
"What is this place?" She wondered allowed as she stood. Her eyes took in the darkly tinted plant-life, the dusty, dry sand upon the ground. There were no animals, though. There wasn't another Force Presence here, yet the Force was pulsing.
"Hello?" Ahsoka called, listening to the hollow sound as it bounced off of the solid rocks. She glanced at the horizon, noting the red color at the bottom. "Odd..." Her voice trailed off as unease spread over her body.
Then there was another Voice, this in a monotone, "Zigoola. The Sith planet." Ahsoka froze, her knees locking as she glanced around, looking for the speaker. There was nothing, just the faintest breeze that moved through the trees and dry stalks of grass. Silence followed, along with the heavy feeling of darkness. Ahsoka shuddered, feeling the taint clearly. Sith planet? This didn't sound good.
"Sith planet." The Voice repeated in it's dull, somewhat cruel, voice. Ahsoka shivered again as the words took impact in her mind. What would happen to her, trapped alone on a Sith planet, whatever that was? Ahsoka decided it didn't hurt to ask, after all, the Voice was kind to her yet.
She hesitated before speaking, wondering what might happen if this thing lashed out at her. She swallowed, and changed the question somewhat, but even in the end, couldn't ask it. She stared, unsettled, at the surrounding landscape, when the Voice spoke again, "Scared?"
"Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to the Dark Side. Beware of the Dark Side, Jedi." Ahsoka replied, reciting the well-known mantra of the Jedi. She waited for the Voice to reply, to murder her right away without even stop, but only a long silence remained.
The Voice drew in a breath, or so it sounded to Ahsoka, "Quite good. You are a Jedi." He made it sound as though it was a curse to be a Jedi, and it left Ahsoka perplexed, almost worried. She waited for him to strike her down, but so far it sounded like he was toying with her. "Did you know that on a Sith planet, Jedi are disposed of?" It sounded like he was talking to a three-year old, not a nearly seventeen year old girl.
Ahsoka exhaled impatiently, "So get on with it!" She wasn't afraid to die, didn't even pitch a fit. Was that giving up? Ahsoka wondered as she looked around like a placid, dull-witted animal, hardly worthy of much of anything.
The Voice laughed in a harsh monotone that almost held no emotion whatsoever. A block of ice, the first real emotion after her spell of unease, landed in her stomach as she looked around for the Voice's owner.
Legions spoke together, many Voices forming into one as the next sentence came out in almost a chant, "You will die, young Jedi. But if you want to survive, you must fight us." Ahsoka covered her face as she felt the Presences come closer until it felt like they were smothering her. There was nothing, though, just empty air. And suddenly, they dispersed.
Ahsoka had fallen from the sheer pressure of the evil Voices, and when her blue eyes blinked through sticky eyelids to open, she glanced about for the fearsome menaces who threatened her. Were they real, or had she imagined them. The din of the noise refused to cease in her lekku - it vibrated and pulsed irritably - and Ahsoka grimaced.
She pushed herself to her feet, the dust billowing up into her nose created a sensation to sneeze. Glancing around, the young Padawan saw something on the horizon. It was a mess of rubble, she soon realized, and began to walk to it cautiously.
It always seemed to get further away, and after several bouts of frustration, Ahsoka reached her destination. A small frown played on her lips as she gazed around, and her eye caught a shattered red object lying on the ground. She reached for it, and lifted it as she felt the extinguished dark energy within. The answer swooped down on her, and she dropped the sharp object with horror. It was a Sith telepathic device. They used it to communicate, and she remembered that they used it to destroy Jedi.
Ahsoka looked back up, searching once more for the presences of animals. Still, there was none. "Then who destroyed this?" Ahsoka asked herself, pleading the Voices not to return to her.
An image came to her mind of Bail Organa throwing it to a rock, and Obi-Wan, deathly pale and obviously injured upon the ground. His blue-gray eyes looked at Organa with respect and relief as he reiterated something over and over. A deep bleeding wound in his leg was the source of his pain, and then Ahsoka saw Padme rushing to Obi-Wan, "Anakin will be so cross with you!" She admonished him, and if the situation were not what it was, Ahsoka would've laughed.
She ran her fingers back over the shards of rock, then moved into what would have been the Sith Temple. She hesitated, however, as she imagined the power of the place. Rain soaked books, tainted with dark energy, and several Holocrons. They made Ahsoka weak, as any Sith object would. Gems gleamed out at her, and HoloImages, including one of Darth Tyranus, Count Dooku, fluttered.
A lightsaber lay on the ground, and Ahsoka ignited it to see its bright red beam. Her heart ached as she imagined her Master holding it, killing with it. "Barves." She growled at the Temple, and she rose her voice, "I will never join you! Never!"
An odd feeling took over her stomach, and Ahsoka ran from the rubble, "Never! I'm Ahsoka Tano, not your puppet!"
The girl hadn't even noticed the difference in the way she felt. She had felt subdued rather than animated, and feeling herself again, more like herself than she had since the dreams began, Ahsoka found the strength she had to fight the Voice. "I am Ahsoka Tano." She repeated, and her heart felt light and at ease.
"Then return to your world and fight." The Voice growled, menace in every part of it. It surrounded her, but Ahsoka did not allow it to make her uncomfortable. She merely blinked and smiled.
"I will."