He's Not Our Enemy

Disclaimer: I own nothing, all credit goes to George Lucas and Lucasarts.

Summary: After vanishing from the Jedi temple ten years ago, Anakin Skywalker is found. The Jedi imprison him until he decides to tell them what happened to him. After getting lost after fleeing from some of her abusive class mates, Ahsoka stumbles into Anakin's room and discovers a side to the force she never knew.

First Lesson, Day Five, Ahsoka Tano

This time when the chrono woke me up, it took a one way trip out of the window. It wasn't on purpose, I know that for sure since my eyes hadn't even opened, and I quickly hopped out of bed to rush to the window to see it. I look down at its tattered metal remains and bite my lip in nervousness. I am going to be in so much trouble. If Master Kenobi walks in right now to ask what the loud smashing sound was then I will be forced to fix it and have to postpone my visit to Anakin. Swearing under my breath, I grab my Jedi tunic and change in the 'fresher before rushing back to the window and staring at the shattered parts of the chrono that are a long way down from my window. The temple is really, really high up and so is my room.

Biting back the urge to swear again, I let out a deep breath and focus. If I don't get those pieces back then I can't go to see Anakin, I know I won't be allowed. It doesn't take a genius to know what will happen if someone walks in and finds me staring out of the window with a look of nervousness on my face. Taking deep breaths, I've never exactly been in a situation like this before, I concentrate on using the force. It's the only way to get it back without going out of the temple, which I am not allowed to do. I'll admit that I was surprised when I was able to find the pieces in the force easily and that I was even more surprised when they floated right back up to my window with hardly any effort on my part.

Blinking, I stare at the pieces floating in the air for a moment before regaining my senses and, with a glance at the door, I quickly grab them and place them on the bedside table in my room where my, now ruined, chrono used to sit. With a frown I kneel down and stare at each of the pieces in turn. None of them are cracked, which is nothing short of a miracle, but I can't decide where any of them are supposed to go. Mouth open slightly in confusion, I squint to get a better view of them to see if that helps me to decide what goes where.

It doesn't help at all.

"Stang," I curse, looking from one piece to the other from my kneeling position, my chin resting on my forearms. What am I supposed to do now?

"Where did you learn that kind of language?" A voice from behind me asks and I almost knock over the table when I jump out of surprise and turn to see Master Kenobi stood there, his arms crossed. His arms seem to be crossed a lot of the time when he is speaking to me.

"Twins," I lie, it's easy enough to accept. "Are you checking up on me already?"

"I thought that it would be a good idea to warn you that all of the younglings are talking about you," He says with a slight smile.

"What?" I ask in disbelief. "Why?"

"Something about you changing letters in the ashes of a fire that you made in class yesterday," Obi-Wan explains. "And about your 'mystery mentor', whoever that is. I'm not interested, don't worry. You have enough people wanting to know."

I smile sheepishly. "Thanks, Master Kenobi." I say before turning back to the remnants of my chrono.

"What is that?" He asks.

"It used to be my chrono." I inform him.

"What happened to it?"

Of course, I am a little hesitant to answer but I don't really have a choice. "I may have... accidentally used the force to throw it out the window." I explain, turning slowly to face him.

His eyebrows arch in surprise and he looks from me to the open window and back again. Surprisingly, a smile breaks out on his face and I frown in confusion - he is a respected Jedi master and he's smiling because I flung my chrono out of the window accidentally. If Master Yoda walked in here instead of Master Kenobi then I would be in big trouble, but Obi-Wan looks like he's about to laugh. When anyone ever asks me who I think is the nicest Jedi master, I would usually say Master Plo, but now I think I'll probably be saying Master Kenobi.

"You don't need to worry about that, young one, I have done it a few times myself." He tells me surprisingly.

"You have?" I ask.

"Ahsoka, they're chronos. I can name at least fifty Jedi knights and masters who have done something like this, except they did it on purpose."

"How am I supposed to put it back together, though?" I question.

"There's a book on it in the archives, I'd try there." He turns to leave before speaking over his shoulder. "Oh, and Ahsoka? I'd avoid going anywhere near the mess hall for younglings today."

"Really? Why?" I completely forget about what he just said to me earlier.

"Because your name is the only thing you can hear if you walk in there," Obi-Wan explains. "Making letters swap and change themselves... I wonder what they'll think of next."

I smirk. "It will probably have something to do with me," I comment, knowing that it most probably will.

Obi-Wan chuckles. "I hope not, you won't be able to train for your competition in three weeks." Without a proper goodbye - not that I expected it from him - he walks out of the door and it automatically closes behind him.

Groaning, I turn back to face the shattered remnants of my chrono and rest my head in my forearms. I am going to have a harder time keeping Anakin a secret than I thought. Making a last minute decision, I scoop the parts into my pocket and walk out of the door without a second thought. There are a few younglings about and even in their small number I can hear my name being said a lot. Taking Master Kenobi's advice, I move out of sight by walking close to a pair of Jedi knights before taking the usual left turn down the corridor to the cover of the ventilation shaft in the deserted corridor before I stop and turn around quickly. To my relief, there is no one following me and I reach out with the force just to make sure before taking off the cover and climbing inside the vent; once the cover is secured again I let out the breath I'm holding and make my way towards Anakin's room.

I just hope that Master Kenobi was exaggerating when he said that every youngling was talking about me and what I supposedly did with the letters I wrote in the ashes, even though it was Anakin. It obviously was. There's no one else in the temple who could have done it, especially not in a way that was obviously meant for me to see and so that nobody else but those around me would see – I doubt that Anakin intended for either Barris or Pedro to see.

Glancing over my shoulder one last time to check that there is no one following me, I stop at the next vent cover and slide it out of place before climbing through and resecuring it. Quickly, I make my way down the corridor and knock on Anakin's door. I wish I hadn't broken my chrono because then I would know what time it is and whether or not I could expect for him to be awake. Obviously he prefers to sleep in because it takes a minute for the door to open and to show Anakin standing there, bags under his eyes.

"We need to decide on a time for you to come here," He says, yawning. "It's, what, quarter part seven?"

"That's not too early," I protest, walking inside and letting the door close behind me. "I have to get up at six o'clock every day, apart from weekends."

Anakin snorts. "Six o'clock? I never had to get up that early. Seven was the earliest I ever got woken up."

"Woken up by who?" I ask, curious.

"Saddi-" He pauses and narrows his eyes. "Nice try."

"Nice try for what?" I question innocently. "I was just curious. Besides, what do names matter?"

He regards me silently and I still cannot see what difference a name is going to make. "Fair enough," Anakin says finally, shrugging. "Saddie and Ed, though it was usually Ed since it was a boys dorm."

"Dormitory?" I cock my head to the side.

"Never mind," He dismisses the subject. "I'll tell you some other time. I'm going to change, have a seat on the sofa."

After he disappears, I walk into the lounge and sit down on the sofa, taking the remains of my chrono out of my pocket. I should have thought of a better way to turn it off instead of sending it out of the window by accident, though it is gratifying to know that the Jedi knights and masters do it too. The second thing I think about – the first being how I'm going to fix my chrono – is that Anakin said that he would tell me about the boys dormitory he was on about. At least I can know something about his past now, apart from the vague description he gave me.

I decide to try and fix two parts of my chrono together when he walks back in and frowns at the pieces in my hands. It is obvious that he knows more about fixing things than I do because in a second he has walked over to me and fixed two other pieces together like he's been doing it his entire life.

"Broke your chrono?" He asks and it is obvious he knows the answer already.

"Yes," I reply. "I accidentally used the force to throw it out of the window."

Anakin chuckles. "I used to do that a lot," He comments. "Everyone did it at least once."

"What do you mean?" I ask, confused.

"Like I said, I'll tell you some other time." He repeats what he said earlier, causing me to believe that this has something to do with the boys dormitory he mentioned. "Do you know how to fix it?" He asks. If it isn't obvious enough already that I have no idea how to fix anything then I doubt it ever will be.

"No idea," I say. "I can't fix anything."

"Really? I can fix anything."

I arch an eye mark. "Boaster," I comment, narrowing my eyes slightly. "Nobody likes a boaster."

"I'm serious," He says. "I was podracing ever since I was four and I built the podracer myself. Chrono's are easy enough to fix."

Rolling my eyes, I mutter, "Yeah, yeah." and only pay attention to him when he turns and walks into a smaller room that I had not noticed before. I reason that he must be hungry or something and turn back to the bits of the chrono sitting in my lap. With the two pieces that Anakin fixed together, I can actually see where some of the other pieces are meant to go. However, before I can do anything, Anakin walks back in and hands me a HoloBook. With a frown, I take it and open it to see what it is about. It is instructions on how to fix things, and the pages for chronos is bookmarked.

"You just happened to have this lying around?" I ask.

Anakin shrugs his shoulders. "Obi-Wan brings me things if I need them and they're approved by Master Yoda. How else would I have gotten all the things for bombs and stuff?"

"You're a force wielder, you can do anything you want."

"Almost anything." He corrects me.

"Yeah, that," I murmur. "Which parts the 'axil'?" I ask, reading the first set of instructions from the HoloBook.

"The silver rod." Anakin explains, sitting on the sofa beside me.

"Oh, okay." I follow the instructions and start fixing my broken chrono whilst Anakin points out subtle things in an almost lazy way that earn him a glare from me. Without bothering to realise that I am not learning anything that is important for the competition – that is the last thing on my mind – I fix about half of the chrono before I realise that I don't need the instructions any more. It takes me less than a minute to rebuild the other half of the chrono without constantly glancing at the HoloBook and when I am done Anakin nods in what I think is his way of saying he is impressed.

"Only two hours, not bad for a first time." He comments. "I should probably teach you how to fix things with the force."

I frown and turn to look at him. "You mean you could have fixed this easily all along and didn't even bother to tell me," I say, my eyes narrowing.

"It's always good to learn how to do things with your hands," Anakin says, shrugging. "And it would have made you lazy if you just did everything with the force. Personally, I find it's funner to spend time fixing things."

I can't say he's wrong there. It actually was kind of fun to be fixing something without a pesky Jedi master looking over my shoulder and suggesting things every ten seconds. "It is fun to fix things," I say, careful not to point out that he was right even though I know he'll get the message. "Especially when Master Mundi isn't trying to get me to do it the way everyone else is."

Anakin smirks but, surprisingly, does not make a comment about Master Mundi. "So, any ideas on what you want to learn how to fix with the force?"

I frown and ponder the question. What do I want to learn how to fix with the force? There isn't much I would like to fix, but there are a few things. "Well, I suppose I would like to learn how to fix things like ships and speeders. I like hot wiring things too, but I've only ever hot wired a door."

Nodding, Anakin frowns and rubs his chin, an obvious sign that he is thinking. "Okay, I think I know exactly what to teach you."

Shattered.

There is no other word for it.

For the last ten hours all I have been doing is learning about mechanics. Yes; I said mechanics. Anakin loves it, no doubt about that. My eyes actually hurt because of the amount of detail I have had to be looking for in case I want to get myself blown up or set on fire. I'll admit that I like hot wiring and messing about with circuits but the amount of it that I just did was horrendous. On the bright side, if all the power in the temple goes out then I can get it back by meddling with the wires in the wall.

My eyes are shut and I am lying on one of the sofas in the lounge in exhaustion. I would have taken an hour long lecture from Master Yoda about attachments over this any day. Well, that would have certainly been more boring than this but I wouldn't be as exhausted as I am now. When someone asks me what I was doing on the first day with my mentor - second if you count yesterday - then I can just say that I have never learned so much in so little time, or been so thoroughly exhausted for that matter. Barris had better have a good idea of what to do for the remainder of the day because I need a break; so long as neither of us talk about the competition then I think we should be fine. And if I can't talk to Barris, the twins are the next best thing. Any mischievous or rule breaking thing would be good for me.

Anakin chuckles from his seated position on the same sofa that I am laid down on, I don't take up much space. "Tired, Snips?" He asks me and I groan in annoyance. That's his new nickname for me since we had one of those mock arguments and the only thing I did was be really, really snippy. On the other hand, I have a nickname for him too - I just can't ever find the right time to use it.

"Yes," My voice is muffled from the arm across my eyes and face. "Because you have an obssession with mechanics. I could hot wire a speeder I've never seen before, thanks to you."

"Your welcome," He says with a smirk; I cannot resist the urge to roll my eyes, it's not as if he can see me doing it. "It's half seven now, don't you have dinner soon?"

"In an hour," I say. "But the mess hall opens at eight. Dinner lasts from eight until eleven because the older younglings come in late."

"Aren't you one of the older younglings?"

"I am, but sometimes I get hungry quickly." I explain, stifling a yawn behind my hand. "Maybe I'll just find the twins and do something with them, once I get my energy back."

"Who are the twins?" Anakin asks.

"Kay and Jay, think of them as the worst trouble makers in the temple. If they're not in trouble for something then they're getting lectured on attachments but you can't blame them, they are twins after all."

"I don't know if its such a good idea to get into trouble," Anakin sounds concerned. "And you're not exactly in a state to go around causing it."

"Yeah, thanks to you." I remind him. "I don't get into trouble as much as they do. It's not that hard to escape when those two are causing the biggest commotions you can imagine."

Anakin sighs and leans back into the cushions of the couch. "You hungry?"

"Always," I reply. "I'm a Togruta who does way more than I'm supposed to."

"So you eat twice the amount of what other people do?"

"Sometimes," I say, shrugging. "Why do you ask?"

"Favourite food?"

"Mashed potatoes, again, why do you ask?"

"I'll be back, don't move." He says, standing.

"Like I could," I grumble as he walks into another room, one that in my tired state I cannot be bothered to think about. If I could fall asleep right now I would do so gladly, except I am not that tired - though force knows someday I will be - and with a sigh I sit up straight. When Master Yoda said that being taught for the competition was hard I did not believe him, when Anakin became my mentor I genuinely thought that it would be easy, but now I know that Master Yoda was telling the truth. However, when Anakin walks back in with what is obviously my favourite food I put the thought aside.

Hard or not, I could get used to having a mentor like Anakin.

After a very nice and humorous meal, involving me pushing Anakin off the sofa, I say goodnight to him and rush off down the corridor. The vent cover is lose, as always, and once I have climbed inside the vent and secured the cover I set off down it to the next cover and my room, maybe then I can get some sleep. I cannot say that I resent the fact that Anakin spent ten hours teaching me every possible way of hot wiring or building something because it's actually quite fun, what I can resent is the fact that I wasn't allowed to have a break.

I stop suddenly at the sound of voices in one of the adjoining vents to the left hand side of the one I am in. There are only a few people who that could be, if it isn't a Jedi on a mission or someone there who shouldn't be, and I'm not particularly sure if I want to get involved, but I need something to do besides hot wiring stuff. Taking a detour, I walk towards the voices and completely ignore the small voice at the back of my mind that says I'm going to get into huge trouble - that voice just happens to sound exactly like Anakin's for some reason.

Rounding the corner, I stop and smirk at the sight before me. Kay and Jay are crouched over a vent cover doing something with wires - the very thought of wires makes me shiver.

"Busy?" I ask quietly, knowing that they will hear me but the people they are trying to prank won't.

They look up and grin mischievously. "You could say that," Kay replies with equal quietness. "Come here, we could use some help. You wouldn't happen to know how to hot wire a datapad would you?"

I tense ever so slightly, which they do not notice, and sigh. "Yeah, I know how." I say, walking closer to them - my footsteps not making a sound. "Why do you need to hot wire the datapad? What are you using it for?"

"To see what punishments Master Yoda gives if someone fills the room he's in with foam." Jay says.

I freeze in position, just a few steps away from them. They are not that interested and place a piece of string through the vent cover, meaning that they have already started. "What did you just say?" I whisper.

The force gives me a very clear message to scram - the twins don't seem to get it - and I reflectively shield my force presence. It is not until the twins faces turn to that of slight fear and nervousness that I know what has happened; they have been caught.

Kay looks to me. "Run." He mouths.

They both bolt and I turn and run just as the vent cover falls away. Luckily, we have already ran around the corner and are half way down the vent when we hear the footsteps of a Jedi master who is obviously not Master Yoda.

"Younglings!" The voice of Master Windu calls out and I seeth silently.

"You idiots, what the hell where you doing?" I ask quiet enough for Master Windu not to hear.

"It seemed like such a good idea at the time," Jay defended.

"Really? What about now?" I ask. An idea occurs to me and I stop still, causing the twins to stop. I crouch nearer to the vent cover and test how tightly fixed in place it is.

"What are you doing? Come on!" Kay urges me, the footsteps growing louder.

"Shut up and help me get this off." I say, taking off the first part of the cover. "It leads to a spot in a deserted corridor."

"How do you know?" Jay asks, frantically glancing back towards the sound of the footsteps.

"My mentor taught me the locations of everything in the temple," I inform them, not having time to scold myself. "Now come on!"

They do not have time to argue and help me to pull off the vent cover, I turn to them in our crouched positions. "Go through, now." I say, making it sound like an order. They both crawl through quickly and I barely have enough time to do the same and resecure the cover before Master Windu's legs come into view. Eyes widening, I move out of view with my back against the wall like the twins. Master Windu has stopped and I think I know exactly why: The twins haven't masked their force presences. You'd think they were still six with how stupid they are.

"Get to the mess hall," I mouth to them.

They both nod and carefully walk down the corridor and towards a corridor that a lot of younglings use on their way to the mess hall. I have no idea whether or not Master Windu is still following us but all my thoughts about him are quickly diverted when my name is spoken in whispers by almost every youngling in sight. When will they let it go? I wasn't even the one who moved the letters, Anakin told me as I was building an engine for a miniature star fighter.

"Well, 'Soka, you'd better have another way of disappearing." Jay mutters to me. "Or you'll wish you never came to this corridor."

"It's your fault, I didn't want to get chased by Master Windu." I retort.

"What were you doing in the vents anyway?" Kay asks.

"The same reason I don't want to be in this corridor," I lie. "There had to be, what, twenty younglings asking me questions."

They smirk and we walk down the corridor to the mess hall. I purposely blank a snooty youngling who thinks he better than everyone else when he asks me about my 'secret mentor' and I come up with a number of words to describe Pedro and his big mouth. None of them are good, believe me.

"Let's get something to eat, I'm starved." Jay says as we head for the counter. "It's almost ten, you're here late again."

I shrug my shoulders. "I had a long day," I say truthfully. "I could use something to eat, though." Purposely leaving out the fact that I have already eaten, quite amusingly in fact, I get my dinner with the twins and sit down at a table in the corner of the room. Since it is so late there are hardly any younglings here, I'll probably end up coming here later in the day to avoid questions, and the amount of people glancing at me is a minimal amount.

"Cheers, 'Soka, we would have been caught if you hadn't known about that vent cover," Kay says, taking a mouthful of his food. I am already halfway through my meal and it surprises me that I am actually eating faster than they are for once. "How did you know about it again?"

"Mentor told me," I say, shrugging and taking another mouthful of my food.

"You gonna tell us who that is yet?" Jay asks.

"Nope," I deny, swallowing. "You'd only use it against me."

"Doubt it," He looks over my head at something by the door. "I don't believe it, Master Windu's here."

I almost choke on my food. "What?"

"By the door," I look out of the corner of my eye. "Act casual."

"If that is at all possible," I murmur.

Of course, the Jedi master can sense who is feeling guilty and is at our table in a heart beat. The twins look up, guilt written in every feature they posses, whilst I continue to eat since none of what happened was my fault.

"Something wrong, Master?" Jay asks. His tone is pure guilt and I roll my eyes.

"Actually I do," Master Windu says, I notice out of the corner of my eye that his arms are crossed over his chest. "Which of you three were in the vents putting foam in Master Yoda's room?"

I look at them both in disbelief. "You put foam in Master Yoda's room?" I ask in disbelief. They both give me those looks that tell me I've messed up and I tense, closing my eyes and scolding myself. Has there ever been a bigger give away?

"So, it was you two, was it?" Master Windu asks, he sounds really smug.

"No, Master." They lie in unison and I keep my eyes on my plate and take another mouthful so I don't have to speak.

"I see," He turns to me as I swallow. "Young Tano, who was it?"

I glance at them and put my head down a little lower. "The same one it always is." I say, which means all of us to Master Plo and Master Kenobi, but obviously not to Master Windu.

"Jay, come with me." He says, turning and making his way to the door.

I frown and look up. "Did he just say Jay?" I whisper. "I'd meant for us all to get in trouble."

"You did a great job," Kay says, patting my shoulder before turning to Jay. "Good luck, bro."

"Likewise," Jay says with a smirk, heading after Master Windu.

"So," Kay says as we both finish our meals. "Any shortcuts in the vents you could tell me about?"