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.

Six days Til Competition, Ahsoka Tano

I wake up slowly, for once the alarm is not doing its job well. Groaning, I am about to lift my hand to switch it off when the beeping stops. My eyes are still half closed so I can only lift my head slightly to see who has turned it off now – the only difficulty is that there is no one standing in my room. Of it's own accord, my head drops back to the pillow as my eyes sleepily travel the length of the room and back again. I am certain that there is no one else in the room and my tired mind is only too happy to allow me to drift back into sleep with this knowledge. Unfortunatley, I find myself only drifting on the edges of sleep since I can never seem to sit still; right now I wish that there was a way I could go back to sleep, without having anyone walk in and wake me.

My energy after yesterday is at rock bottom so Anakin will be lucky if I make it to his before nine and, if I fall asleep, I might not even show up until after ten. Yawning, I shift into a more comfortable position on my bed and close my eyes. There's only one problem for me when I wake up at a time near when I usually do and that is I can't get back to sleep afterwards. It's infuriating and annoying, leaving me tired every day that I wake up at some time in the middle of the night. I pull the covers tighter around myself when a cold shiver runs up my spine and causes my entire body to shiver; the cold is something that I really don't like. Wrapping myself up tight, I snuggle into my pillow and let myself sigh in pleasure. Sleep is one of natures greatest miracles, there is no doubt about that in my mind.

I am warm and comfortable until the door to my room opens, light flooding into my room and making me groan; all I'm asking for is one day when I don't have someone walk into my room, after all, it is a Saturday. I can hear the amused chuckles of the person who has entered the room and know that it is Master Plo, checking up on me as he has ever since members of my class were targeted.

"You cannot stay in bed all day, little one." He says with amusement. "Although, you do look rather comfortable."

I open my eyes sleepily and look up at him. Of all the times for someone to interrupt me, why couldn't it be some time when I was doing something other than sleeping? "It is a Saturday," I point out. "Can't I stay in bed for a little longer?"

"Did you tire yourself out yesterday?" Master Plo asks.

"Yes," I say. "Though I'd rather not have done." I add quietly, even though he probably heard me.

"Preparing for a competition as important as yours is taxing, Ahsoka. I'm sure there are many people in your class who wish they could stay in bed." Master Plo reminds me.

I groan in annoyance, knowing that he is right. But, surely, he can't expect me to believe that none of them have slept in for a little bit longer than usual? "Haven't any of them slept in?" I ask.

"As far as I know they have been unable to because of their alarm clocks," Master Plo says. "Speaking of which, why hasn't yours gone off again?"

I lift my head slightly to look at my alarm clock and see that, for an odd reason, the alarm setting has been turned off. Of course, when there's only one person sleeping in one room with one alarm clock there is an obvious way to see who's going to get the blame for something that happens.

"You turned off the alarm setting," Master Plo states with a hint of disbelief, though I'm not sure why. "Only Jedi masters have the code to do that."

I frown. Is he serious? They really must take the time that people get up seriously if they only give the code to Jedi masters. I could have sworn that they had more important things to do, like fighting a war for one. Rubbing my tired eyes, I sit up and dangle my legs over the side of my bed.

"I didn't do it," I say honestly. "It just turned off a few seconds after it woke me up."

Master Plo sighs, thankfully he seems to have an idea of how it happened in his head. "You must have used the force to do it," He reasons. "It has happened before. Well, make sure you get up. I will know if you've gone back to sleep." With that, I think it was a type of warning, Master Plo departs my room and I have to resist the urge to just flop down on the bed and go right back to sleep. For some reason whenever I wake up I want to stay awake, but then if someone comes in and tells me to get up I want to go back to sleep. Maybe it's a kid thing, I don't know.

Sighing, though it is sort of a groan and a sigh, I stand up and have to put my hand out to steady myself when the room seems to spin and my vision goes blurry. Just as soon as my vision goes blurry, it comes back again but my head feels suddenly hot and I feel slightly drowsy. Shrugging it off, I walk into the 'fresher and get changed somewhat slowly due to the fact that I remain feeling light-headed. No matter, Anakin can heal me, he always does even if there's only a small thing wrong with me.

After getting changed and brushing my teeth, I walk back into the main part of my room and sit back down on the bed. There doesn't really seem to be much to motivate me today because I am so exhausted, but if I don't go about my usual business Master Plo will give me a lecture and so on. Sucking in a deep breath, I stand up and groan when the same dizziness and blurry vision returns. Maybe there is something wrong with me.

Pacing my steps carefully, I don't want to faint in the corridor, I walk out of my door and let the door close automatically behind me. There are already loads of Jedi about so I know that I must have slept in for a minimum of five minutes – at least, I tried to sleep – and I have not taken two steps when I am practically jumped on from behind. Now, there are only three people I know who would do that and Anakin is imprisoned in his suite so it can only be the other two people.

I am unsurprised when I turn my head to see the twins with mischievous smiles on their faces, I sometimes wish that if they keep smiling like that the wind will change and they'll be stuck like it; they're always smiling like that so it wouldn't really make much difference. It is surprisingly hard to know when they are up to something because they are always chirpy and happy, you can only find out if you know them as well as I do.

"Mornin' 'Soka," They sing happily. "Wow, you look really tired."

I roll my eyes and sigh. "I am. Yesterday was more like running all the way across Coruscant ten times. Why do I get the feeling that you did something?" I have no idea why I said that. They're always doing something and if it isn't getting into trouble it's getting other people into trouble; force I hope they didn't do anything like breaking the water valve again.

"Nothing much," Kay says casually. "Just painted Master Windu's room pink."

My eyes widen. "You did... what?" I ask in total disbelief, this is just pushing it, even for them. "He's going to kill you."

"Not if we don't stick around he won't. Let's go to the mess." Jay advises.

I cannot say that I argue with the suggestion, if it even is one, and we fall into step side by side one another as we walk. This time I have a feeling that they might have gone too far. I mean, this is Master Windu. He's the second strictest Jedi in the temple and I could have sworn I saw him trying to stop a celebration a few years ago for the chancellor's birthday; the man just hates fun and everything to do with it. There will probably be a wake up call for him at some point in the future, unless he's doomed to be strict for the rest of his days.

"So, any ideas on what to do today?" Kay asks. "I mean, you're not planning on sitting in that same spot just watching the world go by, are you?"

I almost tell him that I have much more important things to do but quickly decide against it. "Sometimes watching the world go by is interesting," I say reasonably. "Plus, it's peaceful."

"Since when do you like anything peaceful?" Jay questions, arching an eyebrow. I cannot help but notice that most people from Correlia are getting into trouble.

"Since I got a massive headache," I lie. My stomach grumbles just after the comment. This is new, I've never been hungry this early in the morning before.

"You seem hungry today," Kay comments. "Yesterday must have really cleared you out."

I resist the urge to nod my head with an expression that will convey my total agreement. "Cleared out, worn out..." I stifle a yawn behind my hand. "Shattered." I agree. "You don't seem to have done anything to wear you out."

They shrug their shoulders. "We just had a boring day honing our force abilities, nothing too exciting. Then again, I suppose that's the most exciting thing around here nowadays."

My lips twitch slightly, if only they knew... We reach the mess hall with both the twins locked in a hefty argument about which speeder is the best in the republic. I ignore the urge to tell them my opinion, since I knew nothing about speeders until Anakin taught me, and retrieve my breakfast from the counter. For an odd reason, the droid behind the counter spends a few moments looking at my face and then gives me almost double the usual amount of breakfast. When I sit down I frown and begin to wonder why it gave me this much, maybe it has a malfunction or something.

The twins join me and spend long moments staring at my plate. "Force..." Jay comments. "Even the droid must have known you were ill."

I furrow my brow. "What?" I ask stupidly. They must have hit their heads or something, if I was ill then I would certainly feel it - or Anakin would have healed me.

"You look ill," Kay says simply, taking a bite out of his toast. "Didn't you know? You're pale."

"Yeah, but not that really sickly kind of pale that lets people know that there is something really wrong with you," Jay adds when I open my mouth to talk. "You just need to eat something. We can sense it."

There's no arguing with that. I start to eat my breakfast and start to grow a little uneasy when a few fellow younglings give me a concerned look as they pass. Not all of them do, but enough to let me know that I should ask Anakin to make sure I'm all right. I eat quicker than I usually would, probably due to hunger, and have just about finished when I sense someone who is very frustrated approaching.

Lots of people frown and look to the door, the twins included, but I simply down the contents of my drink. Suddenly, the twins hang their heads low and seem to get closer and closer to their breakfasts. That's when I hear footsteps headed in our direction and I realise who it is.

Master Windu.

He's not happy.

The footsteps stop abruptly directly beside our table and the three of us look up to see Master Windu standing there, his arms crossed over his chest and his expression pure steel. The twins are going to be in so much trouble.

"Who did it?" Master Windu demands at once. "I know that it was you two so you might as well admit it." He adds to the twins, ignoring me.

The twins do not answer and simply stare at their food with expressionless faces.

Master Windu sighs in exasperation. "That's it," He says in all seriousness. "You've both had many chances but this is the final straw. You're both going to be expelled."

The entire room goes silent and I can feel the twins' fear and regret coming off of them in waves. I knew that Master Windu would not be happy, but I never imagined for a moment that he would take it this seriously. Of course, there is a way that neither of them will be expelled, though it might cause some other problems. But what can I say? I owe Jay one.

"I did it." I say unexpectedly; Master Windu looks at me in shock and then disappointment.

"You did, did you?" He asks, his tone laced with warning. "And what exactly is it that you did?"

I swallow. The man is giving me look a hundred times worse than Master Yoda ever could. "I painted your room pink." I reply, making several amounts of amusement come off of the other younglings in the room before they carefully stop their emotions from flowing.

Master Windu narrows his eyes and me and jerks his head towards the door. Not needing an explanation, I stand and head for it, my head somewhere in between being held high and being held low. The twins are looking at me with utter shock but Master Windu does not seem to care as he follows me out. What the twins think doesn't matter, I owe them – this might be taking it a little extreme though.

Naturally, Master Windu takes the lead and I follow behind him, careful not to meet the gaze of anyone else that we pass. They know that I am in trouble, of course, but considering that I know I haven't done anything wrong I don't really care about their disapproving emotions. I'm not going to tell anyone that I took the blame for the twins, except maybe Barris and Katooni, but the knowledge that I didn't do anything wrong is enough to keep me just as bright as ever. After all, the things you do for your friends are the best things you'll ever do.

We turn a corner and the entire walk is in silence until we reach Master Windu's quarters and he silently orders me inside whilst he keeps the door open. I stop and gape at his quarters. The other, adjoining rooms are covered in a thin, pink paint colour but the main room is painted with what is obviously thick paint that is designed never to come off. Why do I have the feeling that my day is about to become much worse than I thought it would be?

Master Windu enters the room and the door closes automatically behind him. Beside on of the walls is a cloth and bucket of water. My eyes widen. Surely he doesn't expect me to...?

"I assume you know what your punishment will be," He states matter-of-factly. "I would cancel any of your plans for the weekend if I were you. You have to clean up the mess you made and I can't imagine that cleaning the ceiling will be an easy task."

"Ceiling?" I repeat quietly, looking up and repressing a groan of annoyance. Of all the thick-headed, stupid, arrogant, reckless...

Not only has the ceiling been painted, but the floor as well. This is going to take me forever and I know that there is every possibility that it will take some of the time in the week days for me to wash the paint off of everything. The sound of the door opening shakes me out of my musings and I turn my head to look at Master Windu. He has a smug aura around him that makes me automatically think of a million ways to get rid of his smugness.

"I suggest you get started," He says, turning to leave. "And my droid will be at the door to stop you from trying to leave."

The moment the door closes behind him I groan and put my head in my hands. This has to be the worst decision I've ever made. Not only that, but now I won't be able to go and see Anakin for the rest of the weekend and possibly Monday too. He isn't going to be happy, that much is clear, and I will have to explain to him and then I'll have to spend an entire day revising and then come close to passing out. On the bright side, at least the twins aren't going to be expelled from the Jedi order.

Sighing, I let my hands fall to my sides and walk over to the clothe and bucket of water. He doesn't expect me to do this by hand, does he? Realising that this is exactly what he wants me to do, I groan and pick up the clothe. Maybe I can get the paint off quickly and then go to Anakin later on? This might not take so long. I wet the clothe and try to scrub the paint off the wall, except it hardly does anything to it. The best that happens is the paint moves by about half a millimetre.

My mouth falls open slightly in a mixture of annoyance and disbelief, I really need to ask the twins were they get this stuff, and I glance at the door before starting to scrub, this time with a little more pressure. I feel like some kind of servant in some ways – in other ways I think that this is just a legal way of enforcing child labour – and I do not make any complaints out loud because there is no one to listen. It takes a minute before any kind of change occurs and even then it is only a small area that has dimmed slightly and I have to put most of my energy into it. A plan to find a way to get my payback on Master Windu begins to form in my mind, except I stop thinking about it when I realise that I would only end up in a situation like this again.

Gritting my teeth, I work hard to get the paint off of the wall. It is so much harder than any lightsaber technique or force training because of the fact that this is designed never to come off, especially not to something as simple as a clothe and bucket of water. In my frustration, I pick up the bucket of water and throw it's contents at the wall. The paint seems to come off a little easier so I refill the bucket and repeat my earlier actions. Of all the days for the twins to do something this foolish, it had to be a Saturday. I stand on a table to reach the top of the wall. When this is over I will be very happy.

Foolhardy.

That's how I'll think of the twins from now on. The most stupidest people on the face of Coruscant, and possibly the rest of the galaxy too. I've cleaned every room so far and resorted to hanging off light fixtures so that I could clean the ceilings. The floors were probably the easiest part and I am just finishing up on the one in the lounge right now. I am absolutely shattered. The chrono says that it is two o'clock in the morning and Master Windu hasn't even showed up once yet. Being awake for twenty-hours is not exactly a healthy thing and I finally understand why people think that we should only be awake for twelve hours of the day and asleep for the other twelve. At least then I would have enough energy to get this done.

Yawning and not bothering to stifle it, I scrub the last few splurges of paint on the floor as hard as I can. When I get out of this the first thing I am going to do is go to my room and go to sleep. I honestly don't care if it's only for four hours, I haven't had anything to eat or drink and I haven't so much as sat down on anything comfortable or had a break. All in all? There should be a law to prevent me from feeling this completely defeated. I have to force my eyes to stay open and throw some more water onto the floor to help me get rid of the remainder of the paint. The force has not helped me to maintain my energy - for some reason I feel strangely cut off from it - and I know that my tiredness has something to do with it.

Once the last dot of paint has gone, I look around the floor with tired eyes to see if I missed anything. Luckily, I didn't and I fling the clothe lazily back into the bucket of water, which is barely full. The twins owe me big time for this. Standing on shaky legs, I walk over to the sofa and sit down. I actually intended to just go straight to my room and fall asleep but this time there is nothing I can do to prevent myself from just relaxing where I am. Yawning once more, I let my head fall down to the arm rest and my eyes close of their own accord. I just want to fall asleep forever and ever right now, the idea of eternal peace is something I welcome.

My ears start to ring and my head suddenly feels like lead upon my shoulders even though it is resting on the arm rest. I feel like I am a dead weight and I know that I will not be able to stay awake for much longer. Silently, I make a vow. The next time I help someone it will only be under very strict conditions. One; it will be a life or death situation, or something similar. Two; it has to mean something extremely important to me. Three; there has to be some kind of compensation in any form, just more than a simple 'thanks'.

Sighing, I relax completely and let myself drift off to sleep. However, just before I do, the door to Master Windu's quarters opens and someone walks in. I have no idea who it is since I am now half-asleep but I do catch a small part of what they say.

"...taking the blame."