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.
Authors Note: Once this story is complete I am going to do a re-write of my story 'On The Run Again' since it got a little out of hand.
Three Days Til Competition, Ahsoka Tano
I wake up to the familiar ringing of my chrono, something that I must say I'm disappointed about. I didn't have to be woken by it for two nights and I was actually getting used to it, sort of, it felt like I'd been given a break of some kind. Well, technically, my chrono hasn't been waking me up for a few days now but two days in a row is sort of like Christmas to me in my tiny room. I mean, if I had to share a room with my clan then I'd be woken up by a chrono every hour of every day because there would be so many of them. I'm actually glad that there wasn't enough room for all of us in there, even though at times I can get lonely.
After slamming my hand down on the 'off' switch and resisting the very strong urge to throw it across the room, I get out of bed and lazily wave my hand at it as I walk into the 'fresher. The resulting sound of moving sheets, no matter how faint, tells me that the trick Anakin taught me yesterday is actually paying off. I dress slowly, since I just woke up, and when I walk out of the 'fresher my bed is made with the pillows seemingly plumped and fresh. Maybe Anakin didn't tell me everything about using that little trick.
With a sigh, I realise that I have to go to the mess hall for my breakfast today and proceed to drag my feet as I walk out of my room. It's a few minutes past six, I'm guessing, so I doubt that there will be many younglings out and about just yet. Then again, the other younglings all have rooms closer to the mess hall so they'll probably be awake by the time I get there; not to mention how long it will take the twins to get up and dressed. They, of all people, will want to stay in their room for a decent amount of time.
"Hey, Ahsoka!"
Well, I suppose some people aren't as sane as I am. Turning around, I see that the few remaining members of my clan – the ones who aren't in the halls of healing - are walking towards me. Petro is giving me that narrowed eyes, accusing glare of his and I completely ignore him for obvious reasons. No one else seems to be paying him any attention either so he can't have told them anything or they just don't believe him.
"Ahsoka, didn't you hear? We're supposed to be sticking together now," Katooni says in a scolding tone. "Or did you forget that someone is targeting members of our clan?"
I roll my eyes, if there is one thing I hate it is being treated like a child by other children. "How could I forget?" I reply. "When were we told that we were supposed to be sticking together?"
"Around the time when you were with that 'secret mentor' of yours..." Petro grumbles, his accusing stare darkening with threat.
"He is not my 'secret mentor'; he just doesn't want people to know who he is, that's all." I snap, far too tired to put up with his infuriating attitude yet.
Petro snorts. "Yeah right, what kind of Jedi is he?"
"What kind of Jedi pins the blame on someone for something that they didn't do or gets paranoid?" I point out smartly. The look on his face is absolutely priceless and I wish that I have a camera to savour the moment, it would look stunning as a hologram. However, not all of my clan mates are as un-Jedi like as I am and in a matter of milliseconds Barris has walked over to my side and nudged me with her elbow, a clear indicator that I should drop whatever I'm doing and act like a Jedi for once.
"Let's go and eat breakfast," Gungi suggests in his wookie language; I learned to understand it when I was around five.
"Nice idea, Gungi. Let's go." Katooni agrees. She knows me almost as well as Barris and obviously doesn't want me and Petro to have a fight.
We start our walk towards the mess hall, all the while Petro is giving me that accusing stare of his, and I cannot help but wonder where Slimo is. Katooni said that we were all supposed to be sticking together and yet he is not here even though they all share the same quarters. Honestly, Petro should really think things through before he goes blaming things on me; I guess that's just how the idiotic git's mind works. Believe me when I say that this will be lingering in my mind for a long while.
In my silent musings on how annoying Petro is, I have not noticed that my clan – the members with me – are talking about their lightsabers. The only topics that younglings really talk about are lightsabers and when we're going to become padawans, if we ever do.
"... a yellow blade. Wouldn't that be awesome?"
"I think a blue blade would be better, blue is so cool!"
Rolling my eyes, and hiding my emotions from them with the force, I am more than thankful when we reach the mess hall for I find that the only conversations I find interesting are either with Anakin or the twins, since there is an element of danger in both of them. The mess hall already has a fair amount of people inside and I quickly retrieve some breakfast before going to sit at the table where two very amused looking twins are sitting.
They smile as I join them and it is then that I notice they look like they have been up all night. Then again, any night when those two are actually sleeping and not doing anything to annoy people it is nothing short of a miracle.
"Morning, 'Soka." They chorus.
Since I have already taken a bite out of my toast which, much to my distaste, does not have any jam on it I can't reply in a clear voice. "Mornin'," I say before swallowing and sending them a glare as they snicker. "Not funny."
"Where have you been? We haven't seen you since we had breakfast after that whole ordeal with Master Windu." Kay asks.
I shrug my shoulders lazily. "Well, first I fell asleep in my mentors quarters for almost an entire day. Then I stayed there for another day and didn't really think about going back to my own room until yesterday."
"Wow, Ahsoka, you really need a reminder on when you're supposed to go back to your room. If I had a master like that – and force willing someday I will – then I'd never come back." Jay says.
"Wait, if you had a master then you'd be sharing a quarters with them and you wouldn't have any room to go back to and if you weren't up all night then you would have remembered that." I point out, smirking at their astonished looks.
"How'd you know we were up all night?"
"You two are always up all night," I reply.
They exchange a glance before shrugging their shoulders and digging into the remnants of their breakfast like two pigs, something that they always do. I roll my eyes and resume eating my own breakfast. It's rather odd for me to be eating in the mess hall now, there's all these things that Anakin has told me running through my mind whenever I'm in here. For one, Anakin's always saying that the food isn't nearly as nutritional as it should be and for another he keeps going on about how everyone eating in the same place on such a large scale is unhygienic. That being said, I'm a little put off from eating in this room now.
"Hey, 'Soka, any idea why those guys over there are giving you the evils?" Kay asks, lifting his head to look at something over my shoulder.
With a frown, I turn around to look at what he has just pointed out and see, to my confusion, that there are a group of around five boys older than me who are giving me the death glare - and with them is, surprise surprise, Slimo. He is also giving me that stare and I return it with one of my own before turning back around to face the twins, who have puzzled and slightly protective looks on their faces.
"No idea," I say honestly. "Probably has something to do with them being idiots, I don't know."
"Well, whoever they are, if they don't stop doing that soon someone's gonna notice. Not to mention the beating we'll give them." Jay points out in all protectiveness.
I sigh, Jedi aren't supposed to be violent, but then again, I've never been one to shy away from a fight myself.
"They've been here since long before we got here," Kay adds. "Waiting for somebody."
Frowning, my eyes dart from one to the other. "Really?" I ask. "Who?"
"No idea." Jay responds. "But judging from the looks on their faces, I think they're waiting for you. Do you have your training saber on you?"
I shake my head. "No. Master Yoda made my entire clan leave them behind."
"Well then, I suppose this means we're going to be staying with you today." Kay says with a wide smile. "Two faced kriff lords," He mutters.
Taking a large bite out of my toast, I consider this. There is not a chance that I will be able to go to Anakin today if Kay and Jay are acting as my own personal body guards; I can send them away to go to Anakin but then those other younglings will probably do something. What exactly they have against me I have no idea, all I know is that they don't like me and if they so much as touch me the twins are going to murder them (or give it their best shot).
"I'm done." I say casually. "I'll see you later."
"Woah, woah, woah," Jay stops me, standing up (along with Kay). "Have you seen them? Their faces just lit up at the prospect of you being all alone. Now, we have lightsabers and we are going to be spending the day with you."
"But my mentor..."
"Can wait. If he's as kind as you say he is then what harm could it do to spend the day with us? Besides, you don't have to get to his until between eight and ten and right now it's half six. So, since you're with us and we are not leaving you then let's go to the room of a thousand fountains, there's something really calming about that place."
Knowing that there is no way to get rid of them, I follow the twins out of the mess hall and down the corridor, all the while cautious of the sounds of people leaving at the exact moment we are. The twins sense the people too and pick up the pace slightly so that in a matter of minutes we are in the room of a thousand fountains. I can still sense that we are being followed and the twins activate their lightsabers the moment we are in the room, the room being coincidentally empty aside from us.
Kay and Jay both have blue lightsaber blades, unsurprisingly. They are both the same even in the mind of the force.
"Get behind us," Jay says, his expression serious.
Not needing to be told twice, I rush behind them and instantly know why they are on their guard. The force has done nothing but warn me of danger ever since the twins pointed out that there were younglings watching me and now it is practically shouting. So, when the door flies open and the younglings that were glaring at me walk in with their lightsabers activated I am far from surprised.
Slimo, the sith spawn, steps forward with a smirk on his face. He does not have a lightsaber but it is obvious that he does not need one with the group of younglings at his disposal. A thought occurs to me that Slimo might be the one who's attacking people from our clan; I rethink the idea in my head and conclude that it is right. It must have been him.
"What are you doing?" Kay demands. "We're Jedi. We're on the same side here."
Slimo smirks again. "You three? Jedi?" He asks skeptically. "You will never be Jedi and I intend to have my lightsaber soon. Tano, you're not going to be your usual self much longer now stand aside you two or join her."
"Bring. It. On." Jay dares, assuming a defensive stance.
Those have to be the cockiest words that have ever been uttered before a fight. Slimo's gaze darkens and, without him saying a word, the younglings behind him charge us and it takes a few well placed moves for me and the twins to find out who they are going for. Naturally, most are trying to go for me but the twins are doing a damn fine job of keeping them back.
Two of the younglings in Slimo's gang make their way to me and I quickly dodge their blades and begin my own fight, except I have to use fist fighting against them. Now, not many people have seen myself or the twins in an actual fight. Sparring, yes. A fight? No. The twins, unbelievably, are actually really good and all of the lessons that Anakin has been giving me on fighting are helping me a hell of a lot since it takes only a minute to knock the two younglings attacking me to the ground.
Slimo sees this but smiles evily at me for some reason. I frown at him in total confusion, what has him so happy? Then his gaze moves to something behind me and Kay's shout of "Look out!" adds to the speed of my turn to see what, or who, is behind me. One of his youngling henchmen, with his lightsaber raised and poised to either kill or seriously wound me.
At this point, two things happen.
One is that the twins shout my name and use the force to shove all of the enemy younglings around them to the floor.
Two is something much more peculiar.
The blade comes down with alarming speed and I brace myself for the inevitable pain when the ground starts to shake, hard. Everyone, me included, stops to find their footing and a massive crack appears in the ground between me and the youngling. Not only that, the floor then tilts due to the crack and sends us to the ground due to lack of balance. Slimo retreats out of a different door, his youngling friends roll down into the gap that has been left or the ground around it and the twins grab my arms and pull me out of harms way.
With a loud thud the upturned ground falls back into place leaving the younglings who attacked us sprawled around unconscious and me and the twins laying flat on our backs, breathing heavily from both astonishment and the energy it took to fight them.
Now, I won't say that I am stupid but in that moment I probably acted the stupidest of my life because I totally and completely forgot that we are in the Jedi temple, which is filled with people who can sense things like this. So, much to our distress, at that moment the doors open and a few Jedi knights and masters walk in. Though I am thankful that the younglings who attacked us still have their lightsabers on them, the twins lost theirs somewhere when the ground lifted up and we look pretty stupid just laying there on the ground, not to mention guilty.
"Ahsoka," Master Plo says sternly, with a tone that demands an explanation. "What have you done?"
If my answer had been clear then we might have actual appeared innocent, but since we all answered at once it didn't exactly turn our way.
"One at a time!" Master Windu shouts over the top of our joint explanations. "First, stand up, then you will explain to us what happened here and why there are younglings laying unconscious around you."
We proceed to do just that, standing up at once. Being the youngest, I don't get to explain anything and the twins start to do it for me. I remain silent under the serious gaze of Master Plo.
"Well, we were in the mess hall, having our breakfast, and then me and Kay noticed that there were these other younglings, these guys, giving Ahsoka really evil looks. You know, the ones you give a person who you really badly want to hurt or kill, like a sith." Jay explains.
"So, we left the mess hall when we'd finished and they followed us in here with their lightsabers out. Me and Jay got ours out, Ahsoka doesn't have one so we were sort of defending her, and we all got into a bit of a fight because Slimo wanted Ahsoka out of the way so that he could win the competition their clan is in." Kay continued.
The Jedi looked around. "Slimo is not here," Master Windu points out.
"He ran away when... well, when..."
We all look at each other for an explanation, one that no other Jedi would ever believe.
"When?" Master Plo presses for information.
Kay sighs. "When the floor lifted up and scared him out of his wits."
All of the Jedi that entered cross their arms with firm expressions. "We want the truth, not something that you have made up."
"Made up?" Jay repeats. "We didn't make this up. Look at the crack in the floor!" He points to the area where the large crack is as clear as day, large enough for anyone to easily get their entire bottom half stuck in. In fact, you can easily see from the position that we are in that the floor could lift up, with the right amount of force, and do exactly as we said it had.
Whilst most of the Jedi move to tend to the unconscious younglings, Master Windu and Master Plo walk closer to us and the crack with frowns on their faces. "That was not there when I came in here a few minutes ago," Master Plo says. "And it does not look to have been inflicted by a lightsaber."
"When did the crack appear?" Master Windu asks us. "Was it here before you arrived?"
"No," Jay replies. "It appeared when... well, when that blonde haired youngling was about to hit Ahsoka with his lightsaber. It sort of appeared in-between them. We grabbed Ahsoka but he and his friends just fell around on the floor."
"There must have been a reason for it's sudden appearance. Things like this do not simply appear out of thin air, something had to of caused it."
We share another glance. "It was just... there, master. Nobody was really looking at it and then the ground shook and we saw it right before this part of the floor lifted up and gave us all heart attacks. Then we landed flat on our backs and you came in. That's what happened."
Master Windu seems thoroughly unconvinced. "Why don't we watch the HoloFootage and then see whether or not they are telling the truth?" Master Plo suggests. "The room of a thousand fountains has very detailed security footage as I recall."
His gaze firmly fixed on all of our faces, Master Windu nods and we fall into step behind them with our heads down as they depart the room (both Jedi masters gave clear gestures for us to do so). We share looks of confusion and astonishment all the way to the communications tower. Unfortunately for me, Barris and the rest of my clan just happen to be in the corridor as we walk through and fix me with looks that say 'not again'. I give them my most innocent expression before we turn a corner and they are out of sight.
The walk is shorter than I expected, probably because we're so nervous and confused about everything that happened, and I can sense that there are already a few people inside of the communications tower (as well as see them) when we enter. There aren't any meeting, fortunately, but Master Yoda and a few other Jedi masters are sat around and in deep conversation until we enter. They are quite obviously confused as to why we , a few younglings, are in the communications tower.
"Master's Windu and Plo, brought these younglings up here why have you?" Master Yoda asks curiously.
"There was a fight in the room of a thousand fountains, master, and we wish to see if their story is true." Master Plo explains.
Our gazes firmly rooted on the ground, we stop beside the two Jedi masters as they access the security footage from the room of a thousand fountain. After selecting the correct time and date (which we give them when they ask) a hologram of me and the twins walking into the room appears. It is actually quite interesting to see that when we sense something our heads jerk up ever so slightly, something that we'll probably have to fix.
The hologram shows the twins turning around and igniting their lightsabers and telling me to get behind them, which I do. Then, as we said, the younglings come in with their lightsabers ignited and Slimo practically admits to being behind what's happening to our clan then the fight breaks out. It's six on three but we hold our own, just as we did before, and then the thing that scared us out of our wits happens. Kay shouts a warning to me, I turn around, the lightsaber comes down and then crack.
It happened just how we said it did in exactly the right way. The crack appeared right between us, the force of it pushing us apart by a little distance and the ground shaking so that we stumble and try to regain our balance. The section of the floor that we are stood on lifts up and the twins grab my arms and jump, we land in a heap on the floor whilst the other younglings are sent literally everywhere, not a single one staying conscious.
The ground goes back into it's original position and the next second the Jedi knights and masters come in through the door. Our heads turn in unison to look at them and the security footage ends, leaving a few very surprised and confused Jedi masters. Not to mention the amount of confusion it adds to mine and the twins' minds since we actually lived through it.
"You were telling the truth." Master Windu states, though the surprise in his tone is unmistakeable. He turns his head to look at us. "You may go." He says.
We bow, as a sign of respect, and quickly head out of the room. The sound of Master Windu talking to Master Yoda about what happened is of little concern to us and when we are a fair distance from the room at the top of the tower and standing about half way down the steps, we stop. The twins turn around to look at me (I am standing on the same step and Jay so it is only a half turn that they make).
"Can you believe that happened?" Jay asks.
"I know," I agree. "They didn't even say anything about Slimo."
"That's not what I'm talking about," Jay continues. "This is the second time that something like that has happened."
I frown. "What are you talking about?"
"Think about it, Ahsoka. When was the last time that something this impossible happened?" Kay questions. "In the vents, remember? It happened then, with the water. You were in a life or death situation then and you were in a life or death situation when the crack appeared, that can't be a coincidence."
"It must be."
Jay shakes his head. "No, Ahsoka, it isn't. It just can't be. I don't know why but it's like you're invincible or something, whenever you're in danger something like this happens... doesn't it?"
I frown. Having only been in a life threatening situation twice since the strange things started happening, I'm not entirely sure how to answer. "I don't know..." I say slowly. "These things aren't just happening to me, you know. They're happening to you both too and could be happening to other people who haven't said a word, like we haven't."
"Maybe you should ask your mentor about it," Kay suggests. "He's supposed to know things to keep you safe in the competition, right? Maybe he knows something about this. He must know at least something."