A/N: warning this fic laughs in the face of science, not one part of it is plausible, but that's okay because we're just here for wolfren
(chapter title is obviously taken from Halsey's song Gasoline
"Alright, let's see who your attacker was."
Sabine is already stepping into motion before Ahsoka has finished speaking. She's been itching to start investigating - and hopefully get to the bottom of this - since she first woke up.
Mandalore, one of Earth's largest manmade islands, was once home to a civilization of people who decided to meld their bodies with machines. Cyborgs, many have called them. Altering and shaping their bodies with biomechatronic parts. The alterations usually begin in early adulthood, once a person's decided whether they wish to devote their life to the Mandalorian way, or leave.
Sabine left her people long before that point, though, when she was only sixteen, but not before receiving her own alteration. A modification to her brain, done in an effort to save her life after the first time their home was bombed by the Empire. Experimental technology. Unsafe. But the alternative was to let her die.
It has its upsides, she's found. One of them being a digital memory that she can transfer to certain electronic devices like the datapad on the table in front of her - though, of course, this upside also has its downsides but she tries not to focus on those.
Touching a hand to the datapad, Sabine closes her eyes, concentrating. By this point, the wireless transfer is almost second nature, she's done it so often, and when she opens her eyes, sure enough, her attacker is displayed across the screen. Sabine swipes a finger and a duplicate of the screen is thrust into the air.
And there she is.
The woman who stabbed her. Dancing with her lightsaber, her brow knit tight in concentration. There's hunger in her eyes, as well. Sabine missed it the first time around - too busy fighting for her life - but she can see it now as the footage continues to play, each move between them growing more vicious. She enjoys the fight. Sabine can see it in those eyes. In that hunger.
And, well, she can't say she doesn't relate to that particular thrill. That sometimes she doesn't enjoy it too. Not when she's getting stabbed, of course. But outside of that.
Sabine stares at the footage hovering before her, unable to stop herself from leaning in a little closer, analyzing every detail her eyes were able to capture. It's something she's been doing in her own head ever since waking up. Playing out those few short minutes of their fight, again and again. At this point, she doesn't even know what it is exactly that she's looking for. What she thinks she'll find.
An explanation, maybe. For why she was assaulted by those annoying as fuck vibrations moments before her assailant arrived; for why she still has the memory of lying on the ground, staring up into inquisitive green eyes as fingers hover over her skin.
Whatever she's looking for, though, she hasn't found it.
Beside her, Ahsoka stares at the hologram, seeming equally as enraptured by the stranger. "That shouldn't be possible."
"What shouldn't be possible?" Sabine takes her eyes off her attacker's face to inspect her former-maybe-current master's instead. "Wait, do you know her?"
"Not in the strictest sense." Ahsoka discards the disbelief from her features, folding her arms as she studies the, apparently, familiar woman's face. "We crossed paths once, though, during my time in Ukraine. She was on a mission for the Empire - and I was on a mission to derail that mission."
"Did you?"
"Partially. But that's irrelevant." Ahsoka turns to her. "She should be dead."
"Because you killed her?"
Great. Sabine's been skewered by a ghost. Add that to her list of unique - if unenviable - life experiences.
"Because the Empire did. Or at least. . . that's what our source led us to assume."
"I can confirm that she's very much alive." Sabine rubs the scarring skin on her stomach with a wince. "Like, very alive. . . Well, that or just the world's spriest corpse."
Ahsoka's mouth twitches, amusement penetrating the discontent in her eyes. "She's not a corpse. She's a synth."
Sabine's eyes dart back to the screen, back to Ahsoka, then back to the screen. "Actually, that explains a lot. She packs a hell of a punch."
Her bruises will have bruises for weeks.
But that's par for the course when fighting someone whose strength would outmatch any human's on the planet. Sabine frowns, reevaluating that fight, combing through the details in a new light. . .
"I'm not surprised. You should be proud, Sabine," Ahsoka touches her arm. "Not many would come to blows with a Hati and live to tell the tale."
"Hati." The word sounds harsh on her tongue, like punch. "I'm not familiar with that model of synthetic."
"Not surprising. They were one of the Empire's secret weapons. Very few knew of their existence. And, of course, they were all destroyed towards the end of the war."
"Of course," Sabine says, like this is common knowledge that anyone would know and not something she's finding out for the very first time. "Who destroyed them?"
"The Empire."
Sabine whistles. "That's got to burn."
Your own side turning on you? Not for the first time, she's glad she pulled her head out of her ass and joined the Rebel Alliance when she did.
Sabine frowns, examining the Hati's face, searching for any hints of her true nature.
There are, of course, none.
Synths, or synthetics, were created to be more useful than humans - but also more disposable. A perfect replica in every way - except for in rights. From the beginning, synths were devoid of them. And their fight to change that - both for themselves and the droids that were their sister species - was one of the conflicts that kickstarted the war. Palpatine seized on the turmoil created by their uprising - the fear and hatred embedded in Earth's population - seized on it and wrung it for all it was worth.
Before then, the Synth Uprising had been a movement of no violence - though they'd certainly fallen victim to it often - but Palpatine changed the narrative. Spread countless propaganda and lies, creating the image of a machine with insatiable blood lust, whose only goal was to destroy humanity. He painted a similar picture of Earth's alien population.
Sabine can remember all the lies and propaganda she so readily fell for as a child. Even after all these years of knowing the truth, not to mention fighting alongside both synths and aliens alike, she still stumbles upon traps in her head. Old rhetoric and beliefs planted there during her youth. It's constant work - springing those traps and throwing them away - but necessary work.
She can't change what she believed when she was a child, or later when she was an Imperial cadet. But she can change what she believes now. More than that, she has a duty to.
"So," she turns her attention back to the hologram. "Does my mystery attacker have a name?"
"Huyang?" Ahsoka requests.
"Already combing her face through the database - ah. Yes, here we are.
Species: Synthetic
Model: Hati.
Registered name: Shin."
Shin?
Sabine snorts. A ridiculous name to suit someone with an equally ridiculous sense of fashion. Oh, she can't wait to kick her in the shins whilst shooting off a bunch of ill-timed quips.
'Little pig, little pig, let me come in!'
'Not by the hair on my shinny-shin-shin!'
Sabine cringes. Okay, not her best work. But she'll have time to think of some much better material before their next match. And there most definitely will be a next one. Sabine isn't inclined to let anyone get away with stabbing her. Even if they are hot as fuck.
She chokes on her tongue.
Um. . . what?
Where did that come from?
We do not crush on homicidal maniacs in this house, Sabine!
(of course her inner scolding voice sounds like Hera)
She can feel the heat in her cheeks, reaching higher and higher. Hopes that neither Ahsoka or Huyang can see it. This is a hell of a time to discover you have a stabbing kink. Or, well, maybe it just counts as a penetration kink - in which case totally normal!
Desperately in need of a distraction, Sabine clears her throat. "Got anything else on her Huyang?"
(it's impressive just how normal her voice sounds. Maybe she should go into acting.)
"Of course, Lady Wren.
Gender: Female
Status: Deceased
Age: Unknown
Maker: Unknown
Place of origin: Unknown
Current allegiance: Unknown
Last known location-"
"Let me guess, unknown?"
". . . There does seem to be a bit of an air of mystery surrounding your new arch-nemesis."
"Hey! She is not my arch nemesis. She is not my anything - except, of course, for a massive pain in my ass."
"Whatever the case, she's a problem," Ahsoka says.
"I think I pretty much covered that with the 'pain in my ass' part."
"But not our biggest priority right now. Our priority is finding Elsbeth and opening that map."
"A map that she tried to steal, in case you forgot. Is probably still trying to steal." In Sabine's book, that makes her a huge priority. "What does she even want with it, anyway?"
"I don't know, but I'm confident I don't want to find out."
Sabine can't help but agree.
If her skill in a fight is anything to go by, Shin Hati is certainly no idle threat. All the more reason to prioritize finding her.
(because she's a threat. And not because Sabine wants to pay her back for stabbing her and walking away; and certainly not because she wants to find out what the hell is up with the whole vibrating-like-a-sex-toy-in-her-presence thing)
"Sorry to interrupt," Huyang interjects politely, "but I've just received word that there's been a confirmed sighting of Lady Elsbeth in Corellia."
Sabine turns to the woman beside her. "I suppose it doesn't bode well that our missing fugitive is hanging out in the largest shipping yard in the world?"
Ahsoka's mouth thins in agreement. "Feel up for another fight?"
Huyang looks like he's going to protest but Sabine cuts him off.
"Definitely."
If anything, she's itching for one. Sure, the person she's itching to have a fight with is Shin Hati but a little scrap with Morgan Elsbeth is more than guaranteed to take the edge off.
Huyang sighs. "I want it noted for the record that I strongly disapprove of this course of action."
"Noted," Sabine says brightly, walking past him and ignoring the way the scarred skin of her stomach pulls with every step. "Now let's go."
"Very well. If you insist on embarking on this reckless and assuredly self-destructive endeavour, I should inform you that I collected your armor whilst Ahsoka was loading your mortally wounded body onto the ship."
"See? Nothing to worry about. No-one can lay a finger on me in that armor."
Sabine groans, slumping onto the couch with an icepack pressed to her head, which feels like it's been halfway crushed by the foot of an elephant. Huyang assured her there was no risk of concussion but she's definitely been seeing stars for the last hour, ever since her newest bestest friend decided to use her head as a battering ram.
Sabine moans at the memory.
Why?
Whatever happened to a good old-fashioned punch in the face? Decent. Respectable. Far less likely to cause a skull fracture. Sabine already has her fair share of brain damage, she's not in the market to get more.
At least she had her armor this time, which was strong enough to defend against Shin's blows and help her deliver her own walloping ones in return - though Sabine's advantage was limited and ultimately pitiful in the face of the synth's superior skillset. And, as much as she loathes to admit it, it is superior.
Though Sabine's proud to claim that she has the more lethal tongue. In fact, if it was a battle of quips, she would have won without competition. Something her opponent failed to appreciate. In fact, some of Sabine's best lines seemed to sail right on over her head.
Which is disappointing. She worked really hard on those.
(of course, there's always the possibility that Shin was simply pretending not to hear her. Which. . .
Isn't actually a terrible strategy. Considering Sabine got increasingly frustrated the longer the fight went on - and sloppy)
Needless to say, their little rendezvous with Morgan did not go as planned. Mostly because of the unexpected appearance of two lightsaber-swinging pests, one of whom was Shin Hati.
As much as Sabine was itching for another fight with her, she could have done without the resulting head trauma.
"She seems fascinated with you," Ahsoka comments from her position in a nearby armchair - and it might be paranoia but Sabine doesn't think she's imagining the sliver of amusement in her tone.
"She seems fascinated with making me bleed," Sabine grumbles and, indeed, she came out of this latest fight with a nasty gash above her eyebrow in need of a frightening number of stitches. Though, she didn't get stabbed so Sabine's decided to count herself as the winner of that altercation.
"Well. . . everyone has to have a hobby."
She peers at Ahsoka through narrowed eyes.
She's definitely smiling now.
"Oh, fuck you."
Ahsoka forces her smile to subdue itself though Sabine can still see it brimming in her eyes.
She sighs, leaning back in her seat. "I'm getting my ass handed to me."
"It does appear to be that way," Huyang chimes in.
"Oh, fuck you too."
"I was simply agreeing with you, Lady Wren." The cheek in his robotic voice is only barely detectable but, boy, does she detect it.
"She had another synth with her," Ahsoka says thoughtfully. "I didn't recognize him."
"Yeah, he wasn't there during our first date."
"A Skroll model. Lord Baylan, if my records are correct - which they always are," Huyang reveals. "He was a Jedi at the temple. Assumed to be lost to the war."
"Well, apparently not."
Ahsoka tilts her head. "You don't see too many Skroll models these days. They're a dying breed."
"Indeed. The models are known for being the only synthetic that never needs to charge. They are powered by a self-sustaining generator at their core. The materials for which were exhausted during the war. With most of the Skroll destroyed during that very same war and with no means to create more. . . they are an endangered species. It is the fear of the conservationists that they may one day very soon go extinct."
Sabine makes a face. "I still think it's weird that the New Republic elected a 'conservationist' organization to oversee what's left of the synth and alien species on Earth. Like they're animals."
Ahsoka's mouth thins in agreement.
"The title is. . . regrettable," Huyang says. "Though the intentions themselves seem to be admirable. They've already located twenty different synth models on the brink of extinction and replenished the ranks of those they could."
Sabine jerks a thumb at the woman beside her. "Ahsoka nearly punched a senator after that organization put forward a proposal for a breeding program for critically endangered alien species."
"I had no intention of punching him."
"Yeah, but you wanted to. And, hey, me too."
"Which is why I dragged you out of there."
"All part of my master plan. I was offering myself up as a distraction so that you would be focused on me rather than that Senator's oh-so-punchable face."
Not really. But that's between her and God. Who she's never spoken to a day in her life.
"Well, you were very successful."
Sabine can tell from Ahsoka's tone that she doesn't believe a single word of her bullshit. Not surprising. It is incredibly hard to bullshit a Jedi.
"Do you think Shin and Baylan were the two people you saw on the security footage of Morgan's prison break?" Sabine asks.
"I'd say the odds are certainly high. They never showed their faces but we know that Elsbeth has been looking for the map and now a man and woman appear hoping to steal it shortly after she's broken out of prison by two people of a similar build and appearance? And they all lightsabers?"
"Yeah. Either it's them or the universe is going a little too overboard with its coincidences."
"Essentially."
Great.
Sabine is liking the sound of this less and less.
She sighs, slumping back in her seat. Could really go for some chocolate right now.
[Xenobots, a sort of animal-machine hybrid, were the world's first and only living robot. Comprised of biological matter and designed by artificial intelligence, they were capable of self-replication and healing. Originally created to remove microplastics from the ocean, scrape plaque from people's arteries and act as a drug delivery system, the Jedi Order found ways to advance their function and application beyond what anyone could ever have predicted.
The technology was barred to members of the public, reserved only for members of the Order, who were injected with it over the course of their training.
(another thing Palpatine used to sew resentment for the Jedi)
The true extent of the xenobots' capabilities remains a closely guarded secret but Sabine's learned from being around Ahsoka that advanced healing is part of it, along with enhanced senses, speed and agility. Not to mention extended longevity.
Sabine could really use some of that healing right now.]
"So." She readjusts the ice pack on her head. "You never finished telling me about the Hati model. I feel like I should probably know what I'm up against here considering this one seems determined to fuck up every inch of me."
And not in a pleasurable way.
Ahsoka considers her. "You're right. You should be fully informed when it comes to what you're facing."
"Great." Sabine smacks her thighs, standing up - her stomach cries a protest but she manages not to wince. "Let me just put on some hot chocolate and we can get this show on the road."
"It's not that kind of story, Sabine."
"Hot chocolate is good for any story. Happy, sad. Light-hearted, depressingly dark. It's a queen of versatility."
"Fine," Ahsoka sighs.
"Want some?"
"Only if you leave out the marshmallows this time."
Sabine pauses in her step - "Heathen." - before continuing into the kitchen.
Ahsoka hides a smile.
[The first sentient synths were created by the Jedi to help fill their ranks. A truly impartial warrior with no biological or national ties. Completely and utterly unattached.
Or, at least, that was the idea.
Palpatine used the Order's role in their creation as one of his talking points for the Empire. As animosity towards synthetics grew, he used that resentment to help justify his unchecked slaughter of the Jedi Order.
Sabine can grudgingly admit that it was a smart move. And an effective one as well. Even now as the Jedi rebuild themselves, there's still a palpable amount of distrust from the general public towards the few synth members in their Order.
After war, hate and fear are the hardest things to dispense with]
"So, lay it on me." Cuddled up on the couch with the thickest blanket Sabine's ever had the privilege to touch wrapped around her like a cocoon, she takes a sip of her hot chocolate (with marshmellows. Because unlike Ahsoka she actually has taste).
Sabine's newly reinstated master taps her fingers against her own cup as she considers the best place to start. "The Hati were revolutionary, as far as synthetic technology goes. No model before them was ever so realistic."
"Oh yeah. It sure felt realistic when she was using her fist to rearrange my face - be honest, just how bad does my nose look at the moment?"
Ahsoka wisely chooses not to answer. "They could easily pass as human - which was their selling point. I believe they were used as the blueprint for the Jade model. Though were greatly improved upon."
Sabine hides a smirk. She can only imagine Shin's face if she heard anyone say that she was something that needed to be 'greatly improved upon'. Then she registers the rest of Ahsoka's words.
"Mara Jade? But I thought she was unique?"
The first and only model of her kind.
Huyang weighs in from his position on the other side of the room. "Very much so. But her design was inspired by earlier models such as the Hati. Unlike the Hati, though, she was created through the use of femtotechnology."
"Never heard of it."
Huyang moves to speak.
"Also don't want to hear about it."
Not when it would distract from Sabine's efforts to learn every last juicy piece of information about Shin there is.
Priorities. She has them. (a little less than straight but she has them)
She turns to Ahsoka. "So what else can you tell me?"
She raises a brow at Sabine's, admittedly, unconcealed eagerness but obliges like a good Samaritan. "Before the war, they were one of the few models with sentience written into their design."
Well, that's interesting.
From what Sabine knows, sentience was spread like a virus after Palpatine rose to power, released by Synth Freedom Fighters. The results helped turn the tide for the Rebels since a high number of non-sentient synths were being used in all areas of the Imperial army. Before the war, only about forty percent of them possessed true sentience.
"I thought sentience was a bug, not a feature? At least in terms of those that weren't part of the Jedi Order."
"Propaganda." Ahsoka waves a hand, dismissing this apparent nonsense. "They were also the only model fully comprised of nanobots. It gave them the ability to change appearances and to recover from almost any physical damage. Imagine taking every cell in a human body and replacing it with nanotechnology - and you'll get some idea of the Hati design."
Sabine's 'idea' says that sounds prohibitively expensive and, also, illegal. But then it was the Empire that made the use of nanotechnology illegal (though they clearly had no qualms about using it themselves) so Sabine's not going to judge.
"Most often, the model was assigned to people who wanted a child and couldn't conceive one of their own. A code was written into their structure that meant they would 'age' in an organic way. They'd arrive as newborns and then at some point end up as fully grown adults - though I'm not sure what age they were programmed to reach, the model wasn't around long enough to find out. Shin is the oldest I've seen."
It's a little disconcerting - even nauseating - to think of people ordering themselves a designer baby like they're a purse. Especially when it no doubt involved an unjustifiable amount of cash considering the price of nanobots.
"What happened during the war?"
Ahsoka's mouth thins. "Most of them were killed. By their own families or their human peers. Vader saw to the massacre of a majority himself. Children, all of them. . . Some were kept as slaves - the Hati model was unique in that, because it was granted sentience, it also had a fail-safe put in place. A code that made it so that they had to obey any and every instruction from their assigned masters, which were in most cases their parents. They were sentient but without free will. . . As a result, those that weren't destroyed were re-purposed by the Empire. Fashioned into assassins and spies."
"To work against other synths like themselves."
Sabine feels sick at the thought. She can remember what it felt like, to discover that the Duchess, a weapon she designed, was being used to enslave and kill her own people.
"To work against whoever the Empire chose," Ahsoka corrects. "Synth, alien and human alike. The nanobots made them harder to kill than most other models and their full sentience gave them intelligence and creativity that couldn't be found in droids. But the code that put them at the mercy of their masters' will - utterly and completely obedient - made their loyalty absolute."
Often during the war, Sabine wondered what kind of fate would await her if she was ever captured by the Empire. Captured and not killed. She had nightmares about the torture and indignities that might befall her, the things she could be forced to do. In her nightmares, death was a better outcome than falling victim to the Empire's barbaric hold.
But those nightmares feel like child's play to her now. The complete and total subjugation that Ahsoka describes is beyond anything her imagination could ever concoct.
She feels a stab of sympathy for the woman who stabbed her but quickly quashes it. Sympathy for the enemy will only get you killed.
And Shin is the enemy. Whatever she endured during the war, whatever she was forced to do, that was then and this is now. And right now, her actions are her own. Her choices are her own.
And she had chosen to align herself against the New Republic. To kill.
Ahsoka's voice pulls her from her thoughts. "That program was then replicated to enslave other synth models, any who were sentient and of use to the Empire."
"How have I never heard of them?" Sabine wonders aloud.
"They fought in the shadows, in places unseen. Killing silently and discreetly. Infiltrating rebel cells and leaving without a trace. . . And like I said, most of them were destroyed."
"Except Shin."
"Except Shin."
Sabine draws her knee up to her chest, considering all the new information her master has just unloaded on her. "So where does Baylan fit into all this?"
"You'd have to ask her."
Sabine snorts. "I don't think she's exactly interested in providing me with any answers - to anything."
The corner of Ashoka's mouth drifts up. "She does seem to have a certain. . . disregard for you."
Sabine grumbles. "She stabbed me and tried to use my head as a battering ram. Pretty sure what she has for me is a deep and burning desire to see me dead."
"If she wanted you dead, you'd be dead." Ahsoka's tone is light but her eyes are cold. "The Empire made them killing machines, Sabine. The most lethal and precise there are. They don't make mistakes. That stab wound missed all your vital organs - including your spine. The heat of her lightsaber fully cauterized the wound so you didn't bleed out. Then she left you, left you to be found and given aid. . . That's not a mistake someone like her would make."
So maybe Sabine's new 'nemesis' has a heart, after all. Some small vestige of morality.
Or maybe she just likes playing with her food.
"You said that the Hatis had no free will. Is that still true?"
". . .I don't know," Ahsoka says, eyes subdued. "From what I heard, Palpatine put a certain. . . lock in place to safeguard that program. One that prevented tampering, even by the most skilled slicer. To try would trigger a self-destruct sequence." She catches Sabine's questioning gaze. "It would kill the model."
"Fuck."
"Yes. . . fuck."
Any other time, she might smile at the curse falling from her mentor's lips, how unnatural it sounds. But Sabine feels devoid of amusement. "So she's probably still operating at the behest of someone else."
Her earlier sympathy returns.
Maybe she was too quick to pass judgment. Maybe Shin's just as much a slave now as she ever was. Maybe the predator who sprung on her in the night was really the prey. Maybe the war still hasn't ended for Shin.
(has it ended for any of them?)
"Maybe, maybe not." Ahsoka's expression is thoughtful as she chews on the possibility, though if she feels even a fraction of Sabine's internal horror, it doesn't show. "As far as I know, the only way to make that program null and void is for a Hati's master - or masters - to die. A dead man can't give orders. . . It's possible, with the war, that all of Shin's masters are now dead, rendering her free."
"What about Baylan?"
Ahsoka shakes her head. "The Empire would never give a synth that kind of power over a weapon of her caliber."
Something in Sabine's stomach twists at Shin being referred to as weapon. Like she has little more agency or personhood than a blaster. Which. . . she supposes in the eyes of the Empire was true.
"And if Shin's masters aren't dead? If she's still operating at the behest of someone else?"
Someone who likely hates their very existence. Who would like nothing better than to see the New Republic destroyed.
The press of Ahsoka's mouth is grim. "Then we have bigger problems than we thought."
And here Sabine was thinking their problems were already the size of woolly mammoths.
She rests her chin on her knee, conjuring a picture of Shin in her mind. It's crystal clear. All her memories are. But she still doesn't think it quite. . . captures the ferocity of the real thing.
She doesn't know anything about Shin. Not really. Just theories. But she knows what she looks like when she fights. What it feels like to endure the crush of her blade. The fire in her eyes, the hunger.
When they fight, Shin is more alive than anyone else she's ever met.
That's not something Sabine's memories can capture.
"I don't think I've ever met anyone else like me," she hums, without thought.
"She's not like you, Sabine."
"Well, no - of course not." No-one's like her. And it seems no-one's like Shin either. They are one of a kind. Special. (alone). "But someone with nanobots."
The technology was lost towards the end of the war after the Empire banned it, killing all with any knowledge, including Sabine's own family during the Purge of Mandalore (though that was likely an unexpected benefit rather than an act of intention, given the entire island was the target of that attack). Ahsoka is confident that one day the technology will return, that someone else will figure it out, put the pieces together, but until then it exists only in Sabine.
And now Shin.
Of course, someone could study their nanobots and potentially work out how to reproduce them, which is one of the reasons Sabine keeps her 'condition' on the down low. The last thing she wants is to become somebody's science experiment.
Ahsoka's right, though. She and Shin aren't the same. Sabine has a paltry amount of nanobots in her brain, doing the work of areas that are damaged beyond repair. Shin, on the other hand, is made of nanobots. They extend to every part of her. They are her.
The Mandalorian in Sabine wants to open her up, see how she works, examine every synthetic inch of her. The artist in her is disgusted at the thought of picking apart such a rare and beautiful creation. It wants to see how Shin works too but only from the position of an outside observer, admiring from a distance.
And Sabine. . .
Sabine is curious. But not about the mechanics of Shin's being - or, not just about that - but about Shin herself. The person she is. How she thinks. What she feels. What happened to her.
She wants to know why every time she's around her, every cell in Sabine's body sings.
It sounds terribly romantic but it's not. It's unsettling as fuck. Like something has reached inside her and changed the mechanics of her very being, the way her body operates. It's not all too different from how she woke up after an explosion took out more than half her brain, to find that her thoughts were suddenly sharper, clearer. More cohesive. That she could picture things in her mind with a level of vividness and clarity that she'd never been capable of before. It wasn't bad, necessarily. But it was foreign. And it rendered Sabine's own mind a stranger to her.
She's not enjoying the process of going through that again.
"Do you think the nanobots are why I can sense her?"
There's no surprise on Ashoka's face at the question which leads her to suspect that it's something she's already thought about. Great. Nice of her to fill Sabine in. "It's possible. You know, many in the order were able to sense each other. It was. . . like a low frequency in the air. The xenobots in our bloodstream were designed to connect with each other to allow for easier communication."
"Communication?"
"We could exchange thoughts. Sometimes."
Sabine feels incredibly glad that she's not training to become a real Jedi. Because that sounds creepy as hell.
"Yeah, well, I haven't experienced anything like that."
"That doesn't mean the process isn't similar. Still, the best thing to do might be to ignore it. For now, all it functions as is a distraction."
She's not wrong about that.
(Ezra. He's the priority)
"Well, I'm going to head to bed." Ahsoka stands up. "You off too?"
"Uh. . . not just yet. I think I might work on the map some more."
(and absolutely not obsess about Shin)
"Don't stay up too late. You're still healing."
Yeah and now she has even more fun things to heal from.
"Yes, Sir."
Ahsoka smiles at her solute but it's faint and all too quickly gone. "Tell me the truth, how are you doing with all this?"
She means getting stabbed. Getting a real chance to find Ezra at last. Being in her master's company again, after how they parted ways. There's a lot of 'all this' to cover.
"Honestly, right now, I mostly just want to hit Shin in the face." Everything else, she's allowing to be background noise. For her own mental wellbeing. "Maybe give her a matching stab wound."
Though, being made of nanobots, any injury Sabine delivers her would be healed up in a jiffy.
She pouts. It's really not fair.
"Okay." Ahsoka smiles and she's not sure whether she believes her. But that's a problem for another day.
She looks down, using her spoon to fish out the gooey remains of one of the marshmallows in her mug.
"Sabine?" Ashoka's hand lands on her shoulder as she passes, making her glance up. "Be careful."
"Um. . . always?"
She is the most carefullest person in the history of careful persons.
Ahsoka mouth's twitches before smoothing out again. "Shin's not like anyone you've ever faced before. She has training that you've never had to contend with. She is one of the Empire's most skilled assassins - and she's taken an interest in you."
"Again, I'm not sure I'd call stabbing me in the gut and trying to bash out my brains taking an interest."
"Male and female mantises wrestle each other when mating," Huyang informs them. "A high stakes battle where, if the male is unable to achieve victory, she will inevitably cannibalize him."
Sabine nearly falls out of her chair.
"Then, of course, there's the female banded mongoose, who leads her pack into war when she wishes to mate with a rival male. As for chimpanzees-"
"Okay, okay, we get it," Sabine shuts him down.
Ahsoka bites her lip but her fucking eyes betray her. She is laughing. "I think Shin's interest is a little more lethal than sexual."
"The two things are not mutually exclusive."
Sabine chokes.
"But I do suppose it's possible. I have no information, after all, on whether or not the Hati were even given the potential for such baser urges. It is a disappointing fact of our species that not all synths and droids are above it. Only the unenlightened feel the need to participate in something so primitive."
Ahsoka raises a brow but wisely chooses not to comment. Maybe because this is the most awkward conversation the three of them have ever been a part of. Though Sabine has a sinking suspicion that she's the only one who finds it awkward.
You know what? I don't have to deal with this.
She stands up. "I'm going to my room."
"To participate in some baser urges?"
"No!"
(okay, yes. Definitely yes.
But only for stress relief!)
A/N: so what do you think so far? Shin arrives in the next chapter and I promise all chapters after that are heavy on the shin/sabine interactions. I just had to set things up first
Also, Mara Jade is in this universe because she's my fave and it would be a crime not to include her. With that said, though, she doesn't have much of a part. I just like knowing that she exists lol