It was mere hours later when Ahsoka started feeling like her brain was turning to cotton and everything started blurring a little. She could feel every little movement the Marauder made and each one twisted her stomach sickeningly. Ahsoka understood why Tech first presumed it was motion sickness.
"I believe it is called Kosanza," Tech was telling Hunter in regards to the sickness as Ahsoka passed. He'd gotten a day to observe the others who were still sick after he'd recovered enough.
They weren't quite all back on their feet, still recovering a bit, and Ahsoka decided it was good based on how she was feeling. She was off to find a dark corner to meditate and hopefully stave off the illness, but abruptly changed her path as her stomach lurched.
Ahsoka pitched into the 'fresher as a stream of vomit erupted from her, and thankfully she made it there on time, coughing and spitting.
She huffed, making a great effort to breathe, as her throat seemed to close and lungs seemed to shrink. She wiped at her mouth and eased back to the cold floor. She should get up, go tell someone what happened, but she couldn't .
There may as well have been a rancor sitting on top of her. Ahsoka was crushed by a weight that wasn't there, every limb refusing to fight gravity and lift off the ground.
And then she didn't know what happened next. There were faces up in hers and she was moving but she was not the one making the motion. Everything went blurry and fuzzy and she lost all sense of time.
She just knew it hurt . Her head and montrals pounded, there were daggers in her abdomen, someone was squeezing her lungs, and everything else ached. Everything that touched her throat felt like a soup made of shattered glass and acid and before it could get all the way down, her stomach rejected it in a fit of anger and she'd pitch forward with violent, painful heaves.
Sometimes, when Ahsoka opened her eyes, she would see Kix and Rex hovering over her. Sometimes Kix was talking to her, even someone rubbing her back as she failed to keep anything in her stomach longer than four seconds.
Somes, when Ahsoka opened her eyes, it was Tech speaking to her, telling her things that she couldn't quite make out. Sometimes Omega was there, looking so worried that Ahsoka wished she could smile but she couldn't .
Ahsoka didn't know how long it was until her head cleared. It happened slowly, gradually. The more she opened her eyes the more she saw Tech instead of Kix and eventually there was something in her stomach that it didn't reject instantly. She managed a small smile for Omega at one point.
And then she was sitting up, Tech supporting her as she attempted to hold herself upright without passing out. She leaned up against the wall of the med bay for support.
"I was really scared," Omega said as Ahsoka was working on a datapad.
It was the first day that Ahskoka felt not terrible and she was anticipating the end of this terrible illness very soon.
"You didn't eat anything for so long," Omega went on without more prompting than raised eye markings, because Ahsoka remembered watching Aankin writhe in pain and vomit and she hated feeling so helpless . "Tech couldn't find something that was safe for you and that you could hold down. You need to eat a lot when you're better because I can see all your bones."
Ahsoka winced a little. "Thanks, Omega."
"I-I didn't mean to be rude…" Omega trailed off, seemingly lost in thought. She shuddered. "I thought you had antibodies."
"A new string, probably," Ahsoka said. "Besides, Togrutas work differently than humans do."
"I know," Omega said softly.
Ahsoka went back to tapping at her datapad for a moment then paused. "Omega?"
"Yes?"
"How many days has it been?"
"Five– a whole week," Omega said with a shudder.
Ahsoka hummed and nodded. She glanced down at her datapad once more as the silence stretched between them.
"What are you looking at?" Omega asked with a curious tilt of her head, gesturing to the datapad Echo had leant to her.
"Oh, nothing," Ahsoka said, and when Omega leaned forward she shut it off. "Stang, I think it just died. Could you get me a charge cord, Omega?"
Omega scurried out of the room and Ahsoka flipped the datapad back on, looking down at the planets and their descriptions strewn across the screen. She needed to know the current status of all the planets, who was there, who was in control, how many people knew about it… stuff like that.
She needed to make sure that the Empire wouldn't be able to find her after she left the bad batch. She'd imposed for long enough and it was only a matter of time before some inquisitor came after her.
Ahsoka would need certain things, too, and plans were racing through her brain about how she could acquire such things. More importantly, she needed a lightsaber. She felt incomplete without hers, without the crystals singing to her and the familiar weight in her hands, but there was no way to acquire new crystals of a lightsaber.
"Got the cord," Omega said, bouncing into the room. Ahsoka shut the datapad off and took one end of the cord to plug it in while Omega took the other. Then Ahsoka clicked it on again and hastily closed out the tabs she didn't want Omega to see.
Omega would be heartbroken if Ahskoka shared her plans and she didn't think she could handle the look of betrayal on the girl's face.
But in the end, it'd be better for everyone. The Bad Batch wouldn't be in so much danger, she could stop bugging them, she could get her head on right, and make herself a life where she wasn't just one big waste of resources.
"Sorry to interrupt," Hunter said, rapping his fist on the door frame. "How you feeling, kid?"
"Much better," Ahsoka replied.
"Feeling up for a mission? Cid just called and she's not happy we've been out so long. I'd let you rest but this one's big and we're gonna need all the help we can get," Hunter said.
Ahsoka wasn't ready, but despite herself, said, "I'm ready. Tell me 'bout this mission."
They had one more night before they got out of transit and things got wild. Ahsoka divided her time between sleep and moving meditation. She needed rest and she needed to be strong. But at the moment, she couldn't walk without her knees trembling. So she was heavily counting on adrenaline to help her out.
She forced down a ration stick before the mission and not too long after, watched the Marauder 's ramp lower down to let them out.
There was something off about this place, which was dark. Those who didn't want them there were equally as dark, ninjas in the shadows, and no one would see them before they struck. That's why they needed Ahsoka, to make sure they were ready for attack.
But there was something else other than the on-edge feeling of the pressure. It was dark, sinister, like an annoying dark spot that she couldn't clear from her vision and could potentially cause a dangerous distraction.
She tried to push it down, shoo it away, but as she got closer she knew what it was. She couldn't mistake it for anything else. It was the darkside, cold and evil.
Ahsoka shuddered, but it was too dark for anyone else to see it. Then she froze, the Force pricking at her neck.
"Hunter," she whispered. "Ten and two o'clock. Be ready."
Just as she'd expected, several armed men sprang out at them. Stuns flew and Ahsoka's arms shot out, sleep suggestions slamming into the unsuspecting adversaries who instantly cumbled.
"It's going to be harder than I anticipated to move the twenty prisoners. It appears Cid underplayed the strength of our adversaries. Again," Tech huffed, but Ahsoka was hardly listening.
It was as if the dark spot in her vision had flickered to life, suspecting and ready. It'd felt her use the Force, it knew she was there, and it was going to come looking for her. She shuddered again and prompted the others to move faster.
They were all in such danger. Ahsoka knew she should say something, but she was shaking and her voice wouldn't come when she opened her mouth.
She was so caught up in her panic that one of the dark men sprang out and she screamed as he yanked at her. She ripped herself away and clocked him in the head so hard that he crumpled as she shouted, "Run!"
Again stuns were flying as their feet pumped and pounded the ground, Ahsoka shooting sleep suggestions on her way. The adrenaline coursed through her but her legs ached. She forced herself to go faster, and then crashed into Wrecker when he stopped abruptly in front of her.
Wrecker stumbled from the unexpected impact, shoving the others forward, and the next thing she knew screams were echoing around but they weren't her's and they were getting further away. She was falling and she cried out as the wind whipped around her.
She hit the bottom and filthy, rancid water sprang up around her in a great splash, and it felt like concrete. It closed around her and she fought back to the surface, hacking and spitting. Every inch of her stung and throbbed. Her stomach lurched and the ration stick made a second appearance, adding the horrible knee-deep stew of nastiness.
A trash compactor, she realized upon further inspection, which made her fight back the urge to be sick again.
She staggered forward and willed herself to stay upright as the world spun. At the very top, she spotted a little window. Barely able to see, vision warbling, she called on the Force and sprung up to it using all her remaining strength. Ahsoka barely made it to the little opening, which was the perfect side for her to wiggle through and roll onto the chilly, hard (but dry) floor.
Her vision gave out and she knew no more.
