Ahsoka fought her way to consciousness feeling cold in a way that she knew was much more than just the chilly floor. She forced herself to her feet, stumbled, and hit the floor again before she could straighten all the way.
Ahsoka tried again, this time slower, and made it to her feet as her brain pounded against her skull. She winced and shivered as the cold crept all the way through her.
She had to get out, had to get away before this darkness found her. She was in no fighting condition.
Looking around, all hopes of happening to meet up with the Bad Batch again disappeared. She didn't know what happened exactly, but she guessed they reached a dead end and there were two ways to go. Lucky her, she'd gotten thrown down into the trash compactor.
She checked her comm to find it mangled from the fall. Great. Just great.
Frustration welled up inside of her. She clawed at her head, at the leather headdress.
"What did I do to deserve this?!" she screamed out to no one in particular. Really, to the Force. "What did I do wrong?!"
She could never catch a break. Not as a padawan, not now that the war was over, and now it was contagious and soon the Bad Batch would be in as much danger as she was.
A dark figure appeared against the far side of the room and Ahsoka realized shouting out probably wasn't the most intelligent decision.
But it all got worse when the vibrant blade shot out from a circular hilt that Ahsoka could now see through the blood-red light flooding the man's features. He was tall, much taller than her, and his skin was an ugly gray color that Ahsoka couldn't help but wonder if it'd been healthier-looking before he'd dove into the dark side.
He sneered at her then, rotten teeth exposed by the peeling back of his deep purple lips and his violently golden eyes narrowed. This was the dark spot in her vision, now no longer in the corner of her eye, but right in front of her.
"You are Ahsoka Tano," he called out to her and his voice echoed.
Ahsoka's heart twisted painfully in her chest, fear welling up inside her lungs so it was hard to breathe. But she kept herself upright, stiff and hopefully strong-looking, and said nothing.
It was enough of an answer to the inquisitor. "I am the Sixth Brother, and I have been given the honor to be the one who kills you."
"You're wrong," Ahsoka said, her voice coming out steady and sharp, surprising herself in a pleasant, hopeful way.
He sneered again but then Ahsoka heard something else. A little song, a tune she knew so well. It was her song, the ones her crystals sang to her, and she blinked in surprise. She was imagining things. She had to be.
"Don't underestimate me, girl," Sixth Brother told her. He was like a creature in the way he looked, the way he moved towards her.
Ahsoka said nothing and glared at him. Time slowed down. Her heart thundered in her chest with fueled fear as she assessed the creature again. He had height, strength, and body armor on his side, along with his saber that hummed evilly at her. A helmet protected his head but the face guard was up and she wondered if he needed to see her clearly during a fight.
She wouldn't need to see him clearly, though. Anakin had taught her better. She could fight blind and deaf if she had to.
Ahsoka took a breath and remembered what else Anakin had taught her. His voice ran through her head, his lessons replaying. She knew how to fight. She could do it without her lightsaber. The force and his teachings were on her side.
She'd been moping around since the purge. She was scared, she felt weak, let her trauma consume her. But she wasn't any of this. She was strong, reckless, cocky even. She was Ahsoka Tano.
And Ahsoka Tano knew how to fight.
Ahsoka opened her eyes with a new, set determination etched deep within her.
Suddenly, time resumed its pace and the creature sprang forwards and struck, but Ahsoka sensed it before it happened. She deflected the hits before they swung through and sensed his next actions. She shoved aside his deadly blows.
Angered, the creature shoved her back and charged at her again. She launched herself into the air in a graceful flip above his head and dodged his wild swinging of his saber in a frantic attempt to sever her.
"Impressive," said the sixth brother. "But not impressive enough."
"You're easily impressed," Ahsoka said.
The creature advanced on her again and she held steady for a moment before outright freezing as the song filled her again, the song of her crystals. And suddenly she understood.
The creature's blades started spinning as he smirked, morphing into a deadly circle of red light. It left his front unguarded. Without hardly thinking, Ahsoka reached forward, grasping the hilt of his lightsaber. She spread his fingers too wide and screwed his balance so he faltered.
Terror and shock flashed across his features as he realized what she was doing a moment too late. Her second hand grasped the hilt then and she smirked, staring straight into his face.
She was one with the Force, and she spoke to the crystals inside the hilt. She called out to them as they sang and cried for her. She told them to rest so they did and she drew in the red, hot blades. And then the hilt cracked and Ahsoka sprang back.
There wasn't enough time for Ahsoka to shout a warning. The next moment, the hilt exploded, flames and heat bursting in a plume of smoke. Ahsoka crashed to the floor and her ears rang as sharp shards of metal tore at her skin.
Then all was quiet. And she looked up and didn't need to see his charred face to know that the sixth brother was dead. She lowered his face shield and fell back to her knees, sifting her fingers through the ashes and ruins of the hilt.
The crystals sang louder and Ahsoka spotted them, holding them in her fingers. She could've cried. She felt like a piece of her had been found, returned to her. But they wouldn't be very useful without a hilt. So again, Ahsoka ran her fingers through the debris and fished out anything that could help her.
It wouldn't be pretty, it wouldn't feel perfect in her hands, but it would be something. Ahsoka crossed her legs and took a few deep breaths, sinking all too easily into meditation. She forgot she was sick and weak, she forgot she was consumed by trauma.
She was in as much peace as she would be at the Jedi temple, back with Anakin and her friends when everything was still okay. Her mind's eye watched as the pieces slid together and when she opened her eyes, two crude hilts greeted her.
They looked as though they might fall apart at any moment but Ahsoka knew they wouldn't. She then fingered the crystals, red and crying up at her. She closed her fingers around them, closed her eyes, and felt .
The dark side choked at the crystals, but Ahsoka unraveled it and washed all that evil away. When she opened her eyes the crystals weren't green like her past sabers had been… not even blue. They were clear.
Ahsoka popped them into the crude hilts and took the cylinders into her hands. She ignited the blades and silvery light burst out. She smiled. They were hers. Her lightsabers.
And it was time for a rescue mission.
Spirits and strength anew, Ahsoka sprang to her feet, only to be met by a nauseating wave of dizziness. She staggered but forced herself to stay upright and forced herself forward.
Ahsoka cast out with her senses and felt a cluster of pulsing fear. That's where she needed to be. Pleading the Force of strength, she took off.
Hunter didn't know what happened. He remembered the mission, remembered Echo stopping abruptly in front of him, remembered Tech and Wrecker smashing into him, remembered the feeling of falling, remembered Omega's screams, and then the next thing he knew he was waking up with the rest of the prisoners they were supposed to be saving.
"So much for a rescue. I thought Cid had better people than this," one of the prisoners grumbled.
"Wait," Omega's tiny voice peeped as Hunter rubbed the sore knot on his head. "Where's Ahsoka?"
"She isn't here?" Echo and Hunter asked in unison.
"No, I can't find her," Omega said, voice trembling. "Ahsoka? Ahsoka!" Omega called through the echoing room.
Hunter yanked at his chains and tried to squint around the pitch-dark room.
"Anyone see someone else?" Echo said to all the prisoners. "We're looking for our friend. She's a Togruta, and might still be knocked out. Is there anyone else laying on the ground?"
A murmur of shuffling and quiet "no"s rose and Hunter's heart dropped. They could've taken Ahsoka to torture her or interrogate her, or maybe even already shipped her off to be executed for being a Jedi.
No one said anything for a long time, the atmosphere tense and hopeless.
Then there came banging and shuffling outside again and someone started crying.
"They're coming for us again," sobbed the person.
The sounds outside turned to grunts and shuffled, then shots, cries, and thuds. There was an odd humming outside, too, and the person on the other side of the room cried harder.
"Someone's dead! They're coming to kill us, too!"
The door burst open suddenly and light flooded into them, blinding them. Then the door slammed shut again and the person in the back screamed hysterically with sobs.
Hunter blinked and made out the figure of a young Togruta outlined with silver light flooding from two… lightsabers?
"Ahsoka?!" gasped Omega.
Echo gaped at her. "Where did you get those? What happened?!"
"Stuff," Ahsoka said with a shrug, disregarding him and striding over to the nearest prisoner. "My name is Ahsoka. I'm here to help, okay? Reach out your hands and I'll cut off your chains."
Hesitantly the prisoner in front of her did as she asked, and Ahsoka cut the chains away. She went around the circle of prisoners and freed them all.
"Those are so cool!" Omega squealed, watching the mesmerizing light of the lightsabers.
Ahsoka said nothing but she smiled.
"Were you even sick? Was it just to get out of work?" Echo said.
"Yeah, I actually feel like I'm about to pass out right now but it's fine," Ahsoka said as if she was talking about what she did over a leave.
Echo gave her a half exasperated smirk and hoisted her onto his back.
They made quick work to get out of the building. Ahsoka, only partly conscious on Echo's back, somehow managed to still warn them of anyone who was jumping out from the shadows.
They made it back to the ship, along with the twenty prisoners. Ahsoka immediately passed out on Echo's bunk and slept for several hours.
In the following days, Ahsoka worked on collecting all the parts she needed for her new lightsaber hilts. Eventually, she collected everything and Omega watched in wonder as Ahsoka put together the levitating pieces.
It was like a perfect puzzle sliding together and clicking into place. When they were finished, Ahsoka reached out her hands and one came to each. She stood and ignited them, spinning them through the air and striking a defensive position.
Omega grinned. "That's so cool."
Ahsoka sheathed the blades and clipped the hits to her belt, feeling more whole than she had in a long time. It was as if part of her, one of her broken pieces, had been sewn back into place.
"You've gotten a lot better," Hunter appeared in the doorway, nodding to Ahsoka as she smiled.
"Yeah, I'm getting there."
There was a pause before Hunter said. "Your injuries are mostly healed now, and you don't look ready to die anymore. Echo and I have agreed that if you want to, we trust you to go back out there, do whatever Jedi stuff you need to do."
Ahsoka and Omega both froze.
"We can drop you off wherever you want if that's what your plan is."
Omega stared up at Ahsoka. Ahsoka turned to look back at her, staring up with those warm, brown eyes. Ahsoka could hear Tech clacking at the datapad in the other room, Wrecker lifting the GONK droid, and Echo stepped in next to Hunter.
Ahsoka wasn't okay. She might never be. But this little crew had taken her in and helped her. They'd become her family. She'd already lost one family, and it would break all of them if she lost another.
"It's okay," Ahsoka said, and she could tell everyone in the room was holding their breath. "I'll stay if you'll let me."
And Omega let out a sound between a laugh and a sob and threw herself at Ahsoka in a hug.
No, Ahsoka wouldn't be okay, not for a long time, probably not ever, but her family made her a little more okay.
And there was no chance she was leaving them any time soon.
