Star Wars One-Shots

Lightspeed

Author's Note: This is a gift fic for @antihero-anakin on tumblr for the SW Sibling Appreciation Gift Exchange! :)

~ Rivana Rita

When Anakin and Ahsoka capture Letta, she reveals that she was not alone in the bombing. Their worst fears have been realized when the truth comes out that a Jedi was involved. After Ahsoka is arrested, the Jedi already know she is not responsible for the crimes, but Anakin is determined to protect his little sister anyway.

Prison cells are dark, cold, and downright miserable. Ahsoka has never liked those things, of course, but now, after years of fighting in a war, she's found there are some things she simply can't handle.

Dark reminds her of when she fought Grievous and was nearly beheaded by her own lightsaber, reminds her of the metal claw wrapped around her neck and crushing. It reminds her of the darkness of beneath the factory on Geonosis.

Closed reminds her of Geonosis, of being trapped and barely able to move, of the knowledge that any moment the debris could come undone and crush her beneath them. It reminds her of Cad Bane, locked in a prison cell, and the agony of electricity running through her body when he tortured her just to get Anakin's attention. It reminds her of when she was kidnapped and taken from Anakin and her home and hunted for sport, when the Jedi Council didn't even come looking for her. And most of all, it reminds her of Zygerria. Everything reminds her of Zygerria, and that's the one thing she wants to remember least.

And cold reminds her of Geonosis, too, when she was so close to freezing to death. So, in short, none of this makes this prison cell more like somewhere she'd want to be. She has trouble in her room at the Temple sometimes even, and that's a safe place.

It feels too dangerous to sleep, and she's too jittery, too on edge to focus.

Truth be told, it's not safe here, but if she doesn't try to sleep, she'll be losing her mind.

Someone strangled a prisoner with the Force. Here. Inside a supposedly secure prison. It should be impossible, but then again, it should also be impossible for a Jedi to willingly do something like this.

Anakin and Ahsoka had narrowed down a list of potential suspects, and Ahsoka had come here to show Letta the list. Letta had been working with a Jedi, partly mind-tricked into it – Ahsoka isn't surprised to hear that, considering everything that happened – and the Jedi had been hooded, so she was unable to get a good look at them, but they were able to narrow it down significantly.

The person was humanoid. And small, around Ahsoka's height. Except everyone knows it wasn't Ahsoka, because Letta said specifically that they had a round-shaped head, not one with two points.

Unless, next, Tarkin will be claiming Anakin and Ahsoka were lying. As if. She's not trying to brag, she swears, but her and her master are far more honest than the Jedi Council themselves. Or most Jedi, period, if she's being honest, Ahsoka thinks bitterly.

Every single day since Hardeen, she's woken up wondering if this war is right, if the battle she's fighting is real. It's maddening enough to question her own sanity.

Because in the end, how can she know what the Council telling her is real?

Ahsoka sighs and rolls over, trying to doze off.

That's when she hears it. Something. She doesn't know what, but it's... not supposed to be there.

And it's followed by an explosion.