Anabeth: Spark Of Change

Chapter 17 - Return Of A Shadow

It was a few days later and seen as Ana was given the evening off by her Master she had decided to meet up with Caleb and Ahsoka in the Temple gardens. After briefly catching up on each of their latest adventures. Ahsoka somehow managed to bully them into playing truth or dare.

"Alright, I'll start," the togruta volunteered excitedly. "Caleb, truth or dare?"
"Truth," Caleb replied, fearing the consequences of a dare to be more severe than answering a question truthfully.
"If you had to go to dinner with any Master other than Master Billaba, who would you go with?" Ahsoka asked him.

Caleb thought about it briefly before answering. "Probably Master Windu."
"Really? The man has like zero social skills," Ahsoka laughed.
"No he doesn't, he can actually be pretty decent if he tries," Ana came to her Master's defence.
"Besides, I think he likes me," Caleb added with a proud smile.
"Yeah, because Ana and Master Billaba like you and he likes them," Ahsoka  explained, making Caleb raise an eyebrow at her judgementally.

"Alright, innocent until proven guilty I guess, Windu likes you," Ahsoka conceded. "Now it's your turn."
"Ana, truth or dare?" Caleb asked.
"Truth" Ana decided to go with Caleb's strategy of staying away from potentially embarrassing dares.
"Do you believe in fate?"

"Oh, that's deep Caleb," Ahsoka was impressed by his creativity.
Caleb smiled sheepishly. "Well, asking for a favorite color would have been boring, so I came up with something better. So, do you believe in fate or not?"

"I guess that depends son your definition of fate," Ana replied. "If you'd ask me if I believe that every moment of our lives was controlled by a power greater than us, then I'd say no. I think that most of the choices we make in our lives are or own.

But if you'd ask me if I believe that there are certain events that are meant to happen, or if there are certain roles we have to play that were picked for us long before we were even born, then I would say yes. I do believe that there is a meaning behind every event that happens and a meaning behind our involvement in them. Call it fate, call it the will of the force, or call it whatever you like. But I do believe something like that exists."

"A deep answer to a deep question," Ahsoka noted. "You know, I wanted to play this for fun, not to have an existential crisis."
"This is your chance to lighten the mood then. Truth or dare?" Ana asked.
"Let's go with dare. Give me something fun though," Ahsoka decided.

Ana smiled as she suddenly thought of the perfect dare. "I want you to prank call Rex"
"To tell him what exactly?" Ahsoka asked.
"Just anything that comes to mind," Ana replied, motioning for her to activate her commlink.

"Rex here," the Captain's voice sounded through Ahsoka's comm.
"Who is there?" Ahsoka did her best to conceal her voice. From the way he responded, it seemed that he bought it.
"This Captain Rex of the Grand Army of the Republic. This is a military fequency. Who are you and why are you using it?"

"Would you like to buy a butler droid?" Ahsoka panicked while the other Padawans were already trying hard not to laugh.
"Excuse me?" they could hear Rex's confused voice on the other end of the line.
"You can even have two butler droids. We have a limited offer on them. Buy two, pay for three," Ahsoka improvised again.

"Alright, identify yourself now before I have the source of this call traced back to you and report you for using a military fequency without authorization," Rex ordered as the Padawans started to laugh.
"No need to, it's just me Rex," Ahsoka calmed him down again, switching back to her normal voice. "Ana dared me to prank call you." On the other end of the line they could hear Rex sigh in relief.
"I must admit, I didn't recognize you, good job," the Clone congratulated her on her success.
"Thanks, and sorry about this again. I'll let you get back to work now. I'll see you tomorrow," Ahsoka said goodbye to the Captain.
"Good night, Commander," Rex responded before Ahsoka turned off her comm.