Miss M (fuzzyspacekitty) wrote in pup_prompts, @ 2008-11-15 18:02:00 |
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Entry tags: | prompt 9 |
Pup: Jaina and Ahsoka
From: UTR, All Hallow's Plot
Writer: Your mom
Prompt: Forgiveness
The Jedi had run into the hospital after hearing the screams of a young girl. After rescuing her from the giant rats that had frightened her, Galen had picked her up so that they could get out of the building. It was too big to secure, and the power had been cut. They needed to get the girl somewhere safe.
Galen was in front, and ran out of the building with the girl in his arms. Behind him, Ahsoka and Jaina raced after him. There was something behind them in the dark. Just as they reached the door, part of the building collapsed down, blocking the exit. Both girls skidded to a stop.
"Galen!" Jaina yelled, worried that some of the falling debris may have hit the man or the girl he was carrying. She turned around, pulling her lightsaber from her belt.
"Jaina? Ahsoka?" They could hear Galen through the wall.
"We're all right!" Ahsoka yelled, grabbing her saber and turning it on. Without the glass door and windows letting light from the street in, the room had become significantly darker. The green glow from her saber gave them enough light to see something approaching. Something big.
"We'll find another way out," called Jaina, flipping on the purple blade of her saber. They couldn't cut through the fallen wall without worrying about creating more instability. It would be easier to find another exit. "Where should we meet?"
"Back at my place," Galen replied. "It's safe."
"I don't feel people under those," Ahsoka said to Jaina. Galen had emphasized the importance of not killing monsters that were actually people turned in to beasts. The things moving toward them definitely felt like empty, inhuman shells.
Jaina nodded. "Let's go." The things shambled toward them, and as they got closer, the girls could make out their appearance. They looked like women with strange things wrapped around their heads. They wore nurse's uniforms and were splattered with blood. They looked like they must have been people changed into monsters--maybe nurses from the hospital? But Jaina reached out with the Force and confirmed what Ahsoka had said. There was nothing underneath them.
Most of what Ahsoka had fought during the Clone Wars had been droids. The idea of her saber cutting through flesh was a little more disturbing. Really, though, these weren't any more sentient than the droids had been. Ahsoka sliced off a scalpel-wielding arm as they tried to make their way through the crowd.
Jaina saw an entry to a stairwell, and shouted to Ahsoka to follow her. Once they'd gotten away from the nurses and slammed the heavy door behind them, Jaina took a deep breath. The emergency lights in the stairwell were enough for her to see that Ahsoka had been cut a few times. There was a small cut on Jaina's arm, too. Nothing looked too bad, though. The problem now was that they were in a stairwell and Jaina didn't know the building well enough to know where the exits were. She imagined there wouldn't be any on the second floor. They might have to just go up to the other floor and run across the floor until they found another stairwell. "Hey, let's take a quick break," Jaina suggested, sitting down on the steps.
"Really?" Ahsoka tilted her head, surprised. Her saber was still out.
"Yeah, really. If there was something here in the stairs it probably would've attacked by now. We don't know what's going to be there when we get to the next floor, so we should take advantage of the calm," Jaina said. Maybe Ahsoka was in better shape than her, with the constant training, but it sounded like good advice to Jaina. Galen would be fine, and there wasn't any immediate danger that she could tell. "Let me see those cuts," she said, motioning for Ahsoka to sit next to her.
Ahsoka nodded, deactivating her lightsaber and sitting down next to the Solo. She turned so that Jaina could see the cuts, lowering her gaze. Now that they weren't fighting, her thoughts returned to what they'd been on for the past couple of days. Anakin was Jaina's grandfather, too, after all. "Thanks for coming," she said softly. This would've been a lot scarier if she'd been alone in the hospital without backup. She probably would've had more injuries after the fight, too. She was sort of surprised that Jaina had come, and wondered if it had anything to do with her brother.
Jaina didn't have time to put together much in the way of a med kit, but she at least had an alcohol pad, and was wiping Ahsoka's cuts. "Seemed like a good time for teamwork," she said, shrugging. When she invited herself along to join Galen, she hadn't realized Ahsoka was with him, but she was glad now. She knew that Anakin was going to tell her about their grandfather, and she knew what a difficult time it must be for the Padawan. She would do what was needed to keep the girl safe.
Ahsoka was quiet, and Jaina had an idea what she was thinking. "Hey," Jaina said quietly, putting aside the medical supplies. "I know what Anakin told you, and maybe you don't want to keep talking about it, but I want to tell you something." She wasn't exactly sure what she was going to say, or how to say it, but she would just start talking and see where it went.
"Just because he fell later doesn't mean that Anakin Skywalker was bad when you knew him, or that he was deceiving you, or anything. Going Darkside doesn't happen overnight.. There's a toxic build up of emotions and situations and eventually he just.. snapped. But before that snap, he wasn't.." Jaina frowned, struggling. She looked down at her artificial hand, flexing her fingers. "He wasn't a Sith pretending to be a Jedi. The relationship you shared was real."
Ahsoka looked down at her feet. She stuck out her lower lip, determined not to start crying again. A build up of emotions. Anakin had been falling for a long time. "I never even.. I should've seen it."
"No, Ahsoka. That's not what I mean. It isn't your fault." Jaina paused, choosing her words more carefully. When she fell to the Darkside, she'd wanted so badly to blame her brothers for not doing more. But the truth is that they had been there for her, and were there for her recovery. "There were Jedi Masters there with lifetime's more experience than you and they didn't see it."
Ahsoka frowned. She'd spent more time with Anakin than the council. "I always thought we had a bond," she said quietly. She should've seen it.
"Ahsoka.. You can't blame yourself. And you can't put your whole world into one person." Jaina knew this was going to be difficult to hear, but Ahsoka had already had a few days to process this and she needed to start moving forward. "Your Master isn't the Force personified. It's hard, I know. But just because he fell, doesn't mean you will."
"So.. Were they right? When they said attachments were bad?" It was a simplification of what she'd learned in the temple, but it was the general idea she'd gotten (and dismissed).
Jaina shook her head. "I don't know a lot about the old Jedi. But I think relationships, attachments.. They can be good. My relationships with my brothers make me stronger. Anakin was able to pull me away from the Dark Side before I could hurt anyone. You just.. you have to find yourself first."
Ahsoka nodded. It made sense. It would take work. She still needed to heal, but she felt like she was a few steps closer, now.
"Come on," Jaina said, getting to her feet. As they climbed up the stairs, Jaina turned to look back at the Padawan. She wasn't sure if it needed to be said or not. "My brother's a good guy. You won't hurt him if you decide it's too painful to see his face everyday. But it won't help you. It's the easy way out and it might work for a little while, but--"
"I don't want a new Master," Ahsoka said, interrupting Jaina. "I'll go back soon. I just needed to think."
Jaina nodded. "Okay. Good. I know big sisters are supposed to make fun of their brothers, but I think he's a really good Jedi to train under." Of the three Solo children, Jaina thought Anakin was the best suited to teach.
Ahsoka looked up at Jaina, smiling a little as they ascended to the next floor. "Thanks," she said. She'd been getting a lot of advice lately, and she would consider all of it.
"Ready?" Jaina asked, readying her saber before throwing open the door.