Title: “I’m Reaching Light”
Author: Mira_Jade

Genre: General (expect everything!)
Rating: PG
Time Frame: pre-TCW – post-Rebels (with forays into my Song!verse AU )
Characters: Ahsoka Tano, Ensemble Cast (expect everyone!)

Summary: Moments in time, featuring Ahsoka Tano.


Author's Notes: Hello, all! The Fanfic Summer Olympics is proving to be so, so inspiring for my muse - especially since, lately, DRL has made working on longer WIPs difficult when it comes to having the time and mental energy to do so. So yay! Now, I'm excited to start a collection featuring one of my favorite SW ladies of all time, Ahsoka Tano.

So, without further ado, let the games begin!


Disclaimer: Nothing is mine, but for the words. My title is a nick from The Seed, by AURORA, which is my current go-to Ahsoka anthem when writing. (It's technically a song for environmental awareness, which is beautiful in its own right, but wow that could be a fitting, powerful metaphor for her and her life of service to the Republic if ever there was one. )

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Index of Events​

I. "from the ground up" (100 Word Dash) | TCW, Season One; Ahsoka Tano & Rex

II. "we'll make room for light" (400 Word Cross Country) | post-TCW movie; Ahsoka Tano & Anakin Skywalker

III. "our bodies will not rest under marble and snow" (200 Word Freestyle) | post-TCW; Ahsoka Tano & Rex

IV. "you don't walk alone tonight" (Single Sentence Shot Put) | post-RotJ; Ahsoka Tano & Anakin Skywalker



~ MJ

 

I.

“from the ground up”
(100 Word Sprint | TCW, S1; Ahsoka Tano & Rex)​

Ahsoka was stunned to find herself pinned not even seconds into their match, the wind knocked out of her and her montrals ringing from the impact of striking the training mat. “I told you, verd’ika,” Rex flashed a grin, “experience is everything. Never assume you have the upper hand, just because you’re a Jedi.”

For a moment, her pride stung – she was trying so, so hard in her new command, after all – before she bared her sharp teeth, matching his grin. “You’ve gotta teach me how to do that,” she accepted his hand, helping her up. “I want to learn everything.”

Spoiler: Mando'a Translations

Verd'ika - Little fighter.

~ MJ

 

Thanks for the wonderful feedback, you two. I really appreciate it.

It's so true! Especially here, Ahsoka is only fourteen, going up against Rex - who, for his own ten years, has learned nothing but the art of war from Mandalorian instructors. That's a gap the Force definitely won't cover in whole! But Ahsoka's humble enough to realize that, and she's excited to learn.

Thanks for reading!

Thanks! For all of Ahsoka's fire and sass she is very receptive to counsel and instruction - even when her ego and temper lands her in a place where she needs to take a step back and reevaluate in the first place. It's one of the things I love best about her character. (I betcha there was a fair bit of trash talking going on before Rex took her out in this drabble. ) And you know how I love Rex and Ahsoka's friendship; there's so much respect and appreciation between them, even in these early days. It was wonderful to capture a glimpse of that here.

Thanks for reading, my friend, as always!


Alrighty, more will be up in just a few!


~MJ

 

II.

“we’ll make room for light”
(400 Word Cross Country | post-TCW movie; Ahsoka Tano & Anakin Skywalker)​

Apparently, her new Master was a bit of an augpie bird, collecting shiny bits and pieces of whatever caught his eye to horde away and feather his nest. The few personal items Anakin actually owned were supplemented by a baffling collection of miscellaneous, mechanical hodge-podge. There were boxes upon boxes of droid parts and scrap metal and odds and ends she couldn't even begin to identify. An entire half-built speeder engine had a place of honor on the kitchenette’s table, and somehow the caf machine was already disassembled. These rooms had only been assigned to them yesterday; apparently, Anakin worked quick.

Wide-eyed, Ahsoka stepped into their new apartment. This was . . . well, admittedly different from the initiate dormitories she’d so long known at the Temple. Different, but theirs.

“You’ve got a whole repair shop going here, don’t you?” Ahsoka couldn’t help but quip as she set her pack down.

“I’ll get everything organized; it’s not normally this chaotic.” Anakin waved a hand. “For now, I’m sure we’ll find exactly what we need in here.”

Ahsoka frowned. “Master?”

“I, um . . . I had a braid.” Anakin paused and looked down, for a moment unable to meet her eyes. He was a contradiction, her Master – blazing so bright and blindingly brilliant one moment and then shadowing over with doubt the next. “You know,” he searched for his words, “as a Padawan. For you, if you want to claim your status as my Padawan . . . I thought I could help.”

. . . oh.

With the war going on, Ahsoka hadn’t expected they’d have time to honor this particular tradition – even now, they only had a few hours left planetside before they were due to regroup with the 501st. Now that she understood, she felt giddy with excitement to consider the possibilities.

“How about beads?” she suggested. “I’ve always thought I’d have a string of Padawan beads.”

“I was thinking something similar,” Anakin released a breath, one she hadn’t realized he’d first been holding. Through their nascent bond – still tender and new and yet everything to her already – she could feel his relief like sunlight breaking through a dark line of clouds. She tried to project how honored she was in return, and felt as her joy finally influenced and sparked his own.

“Let’s get looking, then,” Anakin gestured at the waiting boxes of odds and ends, “I know we’ll find just the thing.”



~MJ

 

Whew, but has it already been a month? Wow, but July was . . . well, July. We'll just leave it at that.

So, a few replies and then I am going to hunker down to see this race through to the end!

Thank-you! I could so perfectly see the scene in my head, and then it just sorta wrote itself from there! I'm glad you enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it!

Aw, thanks! I really appreciate your reading, and your kind words. I hope that you continue to enjoy these tales as they go.


Alrighty, more will be up in just a few!


~ MJ

 

Author's Notes: For this update I'm going to post two pieces for the price of one! Mostly, I'm doing so in the interest of playing catch-up, but also to leave you guys with something lighter following the first piece - which immediately follows Order 66, and rather ties in with my Tonight Any Dream Will Do drabble set, which follows Ahsoka and Rex following the TCW series finale. It's a bit heavy, to say the least.

Then, as a last note, both of my titles are taken from Creatures, by Delain, which came on my shuffle while I was writing and then stuck with me as more than fitting.

That said, I thank you all for reading and hope that you enjoy!

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III.

“our bodies will not rest under marble and snow”
(200 Word Freestyle | post-TCW; Ahsoka Tano & Rex)​

Listless, she stared at the starlines of hyperspace as they whirled and danced. Her head throbbed; her heart ached. She picked at her bleeding palms – worked raw after digging so many graves for her men in the frozen ground. She hadn’t said a word since leaving the moon; neither had Rex.

Until: “General?”

Her title was new and unfamiliar even before Order 66, and its broken promise fractured through her now. She was no man's general; no Jedi. Even her lightsabers were left behind and buried. She was nothing and no one, now moreso than ever before.

“Rex,” her voice broke. “You don’t have to . . . please, don’t - ”

“ - Ahsoka.” Gently, he took her hands to keep her from aggravating her wounds. “Ahsoka,” he searched for his own axis after being so violently thrown from orbit. “We’ll get through this.”

He didn’t believe his own words – not yet – but he gave what small comfort he could for her sake. His offer of warmth touched the cold of her grief like sunlight. She turned her hands over and threaded her fingers through his; adrift, she clung to him.

“Of course we will,” she grappled to find her courage. “Of course.”

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IV.

“you don’t walk alone tonight”
(Single Sentence Shot Put | post-RotJ; Ahsoka Tano & Anakin Skywalker)​

She knelt in the soot of the funeral pyre on the forest moon, closing her eyes to remember Anakin Skywalker as the man he’d once been, rather than the monster he'd become, when a blue light fell over her, illuminating the night.

(Breathless, she turned. “Master?”)



~ MJ