Hopeless

Chapter 1

Ahsoka Tano was walking down the halls of the Jedi Temple. It was late and she was very tired, but she didn't want to go back to her room. She was originally going to the training rooms but she ended up taking some wrong turns and realized she was on the other side of the temple. At this point she didn't care much where she was as long as she didn't fall asleep. She turned a corner and found herself facing the doors to the library. She decided that if she didn't want to fall asleep, the library wasn't the place to be. She turned back the way she came from and continued to walk aimlessly through the temple hallways.

As she walked, she found herself becoming lost in her own thoughts. It had been 2 months since she was captured and suffered torture at the hands of Count Dooku and Stang Rav. Somehow her thoughts always came back to that. To what he had done to her. She couldn't get the feeling of his hands on her out of her head. Even the things Dooku had done never left her as she knew she would always have the scars to remind her. She tried to tell herself that it was over, that she wasn't there, that Anakin and Obi-wan had saved her. But even then thoughts of what if they hadn't come, always flooded her mind. And if never being able to forget wasn't enough, she could find no peace even in her dreams as images of those events always slipped in. That was why she was wandering the temple in the first place. She couldn't sleep without having nightmares so she figured she just wouldn't sleep.

Ahsoka was too deep in her thoughts that she turned a corner and ran straight into someone. She fell back and hit the ground hard. This shook her out of her trance and caused her to look up at the person she just hit. Standing above her was a very concerned looking Plo Koon. Although his mask covered most of his face Ahsoka was always able to tell how he was feeling.

"Ahsoka," He exclaimed as he reached down and pulled her off the ground and onto her feet.

"I'm so sorry for bumping into you Master Plo. I wasn't looking where I was going." She quickly apologized.

"It's quite alright little 'Soka. If you don't mind me asking, why are you up so late?" Plo questioned. He cared deeply for the girl and saw no reason for her to be wondering the temple at such hours.

"Well you see.." Ahsoka began, unsure of what to tell the Kel Dor standing before her. 

"I was having trouble sleeping and thought it would do me good to take a walk." She quickly improvised. Ahsoka wasn't exactly lying, which did make her feel better but it still felt wrong not to tell Plo what was really going on.

"I see." He said, not fully believing the young padawan. 

"Well why don't I walk you back to your quarters then." Plo suggested. He thought he should make sure she gets back alright, plus he didn't want her running into a Jedi like Master Windu and get lectured for being up.

Ahsoka was glad to have the company and happily agreed.

Once they made it to Ahsoka's quarters the two Jedi said goodbye and parted ways. Plo watched as Ahsoka stepped into her room and closed the door. He noticed the green light turn to red immediately after, signaling the door had been locked. It wasn't uncommon for Jedi to lock their doors at night but Plo found this odd. He had already noticed the sudden change in Ahsoka after she was rescued from captivity not 2 months earlier. This was just assuring his thought that she hadn't quite gotten past those events. Plo decided he needed to talk to young Skywalker about this, and with that he walked away to go retreat into his quarters.

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Ahsoka had just walked into her quarters and locked the door behind her. She turned around and walked over to the couch. She shared her quarters with her master so they had one room which functioned as a living room/kitchen and two bedrooms and the fresher which was just off that. She noticed that her Master's cloak wasn't hanging up at the door. This meant he most likely wasn't home. Good, she thought, he won't know I was gone. Ahsoka found that her Master was often gone in the evenings, which allowed her to wander without getting caught. Hopefully Master Plo won't tell Anakin, otherwise he may want to talk about what's going on. She decided she was at least going to try to go to sleep. When she went into her room, she went over to the night table and pulled out a container of sleeping medication. She had been trying these for a couples days now but for some reason they never worked. They were supposed to give her a dreamless sleep but never did. Well I might as well keep trying, she thought, and popped two pills into her mouth.

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Anakin Skywalker found himself slipping into his quarters at the Jedi Temple at 4:00 in the morning. He had stayed later than he intended at Padme's and was only just getting back. He quickly popped his head into his padawan's room to see Ahsoka asleep on her bed. He was just about to close the door when he heard her start to stir. She was clawing at her sheets and moaning in her sleep. Normally he would go in and wait for her to calm down but Anakin found he was very tired and didn't have the energy. So he closed the door and went into his room. I'm sure she'll be fine, he told himself and slowly drifted into sleep.

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