Bulky hands with rough, slender fingers yanked Ahsoka's arms behind her back, clutching her wrists together. Ahsoka couldn't see the face of the clone, but out of the corner of her eye, she could tell that he had wrangled Anakin in the same way.
If Ahsoka had been weaker, the clone's treatment of her would have practically had her dragging along the floor by now. He was running through the halls with them, muttering to any other passing clones that they were fugitives he was 'delivering' to the detention center.
Ahsoka wasn't very scared, rather aggravated at the delay in her plan to get to Barriss. In addition, this clone seemed suspicious. He hadn't even called in their arrest on his comlink, despite the overflow of messages about two possible Jedi on the loose.
After a few minutes, he reached a hexagonal metal door. The clone shoved Anakin into the same hand that was holding Ahsoka so that he could tap in the entry code.
"Why haven't you tried to escape this guy?" Ahsoka whispered. She knew that if they worked together, Anakin and Ahsoka could easily overpower this clone to escape the situation, but Anakin hadn't tried anything, so Ahsoka had decided to follow his lead.
"I think we can use him. To get to Barriss." Finally, the metal door opened and the clone pushed Anakin and Ahsoka inside, hurriedly shutting the door behind all three of them. The room was very small, with four metal walls and a bench on one side - but Ahsoka was sure that it couldn't be a detention center, for that would be a larger room with more fugitives who had yet to be put on trial.
Having previously stood with his back to Anakin and Ahsoka, the clone slowly turned around to face them. Ahsoka and Anakin instinctively gasped in unison as he slowly pulled off his signature helmet; he had one marbally eye full of fog with a red slash across it, faint stubble framing his severe frown.
"Wolffe?!"
"What are you two doing here? Master Skywalker, you are obviously still a distinguished Jedi, but Ahsoka - you just left the Order! And you're not even allowed to be in contact with any Jedi or clones, let alone your old master - and breaking into a Republic prison? What is going on?"
"Wait, Wolffe - why are you a prison guard? Shouldn't you be in the line of duty?" Ahsoka asked, trying to veer the conversation away from their intentions in breaking into the prison.
Wolffe looked highly offended. "You think I'm a prison guard? What am I to you, a Shiny?"
"What - no - well, I mean, you are guarding a prison..." Ahsoka added surreptitiously.
"I'm not. When I got word of two supposed Jedi breaking in here, I came straightaway."
"Commander Wolffe, we're here on Republic business. Could you please assist us, or just let us go in the least?" Ahsoka looked at Anakin in shock. She supposed that what they were doing was technically Republic business, but Anakin was visibly stretching the truth.
"If it were Republic business, why would you be breaking in the prison rather than just coming through the door?" Wolffe retorted.
"Because I really needed Ahsoka's talents for this mission, and I couldn't be seen with her due to her recent departure from the Order." Ahsoka was pretty impressed with Anakin's quick lies but didn't show it. She tried to keep a neutral face as if she already knew everything Anakin was saying.
"Okay... what's the mission?" Wolffe asked suspiciously.
"Confidential," Ahsoka immediately said, before Anakin could give away her secret. Wolffe seemed skeptical at her quick reply but didn't say anything.
"Alright. I don't want any misunderstandings that I'm helping out fugitives, so I won't help you. But I will let you go." Ahsoka and Anakin solemnly nodded their thanks.
"Do you think you could at least - I don't know - tell the other clones to stand off? So that no one less understanding arrests us?" Ahsoka asked hopefully.
"No. Sorry. That's the kind of thing that could lead to misunderstandings." Ahsoka nodded again, but less thankfully this time. "Alright, off you go." Wolffe tapped on the keypad, and the door slid up once again. All three of them shuffled out, Wolffe hurrying off in the opposite direction of Anakin and Ahsoka. As she watched Wolffe's receding back, Ahsoka felt a pang of sadness in her chest. A rough lump rose in her throat that she quickly swallowed back down. She hadn't yet fully processed the true meaning of her departure from the Jedi Order, and having to hide affiliations with Anakin Skywalker, her master, and not be seen with Clone Commander Wolffe in fear of misunderstandings, not seeing Barriss - it all seemed to be suddenly falling onto Ahsoka from the deep dregs of her mind, like a blocked meteor finally pushing through to destroy the delicate planet that was Ahsoka's mentality.
Everything started spinning as the corners of Ahsoka's vision turned to black - her head felt like it was as heavy as a bantha but yet was floating upwards, away from her body. She needed it back. Ahsoka struggled to take in breaths - it felt like her throat was squeezing shut, too tight to allow air to travel through. She needed it back.
"Ahsoka!" Faint cries broke through the panic in a familiar voice. Ahsoka reached for that voice, a voice of comfort and intimacy. Slowly, Ahsoka's surroundings rushed back to her in dizzying focus. She had collapsed onto the floor of the prison hall and was panting roughly. The voice's owner was crouched next to her, his arms wrapped around her shoulders.
"Anakin." Anakin's face flooded with relief.
"Ahsoka, what's wrong?" Anakin said, his voice overflowing with more sincerity and concern than had ever been directed towards Ahsoka. The togruta smiled sadly.
"It's - it's nothing," she said quietly, looking down at her trembling hands. Her voice quivered with the threat of tears, but her genuine smile of sorrow stayed on her lips.
"Okay, Snips," Anakin whispered. He carefully pulled away from Ahsoka, settling against the wall beside her. "I'll find a way, you know," he said, after a moment of silence. "I know the Jedi won't like it. But I'll stay in contact. I will. And I-I know what you said, that you need to block out the Order in order to move on. But I'm not the Order. I'm Anakin. Your friend. And we need each other, Ahsoka. Okay?"
Ahsoka nodded. "Okay." She leaned her head against the shoulder of her master, her closest confidant, her friend, her brother. And, if only for a little while, everything was alright.
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