Ridicule
All that could be seen was fire. It was all around her, and no way out could be seen.
Ahsoka Tano was in the middle of a pale blue room, but she could hardly see the color through all the flames. She spun left and right, trying desperately to find a way out of the middle of the room. There had to be a window, a door, a crack in the wall, something. But there was nothing that she could see. The smell of the smoke was closer. Looking down, she saw her sash was starting to catch flame. On instinct, she screamed and ran. When she neared the first wall of fire, she used the Force to push the flames aside and kept running. When she came to a stop, she patted the fire out of her clothing. The flames were fewer here, but Ahsoka still couldn't see a way out. And then she heard a familiar voice.
"Ahsoka, help me!" came the cry. It was repeated two more times before Ahsoka could find the voice to answer. She charged back into the flames, shouting, "Rex, Rex I'm coming!"
She found him pinned beneath a piece of metal, and somehow the flames had already melted the edges so it was stuck to the ground. Ahsoka grabbed Rex's free hand and tried to pull him loose, but he wasn't moving. "Rex, hold still, I'm gonna get you out of this." She continued to pull, but it wasn't working. Rex coughed beneath her and muttered something. "What?" Ahsoka bent down to hear him.
"Get out of here Ahsoka. I don't need you."His face was stern and serious.
"But I thought you called me."
"Yeah, well you didn't get out of here fast enough, and now we're both gonna die."
Ahsoka looked up in time to see a flaming metal crossbeam coming down on top of her. She covered her head, and just as the fiery metal touched her montrals, she jolted awake.
It was only a dream. She should have guessed that it was, it was sort of like the others she had been having. Why couldn't she just let him go? About a week ago Ahsoka had finally opened up to Captain Rex about how she felt about him as more than a friend. Rex in turn rejected her, and started laughing about her honesty with his friends behind her back. They never did it around General Skywalker, which was good. She couldn't deal with that. So she had tried to put it behind her, to work on winning the war. But she still dreamed about losing him. Surprisingly, a lot of her dreams ended involving fire in some way or another. She got up, showered in the 'freshers, put some fresh robes on, and headed to the mess.
When she got there only a few were clones present, Rex among them. Their eyes met for a split second, and his eyes seemed to hold no emotions concerning her. Ahsoka made sure her eyes reflected her hurt feelings. She even sent a jolt of anger through the Force at him, and he winced. When he left the room, she got a tray of food and sat down by herself. Ahsoka was almost finished when someone came and sat across from her. "I don't wanna talk," she mumbled, not bothering to look up.
"Well I do, so you might as well stop playing with your food and talk." The clone placed a gloved hand onto Ahsoka's. She stopped eating and looked up. It was ARC trooper Fives. He used to be in the Five-oh-first, and when he and Echo proved themselves at the battle of Kamino, they were promoted to ARC's. Only now Echo was dead. Fives occasionally worked with Skywalker's troops when he wasn't doing other assignments. Right now he was on leave, so he was staying on the Resolute for the moment.
"What do you want," Ahsoka snapped. She liked Fives, but she just wanted to be alone right now.
"I heard about what you said to Rex," he said gently.
"Yeah, you and everybody else."
"Ahsoka, I understand what you're going through. After Echo….. passed….. it took me a little bit to recover. At least you didn't lose him completely."
"I almost think that would have been better. I can't even look at him without being reminded that he rejected me."
"Well, sometimes that's just how things go." Fives stood up and left, leaving Ahsoka alone once more. Ahsoka thought about telling Fives about her dreams, but it seemed just too personal. Besides, he might just go and tell Rex, and that would earn her more ridicule. Ahsoka got up, took care of her tray, and went back to her quarters.
She decided to do some meditating; that normally helped her. Ahsoka sat on the floor with her legs crossed and centered herself in the Force. She felt it move and flow around her, and she felt at peace.
Suddenly, Ahsoka saw something in front of her. It was Coruscant, the capital planet of the Republic. She was walking through the streets which were abandoned. There was smoke rising above some of the lower buildings, and fires in some of the closer shops and apartments. And then, right in front of her, was a clone. They were dressed in phase II armor, with standard 501st markings. And then the clone removed his helmet. It was Fives.
"Ahsoka," he said, reaching for her. "I'm here for you."
Ahsoka pulled out of the vision, gasping. What could it have meant? Certainly the Force wasn't telling her that she should be with Fives, was it? She guessed she shouldn't question it, but sometimes the Force could be cryptic. Ahsoka decided to just put it aside for now. She pulled out her lightsaber and started drilling herself on her exercises. She had practiced for about two hours before her comlink beeped. She stopped, put away her lightsaber, and picked up her comlink. "Commander Tano here."
"Snips, its General Skywalker. I need your help."
"Master, what's the matter? Where are you?"
"I'm down on the planet surface. It's Ventress. She's breached the perimeter and…."
Ahsoka only heard static before the link closed.
