Chapter Text
Ahsoka could not go anywhere without it. If she did, the Woman of White could get her, and Ahsoka was not going to let that happen. It was a simple chain, with a ‘t’ carved of wood hanging off of it. The natives had told her that it was a relic from a dead religion in a world that ceased to exist anymore. It was simple enough to hide under her battle dress, she did not want any of her brothers to see it and worry for her. She should have known that she could not always live so protected.
They had just finished a relief mission, sending humanitarian aid to the people of Ryloth- again. Ahsoka and the clones were sitting around a fire, laughing and telling rambunctious stories. She felt the tell-tale cold of the Woman, but she knew no harm would come to her with her relic on-otherwise the Woman would burn. One of the local boys had ventured over to the rowdy group, and they had forced themselves to settle down. He was half of Ahsoka’s age, his mother following him around almost skittishly.
“We wanted to thank you for your help,” the twi-lek spoke, and Ahsoka could hear her exhaustion in her voice.
“Of course, anything to help,” Ahsoka answered. The men nodded and grinned, the little boy racing around giggling loudly.
“Look Momma, there she is again!” He suddenly talked very loudly, attracting the attention of the entire group.
“Who?” Fives smirked knowingly at the boy, as if he were in on his little secret.
Ahsoka was about to add to the little conversation when she saw where he was pointing- the Woman of White. Her quickened breathing went unnoticed by the group.
“Maleki’i, hush. He has been speaking tales about a woman who follows him around. He says she’s always wearing white.”
“No, no, she’s real Momma!” Maleki’i waved to her, but when she waved back, it was directed to Ahsoka, who’s breathing became more labored. The boy turned to her. “You can see her, too?”
“Hush, boy. Do not fill them with your false tales.”
“No, no, momma, she waved to her, she knows her!”
“For the last time, she is not real.”
“Yes she is!”
“No, she is not. I am so sorry for his behavior. It started a few weeks ago, and he said she watched him sleep.”
“She did!”
“She did not.” The clones watched the exchange uncomfortably, unsure what to make of the situation.
“She took away my bad dreams!”
“No, Maleki’i. She didn’t. She is-”
“Real.” Ahsoka spoke up for the first time, her unblinking gaze fixed upon the Woman. Everyone turned to her. “The Woman, I mean. She is as real as you or me.”
“See momma, told ya.”
“Listen, Jedi, I am grateful for your help, but do not fill my son’s head with stories of untrue things.”
“Ahsoka?”
“No, ma’am, I assure you, she is real. Look.” She untucked her necklace. The Woman stared from behind her veil, Ahsoka could feel it. Maleki’i looked at it with interest, his mother with distaste. Her boys cast her worried looks, and Kix found himself clocking her for hidden head wounds.
“And, tell me child, what is that?”
“They say it’s called a cross. It’s from an old religion called Christianity, but the religion died along with the entire system. But apparently only one of the planets, called Earth, was colonized.”
“Why do you need it?”
“If I don’t, she’ll hurt me.”
“Maleki’i, let’s go,” she grabbed her son and pulled him along the path, clearly tired of hearing Ahsoka’s words.
“Ahsoka?” Kix walked over to her, put into motion with the mention of abuse. He kneeled in front of her and began checking her pulse, studying her expressions. “Does anything hurt or feel off?”
Ahsoka opened her mouth to respond, but found she could not get anything out. A moment later, she found she could not get anything in either, no oxygen making it to her lungs. She lifted her hands to her throat, trying to massage it open, the universal sign for choking. She collapsed to her knees while frantically trying to relieve her burning lungs. Kix let out a surprised yelp, but quickly sprang into action, Coric a moment behind him. They lay her on her back, elevating her slightly. The other men watched helplessly while the medics tried helping her and Tup ran to find Anakin. Soon, her vision darkened and blurred at the edges, allowing her only to view the world through a blurred tunnel in her oxygen-deprived state. She felt Kix inject her with a syringe- but what was in it, she didn’t know. Before she passed out, she saw the Woman standing, black teardrops staining the earth.
“Coric, Kix, what happened.” Rex’s voice was gruff with worry. It was not every day part of his command structure spewed nonsense like a child, or collapse and pass out from choking on nothing. Kix had injected her with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications, thinking that it had been just a bad allergic reaction, and her throat had swelled shut.
“I don’t know, sir. According to our scan, nothing out of the ordinary.”
“How can that be possible?”
“Sir.” Coric inserted himself into the conversation. “What she was saying before she started her episode, perhaps we need to take that into consideration.”
“You mean to tell me that a woman none of us can see is following our commander around like a tooka and harming her.” Kix and Coric shared a glance.
“Maybe not exactly that, but it could be something psychologically wrong. Like high stress or depression levels are causing her to hallucinate someone hurting her, to take away and hide from the reality. That the war is what is actually hurting her. And, quite possibly, she could be hurting herself, but her mind comes up with an alternate personification to hide and protect her from the truth. The mind can do a lot.” Kix nodded along to Coric’s explanation, and Rex rolled everything over in his head.
“What about the twi-lek? He said he saw her, too.”
“I don’t know.” Obi-Wan spoke up from beside Anakin’s shoulder, who continued his silent vigil beside Ahsoka, synthetic hand gripping hers tightly as he stared into the monitors.
“If this mysterious woman really is just a creation from Ahsoka’s mind, given the stress she is under from the war, she could very well be projecting this woman onto others. None of us could see her because we have walls protecting us from force suggestions, but children, who are open-minded, can not protect themselves. It is very likely her projection caused him to see her, too.”
A hiccup could be heard from the bed, and Kix scurried off to check the blip in the monitor while they stood and watched the sleeping girl rest.
The Woman included.