Chapter Text
It was supposed to be a simple mission of eradicating a Separatist spy network in the disguise of a Coruscanti crime syndicate. All of the syndicate members including the boss, knowing fully the extent of punishment for treason, resisted fiercely to Obi-Wan, Anakin and Ahsoka’s attempts to capture them alive. In the end all of them were dead before they could be taken captive and the Jedi team had to locate the stolen intel files by the old way: searching the rooms one by one.
They had no idea what they would find in that securely locked room.
When Anakin cut through all those locks with his lightsaber and opened the door, they were welcomed with the brutal scene of badly mutilated corpses and preserved parts of small animals, mostly tookas, that clearly had died from various forms of torture, if those wicked-looking tools hanging around were any indications. All of them took a sharp intake, which was an unfortunate mistake, as the coppery scent of blood mixed with the sickly sweet smell of decay hit them straight in the nose. Anakin instantly tried to cover Ahsoka’s eyes but it was already too late. The young girl hunched over and threw up. Anakin balled his fists, also feeling nauseous. At this point he had killed more animals and sentients than he could count, but it was one thing to kill your enemies because you had to, and totally another to torture and kill defenseless innocents simply for the pleasure of it.
After some moments, Obi-Wan broke the silence: “It appears that the syndicate boss had some dark hobby, one that our mission briefing totally failed to mention to us.” His tone was calm, but his pale face has betrayed his true thoughts.
“That sick bastard! Should have given him a slow and painful death! Let him taste his own medicine!” Anakin spat.
“That’s a dangerous way of thinking, Anakin,” warned Obi-Wan, though his criticism sounded more out of habit than any sincere objection.
“Can we leave now, master?” Ahsoka pleaded, “I don’t want to stay here any longer.”
“Let’s just move to the next room,” suggested Obi-Wan, “ it doesn’t look like the leaked intel would be hidden in here anyway.”
Anakin was about to agree before he heard a rustle. “Shhhhh,” he shushed his companions, “did you hear that? Something or someone is in there.”
Obi-Wan and Ahsoka instantly looked alarmed. They nodded to each other and wordlessly ignited their lightsabers.
They were suddenly greeted by a loud angry hiss and the rattling sound of a metal chain. Upon hearing that, Ahsoka perked up, “there must be a survivor! I think I know where it is!” She darted out before either Obi-Wan or Anakin had a chance to stop her.
“Careful, Snips!” Anakin yelled at her while Obi-Wan complained fondly about Togrutas and their superhuman locating abilities before they ran towards her.
“I found it! Over here!” Ahsoka called out to them and revealed an agitated tooka that had been chained to a corner behind her back. Like what they’ve expected, the tooka’s in poor condition: It was nothing but skin and bones, and its dirty brownish gray fur matted everywhere with splatters of dark stains that looked suspiciously like blood. Right now it kept hissing at them. Its little body crouched down in the corner and its bushy tail swished angrily from side to side. Anakin didn’t know much about animals, but he sensed through the Force that the animal must be in some serious pain. Despite this, the tooka’s clear blue eyes were filled with ferocious determination, as if it would fight tooth and claw to its last breath even against overwhelming odds. Anakin had pretty sure he had seen this expression from somewhere.
His musing was interrupted by Ahsoka. “You are safe now, poor thing,” she announced to the tooka, while trying to reach for the metal chain that restrained the animal, “we are here to rescue you.”
“Wait, Ahsoka! Don’t touch it!” warned Anakin, but it’s already too late. The tooka swiped at her with unexpected speed and she yelped in surprise, “ouch! It scratched me!”
“Are you alright, Snips?”
“Yeah I’m fine. It’s just some superficial cuts. See?” She showed Anakin and Obi-Wan her hand. There’re three long but shallow scratch marks, with tiny droplets of blood seeping through the wounds.
“You should be more careful, Ahsoka. It could be much worse. You see, the animal’s obviously in great distress, and now your sudden movements have made it even more stressed out,” Obi-Wan lectured her, “in that case, we should approach the animal calmly and slowly, trying to appear as non threatening as possible, and then we’ll attempt to bond with it through the Force. Here, see what I’ll do.”
Obi-Wan clipped his lightsaber back onto his belt, then he slowly crouched down, showing his open palms to placate the animal, “see? No weapons. We are not here to hurt you, little fella. We are here to save you.” The tooka kept spitting at him, although it didn’t look as vicious as of just a minute ago. Encouraged by it, Obi-Wan outstretched a hand cautiously towards the tooka, who gave it a suspicious sniff and didn’t show any further aggression. “Who’s a good kitten? You are a good kitten!” Obi-Wan cooed at the tooka, while trying to reach it through the Force. It was then when the tooka suddenly growled and pounced on him. Obi-Wan ducked immediately, narrowly avoiding a matching scar to Anakin’s on his left eye. “Wow! What was that for?!”
“Looks like someone dislikes either the baby talks or the Force,” Anakin commented. Dislike was such an understatement, for the animal looked murderous now. Its ears were flattened against its head, blue eyes large and dilated. It bared its teeth while hissing and growling at them nonstop. Moreover, it arched its back and held its tail uptight, puffing its entire body out to look as menacing as possible.
“That doesn’t even make any sense,” Obi-Wan sighed, “anyway, as much as it hurts our bleeding hearts, it’s neither in our job description nor in our mission objectives to rescue wayward animals. Don’t forget that we still have important intel to find. Let’s just call the Coruscanti Animal Control. They are the professionals, after all.”
Deep down his heart, Anakin knew Obi-Wan was right. The fates of a lot more sentient beings depended on the success of this mission and they were wasting time here trying to save the life of one single tooka, but somehow, gazing at its blue eyes, he found the thought of leaving it behind unbearable. “We can’t leave it here. It’s going to die.”
“The Animal Control would take it back to the Shelter—“
“—It’s critically injured, Obi-Wan! Even if they don’t put it out of its misery immediately, it’s going to die soon if not given proper care and treatment, and I doubt the Shelter would have that!”
“Whatever, the problem is that we can’t even get it out.” Obi-Wan rubbed his temples, looking clearly tired.
Anakin did have an idea. Even though the mission wasn’t supposed to take long, he still packed a few pieces of nuna jerky beforehand just in case anyone got hungry (let’s be honest, with a teenager still going through her growth spurt and two young adult males in their prime—they were bound to be hungry all the time). He searched through his pockets and—AHA!
Anakin took the jerky out of his pocket and saw the posture of the tooka changed immediately. Its small nose wrinkled as it sniffed the air in urgency, so consumed by its earnest efforts to trace the smell it completely forgot to hiss at them. Once it located the food in his hand, its eyes completely lit up, and it begged him with a series of loud meows. Anakin smiled smugly at the sight, “ok little buddy, I’ll give you the jerky. Just stay there so I can free you from the chain. Deal?”
The tooka whined impatiently. Once Anakin put down the jerky before it, it lunged at the jerky with such ferocity as if it hadn’t been fed since eternity, and judging by its severely underweighted body, that’s probably the case. While its attention was otherwise occupied, Anakin quickly unchained it and picked it up. He immediately noticed how thin it truly was: it practically weighed nothing and he could clearly feel the sharp ribs and spine underneath its skin. It was also shaking badly in his arms, whether from fear or coldness, Anakin could not tell. Feeling slightly sorry for that little creature, Anakin tried to soothe the tooka by petting its little head. To his surprise, the tooka butted its head against his palm and purred. Anakin gave Obi-Wan a shit-eating grin, feeling vindicated, “things seem to be go as planned. Looks like someone reserves their trust to those who take action, not words.”
“What then?” asked Obi-Wan, “it’s not like we can take it back to the Temple.”
“Why not?”
Obi-Wan pinched the bridge of his nose, “you know it Anakin. The Jedi are not supposed to keep pets.”
“We are not keeping it,” argued Anakin, “we are merely rescuing it. There’s a difference.”
“I doubt the Council will see it that way.”
“Then we won’t inform the Council,” Anakin decided, “when they find out it would already be too late.”
Obi-Wan sighed: “I hate it when you do that.”
“Hey! You taught me that we Jedi should be compassionate towards all living things. So what’s really wrong to feel compassion towards a tooka?” countered Anakin.
“He has a point,” interjected Ahsoka. “Sorry Master Kenobi, it’s now two against one.”
“Fine,” conceded Obi-Wan, “but just for the record, I am definitely not going to clean its litter box.”
“It looks calm now. Can I hold it?” asked Ahsoka hopefully. Yet as soon as she approached the tooka, it flattened its ears and bared its teeth, emitting loud hisses towards Ahsoka.
“Careful, Snips,” warned Anakin. “I may have earned its trust, but its faith in you is still lacking.”
“Never mind,” Ahsoka rolled her eyes. “It’s like it’s not even grateful that we rescued it.”
“Either way, it is a good tooka,” concluded Anakin, scratching between the tooka’s ears.