Brother Gray.

Chapter 4.

Trigger warning, there's a suicide attempt.

He fell face first on the hard stone. Luckily for him the Eighth brother was wearing his helmet which has surprisingly stayed intact all this time. He shook his head as he stood back up. At that moment the Togruta landed by his side. He stepped away from her rather fast that his foot bumped into something. He almost fell over a statue; wait this statue looked familiar.

Taking a closer look at it he realized it was the Seventh sister. "What happened to her!?" The Eighth brother rhetorically asked.

"That's what would've happen to you if I didn't intervened." Ahsoka told him. Then they both heard a ship fly over head. They both looked up to see a TIE Advance X1 circling around the temple. "Stay low!" Ahsoka warned him. However the Eighth brother didn't move except for a visible trembling which was increasing. He also sound like he was beginning to hyperventilate. "Hey are you alright?" Ahsoka asked him.

"N-no!" He let out. "No, no HE'S HERE!" the Eighth brother panicked. The only movement he made was to grab the sides of his helmet. He sat back on the ground burrying his head in his arms and knees. Now it was clear he was hyperventilating. He also began to whimper. Ahsoka approached him to try and calm him down, and find out what was wrong.

"What's going on?" She made an attempt to place her hand on his shoulder. Doing so caused him to fall back, and scream hestarically. "Whoa! Calm down! I'm not going to hurt you!" Ahsoka reassured him.

"No!... No you don't understand! He's here, AND I FAILED! Not ONLY did I not retrieve the holocron FOR HIM, BUT I FAILED TO SLAY MY QUARRY! Since the Grand Inquisitor's dead now I REPORT DIRECTLY TO HIM! AND HE'LL PUNISH ME FOR FAILING! HE'LL GIVE ME A PUNISHMENT FAR WORSE THAN DEATH!" The Eighth brother hollered. At this point he was trembling, and whimpering uncontrollably.

The TIE that was in the area hovered over two TIE Advance V1s. Ahsoka and the Eighth brother had no choice but to watch it destroy them. Finally the TIE Advance X1 headed out of orbit. "Well, looks like we'll be staying here for a while, and it doesn't appear that ship is going to turn around anytime soon." Ahsoka told him.

"Exiled. I see how it is. If I return he'll punish me for sure. But if I stay here I'll just wither away! And once they figure things out, and realize I'm not dead if I survive that long; they'll come after me, and bring me before him!" The Eighth brother rambled.

"Hey you're overthinking this!" Ahsoka said when she overheard him.

"All things considered however... I'd rather choose death." He slowly whispered. Without warning he picked up the former Seventh sister's lightsaber, ignited it, and rushed after Ahsoka. Startled Ahsoka only had a few split seconds to ignite her sabers, and block his attack. The Eighth brother wouldn't let up his barrage of strikes. This left him open to any counterattack.

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!?" Ahsoka yelled at him.

"ISN'T IT OBVIOUS!? I WANT YOU TO STRIKE ME DOWN!" He yelled back. He continued to bait her into striking him leaving himself defenseless on purpose. He made sure to attack with enough force that she would have to put an end to him eventually. "WELL!? WHAT ARE YOU WATING FOR!? DO IT!" He hollered again. Their blades locked momentarily.

"NO I WON'T! THAT'S NOT MY PURPOSE HERE! I WENT BACK TO SAVE YOU! NOT END YOU!" Ahsoka shouted as she pushed him away. She then looked at her lightsabers one last time before saying, "You may strike me down, but I will not." She extinguish, and dropped them on the ground afterwards. The Eighth brother's hyperventilation returned once more.

"If YOU won't put an end to me!" He paused before continuing on. "THEN I WILL!" He aimed the lightsaber at his chest.

"NO!" Ahsoka shouted. Acting fast she immediately used the force to grab it out of his hands.

"NO LET ME GO! LET ME DIE! I CAN'T GO THROUGH WITH THAT AGAIN!" The Eighth brother gripped, and scratched his helmet.

"LISTEN TO ME! There's another way! You don't need to do this!" Ahsoka held her arms out for him. The Eighth brother backed away from her. Clawing and hitting himself he shook his head. Fortunately he was wearing armor that left little to no skin exposure. His voice sounded more shaky than usual when he spoke again.

"Y-you're r-right... Th-there is another w-way." He trembled as he said that. Gathering every ounce of his strength, and will left he used the force on himself! His chest concave in on itself and he began to gag, cough, and spasm. He fell onto his knees still using the darkside of the force.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Ahsoka hollered at him. She could not believe what she was seeing, and did not want to see more. She used all her energy, and will to stop him from crushing his lungs any further. The Eighth brother writhed in pain but pushed on with it, but now he felt his grip loosening. He tried to spat out something furious at Ahsoka, but the damage was already done. He has several broken ribs which in turn are crushing parts of his lungs.

He wanted to do it more. No one could torture him if he was dead. All that was in his way now was this Togruta holding him back. Ahsoka stepped forward still using the force on him to prevent any further harm upon himself. Struggling to get out of her force grip the Eighth brother fell onto his back causing more damage, and trouble. Cautiously kneeling down to his side Ahsoka placed her hands on his shoulders.

The Eighth brother's writhing and spasms slowed. His strength began to fail. Ahsoka just had to hold on a little longer. She moved her hands to his helmet, and used a bit of force energy to make him pass out. Normally something like this would only work on weak minds, but Ahsoka figured his mind while normally strong was fractured at this point in time. If she was going to leave this planet someday, she was going to do it with him.

"Right now his mind needs healing." She realized. Finally the Eighth brother's limbs fell limp. Ahsoka checked to make sure his heartbeat was still there. She worked quickly to put his ribs back in place. She would make sure he would recover normally from now on. Now that the explosion has destroyed the carbonite layer Ahsoka could see it was getting late. She headed back for the alcove shelter carrying (more like dragging) the Eighth brother by the shoulders.

She made sure not to agrovate any further injuries while settling him down. Despite her carefulness however, and since the Eighth brother crushed his own lungs he began to cough, gag, and flail uncontrollably. Ahsoka had to hold his arms down for what seemed like an eternity. Once he settled down by passing out again, Ahsoka gently laid him on his back. She checked to make sure his ribs were still in place. Morai once more came to visit Ahsoka bringing some sort of pouch.

"What's this?" She asked the Convor. Ahsoka opened the pouch and found an assortment of nuts. "Thank you. This will help a lot." She petted her. Morai gave a cheerful hoot then took off once more. Ahsoka set the bag of nuts down. She would figure out what to do with them later. At the moment her acquaintance needed her. She wanted to make sure that when he woke up he wouldn't do anything dangerous.

Also since he crushed his lungs he's having trouble breathing. "Here. Let's take this off so you can breathe better." Ahsoka said as she removed his helmet. So she saw his face was a dark greyish turquoise, with two pale gold stripes running up, and down on his left eye. His hair wasn't absolutely bright red. More of a auburn color, but still very red. By the looks of it he was spitting up blood under his helmet for part of his lip was stained by it.

"Oh my. What sort of punishment would make you want to choose this over that?" Ahsoka asked rhetorically yet worridly.

Hello fellow readers. I have come once again with another chapter. Now before you say anything, no this is not a vent chapter. I have this all planned out, and I'm going to write it the way I want. Besides a few things. Rumor is March 1st is either Self-harm or suicide awareness day, and while this is a day late I just wanted to help spread the word. Second there's a lot more darker stuff in the Clone Wars, and it's a kids show! ;) I do hope I'm not upsetting anyone. Once again you know the drill. Point out grammar mistakes, and spelling because I'm partly dyslexic. True fact.