What is it Good for ⎜ The Clone Wars

4

Alia stared up at the metal above her.

She had counted the nuts and bolts that held the bunk above her in place twenty-three times but still sleep refused to find her. Instead the faint groans of pain and prayers being sent up to any god that was listening rang in her mind. 

She felt as if she had failed her people. She had joined Governor Roshti's colony to start a new life for herself, yes, but she wanted to be able to do the same for those she cared for. She wanted to play a part in building a safe place for them to live and begin families. A place away from the violence and atrocities of war where finding happiness was their only concern.

She had wanted to build a world her sister would have been proud of.

Alia had dreams of Ahsoka one day stumbling upon Kiros. Maybe her ship would need maintenance or she would be sent as an Ambassador for the Republic, but the sisters would finally be together once again. They would talk for hours and lose track of time as they learned about the people they had become. Alia would share the anecdotes from their childhood that Ahsoka would have been too young to remember and Ahsoka would deny the many embarrassing stories Alia had under her belt.

It was the memory of her sister's laughter that finally lulled her to sleep, along with the wonder of what it would sound like now that she had grown and if she would ever have the chance to hear it.

Despite her body finally settling, her mind would not follow suit. Instead the laughter she heard in her dreams turned to screams. It was as if a terrible choir had begun a show in her mind, each voice crying out for help or for mercy. The chorus was filled with the cries of men and women and children alike, but there was one voice she could identify through the clamor.

Ahsoka.

Her voice was terrified, tearing her vocal chords as she screamed for her sister. Alia tried to move, to run to her, but she was shackled in the darkness of her mind, only allowed to watch and listen as the world seemed to shatter around her. Suddenly, two hands appeared in the shadow and reached for her. Both were slender and were home to long fingers, but one appeared more artistic and nimble while the other was well-worn and calloused, the skin hardened by harsh work.

Somehow Alia knew they meant her no harm and managed to free her own arms and reached for the hands that would pull her from this hell. But as soon as her fingers brushed theirs the darkness swallowed her and she was falling down an endless chasm that eminated a scarlet glow.

The last thing Alia heard was a hate-filled cry that sounded as if it had come from the creatures that dwelt within the darkest depths of the universe before she woke with a start.

She shot up, straight as a rod, her chest heaving and her forehead slick with sweat. Alia immediately cursed her instincts which had sent her forehead on a collision course with the thick metal of the bunk above her. 

"You alright?"

Alia jumped again and snapped her head up to see who was there, this time hitting her montrals against the same bunk. The Togruta groaned and rubbed gently at the organs atop her head. Her head pounded and now everything was ringing from Alia just stunning what she supposed would be her ear equivalent.

She glared from beneath her brow to see who the culprit was. The clone from before, Rex, had taken up the once unoccupied space diagonal from her on the wide bunk. He had very obviously winced with each hit of her head from the way his body was tensed and his face was twisted into an apologetic expression, laced with secondhand pain.

When Alia could finally hear again properly she brought her knees to her chest and rested her forehead against them. "I think it's safe to say that whenever you ask that I am not okay."