The Padawan's Padded Therapy. (Private for JustJoe)

[Bellhart]

"Incoming!"

A clone yelled as a cloud of dust flared up before crashing down again. The Separatist Artillery making quick work of remodeling the ruins of the once pristine city where the fierce battle was taking place. All around, blasters flared, clones yelled, battle droids clanked, and the atmosphere of war smothered the surroundings.

Having taken cover in response to the Clone's warning, Anakin Skywalker leaped back up, taking up a familiar position and deflecting blaster bolts as he covered a group of clones as they regrouped.

"That artillery came from beyond their first trench line! We need to take it out now, or they'l box us in and blow us to pieces!" he yelled over the roar of the battle.

"Ahsoka, follow me closely, I need you by my side." He said as he set off.

This battle was going horribly, but at least Ahsoka was here. She was a friend and close associate, and as his Padawan she was perhaps the closest thing he had to a family.

Lately though, he had grown concerned. The normally outgoing and bright girl he knew had become more introverted, talking to him less and acting withdrawn. He'd tried to broach the subject with her, but she'd always dismissed his concern, saying she was normal as usual.

He wasn't sure he was going about it right. He had little experience on dealing with more emotional and social issues. He'd meant to talk to Padme about it, but they'd been called off to attend this campaign before he could meet her.

As he breached the line and cut down droids, he turned to see the girl still standing there, frozen, as if she hadn't heard him and a strange look on her face.

"Ahsoka, focus!" he yelled. "I need you here!" he called over at her. What had gotten into her? She was never like this normally.

[JustJoe]

There was a haze of dust curtaining the air, it divided the battle field between the two opposing battalions, making it so that rather than firing precise targeted shots both sides fired wild sporadic volleys of covering fire as attempted to close distance and make visual contact.

Somewhere in the midst of the dust cloud, was a presidential palace with thick walls of blast resistant sandstone. Commander Skywalker had selected it as a suitable redoubt while his forces endured artillery fire. His young padawan, Ashoka Tano, was with him.

She had seen battles in the clone wars already, each of them testing but never like this. Ahsoka was impulsive, perhaps even aggressive in character, she rushed into battle and lost herself in rhythm of lightsabre combat.
This battle however was different. They had to wait for an orbital bombardment from their entangled cruisers overhead to since the Separatist artillery. General Obi Wan had concerned with Anikan that patience was the best policy, he was confidant the Republic fleet could achieve orbital superiority and would be available to support the ground assault. Thus was of course strategy not tactics. The grand moves off Jedi Masters were beyond the training and foresight of young padawan Ahsoka, couldn't understand why they would simply retreat and regroup to favourable grounds rather than endure the current bombardment. It made her feel confined, trapped, powerless.

The dust swept in through the shattered windows and blasted walls. It stung Ahsoka's eyes, blurring the red flashes of blaster fire being exchanged around her so I looked like hellish lightening was rippling through clouds of smoke. If the small arms fire was lightening, the heavy ordinance being hurled at their position was certainly thunder. It pounded the palace, shaking the very foundations of the building, cracking its immense walls to cloven sections in places, collapsing vaulted ceilings, and throwing clones from their feet. Everyone had clenched teeth for fear of biting their own tongues as the shockwaves rattled them but Anikan's instincts had be right, his battle group was reporting less casualties than in other sections of the front.

Ahsoka was feeling the bombardment worse than her human comrades. She was a Togruta. Her hollow horns resonated the vibrations in the air and the senso-neuro organs associated with them agonisingly blazed with sensory overload. Under normal circumstances it gave her extra spatial sense but now it was like ever shell which fell against the walls of the palace wasn't just felt as a kinesthetic shockwave but also as an explosion in her mind.

Ahsoka was deaf to Anakin's words. When she did eventually look up at him, emitted a wordless whimper lost in the pandemonium of war, it with wide staring panic stricken eyes.

Her urge was to run, her muscles were primed for it, flexing, aching but she remained rooted, frozen toxic stress. She didn't even notice as her bladder emptied itself, soaking the inside of her leggings and splashing over the floor and her boots. The near by clones were innocuously to this, focused on their indoctrined purpose of making war. It was only one of the aging clone veterans, one who had started to form a personality and individuality, that pulled away from his cover and made shell rattled dash to where Ahsoka stood.

"Are you alright miss Tano." The clone commander asked, shaking her shoulder. He recognised signs of PTSD.

"It's inside my head." Ahsoka moaned, "It won't stop. Filling up and up but I can't get it out.... My legs are wet." Ahsoka commented, dazed, noticing for the first time. Her face was pale, she ran her hands over her legs worried she was bleeding.

The Commander looked up at Anikan who had approached after realising his padawan was unresponsive. "Sir, shall I call for a troopship to evac Ahsoka?"

[Bellhart]

"Yes, quickly now!" He barked the order as he looked over Ahsoka. His worst fears were confirmed, there was indeed something troublingly wrong with the girl.

"Easy there Ahsoka. Ahsoka? Can you hear me? What's wrong?" He wasn't a medic by any means, nor a psychiatrist, so he had little idea of what to do.

He gently guided her behind a sturdy-ish looking slab of dura-crete rubble, setting her down away from the fire of blasters.

"Stay here, ok? I need to deal with that Artillery fire, I'l be back as soon as I can."

Ans with that he set of, leaping and slashing his way through the lines, decapitating droids as he went. Quickly he found the Artillery pit and soon had it out of action.

After making his way back to where his Padawan was, she seemed unchanged, and just as troubled. Looking up, he saw a gunship approaching.

"Alright Snips, we're getting out of here. Rex, think you can handle the rest of this operation?" He asked the clone nearby as he walked Ahsoka slowly along.

[JustJoe]

Ahsoka felt Anikan's hand flatten and gently press against her back, guiding her foreword. With heavy tired limbs she clambered onto the deck of the transport, assisted by clone troopers. She sat down heavily against the internal bulkhead whereas typically she would have been standing braced against the frame looking out, too short to reach the overhead handholds the clones used to brace themselves when standing in readiness for landing. Ahsoka could feel her wet leggings cooling rapidly against the scratched steel deck. She realised now that she had wet herself and felt wretched.

Drawing her legs up to her chest and hugging them a pregnant silence grew in the space, giving room over to the whirring of engines and the crackle of the cockpit comms system.

"Go on." Ahsoka mumbled from her curled up position. "I know you want to say something!" She challenged.

Inside her head her thoughts were looping around another like fighter ships in a dogfight. She feared what had happened was a failure in her training and she might loose her position as an apprentice Jedi. Had that ever happened before? What would happen to her? Would she be expected to return in shame to lessons with the younglings or would she be thrown out of the Jedi academy altogether?

"Master?" Her tone was less snippy, more reproachful. "Have I failed my training?"

[Bellhart]

Anakin made sure they were a safe distance from the battlefield before turning his attention to his Padawan. There safety was paramount in these situations. From the slits in the hull armour, he could see that the battle was going well. Without the cover of their artillery barrages, the Separatist forces were proving to be something of a paper tiger. The entire front seemed to be folding as clones stormed trenches and overran the defensive works. He was glad of this at least. Whatever happened, there was no worry of Ahsoka getting the blame for a failed assault.

It had only been a few months ago that she had been handed guard duty on Coruscant for her little stunt during the 1st battle of Falusia. Ahsoka was impatient, and eager to prove herself, always jumping into battles and chomping at the bit to get into the action on missions. Which was why her episode outside the trench line was so confusing. What was wrong with her?

He didn't say anything in reply to her first query, himself lost in thought over the issue. He regretted this as he felt the sense of anxiety and fear, radiating of of her in waves.

"You haven't failed anything Snips. We all make mistakes and have trouble with them. Are you alright? Any idea what happened out there?" he asked consolingly as he sat down beside her, hoping to comfort her and not seem as intimidating.

Luckily for the Togruta, Anakin didn't pick up the smell of her accident. The winds of the planet blowing around the scents of vast amounts of cordite, mud, burning fabric and mud. A whirl-storm of smells that easily overwhelmed the faint scent of urine coming from her clothes.

Ahsoka on the other hand would be more aware of it, especially considering the enhanced sense of smell Togrutans had to go with their heightened hearing.

[JustJoe]

Ahsoka reflected on her recent experiences. They had rendezvoused with the fleet from Corusant. During the time in transit Ahsoka had been impatient but she had tempered that in the ways she had been trained, with mediation, exercise and training. Upon arriving in orbit she had been excited for the ground assault and an opportunity to demonstrate the further honing of her abilities in a 'real world' situation.

She hadn't been frightened as the first reports came in that their ships were under attack from a Separatist fleet attempting to lift the orbital siege. She hadn't been afraid as she had deployed with Anikan to the front. Then had come the pause and the heavy shelling and she had become suddenly overwhelmed.

"I think it started when we were being shelled." Ahsoka told Anikan. "We were stuck in that building. I could feel the bombardment, in my head, it was overwhelming. And then I felt like I was trapped. As if I there was no way of escaping what was happening." Ahsoka focused of relaying her thoughts and feelings. The physical repercussion of her break down had ever gone unnoticed or unsaid. Ahsoka thought that the physical discomfort of having wet herself was bad enough without the humiliation of it being acknowledged by her mentor.

"What happens now?" She asked, referring to how this reflected on her training. Would she be trusted in battle again? As for the immediate future, she wanted to retire to safe and private quarters to bathe and change her clothes.

[Bellhart]

(How Experienced is she? Has she seen combat before? I like the idea of her having fought before, and its just now catching up to her.)

Anakin put a hand gently on her shoulder in an attempt to reassure her. He wasn't used to dealing with personal or emotional issues, and to be frank, neither was the Jedi order as a whole. They had always been so detached from everything. He remembered the fight on Geonosis, where for a few horrible hours, it had seemed like Ahsoka and her fellow Padawan Barris had been lost in an avalanche. He had been near hysterical for Ahsoka. She wasn't just a friend, she was his Padawan. It was his duty to protect her and help her grow and achieve knighthood, and he had been numb as he thought he might have sent her to her death.

Bariss's master on the other hand, had been almost comically stoic at the thought of her padawans death. Even as Anakin and his clones searched frantically through the rubble for survivors, Barris's master seemed to already be mentally compiling her obituary. When she had told Anakin that he needed to accept what had happened, it had taken a lot of self control for him to resist the urge to punch her.

"You don't need to worry snips, you're not in trouble. I think you might just be pushing yourself too far. Trying to run before you master walking." he spoke softly. "There's nothing to be ashamed about. It just means we have to keep up with your training."

As he spoke, the transport had cleared the atmosphere of the planet and was beginning to dock with the flagship of the republic fleet.

"Listen, I'l cover for you at the debriefing. Why don't you go back to your quarters and get some R and R, huh? You could probably use it." he smiled at her gently. Judging from the bags under her eyes, she could do with catching up on her sleep.

[JustJoe]

(You've already implied that she's been in battle.)

"That sounds like a plan." Ahsoka replied. She found her feet and was the first to leave the craft, not wishing to linger incase Anikan released she had wet herself but she found herself lingering at the threshold. She turned briefly, hesitation weighing on her brow. "Anikan... Thanks." She said with a small appreciative smile and hopped off the transport.

In the privacy of her quarters Ahsoka stripped off her cloths and washed in an anti-gravity shower. The feeling of weightlessness was comforting to her as the shower droplets gently buffeted her sink and were sucked away by a vacuum field. She could close her eyes and imagine she was floating in one of the high saline oceans of her home world.

After her shower and vacuum drying she donned a set of simple silk pajamas in the fashion of the Togruta. She meditated briefly at the foot of bed, an act which cleared her thoughts as she tried to focus only on her breathing, finding her place within the balance of the Force. Then she flopped back against the pillows and pulled the grey blankets over herself. Sleep came easily.

When she woke up she felt cold and uncomfortable. Sleepily she tried to squirm away from what feel like damp sheets beneath her. As the covers were kicked away she opened her eyes and realised she had wet the bed. She swore bitterly in her native tongue.

She showered again, this time she felt frustrated rather than relaxed. She dressed herself. She threw the wet sheets she had stripped of the bed and wet clothes as a servo-droid. Then she ate a breakfast of fruit and porridge alone in her quarters because she didn't feel like talking with anyone given her grey mood.

She realised that there was no point in trying to hide in her room, someone would come looking for her eventually. Plus she had responsibilities, such as her Jedi training. So she adopted a brave face and went to look for Anikan to receive her instructions for the day. She would relegate the worrisome bedwetting to the back of her mind. It was likely just a freak occurance anyway, she told herself, like yesterday's battle. Upon thinking of it she felt her heart quicken with anxiety and she walked a little quicker to her lesson hoping to find distraction in her training.

[Bellhart]

(OK. Just checking in case you preffered her being more green.)

Anakin meanwhile was in a much better mood. With the major cities of the planet re taken, there was little reason for two jedi to stay her just to oversee mopping up operations. As a result, they were heading back to coresuant for rotation, which meant he'd get to see Padme for a few days.

He smiled at the thought as he made his way down the hall towards the on board gym. They'd set up an improvised training area for the Jedi and his padawan to practice in.

On his way there, he passed a service droid carry a bundle of bed linen who seemed rather ticked off for some reason.

As he exited the hallway into the larger area, he smiled as he saw Ahsoka approaching from the other side.

"Hey Snips! sleep well? I was thinking we could do a little light sparring practice if you felt up for it."

He frowned as he took her in. Despite the nights rest, she seemed just as bad for wear as she had yesterday. There was clearly still something off about her.

[JustJoe]

"I believe the human expression is, 'out like a light." She commented, making an effort to smile. Even though she was feeling gloomy, Ahsoka was pleased to see Anikan. The presence of her Jedi master made her feel comforted. She couldn't picture herself having graduated with an apprentice of her own rather than being at Anikan's side, though she supposed that was still a long way off. She wondered when Anikan had last spoken to Obi-wan and what the older Jedi was engaged in. Did Obi-wan miss Anikan? Would Anikan miss her?

Ahsoka brightened visibly as her Master suggested a sparring session. "Your on Sky guy!"

Ahsoka stretched out and did a quick warm up. Her clothing was either loose or body tight and mailable, so she hadn't needed to change. After her warm up she drew her most precious possession to hand, her light sabre. The beam emitter was set to a low frequency for the practice fight.