Archive of Our Own

Ahsoka doesn’t know how she landed in the future, or what it’ll take for her to go back – if she ever can go back, a question she’d rather burry and never think about again, because it means asking herself how she can save the Jedi all on her own, but she hates the future with more words than she can state.

She wants Anakin. She wants to see her master again, to be with him, to never go away again, because finally she knows what could happen to him so easily, and what happens even when you do fight.

Her master is gone, and he was killed by a Sith Lord.

And all Ahsoka feels is rage.

Anakin Skywalker, her master, the Jedi who raised her with every bit of love in the galaxy, who could smile and light the sky, who stood by her through the war and Force knows Ahsoka has not been an easy padawan for him. She’s been hard for him and everyone, but he’s so level-headed in the face of chaos that terrifies her, and she knows that he saved her life more times than she can count better than Ahsoka knows her own tames.

Anakin, her master, her general, her friend – her family who was taken by the Sith.

And all Ahsoka feels is rage.

Luke is Anakin’s son, which is stunning, and at least it gives Ahsoka something to think about. At least it’s – someone. Anakin would’ve wanted his son to be kept safe.

But when she and Luke duck through the opening together and the lift carries them up onto… a Force forsaken carbon freezing chamber, of all the crazy things this could be, which instantly drags up memories of the recent Citadel and all the chaos her and her master pulled off there, she feels…

Darkness.

The air is cold and shivers snake down her spine, dragging tenseness into her limbs and chilling her through and cold. Anakin was brighter than the day, bright like ever star she newly crashed her ship right through, where he shone and Ahsoka felt him in her head halfway across the galaxy with her wherever she went.

This presence is something purely of the Dark Side, something full of nothing but pain and hate and emptiness, and everything dark there is in the world. It's like a whirlwind, a black hole that sucks everything Light inside, eats it and rewrites it all with something of pure darkness alone.

It's like – a star that burned out and collapsed into itself, and a black hole taking its wake.

With strength that's familiar, but still a being of... nightmares.

Ahsoka forces all of that aside as her grip on her lightsabers tighten, stalking forwards towards the presence’s center, hating how quiet and dark the Sith made the room. A perfect hunter, a stalked and killer just like Grievous. Luke had said he’s a cyborg. That didn’t aid her opinion.

She steps free of the shadows, and something moves, the room lighting, and Ahsoka whips around towards where the creature itself stands at the top of the stairs.

Shock ripples into the Force hard enough the steel creaks and glass fractures. A power that she’s only once seen in….

The one this creature killed.

"Impossible."

"Anything's possible with the Force," Ahsoka snarks right back, “Or did your master fail to teach you that?"

The sound of a respirator fills the room. The Sith's gaze is still locked on her where she stands beside Luke. “Ahsoka Tano.”

“You know my name,” she guesses. Feral. With more rage than she’s ever once held. “Good. Then you’ll know the name that kills you. Come on, Luke.” She nods over her shoulder at the Jedi, if he’s anything like his dad he won’t even struggle here, and lunges. The Force sprees her forwards, carrying her over the stairway in a single jump and bringing her sabers down.

He blocks. One-handed. With infuriating ease.

“How are you here?”

"I hope you're excited to know you're gonna die wondering," Ahsoka snarls at him, regaining herself fast, and diving right at him again. Luke attacks from the other side, but apparently, Obi-Wan died long before the boy ever learned how to properly use the thing.

Because, Force, Ahsoka has seen younglings fight better than that. It kinda makes her want to cringe.

And, also, the Sith killed Obi-Wan, which only serves to spur her forwards. But every attack is blocked.

She presses, pushing forwards even if her wrists ache from the force of hitting him, every blow being rebounded right off from the strength of his mechanical arms. It’s worse than fighting Grievous. She shouldn’t have made that comparison.

But Ahsoka refuses to back down. This is the man who took Anakin from her, and from the kid he ever got to know – she still has questions – and she's not letting her master's memory go unavenged.

Whether it's the Jedi way or not.

“Tell me,” he asks, their blades finally locking into a saberlock – he’s barely even paying attention to Luke now that she’s here. She’d been afraid she’d have to keep nearly dying to protect him, but the Sith, apparently, has absolutely no intent of going after the other boy. “How did you get here?”

“Apparently, the Force has a funny sense of justice, and it’s gonna let my master’s padawan kill the monster that took him!” Ahsoka lashes outwards. She didn’t expect it to work, honestly, but either with all her rage and fury, or with the mere fact that he hardly saw it coming, it pushes him back.

He smacks into one of the stairs and falls sideways.

Ahsoka doesn’t stop. She swings her blades around and dives at him.

It was really meant to be a killing blow, but either he's too good and the Force also hates her, so the Sith rolls right over, grabs his lightsaber, and blocks her. Both hands now, but even with all her weight, she can't push it down.

“Ugh!”

She’s forced to flip herself over and land again, awkward and scrambling to pick herself up again as he picks himself up.

Ahsoka's panting, and she's getting worn, which has happened before in fights, but this is crazy. This guy is like, impossible to even make a dent on. But - how could Anakin not have.... and why does he feel so familiar? There's a sort of familiarity about his presence, but that's impossible, because if she ever once felt something this Dark, she would never forget. It's sickening to feel.

Nope, she’d never forget, and he couldn’t have changed his presence from –

And why does he not feel angry? Why isn’t he trying to kill her?

“No,” he repeats. Calm, somehow, like he’s dealing with the thousandth little teen temper tantrum out of her, like this is somehow far from the worst like – like – “I am your master.”

Ahsoka stumbles back from the shove, blades clutched tightly in her hands as she stares at him. She feels dizzy, suddenly far, far away as  her mind screams and whirls. That is – no, it’s –

“That’s impossible!” she yells, furious. Tears prick her eyes and she doesn’t know why she wants to cry so bad, it’s childish and never changes anything but it’s impossible, this can’t be him, this can’t be – Anakin Skywalker. “My master would never become like – you. Yes, he’s impulsive, he’s reckless, but he would never –”

“Anything is possible with the Force,” he says, snarky in true Anakin fashion, and Ahsoka jumps at him again.

She’s not thinking, she’s furious and hurting and refuses to believe the truth staring her in the face as her heart breaks and bleeds.

Anakin would never have chosen the Dark Side, it doesn’t make any sense, he loved her, he loved so many people and even if he struggled, he was always right in the end. He was just so good, this can’t be him, it’s impossible, Ahsoka can’t accept this.

But he’s fighting so…

Easy.

He isn’t trying to hurt her.

The Force rings with truth.

But he still killed Obi-Wan. Her master, he’s – this. He’s Dark, he’s barely human, he’s a million things and done a million things she can’t even imagine.

He’s still going for Luke. He’s gonna get hurt if…. If he doesn’t get out. Ahsoka pushes herself up and yells at him to run.

“He won’t hurt me,” she says, hardly believing, and stays behind to fight the maniacal Sith Lord. Who is not half as insane as Ahsoka thought she could tell herself; he’s just following her with single-minded focus. She runs, and he follows, chasing like he can’t stand to let her out of his sight again.

The he’s not trying to kill me suspicions are only proved further when she falls off a walkway, and Ahsoka grabs the edge, just barely, on time to stop herself from falling down into oblivion. And the idiot just waited for her.

Real considerate.

“Join me,” the Sith just goes, like that’s somehow even on order of question. “Let me complete your training. Together, we can –”

“What, destroy the Sith?” Ahsoka yells back, “You know that’s you now, right? I’m not gonna help you take over the galaxy!”

Breathing sound. “I am already one of the most powerful people in the galaxy. With your help, we can remove Darth Sidious, and bring order to the galaxy.”

“No,” she says, just to be stubborn.

“Do not make me destroy you.”

“You are such a drama queen!” Ugh, she hates how, when she looks, she’s starting to catch onto the faintest, craziest hints of Anakin Skywalker beneath that mask, and it should be impossible, but here he is. He’s still alive, just – a Sith and so, so broken.

Somebody hurt him, somebody did this to him, and she’s not ready to think about who. But she remembers, sharply, what Luke said about Obi-Wan, and he’s one of the only Jedi who could beat Anakin in a duel.

“I am not.” The idiot actually sounds slightly offended.

Ahsoka tries to charge him again, only for Anakin to grab her and hold her in place with the Force.

“That is enough,” he scolds, like he’s somehow dealing with an extremely inconvenient tantrum. “We will return to my ship, and perhaps in the near future, you will be willing to see reason. I will continue my search for Luke… later.”

Right…. Luke doesn’t even know who Vader is. probably.

Vader tries to grab her.

Ahsoka bites him.

His gloves are thick leather, taste terrible, and he’s all armored with metal, so the point is moot, but it’s the effort that counts even if it makes her fangs hurt.

That stupid helmet is just staring at her.

Ahsoka glares back.

***

He is. Is Anakin. Ahsoka’s mind is still screaming, but she can’t deny the truth so obviously in front of her.

She wants to hide it, run from it as far as she can, but the truth is just too obvious. The strength in the Force, the familiarity, the hesitation, because of course even if Anakin somehow went Dark, he would never forget how much he loved her. He wouldn’t.

That’s simply who Anakin Skywalker is. Too attached to be a true Jedi. And… too attached to be a true Sith. Or at least any Sith that Ahsoka truly knows of.

Her head is still spinning though – too many things trying to sink in at once, too much. It’s all just too much.

That was her master. That’s her master, there’s no escaping it, it’s – Anakin turned to the dark Side. Anakin. Her master, her best friend, who meant everything and she somehow thought was too perfect to ever…

To ever become this, no matter how tempted by the dark Side he might’ve always been.

But here Anakin is, a Sith Lord.

Darth Vader.

The only version of her master that Ahsoka will ever see again unless she finds a way back home. And by the Force, she wants to go back to where everything makes sense, to where there’s still hope for the galaxy, to where the Jedi still are, to where…

Even if it means she still has to keep fighting.

“We were never gonna win the Clone Wars anyway, were we?” she demands bitterly.

“No.” Too blunt. Just like Anakin. “The Jedi doomed themselves from the moment that they started fighting.”

“Then I doomed myself.”

“No.” He’s firmer this time. “You survived because of what I taught you. And if we fight, we may still have a chance of removing Darth Sidious.”

“Then you’ll take his place, and we won’t be anywhere better.”

“I want this conflict ended as much as you, Ahsoka. To continue this fight… is my master’s orders.”

“So, you’ll listen to the Rebellion? Restore the Republic?”

“The Republic was failing long before I was born. The galaxy requires a new system if it is to survive.”

“Let me guess, adapt?” Ahsoka snarls back, angry. “I’ve seen your version of adaption.”

“It is the will of the Force that you are here and we have this chance. Do not waste it. Allow me to complete your training.”

Ahsoka sighs. A lot of words come to mind, all nasty, but she doesn’t voice any. In her time in the future, all she’s longed for was Anakin. Now that she has him back, why does he have to be… like this? Why does he have to be Dark? Shouldn’t he be the leader of the Rebellion? This is all so wrong.

Yes, it’s natural and whatever that things aren’t exactly like she thought they’d be, but this is still so, so wrong.

The Force brought her here for something though. She just refuses to believe it’s the same thing this Sith is so firmly insisting, that can’t be right – it doesn’t make any sense. It wouldn’t… but there’s got to be a reason she’s here, right?

But what?

And, she knows and hates it, she has never wanted to take anyone’s offered hand so badly before. To accept the promise of not being alone.

“I know you’re lying,” Ahsoka argues, shaking her head and biting her lip, still too stubborn to listen and believe. She refuses to accept that her master Fell to the Dark Side and that she’ll never see her Anakin again. But he’s right. She’s here for something. Maybe…

“I have never lied to you, Ahsoka.”

Also, truth. More than she can say for… some others.

“And I would not ask you to do this unless you knew I believed it.”

She knows. But it’s still so, so hard to believe. “You were the best of us.”

His mask is terrifying to look at, unreadable, but she can feel something intent beneath it as he studies her with something she probably would never understand, even looking into her own master’s face. “I did not see most of what you saw in me,” he replies at last, “The… other Ahsoka left me. Do not repeat her mistake.”

It’s not threatening. It would make more sense, Ahsoka thinks sullenly, if he was. It’s something so much closer to pleading. Desperate not to be alone again. She understands loneliness over the last few weeks better than she knows her own name.

Being the last Jedi from the Clone Wars, the last of the 501^st – except Rex, who she’s heard is out here somewhere and one of the last dozen or so clones in the galaxy – and… so far out of her own time.

She understands loneliness.

She also expects that’s all her master has felt for a long, long while. It would expect the… cold emptiness. Anakin has always been attached to people; they ground him and…

Now he’s alone, too.

“What happened to… the other me?”

“She saw the flaws in the Jedi Order before I did myself, and she walked away.”

From – him. “Why would I ever leave the Order?! The Jedi way is my life. I can’t imagine being without it.” But the Force whispers truth again. Anakin doesn’t lie. He’s always been that way. Forthright. Outcoming. Trustworthy.

But Sith are none of those things. They’re monsters, they’re evil and a lot of other things.

“As I said. You saw its flaws and you walked away.”

That sounds – not very her. But it happened, didn’t it? And she’d left Anakin on top of it. Somehow, she left her master, who became – this, and things are starting to make a little more sense. Something awful must’ve happened between them and the Jedi, something her master has yet to voice, and likely will refrain from.

Something that shattered her enough to make her lose her own belief, which must be something… unbelievable. She isn’t like her master. She was raised as a Jedi. Walking out for her would be impossible.

Other-her walked away from Anakin, no doubt with no idea that he needed her. She wouldn’t ever have believed it until today, either.

She could still leave. This is Anakin – he wouldn’t stop her from doing anything. But she doesn’t want to hurt him again or repeat her past-self’s mistakes. They’re best done in only one lifetime.

But… “I’m not going to become a Sith.”

“If only you knew the power of the Dark Side,” her drama queen master replies, “The Sith are beyond what the Jedi told you. We can remake the galaxy together. End this conflict, and bring peace.”

It’s better than, just keep fighting.

But Ahsoka had thought the Clone Wars would end well, and that blew up, didn’t it?  No war has ever ended worse.

And then she does a double take of him, of everything, of how the Jedi are gone and she knows she alone can’t survive in the galaxy and preserve the way of a dying Code. Maybe they were doomed before they even started. But her master isn’t. He’s still alive.

Anakin Skywalker is still alive. Somewhere beneath all that pain and hate. And if he’s not, she’s signing her own doom, and also with no regret. Nothing should ever have taken them apart, anyway. She can’t imagine a life without Anakin in it – and Force knows he needs her. Anakin, who gave up everything, would take anything to keep her safe.

Anakin, who loved her. And that love can still be real if she chooses it. Ahsoka sighs and hopes she isn’t signing her own doom. “Alright, Skyguy. I guess you won’t be getting rid of me for a while yet.”

The respirator cycles. “Very well, Darth Snips.’

“Hey! I didn’t agree to become a Sith, I just said I’d help you take out the Emperor.”

“…as you wish, just-Snips.”

And that is how Darth Sidious unleashed the terrifying rage duo that is Skyguy and Snips. May the Force help him.