Once There Was a Light

Back and Forth in Time

A/N: Well, now everyone will find out the reason for the title... This should be fun. 

He was the kind of villain who had a soft side. He'd never imagined any of this, that he would somehow escape Tatooine and become a Jedi, and go on to become friends with Master Obi-Wan, marry Padme, and train Ahsoka. He certainly never anticipated becoming the Sith Lord Darth Vader, or killing all the Jedi. With all of it, he hadn't know it was really going to happen until it did...

Ahsoka had some idea of what would happen, though. She remembered Mortis, their unplanned trip that had resulted in the meeting of several force wielders, the Father, the Daughter, and the Son. The Father was the balance against Light, the Daughter, and Dark, the Son. Anakin had been turned to the control of the Son during their time on the planet, and Ahsoka and Master Obi-Wan had been unable to revert him back. It was only thanks to the Father that he managed to forget the wickedness the Son had instilled in him. 

Anakin knew that Ahsoka had seeds of the Dark Side too, seeds planted by the Son and seeds planted by him. But in his bid to save his wife, he had forgotten several things: Ahsoka was no longer just his ordinary Padawan. She hadn't been for years. 

She was the Light. 

What had happened on Mortis...that had made her into much more than just Ahsoka Tano. It wasn't as if she herself wasn't special, but she had been Chosen as much as he had. She carried the remaining light within her, and if she was snuffed out...

Anakin suddenly tensed, and Ahsoka noticed it. "Anakin? What's wrong?"

His mind was swirling. "Palpatine let me bring you here. I thought it was so that he could bend you to the Dark Side as an Acolyte to the Emperor, but now..." He looked at Ahsoka, his eyes crystalline blue for the first time in a long time. It was like he was seeing clearly, when he hadn't for so long. It only took the sacrificing of one person so close to him she was practically family. "He said he'd foreseen it, Ahsoka. He had foreseen you being here, and he knew it was inevitable that you would come. He never said it was inevitable that you would join us." 

Ahsoka's markings crinkled as her face screwed up in puzzlement. "What are you trying to say?" 

They were still on Coruscant, still in the deserted Senate building. Palpatine would raise up an Empire, oh yes, but it would be built on brand new foundations. Nothing old would remain. 

That included his former apprentice. "You, Ahsoka. Do you remember what happened on Mortis? How you were turned to the Dark Side and you fought Obi-Wan and I and the Son killed you?" 

He was going on and on, and Ahsoka had no idea what he was talking about. She stood up abruptly, looking down at him like he was crazy. "Anakin, what? I died? How come no one has ever mentioned this?"

"Its not like you permanently died, Snips, and I was busy," Anakin said by way of excuse, though Ahsoka was staring him down. 

"If I died, how...?" She trailed off, gesturing to her whole body, with an implied question. 

Anakin sighed, getting to the point. "I transferred the last of the Daughter's life force into you as she too lay dying. It was enough to bring you back from complete death, Ahsoka. But I think it also might have done something else. I think it may have changed you." 

Ahsoka was looking at him so intently now. "Anakin...I don't understand. You're saying you imbued me with the life force of an ethereal Force-being? Does this mean that I'm somehow..." 

"The Light." A new voice interrupted, a dark, cold, leering one. It croaked and cackled, but retained its youth somehow. "Oh yes, my dear, my apprentice has stumbled upon the right conclusion." 

Palpatine, his red-rimmed yellow eyes glaring out from behind a dark hood, was drifting towards them, looking like the Grim Reaper. 

Anakin stood up with an agility no one really knew he possessed and shoved Ahsoka's body behind his. "I'm done, Palpatine. I'm done hurting the people I care about because of your lies." 

Ahsoka knew what that meant, and she was grateful. She had reached him, and so had Padme, and even Obi-Wan in some way, before he could be completely turned to the darkness. If that had happened fully, she couldn't have said what it would take to turn him back. With another ten years on them both, he probably would have just gone with the Dark Side and killed her. If he had been allowed to take more lives, the Anakin she knew would have become a shell inside Darth Vader. Maybe no one would have ever been able to get him out. 

Palpatine just chortled, like the former Jedi had cracked a hilarious joke. "You say that now, but image the hate and anger you will feel when I snap little Ahsoka Tano in half. Your last connection to the old world, Vader, besides those few pesky Jedi who escaped. Soon enough, you will be rounding them up and killing them yourself, my ally once more. Who can give you the galaxy? Me, or your former apprentice? I see all, Darth Vader. I foresee you ruling the worlds by my side. You cannot change that." His sandpaper voice rattled them both, but they stood firm even as the Sith Lord came closer. "Once I snuff out the last light in the galaxy, the people will have little to hope for, and little to turn to. The scales will tip in the favor of the Sith forever. There will be no Light." 

Anakin's head shot up, defiant. "But that's just it, Palpatine. I don't want to rule - I never did. If you snuff out the Light, the Force will just create another being to take her place, another one who has been Chosen. The Force is nothing if not balanced. But I can't let you kill my best friend." 

Something in Ahsoka stirred. Everyone had always called her former Master "The Chosen One" because he was supposed to bring balance to the Force. Now he was the only thing standing between her - supposedly the Light - and Palpatine - very much the Dark. Once again, he was bringing balance, even if the circle wasn't quite complete. 

Lightsabers were all drawn at once. Ahsoka's sabers had merged with her, revealing the Light, the balance she held, and becoming white. She was someone she hadn't always been - and she certainly hadn't known she held the potentially to be that person. But there was a seed of belief in her, and that seed had changed her sabers white. 

Anakin was red, for the lifeblood he'd shed. The reminder that there was red staining his past. But sometimes the blood red is good, it means you're still alive. That you get a chance to make amends and move on and even love, another thing red represents. 

Palpatine's red was cold, shining, nearly black as his soul. He was going to be merciless. He had been nothing but merciless since he learned of the wicked ways to use the Force. His color was for manipulation and for deceit, the lies that painted his face with the blood of hundreds, maybe thousands. 

Then they charged, rushing in, two on one, and when the lightsabers clashed it was with a rainbow of sparks, a flood of colors that didn't even exist on the spectrum or in their weapons. It was a final stand for them, the last plea for good to best evil. 

But really, what does a rainbow represent? 

A New Hope. 

©BlackShadowDC 2017