Chapter 7
"I pledge myself to your teachings. To the ways of the Sith."
Anakin was kneeling in front of a hooded figure in Chancellor Palpatine's office. Three Jedi lay dead in the back of the room.
"Good, good," a throaty and mysterious voice said. Despite the strange sound, it was recognizable as Palpatine's voice. All that was visible beneath his hood was a distorted and wrinkled face. "The Force is strong with you. A powerful Sith you will become. Henceforth, you shall be known as Darth . . . Vader."
"Thank you," said Anakin in a small voice, "my Master."
Moments flashed by. Screams filled Ahsoka's head.
"Join me, and together we can rule the galaxy as father and son!" A windy platform in a cloudy city, an all black figure called Darth Vader looming above a bleeding and exhausted young man, resembling Anakin Skywalker.
Another.
Darth Vader kneeling before a hologram of Darth Sidious. "What is thy bidding, my Master?"
More.
"He will join us or die, my Master!"
And more.
"The Force is with you, young Skywalker, but you are not a Jedi yet." Darth Vader taunting a young Jedi-in-training, a maintenance hall on Cloud City.
They wouldn't stop.
"You are beaten. It is useless to resist. Don't let yourself be destroyed as Obi-Wan did."
Ahsoka didn't understand.
"Luke . . . help me take this mask off." A barely recognizable and wheezing Darth Vader lay dying on the ramp of an imperial shuttle.
"But you'll die." Luke protested.
"Nothing . . . can stop that now. Just for once... let me... look on you with my own eyes." Anakin insisted, and Luke complied. He smiled.
"Now . . . go, my son. Leave me."
"No. You're coming with me. I'll not leave you here, I've got to save you."
"You already . . . have, Luke. You were right. You were right about me. Tell your sister . . . you were right."
They broke her heart.
"So, you have accepted the truth?" Luke stands next to Darth Vader in binders on the forest moon of Endor.
"I have accepted that you were once a Jedi named Anakin Skywalker, my father."
"That name no longer has any meaning for me!"
The scenes blurred together, the voices becoming one, until they all stopped and a single sequence was left.
"Lord Vader, can you hear me?" Darth Sidious stands in a dark room, next to a large black body strapped to a table.
"Yes, my Master . . . Where is Padme? Is she safe, is she all right?"
"I'm afraid she died . . . it seems in your anger, you killed her."
"I couldn't have! She was alive! I felt her! She was alive! It's impossible! No!"
As the man bellows, his face became visible beneath the helmet. The charred and damaged skin reformed to reveal the face recognized by many as Anakin Skywalker.
Ahsoka gasped as her consciousness returned to the present. Her heart raced in her chest, and behind her closed eyelids, her eyes moved rapidly before settling, and her eyelids lifted. She slowly uncrossed her legs and relaxed from her meditative position. She glanced around the Jedi Council Chamber to speak to Anakin about what seemed to be a vision of his future, but never saw him.
He had gone to see the Chancellor.
Within seconds, Ahsoka had left the Temple and had jumped into a speeder. She barely registered what her body was doing as she tried to reach Anakin before he could do anything the Jedi would live to regret. All she could think about was what she had seen.
"I pledge myself to your teachings. To the ways of the Sith."
It couldn't be true. Anakin could not become a Sith. If Ahsoka found him in time, she could stop him and convince him to think clearly. The puzzle was complete. Ahsoka knew all the answers.
Anakin was in love with Padme, and she was pregnant with twins.
In her visions, Ahsoka had gathered that Anakin had a son named Luke, and a sister, whose name she never heard.
Everything added up. Palpatine told Anakin the story of Darth Plagueis the Wise because he knew Anakin feared for Padme's life.
Ahsoka gasped. Anakin wasn't on his way to help Master Windu. He was on his way to help the Chancellor—to help Darth Sidious.
Ahsoka gunned the engine of her speeder, more desperate than before to stop Anakin.
" . . . the ways of the Sith."
Ahsoka couldn't prevent the thought: What if no matter what I do, Anakin still becomes Darth Vader? What if his future can't be changed? What if it is his destiny?
Ahsoka didn't even hear the police sirens behind her.
~
She could tell she was almost too late. Ahsoka ran past through the halls of the Senate building, not stopping until she had reached Chancellor Palpatine's office. She was given no time to assess the situation when she did. All she saw was Anakin's lightsaber about to cut off Master Windu's hand.
With the Force as her guide, Ahsoka's green lightsaber sprung to life and maneuvered into place, just barely intercepting Anakin's blue blade and stopping him, simultaneously stopping Mace Windu's purple sword as well.
Anakin, Windu, and Palpatine were all too stunned at her entrance to react immediately, giving her time to piece together what had happened.
The three Jedi who had accompanied Mace lay dead near the door. Wind whipped through Ahsoka's clothes and tousled her lekku from the window that had been slashed to pieces. Palpatine, his face wrinkled and his eyes red and sunken, was cornered and Mace stood above him. He had been about to kill him. Anakin stood to the right of them. He had been about to kill Windu in order to save Palpatine.
"Anakin, I've seen your future." Ahsoka said to him. "Don't do this. He is a Sith. There are other ways to ensure Padme's safety. If you do this, there will be no turning back. Your future . . . it's not a happy life."
"I—I need him." Anakin grunted, pushing against her lightsaber.
"Listen to her, Anakin." Windu demanded, his lightsaber pointed at Palpatine. "She is right."
"Meddlesome Jedi." Palpatine muttered, and before Mace or Ahsoka could react, Sith lightning flew from his fingertips and struck Ahsoka, sending her flying out the window.
She narrowly avoided getting hit by any speeders, instead Ahsoka crashed into the cockpit of one and lay there for a moment, too winded and in pain to move. Through the Force, she registered Windu's pain as his hand was cut off and he too was thrown out the window. Unfortunately for him, there was nothing to break his fall, and his presence in the living Force disappeared.
Ahsoka sat up, ignoring the pain. She glared at the frightened creature beside her that piloted the speeder. "Get me to the Jedi Temple, now!"
✨
Ahsoka's attempts to find answers through more meditation were failing. She had no new knowledge, and could only assume that after Mace died, Anakin's future continued as she had seen in her vision. He was no longer her Master, Anakin Skywalker. He was now Darth Vader.
As soon as she had returned to the Jedi Temple, Ahsoka had tried to contact Obi-Wan. For some reason, her transmissions couldn't get through. She could only hope he would be okay. Something told her that the Jedi were about to have the fight of their lives.
Her suspicions were confirmed soon after, when about twenty younglings rushed into the Council Chamber and explained to Ahsoka that clonetroopers were marching into the Temple and killing any Jedi they saw. They told her that the man leading the soldiers looked like a Jedi.
The Force screamed a warning at Ahsoka, telling her that Anakin was right outside the door.
"Everyone, get behind me!" Ahsoka ordered, igniting both of her lightsabers and crouching in a defensive stance.
The door slid open, and Anakin stood there in black robes, his face cold and unyielding. His eyes were slowly turning yellow.
A youngling boy seemed to relax when he saw Anakin. "Master Skywalker, what are we going to do? There are too many of them."
"Stay behind me," Ahsoka commanded.
In response to the youngling's question, Anakin ignited his lightsaber. Ahsoka growled when she saw that it was still blue.
"Don't do this, Anakin. When can still figure this out." Ahsoka pleaded. "You're making a mistake."
"I must do as my Master wishes." Anakin stated unemotionally.
Ahsoka raised her lightsabers, but was caught off guard once again. Instead of attacking with his lightsaber, Anakin waved his hand and Ahsoka crashed through the window. This time she was able to slide to a stop on the side of the building by grabbing a groove in the wall. She was about fifteen feet below the broken window of the Council Chamber.
Ahsoka immediately started climbing back up in order to protect the younglings, but a voice stopped her.
A voice that belonged to Qui-Gon Jinn.
No, Ahsoka. If you face him now, you will lose. You are needed. Obi-Wan and Yoda have survived Order 66—initiated by Darth Sidious to destroy the Jedi. They need you. It is not your time yet.
Ahsoka didn't think too much about how he was speaking to her. The Force works in mysterious ways.
But Master Jinn, the younglings. I—
It is too late. The Force has plans for you. You must let go.
Against her better judgement, Ahsoka did, the screams growing fainter and fainter as she followed Qui-Gon's instructions.
~
Through Qui-Gon's guidance, Ahsoka bypassed the clone troopers guarding the hanger and took off into space in her starfighter before they could stop her. She activated her comlink.
"Emergency Code 9-13. Hello? Can any Jedi hear me? Master Yoda? Master Obi-Wan?"
"Ahsoka!" Obi-Wan's voice exclaimed. A moment later his hologram appeared on her console. "Thank the Force you're all right."
"Master Kenobi! I have so much to tell you. And you're not going to like any of it."
"And I, you. Senator Organa and Master Yoda have just sent me their coordinates. I am on my way to them now. Meet us there."
"Yes, Master." The hologram fizzled out as Ahsoka punched in the coordinates she received from Obi-Wan and launched into hyperspace.
~
Ahsoka and Obi-Wan walked through the hallways of Bail Organa's starcruiser. The passed through a door, finding Yoda and Senator Organa on the other side.
"You made it," Organa said in greeting.
"Master Kenobi, Knight Tano, dark times are these. Good to see you, it is."
"You were attacked by your clones, also?" Obi-Wan asked the nine hundred-year-old Master.
Yoda nodded, "with the help of the Wookiees, barely escape, I did."
"How many other Jedi managed to survive?" Ahsoka wondered.
"Heard from no one, have we."
Organa rubbed his chin. "I saw thousands of troops attack the Jedi Temple. That's why I went looking for Yoda."
"Have we had any contact from the Temple?" Obi-Wan asked.
"Received a coded retreat message, we have."
"It requests all Jedi to return to the Temple." Organa explained. "It says that the war is over . . ."
"Well, then we must go back!" Obi-wan said. "If there are other stragglers, they will fall into the trap and be killed."
Organa shook his head. "It's too dangerous to return."
"Suggest dismantling the coded signal, do you?"
"Yes, Master. There is too much at stake here, and we need a clearer picture of what has happened."
Yoda nodded again. "I agree. In a dark place we find ourselves . . . a little more knowledge might light our way."
Ahsoka spoke up. "Knowledge that I have. I was at the Temple. I have so much to tell you. And none of it is good."
The three Jedi and lone Senator stopped. "Perhaps we should take this conversation somewhere more private," Bail suggested.
The went into a conference room, and Yoda, Obi-Wan, and Bail sat around the table. Ahsoka remained standing. She cut right to the chase. "Chancellor Palpatine is Darth Sidious. Anakin found out and told us. Mace Windu, Agen Kolar, Kit Fisto, and Saesee Tiin went to arrest him, while Anakin and I were told to stay in the Temple. I was supposed to watch Anakin, but I had a vision of his future. After it had finished, he had already left.
"I went to Palpatine's office as fast as I could. When I got there, Masters Kolar, Fisto, and Tiin were already dead, and Anakin was about to stop Mace from killing Palpatine, even if that meant killing him. I stopped Anakin, but Palpatine caught me off guard and Master Windu died and Anakin become Palpatine's apprentice, Darth Vader.
"I returned to the Temple and tried to contact you, Master Kenobi, but I couldn't reach you. I meditated in the hopes of finding more answers, but it didn't work. Then some younglings ran in and told me that the clone army was storming the Temple and shooting down every Jedi. Anakin entered the room and I tried to protect the younglings, but he caught me off guard. I didn't think he would do it, so I underestimated him . . . I don't think any Jedi in the Temple besides myself survived the attack . . . We are the last of the Jedi."
She left out the part about Qui-Gon guiding her. Somehow, she knew they would find out soon enough.
As Ahsoka expected, Yoda, Obi-Wan, and Bail took a few moments to let the information sink in. Obi-Wan was the first to speak.
"Anakin . . . became a Sith?"
Ahsoka hung her head. "I didn't want to believe it either. But I saw him. It's true."
Obi-Wan put his hand on his head, rubbing his hair. "I—I trained him. I taught him everything. He was like a brother to me . . . What did I do wrong?"
Ahsoka sat at the head of the table, slumping ungracefully into the chair. "It wasn't you," she insisted. "He fell in love with Padme Amidala, and I can only assume they've been married for some time now. But what I do know is that she's pregnant. With twins."
"We have to warn Padme. And the other Jedi!" Obi-Wan said.
"And I have just been summoned to an emergency Senate meeting. It would be suspicious if I didn't show." Bail explained.
Yoda agreed. "Then no time to waste, there is."
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