Eventually, the cruiser did reenter Coruscant airspace, and Ahsoka had to say her goodbyes. She promised, multiple times, that if she was ever around she would give a shout. Despite the generous offer, Ahsoka had to refuse taking her decorated fighter underground with her. There was no way it was getting down there.
Some of the Jedi Masters, Mace Windu in particular, had to be carried off on a stretcher, but most of the others were able to walk off on their own power. They were escorted to the halls of healing, where they were admitted for at least an hour of rest. Even Anakin had to go down and submit to the healing wards.
The best part for Ahsoka was the look on the emergency council's face when she stepped off the cruiser with the other Jedi. It was clear that they were not expecting her to survive, succeed, or to have had such a good time doing so. Not only that, but they were impressed and mildly intimidated by the lack of casualties, so much so that she was invited to stay for lunch. The only reason she accepted was because the rations were free, even if they were bland and tasteless.
She was finally starting to wear out, though. The joy she had felt from a successful mission and from seeing old friends was thinning, and she wanted to go home. Work was going to start up again tomorrow, and Ahsoka needed to change and shower before that happened.
The Jedi Council, the official one, didn't seem to be aware of this fact, though, because once they had been released from the Halls of Healing, they summoned her to a 'quick' meeting. Frankly, Ahsoka was dreading it. The last time she had stood before this Council hadn't ended well.
While she was waiting for the Council to let her in, Anakin walked up to the room and waited with her. She knew they didn't have the freedom to say what they wanted like earlier, or at least he didn't. Ahsoka could speak her mind all the livelong day.
"It would be nice if they just said 'good job' and let me go, for once," she muttered under her breath, so only Anakin could hear.
"To them, it's not that simple," he reminded her. "They'll want to know your motive, your intentions, why it's different from before..."
Ahsoka groaned lowly. "I did it because I wanted to. End of story."
He snorted. "Yeah, good luck with that. You might want to try a different answer."
"Ya think?" She rubbed her temple, already feeling a headache coming on. They walked another meter or so before Anakin cleared his throat.
"After this is done, I can give you a ride back underground," he offered, but when Ahsoka saw his face, she could tell there was more to it. "Might be faster than walking."
She nodded but made eye contact with him. "Thank you," she said, but in her mind, she was focusing on their bond, trying to convey that she understood what he wanted to say. It must have worked, because he returned the nod quickly and looked straight ahead again, not saying a word.
They came to the waiting area outside the Council meeting room and sat on the benches provided. Ahsoka rested her hands on her knees, but they were white from clenching them so hard.
Ahsoka had not been summoned to speak with the Jedi Masters, she had been summoned to speak with the Jedi Council. Not the people she was willing to trust, to a certain extent, but the commanding, and almost political body that had decided her fate without consulting her first. The group that chose the Republic over her. The group that expelled her without a second thought, and thought she would be willing to just walk right back in.
The worst part was she still felt like she had something to prove to them. Ahsoka had no idea what, in particular, she was thinking of, but something. Maybe that she could survive without them, or that she was still a capable fighter, or that the Dark Side wasn't untamable, or that they had been wrong. Things that shouldn't have mattered and weren't worth delaying her departure, and things she didn't want to talk about. So why was she so tense over them?
Anakin could feel her tightening up, and tried to calm her through the Force. Slowly, gradually, she released the tension in her upper body and slowed her breathing. She remembered the easiest way to physically center herself: focus on a fixed point, something you know won't move.
She turned to Anakin, staring for a moment before asking, "What do you think they want?"
He shook his head. "Answers, like always. I don't think they know how to react to you, or even what to react to."
"Why do they need to have an opinion on someone outside of their influence?" she questioned, trying to keep talking. The longer she did, the longer she had a reason to keep her focus on Anakin. "What good will it do them?"
"You can't blame them for wanting control," he argued, playing the devil's advocate. "They were just manipulated by a Sith, they don't exactly want that to happen again. The easiest way to avoid that is if they are on top."
Ahsoka wasn't impressed. "Look at how well that turned out for them last time."
He resisted the urge to grin. "Well, they got their lives handed to them by a teenage, wannabe Sith Togruta, who managed to figure out the Chancellor's plan before anyone else did by going to the Dark Side. That didn't exactly build up their confidence."
She stifled a laugh with her hand, then proceeded to fake cough. "Ego," she threw in, before clearing her throat. "Sorry, I don't know what came over me."
Anakin was really struggling to maintain his composure, but the light atop the doors to the Council room lit up, signaling that they were ready for Ahsoka.
"Here goes nothing," she muttered, before standing up and walking in. She knew Anakin couldn't come with her, but she could have used emotional support. Still, she walked up to the doors and activated the motion sensor, opening them.
The room had been restored to its former, non-ambushed state, but it was just as silent as it was yesterday. Instead of the entire Council sitting there, waiting for her, Yoda was sitting on a pillow in the middle, with one other in front of him.
Maybe Sideous affected them more than I thought he did, she admitted. Maybe all of that can change.
She walked in and sat on the second pillow, her legs crossed. Yoda had his eyes closed and was meditating, so Ahsoka figured she should do the same. Relaxing, she sank into the Force, but not in the same way Yoda was. The Grandmaster was surrounded by the Light radiating from the Temple, but Ahsoka was no longer trying to be a part of it. Instead, she allowed her own Force signature to grow and engulf her, aware that Yoda could definitely feel it. If he was willing to sit down and actually talk with her, though, the least she could do was be vulnerable and honest.
Opening up to the Temple, she felt its presence again, all around her but no longer in her. Ahsoka wanted to dig more into what she felt earlier, to see if there was more to it. The Temple had almost as much of a conscious as a person did, and it could react to her signature in the same way.
The Temple recognized her, of course, but it knew she was different. It was wary of the Darkness in her, and Ahsoka had a feeling that if she used it here the Temple would act in retribution. However, there were distinct places where her Darkness and her Light were brushing up against each other, and this seemed to pique the Temple's interest. It was almost as if it was waiting for something to happen, but Ahsoka either couldn't or wouldn't do it.
If she concentrated hard enough, she could hear it speaking to her too. You are on a path to many things, but those things do not lie here, it told her. There is nothing for you here.
Ahsoka wasn't sure if she believed the Temple. There are good things here, she argued. Good people, good reasons, good memories, good lessons. Am I no longer allowed to partake in them?
Not now, it answered her. The Order no longer accepts you for what you have become. Respect it, perhaps, in time, but you are no Jedi.
I am no Jedi, Ahsoka repeated, letting the words sink into her mind. I cannot deny what I used to be, though.
If the Temple could nod, slowly, it seemed like it did. Yes, remember it. One day, it will serve you. You are on a path to many things.
"Many things indeed," Yoda affirmed, breaking her concentration. She opened her eyes and saw him smiling at her. "What things, I wonder?"
Ahsoka let her gaze drift. "I'm not sure, yet. I've been on this...path, for a while. I've felt the change coming, slowly but surely."
Yoda nodded and drummed his fingers on his knee. "Few have chosen to walk this path. In the past millennium, none. Yet perhaps, twist and turn, it will. Arrive where I have seen others go, you may not."
"I'm not so sure I will arrive anywhere," she confessed, meeting his eyes. "Maybe I'm supposed to walk this path and learn from it without a goal in mind. I might not become anything."
"Become something, you will," the Grandmaster predicted. "Already, become something, you have. Known is your name throughout the Temple."
She considered it for a moment, but she wasn't convinced yet. "Not for things...that I should be."
Yoda closed his eyes and remembered how she had looked four years ago when he had sent her to Christophsis to meet Skywalker. "Obi-Wan chose you, hmm? Chose you to be the apprentice of the Chosen One. Chose you to be more than a Youngling, more than a Padawan."
"I've walked away from that choice," she reminded him. "Whatever honor I held in being his Padawan, I've given up."
"Over, your work in the Prophecy of the Chosen One is not, Ahsoka Tano," Yoda declared. "Accepted you, Skywalker did. The Chosen One has chosen you. Determined by the Order, your role is not, but by the Force."
Ahsoka was stunned silent. She was a part of the prophecy? But it never mentioned a Padawan or an apprentice of any sort. She hadn't done anything when they and Obi-Wan had gone to Mortis, other than getting kidnapped, been poisoned by the Son, stabbed through the heart, and brought back to life by the Daughter. Everything had happened to her, not because of her. It had happened because of Anakin!
And yet, she had been there, and so had Obi-Wan. It was barely significant, but it was true. "What is my role?" She asked Yoda. If anyone besides Anakin would know, it was him.
Yoda stood up and walked over to the windows. "Been interpreted many ways, the prophecy has. "A Jedi will rise, to destroy the Sith," one might say. Another, "The Chosen One will be born and bring balance to the Force. Believe the second, Obi-Wan does."
"And you?"
"Know I not," he confessed, turning to face her again. "Nor do I know what part you have in it." He sighed, and he cleared his face before speaking again. "Go home, you should. Rest, you need, hmm?"
It was true, but Ahsoka was still stuck on the fact that she might be a part of the prophecy. If the fate of the Force, and the whole galaxy, was resting on Anakin, and in some way, her, then that was a lot of pressure.
She stood up and went to the door, pausing only to say, "Thank you, Master Yoda."
He nodded back at her. "May the Force be with you."
"And also with you."