Disclaimer: I own nothing

Rated: T w/possible M content in later chapters

A/N: This story is part 1 in AU series I'm gradually working on. I haven't been writing on this story as often as I'd like due to my crazy life and Darth Writer's Block, but I'll hopefully publish more in the next few weeks. I'm presently going back over what chapters I've written, and am reedited/reposting them-so don't freak if you notice a few changes:)

Part 2 of my AU series is already published and half-way completed. It's Resolution: SkywalkerSaga 2. So feel free to hop on over there and take a look.

As always Read & Review (I love to know what you guys think about the crazy things my overly active imagination comes up with:), and..

May the Force Be With You.

{DJWind}

"...If I could break away,

cut the cord, for worst or better.

If I could turn the page,

at last and say goodbye forever.

But on the other side of yesterday,

beyond the heartache.

What if all I am, without the pain,

is empty hearted?

I could breakaway..." (Breakaway, Celine Dion)

Prologue:

They stood expectantly, waiting for her response. Anakin held his breath, his heart throbbing slowly in his chest. He suddenly felt faint and weak—oh so weak—as he prevented himself from breathing until he knew; until he heard her answer with his own ears, until he knew for sure if she was staying or not.

"They're asking you back, Ahsoka," he stepped forward, unable to bare the silence that pushed into like a heavy weight any longer; he had to shatter it, to hear something other than what the Force was telling him to believe. "I'm asking you back," he opened up his hand, exposing the beaded chain that indicated she was a Padawan of the Jedi Order. He looked at her, eyes searching for an answer he felt she was reluctant to give. His throated tightened and his mouth dried as he tired again to unsuccessfully ignore the Force probing at him, pushing him to face the truth.

He refused to believe it.

It was just…too painful.

Ahsoka looked up at him, then at the chain in his hand. She closed her eyes, trying to waylay the muster that threatened to spill into her eyes and down her cheeks. "I-I'm sorry, Master," she took his fingers and covered the chain, "but I'm not coming back." She turned away, closing her eyes against the sharp, stabbing pain that cut through her heart like no knife could, and walked away; way from the Council and away from her Master.

Anakin stood there a moment, the chain still in his hand, his fingers clutching it like it was a life-saver—the only thing that prevented him from drowning in the sew of swirling emotions that suddenly crashed over him in overlapping waves. The other Council members around him looked out after Ahsoka, accepting the fact that the Jedi Order was not this Padawan's destiny. Only Yoda bowed his head in grief as piercing sorrow flooding through the Force from young Skywalker. He closed his eyes as the anguish intensified, and leaned upon his stick for support and the comfort of something familiar. The old Master lifted his sad gaze as he felt something shift in Anakin, and watched him leave the chamber, intending to retrieve and reason with Ahsoka, then casted his tired eyes down, sensing it would be useless; she was already gone—lost to them forever.

"Ahsoka! Wait!" Anakin called after her as he ran down the Temple's entrance stairs as if his life depended on it, which in truth it did. "Ahsoka, I need to talk to you!" He didn't slow his pace until he'd caught up with her. She stopped, but hesitated to turn and face him, feeling his grief and angst at her decision to leave, but she had thought long and hard about this for many days, especially as she faced the murder trials. She knew she'd made the right decision, however hard it pained her to make it.

"Why—are you doing this?" Anakin cried, feeling his heart breaking, realizing that she was already lost to him.

Ahsoka turned to him, face shrouded with sorrow, eyes blinking back insistent tears. "The Council didn't trust me," she explained, "so how can I trust myself?"

"What about me?" Anakin tried to argue wit her, but his heart wasn't in his words; it was fluttering, barely about to pump the blood through his veins as it broke into tiny pieces like a piece of glass shattered by a bullet. "I believed in you! I trusted you. I stood by you!"

"I—know you believe in me, Anakin, and I'm grateful for that, but…" Ahsoka hastened and glanced away, unable to gaze into those blue depths that started at her in utter disbelief. "This isn't about you," she said. "I can't stay here any longer—not now." There was just too many things Ahsoka had found she couldn't believe in, in the Order and in the Code. The Council was wrong in so many ways, on so many levels. They were too skeptical of new ways, of new thoughts and ideas, so doubtful of so many things that involved change, that she could no longer stay. She found she know longer knew them the way she'd thought, she could no longer trust their fading wisdom. She had to leave, live her life the way she wanted, even if that meant abounded the her family among the Jedi and going far, far away.

"The Jedi Order is your life!" Anakin tried one last attempt to reason with her, to bring her back to him. "You can't just throw it away like this! Ahsoka, you're making a trouble mistake!" Don't do this to me! his eyes added, bagging her to stay.

"Maybe…" Ahsoka was still uncertain in the rightfulness of her decision, but she trusted the Force and what it was telling her, she had to to live. "But I have to sort this out on my own—without the Council…and without you." She turned away, unable to bare seeing the look of deep hurt on his dejected face.

Anakin turned away from her, incapable of looking at her any more, it was just…too painful for him. They'd gone through too much not to make this parting—this farewell—without feeling it. They'd gone through so much together that he'd finally begun to think they would always and forever be together, not just as friends, but as something more.

"I understand," his voice grew heavy and deep. "More than you realize, I understand wanting to walk away from the Order…from this war."

"I know," and his eyes widened as he realized that she already knew and understood all those feelings he'd kept from her, hidden behind the mask of the Master. He turned around to look at her, the sorrow replaced by surprise. She turned, and their eyes met, both filled with passion and pain as they finally comprehended the truth. They both felt it, their hearts bent the some tune for one brief moment. Ahsoka reached out, cupped his cheek in her small hand and stood up on the tips of her toe as she leaned forward and brushed her lips against his. It was too much for Anakin, and he sobbed into her mouth, letting his restraint go and the tears rushed out in a sea of emotion. She broke the kiss, and turned away, letting her hand fall from him. With steady steps she walked away, descended down the stairs of the Temple into the fading sunset.

She didn't look back.

Anakin watched her go, the tears flowing freely down his cheeks, damping the collar of his tunic. He felt his heart break in two with a final crack, and a deep aching felled his soul. He collapsed to the stones, burying his face in his hands, and sobbed, crying out with heart and mind for a rescue that wouldn't come. He was drowning in an ocean of grief and agony more severe than he'd ever felt in his whole life, and there was absolutely no-one to dive in after him, bring him back to the surface to breath—to live again.

Anakin had loved Ahsoka, as much as a man can a woman. They'd been through so much, seen and done and said so much in the past three years it was extremely hard for him not too. At first it had been only a simple, unashamed admiration for her, but that feeling had gradually developed into something deeper, more profound, until he realized that he truly care for her, more then he even cared about himself. He wouldn't died fro her freely and with hesitation if the situation called for it. But now…

He had nothing—no-one else to life for, to make life livable for him every again. Anakin was ready to die and become one with the Force; he no longer cared.

Θ

"I'm worried, Master," Obi-Wan confessed, his voice low and concerned. "I'm worried about Anakin. He hasn't said anything since Ahsoka left. He's barely left his room, and hasn't eating anything."

"In mourning, he is," said Master Yoda, joining the other Jedi to look out over the cityscape from the towering High Council Chamber far above. "A broken heart, he has. Deep the wound is, and long it may take to heal."

"Is there anything we can do?" Obi-Wan asked. "He's not like this, and I don't like to see him like this way, Master.

"Nor should you. There is only one thing that can—perhaps—help him. Another Padawan, Skywalker should take. Help him, mediation and isolation will not. Do something to forget Teno's absence, he must."

Obi-Wan nodded, understanding where the wise Master came from, but nevertheless surprised that he would dare mention a thing, especially for Anakin. In the beginning it had only been an experiment on the part of the Council. To test Skywalker's habit of forming attachments a Jedi shouldn't have, and to test his responsibility and maturity before they granted him the level of Jedi Master. It had become clear to the Council that he'd past all the tests of training Teno expect the attachment he'd almost instinctively formed with her. Obi-Wan had observed that instead of distracting him on the battle-field, such attachments made him grounded and level-head, to think matters through, and oftentimes exceed the impossible.

"I—don't think Anakin is ready," said Obi-Wan, voicing his thoughts aloud as he recalled the look of profound grief he'd seen on his young friend's face the day Ahsoka had left. He'd felt it too, they'd all felt it, and he knew Anakin would never recover.

"Ready, he perhaps never was, and will never be," Yoda answered. "But need this, he does. There is a particular youngling ready for a Master. Long, I have watched her, and good, I sense she will be for Skywalker."

"I hope you're right," Obi-Wan tired to prevent doubt from sipping into his voice, but Yoda sensed it nonetheless and smiled slyly, his otherwise weary eyes brightening with sudden mischief.

"Sense a great change about to come, I do," he observed wryly. "Yes, a great change…of many things."

Θ

Anakin walked slowly, uncertainly down the corridor towards the turbo-lift that would carry him up the Council Chamber high above the majority of the Temple. He wearily rubbed his eyes of sleep and tears, his shoulders sagging as his hand fell back to his side. He didn't even bother debating if he should straighten his disheveled appearance or not, he was too tired and his heart was too heavy, he just didn't really care anymore, not after Ahsoka left him.

"Skywalker," Master Mace Windu greeted him quietly as he stepped out of the lift into the certain of the Chamber. What other members of the Council could attend, acknowledged his presence with courteous nods of the head. Yoda observed him with sad eyes while Obi-Wan studied him keenly under a semi-curious gaze.

"Masters," Anakin's voice was low, heavy with grief. He didn't bow to their presences, but stood erect, waiting their judgment upon him.

"Mourning, you have been," said Yoda. It wasn't a question, but a quiet observation of expectation and understanding.

Anakin nodded, and let his eyes fall on the patterned floor of the Chamber, he was too tired and hurt to contradict the elder Jedi.

"Weary, you are, and heavy of heart," Yoda continued to observe him like a prized piece of art.

"Yes, Master," Anakin felt he should say something to assure them that he was still there, listening to them, and not just going through the paces, most of his mind adrift elsewhere, until the Council session had ended.

"A request, we have for you, young Skywalker," said Yoda at length, finishing his observing of the younger Jedi. "A new Padawan learner, we have for you to take—"

"No!" Anakin glanced sharply up, his decision set in stone, his eyes flashing with cold fire. "I'm not taking another Padawan!" He lashed quickly out. He didn't want to fail again, and he knew he would if he took another apprentice under his wing.

"This is for your own good, Anakin," said Obi-Wan gently.

"I'm not going to take another Padawan, Master," Anakin said again, firmer. "I'm not going to fail again!"

"Blame Ahsoka's decision to leave the Order on yourself, do you?" said Yoda, eyeing him under heavy brows, his long pointed ears reach forward curiously.

Anakin didn't reply—couldn't make himself reply—but instead hanged his head, never feeling more alone than ever before.

"It wasn't your fault, Anakin—" Obi-Wan began.

"No!" Anakin glanced up again, his eyes smoldering with boiling frustration and unshed tears, his voice hard, yet cracking with emotion. "It was all our faults! If the Council hadn't doubted her word to begin with, she would still be here."

"And right, you are," said Yoda sadly. "At fault, our wisdom is, I'm afraid. But gone she is, and it is the will of the Force, I believe. Take this Padawan, you will."

"I-I—" Anakin stammered in dismay, trying to sway their decision.

"Take her, you will," said Yoda, his voice preventing any further arguments. "Old, she is, and many Masters will not continue her training because of it. You will."

"She is Padmé Naberrie," Mace Windu added, informing the young, baffled Jedi. "She is the Representative of the Jedi Order in the Senate. She begun her training at three, but has been unable to continue it regularly due to her interest in the political field. You will take her and train her until she's ready to past the trials. Master Kenobi will take you to her. You will be required to stay with her in private apartment, as her teacher and protector, until called upon.

"Yes—Master," Anakin bowed his head, and turned to leave, incapable of saying anything more, for there were no words for him to say that expressed how he felt. They'd proclaimed his doom to failure, and he had no choice in the matter but to accept it to the best of his abilities. He wondered about Ahsoka; maybe she'd been right to leave the Jedi Order, maybe he could follow her and find her wherever she'd gone, and they could live happily together, away from the war, the Council, at peace and alone. But a part of him knew he would not never be happy with that life, that just wasn't who he was, and he sensed such a path was not the will of the Force. But what was the will of the Force?

Anakin had a strange, sudden felling it involved this Padmé who he was soon to meet.