Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars. It belongs to George Lucas and now Disney. I just play in this world, I make no profit off it.
But as Obi-Wan said, there are many points of view. So too is Star Wars. It's become a community of fandom. And from that point of view, belongs to us all.
Setting: The ending of Revenge of the Sith
Ahsoka Tano, former jedi padawan, woke in agony. The screaming voices were so loud in her mind. The death drowned her in the Force. But one voice roared with greatest agony. The vision danced before her eyes. Death, death, Jedi falling…..Anakin NO!
"Ahsoka what is it! Ahsoka!" Lux was grabbing and shaking her! She couldn't answer. "Something terrible is happening. I have to hide!"
Waiting was the hardest thing she'd ever done. At the same time, it was easiest. She had no idea where to turn, the screaming in the force was everywhere. It wouldn't let go. But none screamed louder than her former master. She felt the burning, rage, the hate, self hate…..death….Padme…betrayal….no. She had to put distance between herself and him, before she ever knew what the danger was.
When the propaganda of the Jedi takeover hit the holonet she maintained control with an effort. She felt Lux gripping her hand, shock written on his face. When Darth Vader hit the holonet, she was physically sick. It was Anakin. She knew it was Anakin. She could feel his agony, had felt flashes of it when he was imprisoned in the suit. How had this happened? She should've been there, she was his padawan. She should've protected him. There were times when he seemed to slip that she'd called him back, though perhaps when it happened she hadn't recognized it. For that matter, where was Obi-Wan? Why hadn't he prevented it? How had the sith broken her master?
She cringed even as she thought it. Memories flooding her. Anakin, looking at Padme when he thought no-one noticed. Anakin, opening the Jedi holocron and risking all of the listed younglings … just to save her life. Anakin, risking his troops, his mission, and her, for Artoo. She groaned. Someone had recognized that attachment was his weakness. Secretly, she'd always felt it was both a weakness and a strength. Padme. Fear rose inside. If something had happened to Padme...a tremor of vision started. She fought it. She didn't want it.
"I have to go Lux."
"You can't just go! What if they are looking for you? If they killed even younglings, what makes you think a former padawan is exempt? Stay. Help. I fear we'll need to fight. The whole universe is turning upside down, we'll need you…..I need you."
"I'll be back. I just…I need answers. I think Vader is him. Anakin. My master. I have to do something!"
"They'll kill you. Especially if you're right."
"I won't go….to him. I'm going to Tatooine."
"Why?"
She frowned, unsure why the compulsion was so strong. "I think the answer lies in the past. His past. There was something he didn't want to talk about. I need to know now. But I will come back!"
She'd done it before, after Barriss' fall, now she didn't know where to look. Or perhaps she did, but she didn't know why. She didn't dare try and make contact with anyone on Coruscant. For all she knew, former Jedi padawans might be on the hit list too. Would he kill her? Anakin, or rather, the sith he'd become? He'd even killed younglings. No, surely not that….yet the doubt rattled inside her as she landed on Tatooine, a bundle of nerves in a transport ship's temporary crew. She didn't know why she thought the answers lay there. But she remembered his reluctance to discuss it. It surely meant something.
It took her months browsing Tatooine, perusing it's pathetic villages and small towns. Disturbing visions kept coming no matter how hard she tried to block them out. Even here, news came of a dark specter of a being in helmet and mask who served the emperor. Darth Vader, Lord of the Sith. Even the cities could be swallowed whole by a single floor of a Coruscant building. There was a wildness to it, an untamed something in the dusty air. And it somehow reminded her of him. She saw where he'd podraced. Even secretly met a few who knew him and talked of their pal, Anie, and their disbelief that he'd be a traitor. But she didn't share that she'd known him.
Her first flare in the Force came when the child ran past her in Anchorhead. She'd pulled in for fuel. The tot had blue eyes and bright blond hair and a cheery force signature. He toddled past with surprising speed and an air of one who had just discovered two legged movement. "Luke! What have I told you about running in the street!" A red brown haired young woman grabbed him up quickly.
The child looked at Ahsoka curiously, at her bright markings. Then he pointed. "Luke, no, we have to go. Uncle Owen is waiting." Beru stated hurrying off.
Ahsoka's heart hammered in her ribs. There was something about the blue eyed child…a vision slammed into her, a young man with a green lightsaber…..the Darth Vader battling the a wrinkled Palpatine to save the young man….
Her eyes flickered to where the boy had pointed to see a desert dweller in a robe turn down an alley. Her sharp eyes caught the flicker of metal at his belt and her instincts flared. She rushed after him.
She looked up and down the alley. "Obi-Wan!" She called softly.
"HUSH" the man was there, suddenly glaring. His hand covered her mouth sharply. "It's not safe…."
She nodded. "Sorry. I was just so surprised…." She stared. "You've gone all gray. I mean, suddenly too…."
"Mmm. Come with me."
He took her to his hut, well outside of Anchorhead. Ahsoka cast a last glance back, searching for the child. "I'm hiding here. There is nothing we can do now. The sith have won." The weariness in his voice was shocking.
"Did….Do you know who?" Her hands clenched. He hadn't volunteered about Anakin. She hadn't yet asked.
"Palpatine. It was Palpatine all along."
Ahsoka felt the chill as if the desert planet had turned into a chunk of ice. Anakin had trusted Palpatine. Oh no. She was right. Her thoughts flickered to the timing, the age of that child….
"They are all dead, Ahsoka. Anakin is gone too."
She looked sharply at him. "You are guarding his son, aren't you? That boy…"
Obi-Wan looked both shocked and alarmed.
"Padme…." "How did you know?"
"I was attracted to Lux. Anakin caught on right away. I wondered how, until I analyzed it. He was always so protective of her. And she worried about him."
"Forget what you know, for everyone's sake. That boy may be our only hope."
Ahsoka breathed. "To save Anakin"
"To stop the Sith. Anakin is gone."
She glared. "He is in Darth Vader. I saw it. I felt it. I felt him fall and sometimes….I still feel his pain. I bet you do too. Or are you saying you can completely block it? It's very loud, like he's leaking."
"He's more machine than man. And if you can feel him, he may feel you."
"He hasn't so far. It's not like I'm actively looking for it." Kenobi shook his head. "Please, Ahsoka, don't throw your life away. Walking away saved you. Don't go after a man that's dead. Only a shell is left, and most of that is metal."
"Luke will save him. I saw it in a vision."
"Visions don't always come true."
"This one will. And when he comes back…if he survives coming back…..he'll need all the help he can get. Or his own guilt will drive him back in. Dead men feel no guilt, Obi-Wan."
"He killed the younglings! I saw it on the security monitors. He even…..force help me, he choked Padme, when I hid on her ship and he thought she'd brought me to kill him". That was in one of her visions. One she'd tried, so hard, at the beginning to block. She had not wanted to consider the implications. That echo of agony. 'No. I couldn't have. She was alive.' She'd heard his scream as if she'd been in the room. She caught her breath. "Did you go to kill him?"
"He had to be stopped! He fell into the lava of Mustafar…I tried to talk him down but I could not."
"Dead men feel no pain, Obi-Wan. That boy will save him one day. You'll see. I won't approach. Not until then. But when he's ready, I'll be there to help."
Obi-Wan just sighed and shook his head.
Ahsoka waited until she was well away from Obi-Wan. Then she wept. She wept for all of them. Obi-Wan's hurt. Hers. The jedi younglings. And she wept for the unendurable agony Anakin was going through. For she knew that the dead only die once. But Anakin was dying again and again. Going after the Jedi wasn't just a vendetta. It was a suicide attempt. None were strong enough to stop him. She couldn't either. She was under no illusions. All she could do was wait. For a little boy to grow into a man. No wonder Obi-Wan bore such pain.