"The handle rested in her hand. It was small, but quite heavy. She held down the hilt and pressed the ignition trigger. With a whooshing hiss, the lightsaber burned to life.
"No, Snips, turn it off."
"Ahsoka did as she was told, releasing the pressure grip, causing the blade to flash out of existence. "But Master, how am I supposed to practice without my saber?"
"Anakin looked down at Ahsoka, his eyebrows raised. "Learning how to defend yourself and those around you is more than just learning how to fence. It's learning to judge your surroundings, learning to feel the world around you, learning to understand that there is a time for everything. Every action you take, every misstep, every ill-conceived maneuver can be that one mistake that tips the balance of the battle in favor of your enemy. Even something as simple as activating your lightsaber too soon. Don't be too eager for a fight, Snips. You've got nothing you have to prove to me or to anyone, except yourself. Now, before you ignite your blade, I want you to reach out with the Force and feel your surroundings."
Ahsoka did as she was told. They were in a forest clearing on Naboo. The grass rose to her ankles and the trees along the edges of the clearing were widely spaced. A gentle breeze caressed her arm and cheek from the west, causing her lekku to gently sway as they dangled down her shoulders from her montral. Scutta crawled all around, too tiny to see without careful examination. Several leaves fell from the trees, signaling that summer had drawn to an end. As she closed her eyes, she could hear the falling leaves chatter in the wind, the wondrous music they made filling her with joy. The life all around her was exhilarating. With each moment, she felt the life add to her own, making her feel more alive.
Then something alien intruded. It was a metal abomination, its suspensors humming as it came closer. The scutta, sensing its presence, changed the direction in which they worked. Air blew around it, changing the pattern of the leaves, turning their harmony into chaos. With it's appearance, everything that had been right in the Force was suddenly wrong. As she was preparing to leave her trance, another alien thing entered her perception. Two abominations, identical in every way! The nearest one stopped, hovered for a moment, and she could sense its energy, its meager power, still quite capable of making her life miserable for a brief moment in time.
A single click from the metal monstrosity was the signal. It was as if everything had stopped and the Force had focused like a laser upon that single moment, upon that single sound, at that single space, and in that single focal point, Ahsoka ignited her lightsaber, deflecting the blaster fire from two practice remotes. The green blade bathed Ahsoka in its light as she expertly dodged, ducked, and deflected the beams. As quickly as it had begun, so it had ended. The practice remotes dropped to the ground, Anakin having deactivated them.
He stood in front Ahsoka, a pleased expression on his face. "Tell me, Padawan Tano, what did you learn?"
Ahsoka thought for a moment. "Master, everything has a rhythm and in order to understand it and ultimately master it, we must find our place within that rhythm." Anakin's eyebrows raised, silently urging her to continue. She took a moment to think of what impact the remotes had had on her surroundings. "That which does not align to the rhythm is unwelcome. If we become one with the rhythm...one with the Force, then we can see how nature tries to restore its rhythm and it makes us part of that effort. In this way, we can do more than just fight, but also restore a balance that was disturbed by the fight."
"Very good. Why was it necessary to wait before igniting your lightsaber?"
"The lightsaber has a will of its own, but it's still technology. It didn't have a place in the rhythm until that rhythm was disrupted. Sir, this wasn't actually remote practice, was it?"
"Anakin smiled. "No. Of course, you should always keep in practice, but you're good enough that you clearly understand how to use the Force for defense. I thought it was a good idea to use your practice time to teach you some other lessons. Always remember; become part of your surroundings and you will be best suited to defending them."
Ahsoka smiled and closed her eyes. She always found that rhythm, but a new rhythm had insinuated itself upon her. A heavy, mechanical breathing. This new rhythm did not disrupt the rhythm of its surroundings, nor did it become a part of it: it subdued it. It conquered it. Ahsoka opened her eyes and stared into the empty of eyes of that black mask, beneath it, the shadow of a man she thought she knew. She was no longer on Naboo. She was surrounded by darkness, standing in a technological nightmare, standing before the man that had once been her master, the man that had once been a brother to her.
"Anakin Skywalker was weak. I destroyed him!" His voice was as black as his mask, his helmet, his cape. It was full of menace. Meanwhile, the suit maintained his breath, so even as he spoke, that rasp continued uninterrupted.
Ahsoka could feel her anger burning, threatening to consume her. But more than the anger was the sense of betrayal. She could sense nothing of Anakin beneath that helmet. He had completely lost himself in the darkness. Anakin was beyond the light; beyond salvation. "Then I shall avenge his death."
"Revenge is not the Jedi way."
"I am no Jedi."
Ahsoka extended her lightsabers, so different from the green and yellow sabers she once held. She ignited them and lunged, bathing her in their silver light, clashing with the red of Vader's lightsaber. Here, on Malachor, Naboo was a distant memory, just like Anakin. The room was filled with hard angles and sharp lines. A mechanical throb, barely perceptible with the ordinary senses, but pounding in the Force, emanated from the room's center. It pounded in rhythm with the breathing, acquiescing to it, submitting. Nevertheless, despite the power of the breathing, the rhythm, the flow was disrupted as the holocron was taken from the temple. Vader's rhythm broke and he focused on the holocron.
Ahsoka maintained her rhythm. Still, his power was far greater than hers, though her skill was such that she could match him blow for blow. She was able to briefly take the upper hand, shattering a piece of his mask, and Anakin was there, alive, a faint memory.
"Ahsoka."
For a moment, Ahsoka thought she could get through to him.
"Ahsoka."
"Anakin, I won't leave you again."
But his memory wasn't filled with the longing for simpler times and a return to the way things were.
"Then you will die!"
It was filled with resent, and a desire to utterly destroy the remnants of happier times. The Sith temple closed with tremendous force-everything about the place was needlessly violent-, the shock separating them. When she regrouped and prepared to face him again, he was gone.
The darkness that followed was the blackest yet, but it wasn't on the mask or in his voice. It was inside of her. The battle with Darth Vader had cost her soul. It was the pain, the guilt, the understanding. It was the realization, finally, that the world she knew was gone. It was the realization that the life she knew was a lie. It was the realization that she was no longer relevant. Ahsoka Tano had finally died, fulfilling Vader's promise. Now, she stood again, empty and lost, but this time, she could not find herself. It was time to find a new way; a new self.
(Yes, I know, I've got other, unfinished stories, that I should be working on, but you know...plot bunnies.)