Author's Note: The following is a scene I'd love to see a version of this in Episode 9. In short, I really want to know what the Prophecy of the Chosen One says, and I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY want to see a scene with Anakin and Ahsoka in a live-action movie (preferably a saga film).
In this version, Leia Organa has recently died in battle, and Rey feels very alone because there's no one left who understands her mixed feelings about Ben Solo.
Her heart knows there's still good in him, but her mind can't deny the evil he's done.
The scene begins with Rey leaving a crowded room to find a quiet place to be alone with her thoughts. She slips into the corner of a storage room filled with crates, but soon, a muffled crash interrupts her thoughts. Peeking around a crate, she sees a Togruta with headtails down to her ankles, scurrying to chase a mess of multicolored crystals that have spilled across the floor.
The Togruta lifts her head and spots Rey staring, "Miss, would you mind helping me with this?"
Remembering her manners, Rey emerges to assist. "Thank you, my dear," the Togruta says as they refill two large sacks. Up close, Rey sees that each of the crystals is strung on a thin cloth band with a name stitched on the outside. There must be hundreds if not thousands of them in a multitude of colors. "Thank you for your assistance," The Togruta says again, "but if you're not too busy, would you mind helping me to carry these to the courtyard? Perhaps with a second pair of hands, I can avoid spilling them all over again."
Honestly, Rey is ready to get back to her quiet corner and away from people, but unable to think of an excuse fast enough, she caves. "Of course, where is the courtyard?"
"Right this way," the Togruta replies. After walking a short distance, she turns to Rey, "If you don't mind my asking, are you with the Resistance?"
"I am." Rey answers quietly, watching the other woman's response. Is she a sympathizer with the Resistance? Or * gulp* with the First Order?
"Is it true that Senator Organa has died?"
Rey's suspicions vanish, as the answer catches in her throat. "Yes."
The Togruta turns somber. Her brow furrows, distorting the three white diamonds on her burnt orange forehead. "Then, our galaxy has lost a great treasure. Did you know her personally?"
Unable to speak, Rey nods.
"There was something truly special about her, wasn't there?" the Togruta states with a bittersweet smile.
It sparks Rey to inquire, "Did YOU know her personally?"
The Togruta whispers, "Yes." Absently, she gazes down the hall, and Rey suspects the Togruta is seeing the past. "I worked with her father many years ago."
Rey gives her a sideways glance. The Togruta knew Leia's parents? Clearly anticipating Rey's thoughts, the Togruta laughs, "Don't be so surprised. A Togruta like me doesn't end up with lekku down to the ground without being old enough to have been around this galaxy a time or two. Let's put it this way, if I'd been born human, I'd easily be old enough to be your grandmother."
A corner of Rey's mouth twitches upward, but just as quickly, the smile vanishes. "So, you knew her family?"
"Yes, for most of my life. Like I said, I worked with her father." There's a glint of mischief in Ahsoka's eyes, but Rey has no idea how to interpret it. Then, she realized, Darth Vader. She worked with Darth Vader?!… How?... When…? Why…? Rey looked to Ahsoka. She seems nice enough… but how could a nice, sane person ever work with a monster like Darth Vader? How can I even ask about something like that?
"What was he like?" Rey murmurs, unsure if she wants to hear the answer.
Ahsoka flashes her an almost devious smile, "Bail Organa?" She confirms. "He was amazing…"
I'm an idiot. Rey nearly face palms. Of course, she was talking about Bail Organa. What are the odds this woman knew Darth Vader? When she's finished berating herself, she tunes back into Ahsoka's words in time to hear her say, "I first met Leia when she was a girl. She – being no older than seven years old, mind you – snuck into my thoughts and absorbed a memory of her own mother." The Togruta chuckles. "You should've seen the look on Bail's face when I had to tell him his precious girl was a Force-wielder…"
Happily, the Togruta goes on about Organa Family for a while, before her tone abruptly changes. Her warmth fades, and she breathes, "I wonder how Ben is taking all this." The words are so soft that it seems like she's talking to herself.
Rey stops dead in her tracks, just staring at the other woman. Ahsoka stops and turns around. For moment, neither woman speaks, but Rey has to ask, "Why should you care how Kylo Ren is handling it?"
Ahsoka weighs her words, at last, saying, "I watched Ben Solo grow up. He might have been the son of a senator and a war hero, but that doesn't mean his childhood was simple, much less easy. He suffered more than his fair share of heartache… and trauma." Ahsoka turns back and continues down the path, forcing Rey to catch up. When they are side by side again, Ahsoka whispers, "Don't assume he had no reason for turning out the way he did."
Rey isn't sure what to think. Is she saying that Ben isn't responsible for what he became? Does this Togruta know the details about what happened between him and Luke? Is it possible that his fall was inevitable? Rey needs to know. "Are you saying that it could've been his destiny to fall to the Darkside?"
The white lines detailing Ahsoka's brows raise slightly. "Destiny?" she gestures to a doorway to their left. She leads Rey into an atrium surrounded by columns. A glass ceiling shows a gray afternoon outside, and the same dismal lighting fills the courtyard.
Altogether, it isn't much to look at. Just a small garden with a tree in the center, a few bushes, a little grass, and a couple of statues on pedestals. Ahsoka sets the sack she'd been carrying at the base of the tree and invites Rey to do the same. "I think…" Ahsoka starts, "that concepts like 'Destiny' undermine our responsibility to make good choices." Rey deflates a little. "But at the same time…" Ahsoka trails off.
There's a mischievous twinkle in her eye. She glances around, making sure they're alone. Then her grin widens, and she guides Rey to a wall behind the row of columns "Here, take a look at this." Engraved in the wall is a long passage divided into five stanzas. Looking all the way to the top, Rey reads the title. "The Prophecy of the Chosen One."
"Yes, the Chosen One," Ahsoka repeats, relishing the words. "The Prophecy tells of a child 'born of the Force', 'powerful with the Force', and 'chosen by the Force' who'd overthrow the 'Trusted turned Traitor', the 'Master of Darkness', and the 'Final Wave.'" Ahsoka points to the stanzas that confirm her summary, but Rey struggles to understand what any of this has to do with Ben.
Ahsoka goes on, "Well, many years ago, a Jedi Master named Qui-Gon Jinn claims that he's found the Chosen One, a boy named Anakin Skywalker…"
Rey's eyes widen. She knows THAT name. "Anakin Skywalker? The man who'd become…"
Ahsoka nods. "Yes, better remembered as Darth Vader, but he was far from a Sith Lord when the Jedi found him. A decade later, the Clone War began. Investigations revealed that the opposing army was being led by a former Jedi. Someone the Jedi Order had trusted, but who turned traitor," Ahsoka explains, pointing again to the second stanza of the prophecy. "His name was Count Dooku, and in one of the last battles of the Clone War, Anakin killed him." Ahsoka pauses, allowing Rey to process her words.
Rey looks up from the inscription, and the Togruta takes that as an invitation to go on. "Further investigations proved that Dooku was a Sith Apprentice, not the Master, so the Jedi convinced themselves that Anakin would execute the remaining Sith Lord, the Master of Darkness. Peace would reign for a thousand years, and the whole galaxy would live happily ever after… but is that what happened?"
Rey is silent, so Ahsoka repeats the question. "Is that what happened?"
"Anakin became Darth Vader." Rey answers. "He chose to serve the Sith… for a time."
"Exactly," Ahsoka confirms. "So, the Jedi admitted they'd gotten in wrong. Apparently, the person they'd thought was the Chosen One was ACTUALLY the 'Trusted turned Traitor.' But then, they learned that Anakin had fathered children… The Jedi thought, 'hmmm, children born of the Force and sure to be powerful with the Force… Certainly, one of them must be the one chosen by the Force to overthrow their treacherous father. The child will kill Vader and Palpatine (and finish off whatever the Final Wave was), and then we'd all see a thousand years of peace'…" Ahsoka's eyes gleam, but Rey has the feeling she knows where this is going. "But is that what happened?"
Rey thinks a moment. "Luke didn't kill his father. Anakin returned to the Light and defeated the Emperor himself."
"Yes," Ahsoka agrees. "The Chosen one had stopped the treacherous Dooku, the Dark Master Palpatine… but wait, then he died, so he was hardly in a position to fight the Final Wave whenever it came around… so does that mean he's not the Chosen One?"
Rey's head is spinning. "Yes? No? I'm not sure. If Count Dooku and Palpatine are the ones the prophecy spoke of… then whoever overthrew them both would be the Chosen One, correct?"
Ahsoka smiles knowingly, "Correct… IF Palpatine and Dooku are in fact the Master of Darkness and the Trusted Turned Traitor…"
"Is there anyone else who could fit the description?"
"We already saw that Anakin could just as easily fit the role of Traitor as he does 'Chosen One.' To make things MORE complicated, there is an entirely different school of thought that claims the Jedi Order was the 'Trusted Turned Traitor' because they were trusted by the Force to maintain Balance but became traitors when they began promoting their own agenda instead. By that line of reasoning, Anakin was destined to fall to the Darkside to wipe out the Jedi, and then to return to the Light to end the Sith…"
The more Ahsoka talks, the more confused the young girl feels. "But that can't be right…" She feels frustrated. Finally, fed up with wrapping her head around possibilities, she asks Ahsoka outright, "What point are you trying to make? And what does any of this have to do with Ben?"
"My point is this: Did Anakin Skywalker fall to the Darkside because a prophecy written ages ago said he would? Or was it because he was a young man – arguably still a boy – who made a bad decision under pressure?"
Rey feels like she'd just walked into a trap. Any condemnation of Vader would inevitably force her to condemn Ben. Afraid to answer the question, she tries to stall. "Pressure? What kind of pressure?"
Ahsoka looks away. She walks back to the tree in the middle of the courtyard and flops down, as though she's lost the strength to stand any longer. "Anakin had a rough childhood. As a boy, he was sold into slavery. Then, years later, the Jedi took him away but left his mother to rot. When he was older, he followed the Jedi way, and his mother died. Not long after that, he followed the Jedi way, and his padawan was expelled from the Jedi Order. She was sentenced to death by the Republic." Ahsoka looks up. "But doing things the Darkside way exonerated her. It saved her life."
Ahsoka paused to let that sink in. "Then, shortly after that, he faced another difficult choice. The Love of his life was going to die. Doing things the Jedi way required that he leave her to her fate… But…"
"But?"
"But if he did things the Darkside way, he believed it might save her (and their unborn children). With so much at stake, which would you have chosen, Rey?"
Rey thinks about it. She would do ANYTHING to have a pair of parents who were proud of her… but she now knows that she never will. Accepting that fact had been the hardest thing she'd ever had to do. So, if she'd actually had someone in her life who loved her, and their life was at risk, how far would she go to save them?
She admits, "I don't know."
"That's honest of you to say." Ahsoka praises. "But now do you understand why Anakin's fell? Did he succumb to the Darkside because a prophecy that can be interpreted a THOUSAND different ways said he would? Was it really his destiny? Or was it the result of a bad choice?" Ahsoka's eyes search Rey's for signs of understanding. "Was it simple 'Destiny'?"
Rey's eyes lower. She knows the answer Ahsoka expects to hear, but if Rey admits that Darth Vader's choice was inexcusable, then she'll also be condemning Ben as well. So, she lies, "I don't know."
Before Ahsoka can respond, they are interrupted.
"Aren't you supposed to be working?" A human male asks. He looks vaguely familiar to Rey, but she can't quite place the face.
Then again, how many people would recognize Anakin Skywalker at this point in Galactic history?
Author's Note: So, what do you think? Did Anakin fall because it was his Destiny? Was it simply bad decision-making? We all know he was manipulated by Palpatine, but how much responsibility should Anakin take for becoming Darth Vader?
Most importantly, any theories about what he'll say on the matter?
FYI: He and Ahsoka are Force Ghosts, but Rey has no idea about that yet.
