Author's Note: The Son does not die on Mortis and Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka manage to escape with the help of the Father. . .AU after Mortis. Post Season 5.

For my best friend, Megan. I wouldn't have been able to do this or move along without your help and encouragement.

Chapter 00

The Citadel

"Master Plo, he just doesn't understand, Master Skywalker is just too blind to see that it is my life to risk, not his. I really want to help Master Piell get out, but he doesn't want me to go, what do you think, Master?" Master Plo sees the youngling's eyes turn round and doe like, honestly needing his opinion.

Master Plo sighs and looks down at Ahsoka with fond exasperation. "Youngling, I am sure that the correct decision will make itself clear soon enough."

Ahsoka smiles and hugs Master Plo running off to her fighter and getting her gear. He watches her sneak around to the other side of the carbon freezer and pay off the operator so that he would carbon freeze her as well. He watches her jump into the carbon freezing tube and he watches as all the other Jedi's assigned to the mission jump into one as well.

Anakin feels Ahsoka's arm brushing up against his. Her body heat is sinking into his side and he feels her tense form up against him.

"Snips, you mind some space?" He looks at her curiously and she seems clueless until she notices how close his face is. Her lekku flush vibrantly and she turns away to hide her embarrassment, quickly scooting back a few spaces. Then like a magnet to metal she feels this physical pull to him, and although she has the strength to deny the pull, she almost doesn't want to.

A droid suddenly appears and before Anakin can even blink, Ahsoka slices through it's midsection with a well aimed strike. She looks back at her master for some sort of praise. He is surprised at her accuracy and focus. Instead of going into a speech of praise he simply smirks and puts hand on his hip.

"Good job, Snips, never knew you had it in you." Her smile disappears and she instead settles for a half hearted glare.

She sees the trackers appear on the top of the slope. They snarl and rush down at herself and Master Piell. They try to fight, but they can only hold off so many at a time. Many run past Ahsoka and rush towards Master Piell. She can hear his screams of terror and pain and his painful injuries fuel her as she slays tracker after tracker.

When no more seem to come, she quickly runs over to Master Piell and holds his limp form in her lap. He tries to speak and finally gets out the last part of the code for the secret travel route that would lead them straight to the heart of separatist territory.

She runs back to Anakin needing his presence beside her. She craves it like air and this deep ache fills her until she reaches his side, collapsing beside him and gasping for air.

"Snips!" he shouts, running and sliding down on his knees to her petite form. He picks her up, checking her over. She had carried Master Piell and they see his limp silhouette on the ground. She sees all of their gazes and begins to sob out muttered apologizes.

"I'm sorry, master. I couldn't save him, I tried so hard. There were too many and they came so fast and I couldn't do it. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

He grabs her face and cupped her cheek. "Snips," he commands with a slightly stern tone, "look at me," he gets out and finally her round blue eyes glance upward, staring up at him with almost complete obedience and implicit trust. "It was not your fault." He is so stern and commanding that Ahsoka almost wants to believe him, but Master Piell's body seems to convince her otherwise. The tears begin to reform and Anakin just holds her close.

"Snips, let's go, let's get out of here."

Padawan Lost

She feels this overwhelming sensation of something. It flows through her bones and wakes her with a gasp for air.

"Master," is the only words her mind can muster up. Nothing else matters but him at the moment and her body jumps to attention before remembering where it is. The call of wildlife is what brings her out of her daze and she remembers that she has been kidnapped to be hunted for sport.

The Trandoshan hunters are cruel and ruthless killers. This overwhelming desire to get everyone out of here consumes her but that hope flickers and dies when Kalifa, the leader of their group, gets shot down when out scouting the area. Ahsoka feels this deep ache when she dies like it was part of her that has died along with this brave little youngling, forced too early to have all these responsibilities thrust upon her.

In the battle field men are left to rot where they are shot, but Ahsoka can't leave Kalifa to be hacked up like an animal and her head to be mounted on a wall. She lays her in the groove of a tree, well hidden by vines. Her body will go back into the circle of life, the death wish of any true Jedi.

And that is her first mistake. Now running from this crazy Trandoshan hunter she puts all of her Jedi training to good use. She can almost hear the shots of the rifle turn into the sounds of a swinging lightsaber as her master and herself practiced avoidance maneuvers.

She hears the short, out of breath tone her master used when she became too good at the game and even hears a whispered "Duck, Snips" as a blaster fire sails over her crouched form and blasts into a tree trunk.

She runs and runs and finally by accident she pushes the hunter onto spikes in the forest floor. They pierce him and he dies. She looks down at his form and knows it was always going to end like this. One of them was going to die, and without a doubt in her mind, she knows she is going to see her master again.

It is surprisingly a wookie that helps her escape the planet. He builds a transmitter out of some scrap metal from the transporter she helped crash. She held herself high after that, becoming the leader of the mission.

Chewbacca's people finally find them and help them take down the Trandoshan hunting base and Ahsoka feels it deep in her bones, the primal satisfaction of pleasing her Master. His face when they finally touched down at the Jedi Temple is better than anything she has ever seen.

The whole tragedy of the ordeal seems to melt out of her as he touches her. She physically sags and Anakin begins to support her weight expertly, starting to lead her to a medical bay to be checked out by a droid.

Yoda watches with a puzzled face. He can practically see the aura of the young padawan pulsing off waves of powerful force energy. In fact she seems to be filled with it. She has never been near that strong before. The master watches them and vows to himself to keep a close eye.

Water War

No one could have predicted that it would turn out like this. Ahsoka pushes herself through the wave of droids, slaying them with simple brutality. Unfortunately, the wave starts to turn in favor of the separatists.

Anakin finds her in the middle of the battle and hands her Prince Lee Char. He orders her to go with him and and to hide him deep in the caves underground.

Ahsoka watches as this timid leader commands her with the partial confidence of the commander and the timidity of a child. The natural rebellion inside of her, neither wants nor needs this prince to command her, but she somehow knows that this is supposed to happen.

She allows him to make all the calls as she simply rallies the troops. No one can really see what this prince is bound to do. Ahsoka is having to organize this whole thing with Anakin gone.

As she spends more time with him, she watches as he shapes himself into the king he is meant to be, and it even gets to the point where no one is surprised when the battle finally turns in favor of the Republic. And soon, the battle is over.

Everyone rejoices as Prince Lee Char is elected into office. He becomes king of the Mancala people and Anakin looks at Ahsoka at the end, smiling and clapping just as loud as the rest of those around them.

A War on Two Fronts

"Remember, Snips, remain focused. Intention comes before emotions."

Ahsoka tries to remember this as she watches Lux grow closer and closer to this rebel leader, Steela. She hasn't realized it yet, how close she had been to Lux; how close she had wanted to be. She silently ponders. It isn't really like Lux had been hers at anytime. She has no right to be jealous of any of the women he truly wants, but despite all the evidence, she is.

The solitary life of a Jedi leaves much to be desired. She has never received attention from a man, much less ever had to chance to be in a relationship with one. When she and Lux had to play pretend and be in a relationship, it must have affected her more than she thought.

They fight these droids, and really it is the first mission that Ahsoka has no master to turn to. Of course she and Anakin still have communications by hologram every night, but it is different. In battle with her master, she could turn to him for praise and to anchor her when the adrenaline of battle would overwhelm her senses.

She can feel it as she rides the tank to the power station, this undeniable something that is now flowing through her veins. And as the fighting starts she feels the rush of adrenaline threaten to drown her in its power. She pushes her instincts back and focuses on cutting down one droid at a time, until she can hear the roar of battle around her again. As the fighting comes to a close, she leans against a building feeling drained and exhausted.

Her little band of rebels is too busy celebrating their victory to notice her. She doesn't want them to. The shaking in her hands tells her something is wrong, and she takes breath after breath to calm them.

But they don't stop. She cannot find her control.

She must find somewhere to mediate soon, to calm the churning, thrashing force within her. The fear rises that she could seriously injure someone. She rushes away from the group as shame overcomes her. Her master finally entrusts her with a simple mission-train the rebels-and she loses control on their first major take over. She is a shame to the Jedi name.

Tears roll down her face as she finally finds a quiet spot on a rooftop to meditate. No one can find her here; there is no one she can injure. She can finally put her mind at ease. Her force reaches out trying to find another nearby, but no one is there. The feeling of isolation seeps into her bones.

Their fingers were inches away.

If she concentrates hard enough, she can even imagine that they brushed against each other. The roaring pain split through her shoulder like the venom of the predators that inhabit her home planet. Her concentration broke for a fraction of a second and that was all it took for her to fall. It took Ahsoka mere moments to recover enough to remember that she had been about to save someone.

She viewed Steela's motionless corpse over the edge of the rock face and that scream haunted her as she looked upon the body. Her whole body seemed to sag and her eyes brimmed with tears. There was a deep pain in her chest, like she couldn't breathe. She felt the dirt beneath her palms turn to dry, parched earth. The small grass shoots turned dead and dry. It seemed as if parts of Onderon around her had died with Steela Gerrera.

Master Obi-Wan watches carefully at Steela's funeral. Anakin is distracted, his padawan's physical injury concerning him more than anything. Ahsoka is by no measure a delicate thing that needs to be protected, but she has yet to become accustomed to death. Her eyes tell the master everything he needs to know. She thinks of this young girl's death as her fault.

Then, as she looks upon Lux the master knows. Her feelings run deeper than friendship, but she will never act on it. Then, as she apologizes to the fallen rebel's brother, he sees it again. She thinks she has taken three lives: the life this brother could have had with his sister, the life of two would-be lovers, and a person who should still be breathing and living for her planet.

He is broken out of his observations as Anakin nudges his shoulder. "Does Ahsoka seems any different to you?" Obi-Wan looks closer and he seems to feel the aura of grief and pain around her. No one should be able to project emotions that powerfully. He simply chalks it up to the passing of recent events.

"Just watch her, Anakin. I am a little worried about her."

Anakin looks at his old master, puzzled, but nods his head obediently.

Sabotage

It's not possible for someone to bomb the Jedi temple, how can they? Ahsoka is thinking as they go through the wreckage of the attack. She can feel the screams and the cries of death. The last breath of everyone is forced upon her at once and she almost stumbles back.

There are tears pricking at the back of her eyes and the screams only get louder and louder. She tries to ignore them but they continue on rattling and moaning in her head. She wants to scream and cry out but everything is locked in her throat with no escape, and no turning back. Someone shakes her and it is then that she notices she is curled on the floor, sobbing.

She touches the wetness on her cheeks and her brain almost can't make the connection for a minute that they're here. Everything in her being is concentrated on those innocent victims. Her master's touch makes it easier to stifle the tears.

"I-I-I'm sor-sorry, m-m-master," she finally gets out around trying to get air into her rapidly expanding and contracting lungs. Anakin is looking at her like she is a mental patient but the concern in his wide eyes is extremely touching. He picks her up in a maiden carry and she nestles her head against his chest. Her hollow montrals can pick up the steady beating of his heart and it easily calms her rapidly approaching panic attack.

She wakes up, having not meant to fall asleep. Her eyes blink open and she comes face to face with the sleeping visage of Anakin Skywalker. Her hands are curled-or more like locked-into his robes. His hands are wrapped around her, pulling her in close. She can smell his scent and it smells so. . .enticing.

Leaning in closer, she hears his quick intake of breath just before his eyes open. Stunning deep blue meets electrifying ocean blue. They both retract their hands at once and Ahsoka has to focus and allow the muscles of her hands to unclench from his robes as they both look away at the same time. Her master is obviously the first one to speak.

"I wanted to make sure you were okay, Snips." He sounds immensely concerned and it unnerves her. Time to turn it to banter, something she knows how to control.

"Looks like you just wanted to nap, master." She smiles playfully.

His eyes show thankfulness and he smirks in reply. "Snips, your hands were fisted so tight in my robes I was afraid if I tried to extract your fingers they would rip and you know the lecture I would get from Obi Wan and Windu. I would never hear the end of it." He smiles back.

She giggles and they lay there, simply looking at each other, coexisting, coinciding, concurring.

The Jedi Who Knew too Much

"It wasn't me!"

Ahsoka runs down the halls, dodging clone troopers left and right. She would have never strangled Letta. The padawan girl can't help but be scared, however, she will find the culprit. But here, no one will listen to her here. She is a criminal and this whole setup is just making her look more and more guilty by the second.

She runs down the halls and finally takes to the ceilings to dodge what she thought to be her loyal friends. She knows they are just following orders and that's what good clones do, but still. . . it hurts. She keeps looking around, trying desperately to find her master. She continually reaches out for his force presence, seeing if he is near enough to help her.

He is nowhere to be found and she begins to panic, feeling the tears start to prick at the back of her eyes. She finally makes it out in front of the prison and takes off. Flipping to the top of the clone statues that line the prison she has been kept in. She maps the clone search parties distributed around the prison. She doesn't see one of them though, but hears them shout her position. Again she takes off into the now pounding rain, desperately trying to reach her master.

Finally, she feels his presence. It almost makes her stumble as she feels it forcefully tugging at hers, pleading with her to go back. She knows she can't go back, but pulls his presence closer, needing him for what she is about to do.

Unexpectedly, they corner her on the pipes that lead to give the temple everything that it needs. She knows that she cannot take all of them, even with all the training she has had. The lights are on her and someone is shouting something through a loudspeaker. She knows he is looking at her and she turns to him, meeting his eyes with the kind of wild desperation that is found in the animals that haunt the grasslands of her native planet. She finally sees the way out is not up, but down. She sticks her lightsaber through the piping and sees that it is not simply a pipe, but a line to the sewer. She takes off into the sewer and feels some sense of security at the multiple levels of mazes that twists and turns provide. She easily evades most of the clones, although her master is a different story. She knows that he is attuned to her presence and that he will easily find her if she does not move quickly and efficiently.

She moves her way through the sewers, though not as quickly as she would have liked, but eventually gets her way to the outpour of the sewer and doesn't like the outcome. It is a straight drop to the bottom level of Coruscant. None of the transports are in her jumping range and the panic is rising. She can hear all of the clones steadily getting closer and then she can feel Anakin's presence at her back.

She turns to him and the look in his eye is equal to the look of a young boy and that is when she really realizes how young her master really is. He is only five years older than her, but she respects him as if he is as old and wise as Master Yoda. But now, she knows that his training can go no farther.

"Snips, what are you doing?" her master asks desperately. "You need to come back."

"I'm sorry, master, I can't. Someone has set me up and no one is listening."

"Snips, I believe you, but you've got to come back." Anakin looks like he is two seconds away from rushing to restrain her, but Ahsoka knows she must escape now. She turns away and breaks eye contact with her master. "Ahsoka, I am ordering you back as your master." Anakin's voice takes on a commanding tone and nothing else matters but her need to escape now.

"I'm sorry, master, but I need to prove my own innocence." His look softens and he seems to understand. The clones then see them and as they pull up behind her master she flips onto a transport that has finally come near enough. She lets gravity take her and relaxes into the fall. Her feet make contact with the transport and she looks back up at her master. Their eyes meet and she knows that he will buy her as much time as possible, but he can only give her so long.

The Wrong Jedi

Betrayal! All of them! They all betrayed you! is the thought that runs through Ahsoka's head as she walks away from the only home she has ever known. It is blaring like it's the only words she has ever thought. She has disappointed her master, her Anakin, her friend, the only person that had believed her. That is what cut her the most, he had believed in her to not leave him, but to come back to him.

Everyone seems to look at her as she walks past, they all were there during the trial, they all see her as an oppressed hero who fought until the end. Their faces seem to darken as they look upon her, as if they feel every inch of her pain, all the anger, rage, sadness, hurt, guilt, and most importantly the utter and complete betrayal.

"Ahsoka! Ahsoka I need to talk to you!" She stops, the reflex and feeling in her gut easier to obey. She talks to him and she knows his pain, the pain of being kept from the ones you love. She knows all this pain, the inklings of doubt beginning to filter into everyone's mind.

"I understand what it's like wanting to leave the order," he whispers to her sullenly.

"I know, Anakin." She fashions her padawan braid around his wrist and ties it with a crude knot. She walks off, one tear coming down for all the ones she will lose, forget, despise and cherish the memory of for the rest of her life.

As she boards a transport at the bottom of the temple to take her to the lower levels, she sees a cloud seem to pass over the temple making it dark. It gives Ahsoka a little niggling sense of satisfaction, but more than anything she hurts, hurts all over, not like the pain of battle, but the pain of emotions that she has allowed to wreak havoc all over her decisions. That will change. . . hopefully.

Mortis

The slick sound of a blade through flesh is like music to a dark one's ears, it should bring smiles and laughs of utter lunacy, bring joy to cause screams of fear, pain and loss. The Son feels none of that as he sees the light die from his father's eyes. They have been fighting and finally he thinks his father has surrendered. The light has finally died and he sends his father to join his beloved sister, putting him in the grave beside her, letting the rock slide into place, letting eternal peace wash over the two of them, for they deserve it. But he can still feel sister's light presence out there somewhere and it angers him, feeling but never touching, never seeing.

He sits in his temple, feeling out into the universe, searching for her. He gets brief images of white and blue striped lekku and he almost laughs at the irony. She is where his sister had gone? That small and spirited visitor, she is his new "sister?" He guesses that somehow it fits-she possess the fire and spirit that his sister had lacked, something he always wished she had. Now he knows she can truly match him in every way.

He chuckles, turning into full roaring laughter.

"This is going to be good," his quiet, yet jovial voice says to his deserted planet at large. "I am going to have a lot of fun with this one."

He hums as he walks, the planet steadily falling apart around him. He keeps humming a little tune as the door to Mortis gapes open. The planet begins to disappear around him, leaving black nothingness in its place. He views it with a morbid sort of beauty, his home world will die so he can bring something new. Even Mortis abides by the law of the universe: for the new to flower and flourish, the old must wither and die.

His humming stops abruptly and he feels this deep sense of peace as the black nothingness claws nearer and nearer, snarling and threatening to envelop him, eat him up, make sure that the universe will cease to know that he ever existed, and that, presents a problem, because he has to find his family, sister, and the chosen one, and reunite across the stars again. He looks down at the blackness and then turns back to the door of Mortis, looking out into space.

"And here we go." The blackness takes over.

This prologue is a replica of the show with minor tweaks that will later come into play in the rest of the story. This story is in the layout of the show, meaning that there is a part of the story that will take three "episodes," a few political episodes, followed by another piece of the story. Please bare with us, there is in fact a plot! Each chapter is roughly 5K. R&R!