He's Not Our Enemy

Disclaimer: I own nothing, all credit goes to George Lucas and Lucasarts.

Summary: After vanishing from the Jedi temple ten years ago, Anakin Skywalker is found. The Jedi imprison him until he decides to tell them what happened to him. After getting lost after fleeing from some of her abusive class mates, Ahsoka stumbles into Anakin's room and discovers a side to the force she never knew.

Master Kenobi Comes Back, Ahsoka Tano

I woke up slowly. And by slowly I mean slowly. It took about ten minutes for me to realize that I wasn't dreaming and that the tired feeling in all of my limbs was real. I groaned in annoyance at waking up and lifted the covers up so that I was cocooned in them even tighter than before. There was a chrono beside my bed for telling time but not for waking people up. That meant no alarm which was fine with me. I could pretty much tell that Anakin wasn't awake yet. I know that he woke up at a time between eight and ten when in the Jedi temple but he always seemed so tired then and it's pretty obvious that he could sleep to mid-day if he wanted to.

Out of curiosity, I looked up at the chrono and saw that it was eleven o'clock. I'd been asleep for roughly eleven hours. With a sigh I turned over in bed so that I was on my back and stared at the ceiling. It did have the swirling lights on it just like everywhere else. They were like the reflections you got from lakes and rivers that were displayed in a place where there was no water. It was actually rather beautiful. I stretched out my limbs and felt the usual pops and cracks of tension being released. I couldn't see how I got any tension in my body considering how comfortable and pleasant this bed was but I didn't dwell on the fact for very long.

There was the sound of a door opening down the hall and I knew that could only be one person. Then there was a knocking on my door.

"I know you're awake, Snips." Anakin said from the other side. "I'm going to go and get Obi-Wan from the healers. You should get up, get dressed and have some breakfast before he gets here. I do not want a lecture on how to take care of an eleven year old."

I could hear him leaving down the hallway and walking down the stairs a moment later. With a bit of effort, I pushed myself out of bed and walked over to the wardrobe. I wasn't really sure what to wear since I wasn't required to wear the standard Jedi uniform any more and it had seemingly disappeared from where I'd left it. I decided to just chose some comfortable clothes, a long sleeved white shirt with a short sleeved black t-shirt over it and jeans, then went to make my bed. It took me a few seconds to realize that I could just use the force to do it and after that I felt like a complete idiot for not realizing sooner.

Once that job was done, I opened my bedroom door and walked down the stairs to get something to eat. I didn't really know how Anakin stored his food but I guessed that it had to be something like 'healthy food goes at the back, unhealthy food goes at the front'. I walked through the lounge and the front room to the kitchen. It actually wasn't as messy as I thought it would be. Truth be told, there wasn't any mess in there whatsoever. I would have been amazed had I not known how seriously Anakin takes his food. The floor was made of just black and white tiles and the rest of the kitchen was exactly how you'd find one on Coruscant only bigger. Plus it smelt great and could make a person hungry just by standing in the doorway.

I walked further into the kitchen and opened a cupboard at random. I was surprised to see that I had actually been wrong when I thought that Anakin would have all of the unhealthy food at the front. The food was all spread out and I didn't recognize a single bit of it. There was fruit there that could have been what I'd eaten yesterday and and lots of other things. I could hardly believe it all fit into one place. Unable to help myself, I checked all of the other cupboards in the room and still could't find much that I recognized. There was bread and all of that stuff but everything else just seemed really, really odd to me but it also smelt really, really nice.

I decided to just have some cereal that I recognized from back at the temple and sat down at the kitchen table to eat it. I got about half way through my bowl when I heard the un unmistakable sounds of Anakin laughing from outside. For a moment I wondered if he hadn't bothered to leave to go and get Master Kenobi yet but then I heard the Jedi masters voice and realized that he'd already brought him to the asteroid. I was too busy eating to get up and run to the door so I just eavesdropped instead. From the sounds of things, Anakin hadn't warned Master Kenobi about nether travel and was now getting yelled at for not thinking it through. There was a lot of Master Kenobi being unhappy and Anakin laughing for a minute or two before I heard the door slide open and them enter the house.

When they entered the kitchen Anakin was still laughing quietly to himself and Master Kenobi was glaring at him in annoyance. His mood immediately brightened when he noticed that I was sat there looking at Anakin like he'd grown another head. He was certainly laughing enough to have one. Whilst Anakin set about getting himself something to eat, Master Kenobi sat down next to me.

"Hello, Ahsoka." He greeted me.

"Hello again Master Kenobi." I replied.

"Actually his name's Ben now," Anakin said from across the room. "So that no Jedi haters figure out who he is and try to kill him. You'd be surprised how many three million year olds there are alive today."

"Three million?" I asked in disbelief. "Then who's the oldest person on the planet?"

"Oh, I never bothered to learn how old exactly," Anakin said offhandedly. "But I do have a book of general facts that updates itself every month if you want to read it."

"Okay," I replied.

"Great. It's four thousand pages." Anakin added with a smirk.

"Four thousand?"

Anakin sat down at the table with his own breakfast and a plate that he placed in front of Master Kenobi, or Ben as he was now called.

"It's made to look like a normal sized book but with way more pages," Anakin explained. "And two hundred of those pages are about me."

"I don't think I'll read those."

He gave me his best offended look. "Thanks, Snips. You make my life so much better." Anakin said sarcastically. "So, I have an idea about which school you should go to."

"Oh no..."

"Oh, come on, Snips. Give me a chance." Anakin spoke. "It's not that bad. It's actually the school where Simon and Jack go to so you shouldn't feel totally alone there."

"I don't know," I said. "Being surrounded by force wielder kids doesn't sound like the best thing in the world to me."

"Trust me, Ahsoka, you'll like school. Well, most of the time. It works as a boarding school and a regular school so you can stay there when we're busy or I'm chasing some project gone wrong again."

I sighed. "Is there a brochure or something?"

Anakin grinned. "What force wielder school doesn't have a brochure?"

I was starting to get a little curious about this whole going to school thing. Anakin had showed me around fifty different brochures for the same school, since force wielders took promotion very seriously, and gotten out a ton of books for us to read about force wielders too. Apparently, in the school that he wanted to send me to they had lessons that lasted until four in the afternoon and that sounded good to me since as a Jedi youngling it had been lessons in the force up until whenever the masters deemed fit and that was usually at about six or seven in the evening. Naturally, whilst all of this was going on, Master Kenobi was playing the Jedi game on the gaming unit since even he found it fun to play.

There was a 3D model of the school and the first thing that came into my mind was, 'its huge!'. The school was made up of lots of different buildings with grassy fields and lakes in between each of them so you had a five minute break between each of your classes which made all of the information sink into your brain quicker. There were waterfalls and mountains surrounding the place and it was in the hills of the north which basically meant that the weather was unpredictable throughout the whole year. Anakin said that it snowed to over fifteen inches at the start of winter and in the middle of winter if came up to his shoulder which meant I would be smothered.

Anakin explained about how the school year started in the summer but I could go there whenever. It covered all ages from nine to eighteen but all of the little kids were kept in one area and all of the older kids were kept in another to avoid any presences of the dark side. I didn't see how there wouldn't be enough space for every kid to stay in so I agreed that the idea of keeping age groups separate was a good idea. They served breakfast, lunch and dinner in the school but Anakin didn't seem to keen on that idea. He said that I'd end up eating breakfast here no matter what but could have some breakfast there too if I was still hungry. I was really surprised to learn that lunch was for one hour and a half whilst the break between the second and third period lasted for half an hour.

Then we went over the daily schedule. You arrived at the school whenever but it had to be before nine o'clock when lessons started. Each lesson lasted for one hour and, after I'd done the math, I discovered that I only had five lessons each day which was fine by me. We even had a four day weekend since on Primus each week lasted eight days so there was an even amount of days for working and resting. I started to love the planet even more. I had my first two lessons from nine to eleven where I had the thirty minute break. Then another two lessons before lunch and one more after that. That was when they served dinner the first time and then again from six till eight for the kids who were staying in school overnight.

"There are tutors for the kids who are behind in their studies, that's you," Anakin pointed out. "So you don't need to worry about getting picked on because of that."

"But what about the other things the kids will pick on me for?" I asked.

Anakin frowned. "Well, I guess they might try name calling but I wouldn't bet on it. All they have to do is sense my presence when we get shown around the place or see me with you and you'll be pretty much untouchable. Just ask Jack and Simon. They're treated like gods at school so just imagine how you'll be treated since you actually live in the same house as me."

I thought about that for a moment. It sounded good since that meant nobody was going to pick on me but a little bad since people would be staring at me. I then wondered if people staring at me could be considered a good thing in some terms since it wasn't always that bad. People on Coruscant would stare at Jedi all the time and nothing bad would come of that since it was always supporters of crime of the separatists who wanted us dead.

"One very important thing. You can't mention that you're a Jedi youngling," Anakin said seriously. "It's like I said. There are some people around who hate the Jedi order for trying to destroy the force wielders and they might just kill you for being one."

"But can't you beat them up instead?"

"Oh, definitely," Anakin assured me. "But I'd prefer not to. If I do that then I have to go to all of these anger management courses to make sure that I'm not turning down a dark path and all of that. Just stuff I'd rather not do." I could definitely see why he didn't want to do all of those things. "Now, do you want me to take you to the school for a walk-through any time soon? Because I'm not into the whole showing up and demanding something thing. Besides, I need to start teaching you how to use your powers and such before you end up going to school. So, you want to take the walk-through today, tomorrow or the day after that?"

"Tomorrow." I answered.

Anakin nodded. "Good. Now, every kid whose eleven knows all of the basics. That's the force push, pull, levitating objects, sensing emotions and everything that you got taught as a Jedi. But for a force wielder those are the things you teach an eight year old and after that you learn all of the 'advanced' stuff."

"What does the 'advanced' stuff mean?"

"Making fire, light, moving water, practicing nether travel with a learners permit, shifting large objects and conjuring items." Anakin explained. "Really easy stuff once you get the hang of it."

"Right..." I said quietly. "Easy..."

"Relax, Ahsoka. It will be easy for you to learn if you have a good enough teacher," Anakin assured me. "So, you can make fire and light... that means we should try to water thing. There's a pool out back that you can practice with. I'll show you."

"I don't know," I said uncertainly.

"It's really easy, Snips. Just use the force to push the surface of the water and you can do whatever you want."

We left Master Kenobi to his game, which he seemed to be having a great time on, and walked out through the back door in the kitchen. Now, you may not know this but when you are the most famous person in the solar system you tend to have some of the best things in the universe. And Anakin's pool was one of those things. It was huge. There were little bubbles around the edges and small wisps of steam coming off of the waters surface which let me know it wasn't the typical cold water pool. Around the edges where you stood where a few chairs and one diving board that looked like you could jump off at any height you wanted.

"Okay Snips, now watch." Anakin instructed.

He lifted his hand up with the palm facing outwards and flicked his wrist to the left. A wave of water rose up from the pool and washed over to the left hand side of the pool. He flicked his wrist to the right and another wave of water rose up and washed over to the right hand side of the pool. Then he turned his hand so that his palm was facing directly upwards and a large wave of water rose up into the sky that was ten feet tall before it washed back into the pool. He did the exact same thing again but this time with his palm facing downwards and the water changed into this miniature whirlpool that looked really dangerous.

"Now you try," Anakin said to me once he'd finished his demonstration. "Just force push the water in whatever direction you want it to go and make sure that you focus on the waters surface so that you have something for your push to grasp onto."

I had no idea whether or not that was actually good advice but I decided to do as he said. I lifted my hand up in the same way he had the first time and just willed the water to push towards the end of the pool. There was a little water created but when compared to Anakin's demonstration it wasn't all that good. He told me to try again but this time I had to put some good emotions into it to make it more powerful. Apparently all emotions made your force techniques more powerful so long as they were strong and if you had memories that were good enough then you could have more power put into your techniques than when you used anger or hatred. I wondered if he should tutor the sith sometime.

After five failed tries where nothing happened, eight tries where there were just little splashes, four tries where the entire pool would start to overflow and one really funny moment where a jet of water hit Anakin in the face. He put up a transparent wall in front of him to prevent against it happening again and told me to try a few more times. I focused again but didn't really make any progress until the last try. That was when I flicked my wrist to the left and the water followed as instructed. Anakin told me to repeat it and I did. It was like the current you got on rivers and Anakin said that it was a start. We tried again for another hour and I was able to get some decent sized waves by the time we stopped.

We sat down on two of the chairs around the pool area and Anakin made the water glow purple for his own amusement.

"It's just after three," Anakin said without even looking at a chrono (not that there were any outside). I guessed it was his mastery of the force that let him know what the time was whenever he wanted. "Do you want to have some lunch?"

I nodded. Using the force to do things like that was really draining and it also made me really hungry. Anakin conjured food for us out of thin air and we ate whilst watching the pool change from purple to turquoise and back again. When it was four o'clock there was a scuffling sound in the front yard and then before you knew it Anakin had been knocked off his chair and into the currently red coloured pool by Jack and Simon. I guessed that they had nether traveled here from school or had gotten some help from their parents since it couldn't be more than five minutes after four. I wasn't worried for Anakin's safety since he would have done something to stop himself from falling into the pool if there was any danger about.

They all resurfaced a minute later with Simon and Jack laughing and Anakin grinning. When they climbed out of the pool I noticed that their clothes were automatically drying themselves in record time and wondered if it was a force wielder thing that I should learn about just in case.

"I have to go and check on Ben," Anakin said. "Try not to kill each other while I'm gone." And with that he left us alone standing by a colour changing pool.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Jack asked Simon and I just knew that something was going to happen.

"If what your thinking involves getting soaked," Simon replied with a grin. "Then yes."

In the next second Jack was in the pool and water splashed about everywhere. Simon keeled over with laughter at his brothers reaction after being pushed into the pool and I stood there hoping that I wouldn't get caught in the crossfire by mistake. On the other hand, when I did get drenched by water it wasn't by mistake at all since they'd planned it and that was how we all ended up in a huge water fight in Anakin's pool. It was a little strange at first since one time I had green water being hurled at me and the next it was a deep yellow colour but I think we all managed to get each other well and truly soaked so it was a win-win situation.

Although, when there was water flying about everywhere it really was impossible not to get hit by your own ammunition. When Anakin came back we were sending water flying about in every possible direction and soaking everything within twenty feet of us. I didn't even notice how well I was doing with using the force to move the water about but Anakin did although he didn't comment on it. He probably knew that once I noticed I'd stop and then everything would go downhill from there. So our water fight ended when Anakin used the force to yank us out of the pool and set us down on the side to dry off. Well, not so much the other two but more me since my clothes didn't automatically dry themselves.

Jack and Simon dried off with whatever force trick they had on them so Anakin used the force to help me get dry so that I wasn't left as the only one dripping wet. We then walked inside as we laughed and shivered slightly from the slight breeze that we could feel from Anakin's artificial wind and got some snack food to eat. Anakin ended up leaving us in the front room so that he could go into the lounge to talk to Master Kenobi, Saddie and D about whatever it is that grown ups talk about in a solar system run by force wielders. That just left us to play the Jedi game again and this time I did way better than before.

We started dueling each other and since every move we made was exactly how it was in real life I beat them both every time since neither of them had made a lightsaber yet. It was what you did in the next year at school apparently and that meant they hadn't learned any moves yet. So, that was how I ended up beating them both at the game for the first time ever and they didn't seem too happy about it either. By the time Anakin came back in to check on us we were wrestling on the couch to see who was the better player and I was in a headlock whilst I had Simon in a headlock. It looked fairly comical.

We spent the rest of the day playing games and such before they had to go and I had to go to bed. Anakin had been right when he said that Master Kenobi was going to be more strict with the rules than he was and I had to go to bed at ten every night with the acceptation of half an hour for each year I grew older. Well, at least that meant I could stay up till ten thirty once I turned twelve. So, with that in mind, I got sent to bed with a smirking Anakin watching me go. He had that 'I told you so' look on his face and I made sure to find a way to get back at him when I woke up tomorrow morning. I put on my pajamas and fell asleep a few moments after my head hit the pillow.