2 BBY

When the Sith Temple/Weapon of mass destruction explodes on Malachor she is still dueling An- Darth Vader,trying to ensure Kanan and Ezra escape this place of horrors. Mustafar had the reputation of being the world where Jedi come to die but Malachor seems to take that statement even further, here Jedi do not simply perish. All they represented, all they raised up bleeds out in the dark corners of this graveyard masquerading as a planet. Every Temple youngling could tell you Sith fortresses reeked of evil, the old Masters forgot to tell them that evil could also emerge in the form of the person you loved most in the galaxy. Truthfully Ahsoka's berating herself for pondering why such a subject never came up: Jedi were meant to love the universe at large, not exercise favoritism by forming personal attachments, bondage leads to emotion and emotion leads to irrationality. A Jedi shall not know anger nor hatred nor love... By that definition Ahsoka Tano had never been a Jedi and neither had Anakin Skywalker, Master Plo Koon or even the dogmatic Master Luminara Unduli though the latter tried just as hard as Kanan to uphold the image of one. (Luminara never fully recovered from Barriss's betrayal. She hopes Obi-wan Kenobi died without seeing Anakin warped into the death machine that wiped out everyone close to her Grandmaster's heart).

I won't leave you, not this timeshe'd said. A prayer and a plea as well as a declaration. Her way of begging for a way that let them both walk away from it all together, hand in hand as she'd never let herself dream life would allow. But the damage was already done, the wounds infected and left to rot far too long for her to cleanse their venom. Ahsoka Tano chose the right words seventeen years too late.

Red continues to battle pearl blades as she feels Ezra and Kanan's force signatures drift farther and farther away from the planet's atmosphere. (Ezra who is far too young to be fighting this war just as she and Barriss were during the Clone Wars. Just as Lt. Cassian Andor whom she taught to joke in an effort to grant him some semblance of the youth fate robbed both of them of. What were the Jedi and Rebel Alliance thinking when they decided it was a good idea to make children soldiers and teenagers mission leaders? Hers not to make reply, judge not the reason why. Hers and Anakin's but to do or die.) Huge chunks of rock and dust crashing down force the disgraced padawan turned Rebel and Sith Lord to alter their course occasionally. Even now, with all the actions taken under light and dark Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano share a common trait: they're both too stubborn for their own good. Then finally it happens, a rumbling crack in the ground robs her balance and Vader takes full advantage. His rubicund light-saber pierces both of her legs, injuring but not slicing them off. Ahsoka wonders if in his own twisted way, this is him showing mercy as she tries to reach her white swords. She is still reaching when her mast- Darth Vader turns her to the front. A warrior's respect, preventing the back-stabbing death of a coward's blow. Scalding heat releases beads of sweat from her body, the harsh red light that she refuses to look away from threatens to blind. This is it, this is how I die. I am not a Jedi or a hero but I will have a death befitting one. In spite of herself Ahsoka is glad that it's Anakin who's here with her, in this last harrowing moment of her failed life.

Vader's blow misses as the earth breaks again and she falls, sinking deeper into the black abyss of Malachor. The dead voices of bygone Sith cheer her impending doom as the dead Jedi spirits try to offer waves of comfort trying to ease her from she splatters on the ground like a pancake. She does not ask the Force for more time or the chance at a future. She, like Rex would traded all her tomorrow for one Clone Wars yesterday. What she does ask for is Anakin, for someone to succeed in saving his soul where she couldn't and lastly she mentally begs Ashla to grant understanding or at least the certainty that she not be alone...

Clean mountain air fills her lungs as she lands not in the seemingly bottomless pit of Malachor but a strange seaside cliff that she's never seen before. If Malachor was Hell on Earth then this unknown beach is Paradise. The whole planet bursts with serenity, nurturing her battered soul without the usual request of something in return. You're home it whispers as if she were precious beyond compare. You arewanted, you areloved it announces from every nook and cranny of this place she would indubitably name heaven if not for the fact her legs are still wounded and there's dust all over her lekku.

"Padawan Tano?"

Repressing a wince Ahsoka turns to face what she believes to be an angel of Death, adapting it's voice to that of Master Jocasta Nu's. Funny, she always thought it'd be Obi-Wan Kenobi who'd welcome her to the afterlife. His ginger beard tickling her cheeks as he kissed, no longer restrained by the non attachment edicts that forbid him a life with Duchess Satine; that made him feel guilty whenever he broke the 'Perfect Jedi' mask everyone expected of him, that took the chance to confess how much he loved Anakin... But then her senses come back to full capacity and she realizes that this is really the old Temple Librarian, that somehow she survived when Kit Fisto, Aayla Secura and Mace Windu all perished.

The old woman leaves any question of her continued existence behind as she shifts Ahsoka's weight to carry the adult Togruta. Neither of them speak in the short trek to Master Nu's refuge. Silence remains when the Librarian takes out a jar and subsequently applies Dreamul'er* oil to her legs and gives her Stewjon Lotus tea, her favorite in the Temple cafeteria.

"Master Nu?"

"I'm here Youngling."

Youngling, it's been so long since anybody looked at her and saw the thirteen year old initiate stupid enough to be happy she was being plunged into a war. (It'd been a game back then, when she and Master Skywalker counted how many droids they brought down.) After she left the Order federal law recognized her as an adult and a veteran. After the Empire was founded Ahsoka, like all sentients connected to the Jedi were worth less than obsolete droids; parasites whose only redemption lied in death. Bail Organa had cared for her but he had always romanticized the Jedi and the Viceroy of Alderaan was far too much of a politician to see her without using their friendship to further his cause when it was necessary. (Ahsoka never let herself wonder what would have happened if she'd told Bail that her skills were not to be used for the Rebellion, she'd wanted the Empire's fall too much to consider rejecting his offer.) She was to Ezra what Master Yoda had been to her in some ways, Kanan looked at her and saw an infallible hero, the embodiment of 'The Negotiator' and 'the Hero With No Fear's legacies.

"Where are we?"

"We're on Ach-too, birth place of the Jedi."

"Do you know how I got here?"

"I'm afraid not. We'll have to scour the library once you've recovered."

"So you weren't teleported here like I was?"

"No, I was fleeing Darth Vader and the Grand Inquisitor when my hiperdrive malfunctioned, sent me spiraling through space with no direction for weeks. Fortunately the Force took pity on me and allowed me to crash here, right on time too. My ship burst into flames the moment I got off."

"Which means we have no mode of transportation off this island."

"The Force brought us here for a reason. It would be unwise to leave until we've figured out what that reason is."

"But that could take us years! Decades even. My friends need me now!"

"Trust that the Force will protect your friends young Tano. Pray for their souls: that's the most you can do for them."

Of course Master Nu would say that. She represented the Jedi Order's compassionate conservative stance during the final days of the Republic just as Ahsoka represented the more rad-... emotionally invested part of the Galaxy's sworn protectors. That's why the old crone is happy to collect herbs and translate gibberish in the middle of nowhere, while the Empire butchers people by the score. In that moment she hears her old Master's complaint: 'It's easy to claim you care about people without actually helping them' which Anakin had used to explain how people in the Senate could give chump change to Padmé's charities and state their devotion to said charities later on but Ahsoka always thought he'd been referring to the Council as well. The Jedi Council, in their last incarnation during the Republic had acted more like politicians than Knights in some cases. The Order as a whole had walked the supposedly thick line between sages and generals and war victims, flying in and out of battles like kites dancing in a hurricane. (We never stood a chance did we Anakin?...)

And she wants to shout, to call the old woman out on her hipocrisy regarding the Galaxy's struggles but Master Jocasta Nu takes advantage of her weakened state and puts her to sleep.

When she wakes up Ahsoka finds that her legs no longer sting but they ache, indicating that Master Nu performed an immature healing trance. After a brief stretch she studies her surroundings. Her 'room' is a stone cabin built by brick, completely spartan in it's decorations. Only a woolen tapestry depicting Lady Ashla behind a row of men and women, varying in species but all kneeling before the Daughter.

"The first Jedi as they pledge eternal allegiance to the light side of the Force. Beautiful, don't you agree?"

"I'm not in the habit of complementing people who put me to sleep against my will."

You're ashamed, good. "Ahsoka... I don't want us to hate each other. There are so few of our brethren left."

"I am no Jedi, the Council and the Republic as well as the Empire's actions saw to that."

Oh, the 'sweet, naive Padawan' look. It's been ages since anyone but Rex gave me that look. Rex... "Do you see these Jedi bowing down to the Republic or to the Council? No, our solemn duty is to serve the light side of the Force and you have done that with great integrity Lady Tano. Master Skywalker and Master Kenobi would be proud of you."

Without hesitation Ahsoka leaps to hug the old librarian as Jocasta's eyes fill with the tragic dignity of one who has spent decades pondering the how's and whys that led to their misfortune. They were not Jedi or Warriors or even members of a religion that's nearly extinct in that moment, just two women who lost everything and adopted facades to cope. (Neither of them is aware that both women love a Sith Lord. Jocasta Nu is still in love with Dooku* and Ahsoka Tano still cares about the man now known as Darth Vader.)

"It's been so difficult Master, I don't know how things will ever be better."

"Perhaps that's why Ashla brought us here: so we could find out together."

"I like that idea."

"Me too."

19 ABY- The Force Awakens

Ahsoka is meditating on the hillsides when she feels a new force presence enter the island. Today marks her twenty-first year on this island, tomorrow will Mark the anniversary of Ashla herself showing up to her and Master Nu in which the Light side's embodiment informed Ahsoka that she had to wait for the boy made from the lake and the desert. (The first thing that comes into Because of course she couldn't have spoken in plain Basic, nooo. Ashla loves her riddles and her prophecies. And blowing up ships every time I tried to make one to fly away the first five years...) Not to say her time on Ach-too has been horrible, Rex arriving six years after she'd come had succeeded in making her love the island. The old clone had come by accident, much like Master Nu had only his X-Wing sunk instead of bursting into flames. Shortly after reuniting the old clone and the Jedi married with Master Nu performing the ceremony and the funny little guardians as witnesses. Ever since they've spent every day together and had a child, a daughter named Annika. She is on her way to them when she feels a new presence enter the island.

The first thing that comes to her mind is how powerful this unknown Force-sensitive is. If force sensitives were measured by levels of brightness then he or she would be a star, shining over the Galaxy. The second thing she notices is how similar the presence is to Ana- to her old Master's. Is it possible that Vader had found salvation? After all Ventress had somewhat redeemed herself and she'd had far less motivation to reach for the light. Oh please let it true, let him be back...

Despite the fact her body is now the same as the older form of herself seen in the vision so many years past Ahsoka runs like a Youngling that's just been told Master Plo Koon brought fresh blue milk cookies. What will Anakin look like? The fragment of his mask she broke barely gave anything away except for the sinister yellow tint that colored his once cerulean eyes. Will he be happy to see her or will he be unwilling to forgive her still? So many questions and so little time before the gap between them closes. Anakin, Anakin!...

She is met with the sight of a smuggler's shuttle, the same used by the Rebellion she'd helped found decades ago. Did Anakin join the Alliance? And if so what information did he give to convince High Command to spare his life?The hatch opens and Ahsoka's beats so loud it's a miracle the old battered thing doesn't burst out of her body as two arms stretch out-

This is not Anakin, the arms stretching out of the hangar are too short and this man's voice is an octave higher than her old Master's true vocal tone. She falls to the ground, malcontented at the fact that Anakin still makes her weep after all this time.

"Is there any way I can help you Miss?"

She dries the tears from her eyes, refusing to show any further emotional instability. She is Ahsoka Tano and she is first and foremost a survivor, no short-armed rebel with a helmet will change that. Besides, this boy (the presence feels distinctly male) has an overwhelming amount of turmoil, it is Anakin after their 'encounter' with the Zygerrian Queen. There is anger at what Ahsoka perceives to be his friend's suffering, a depression created by his life's toxicity; long denied to everyone, including himself. Yet through all the rage and melancholy there beats a love, a tenderness towards all beings that Ahsoka hasn't felt since, since Padmé... Wary but determined she mentally braces herself to cast her gaze on the boy who has walked to her and is touching her lekku in the way a visiting Jedi greets an elder in her home planet, she'd seen Master Shak-Ti give and receive the greeting but Ahsoka never expected to live long for her to receive the ancient ritual. The Togruta places her hands on the boy's face and suppresses a gasp upon seeing Anakin's coloring reflected on Padmé's tender stare.

For reasons unknown to her she speaks in Huttese. "Who are you?" He didn't, he wouldn't have, he couldn't have...

The man with boyish manners and short blonde hair lightly sprinkled in grey answers in Basic, though he uses a mental communication far more advanced than what she'd expect of one so young to speak."I am Luke Skywalker, son of Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Naberrie Amidala. Current Grandmaster of the Jedi Order." He did... Naboo is a lake planet, Tatooine's a desert. This is it, this is the one we've been waiting for!

Just like that Mini Skyguy walks away from her as if he wasn't the validation of her longer-than-she'd-like stay on this island. The man's steps resemble sleepwalking as he heads towards the ancient meditation grounds, he unleashes a stream of power that carries with hints of torture and death and betrayal so horrid Ahsoka's convinced that Padmé and Anakin's son came here to save his soul before he fell. A fall that would have been caused not by fear or malice but despair.

She searches for the right words as she makes her way to him, desperate not to fail the son as she did the father. Luke is so small and skinny... My little brother, tired and erasing himself from the narrative just like I did. Guess it runs in the family.

Ahsoka recalls what Rex told her about the boy and how he was raised by his aunt and uncle. The same people Anakin presented her to just before leaving Tatooine. Owen Lars and Beru Whitesun were good people, she's glad Luke was allowed to be normal during his childhood. (Of course she's still a little angry at Obi-Wan for hiding so long!) And just like that she knows what to say.

"*Upani, I'm going to protect you from now on."

He looks at her like a man who has not spoken his native tongue in decades, a man who has seen cultures rejected by those who should have taken care of their heritage.

"Who are you?"

Luke says it quietly, he says it hesitantly and Ahsoka Tano realizes that while she needed months to heal Luke will need decades. Even then, it won't be fine. It will never be completely fine but regardless of that they shall be together if he lets her stand by his side.

"I'm Ahsoka Tano, adopted daughter of Anakin Skywalker."

"*Ikkalda?"

"well, your dad called me ikkalla-kassu which means sister-daughter? What word do you use to say sister-extremely cool aun- "Oh Mini Skyguy you hug the same way Master Kenobi did.

Master Jocasta is enchanted with Luke the moment they meet, she beams when he asks permission to read the Sacred Jedi texts. When he teaches all four of them Amatakka she knows somebody he loved refused the same offer and it hurt him deeply but he never said it. Mini Skyguy stares wistfully whenever she and her husband do something cheesy, that's how she knows Luke has been in love and lost that love later on. The way he plays with Annika tells them he raised children, how he paints her daughter daughter's nails with ease tells them that somewhere in space he lost a daughter. Rex had already met Anakin's son, the old clone confesses to Ahsoka that Luke's wrists bear signs of electro-shock torture and the way he sticks to liquids indicates he was recently force-fed. The temple caretakers rejoice at the sight of his Jedi Robes and bring him mountain flowers, exclaiming how happy they are to have a GrandMaster lead their sunrise prayers. What kind of life did Luke live during those days she and Rex missed that left his force-presence brightening up whenever Rex tells Annika and the caretakers stories about his father and Obi-Wan? That made him inhale the island's message of love and comfort like an abused orphan who's finally been adopted by a nurturing mother and father? Rex said the New Republic had no idea about Anakin's fall but that was so long ago...The truth might have come out, it's the secrets you want to keep hidden the most that always come out first. Surely they wouldn't hate sweet and gentle Mini Skyguy for being sired from Anakin right? Her husband replies that the people who tortured Luke probably looked at the poor kid and saw 'the cum stain of evil incarnate' instead of a person, she doesn't believe Rex until she accidentally catches the kid bathing in the waterfall and sees a body riddled in still healing scars that prove her beloved right. If I ever find any of these people I'll slice to mince meat with my light sabers!

"You think really loud when you're angry ikkal."

She steps out of her hiding place, Luke doesn't bother hiding the canvas of horrors riddled across his skin. They both know she already saw.

"How could you let them do that to you?"

"They always wanted to do this to me. I just stopped pretending the New Republic didn't want to do it."

After that she makes no efforts to ask him about the New Republic, when she shows him the tapestry that Master Nu showed her decades ago he declares that the Order must return to it's foundation, nobody disagrees with him. Luke recruits all three of them for the task of restoring the Jedi Order, though not before asking Master Nu if she wishes to take the position of GrandMaster since she is the senior member of the group. The old woman refuses, claiming the best leaders are those willing to renounce power as Luke just proved he is capable of. Annika recruits herself, claiming she wants to help 'Uncle Luke. The old Jedi texts show them how to find Force-Sensitives across the galaxy without ever leaving the planet, Force nexuses like Jakku or Dagobah being the exception. Jocasta takes a cantina waitress named Tionne Solusar who collects Jedi stories from her customers as a Padawan through this method, Annika tells Jedi stories to a group of orphaned slaves in Pantora (Now a First Order World) whom Ahsoka teaches, Rex finally allows Master Nu to call their daughter Initiate Tano. Luke has to delay teaching Jedi skills until he's been on the island for three years cause that's when he can hold a lightsaber without screaming or visualizing painful memories. She tells Luke that she's proud of him for never giving up, he replies that if he did give up then he'd probably kill himself and Ahsoka has no response. His first student is a young starfighter named Tyria Sarkin Tainer, he puts her to spy on the First Order and wait for the time to infiltrate their ranks. The first time Luke freezes for hours neither she or Jocasta know to do except not take the caretakers's suggestion of putting hot stones in his back because that might bring back torture memories. The old librarian is ashamed of herself and the Order for not recognizing shell-shock in its full severity, she weeps and kneels next to the statuesque figure of Luke like a sinner throwing her soul to a God's mercy. Rex comes back from hunting with Annika and presses a warm cloth to Luke's face that 'wakes' him up. The second time he freezes Ahsoka carries Luke from the cold floor and puts him to bed, just as she's about to get Rex she feels him.

"Hello snips."

Anakin Skywalker is just as she remembers him save for the pale light that encompasses his figure. Right down to the scar on his eyebrow. She and Rex heard from Luke of Anakin Skywalker's redemption but this is the first time she's truly seen him since Malachor. Her master stands awkwardly, unsure of whether or not he's allowed to be here. Why shouldn't he be? Luke is his kid, not Ahsoka and Rex's though when Luke had granted Rex some of his life-energy and stopped the accelerated aging process of her husband, bringing him back to his 50s instead of his 90s they'd been tempted to claim him as their own.

"Ahsoka, about Malachor-"

"Don't. Please. That wound's been closed, don't reopen it."

"Just know that I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt you. I should have let you save me."

I would never let anyone hurt you Ahsoka... She doesn't hate him, she's never hated him but there is one question that she has to know, that's burned in the back of her head ever since her little brother came to the Island. Was blood the deciding factor for his final deed or it was something deeper, something only those raised in the Twin Suns of Tatooine would understand?

"Why did Luke succeed where I failed? You raised me, you fought with me, you nearly died for me. Luke didn't have that. You met him when he was 22, he fought on the opposite side of your war, he humiliated you and your troops countless times but you took his offer."

"Snips-"

"Tell me why! What did Luke do that I or Obi-Wan or Padme didn't?!"

"Luke came back."

It was that simple...She doesn't dwell on it, her Master's soul is saved, his suffering is over. Luke is the one who needs them here and now. Anakin nudges Luke back into reality with a power he says only blood relatives have, from then on his ghost is the de facto breaker of that state whenever it lasts too long. It's ten years before Luke stops saying "Ben, Leia, Han, Mara..." in his sleep but that she blames on Rex tattling Luke's habit to Mini-Skyguy. Annika leaves when Ashla's voice tells them to warn Hosnian Prime to join Lando Calrissian's anti-slavery police in Kessel. She and Rex sigh in relief when the girl informs them she's enlisting as a sniper, not a Jedi. When Luke apparates to save his friends the Guardians poke at the empty space he left behind. Wedge Antilles and Wes Janson's memories finally reveal the past Luke has never told her anything of save the wild stories about Rogue Squadron, Princess Leia, Han Solo and Chewbacca he tells them over campfires & on one occasion where she helped fix his prosthetic and unlocked a compartment hiding twin silver bands in which she got "Her name was Mara. She was fierce, smart, loyal and she deserved so much better..." I wish I could cure your depression fully, I wish you took something for yourself again ... Rex leaves with Luke's friends on the shuttle to activate the homing beacon at the right time and escapes on a pod before entering Malastare's orbit, she doesn't ask when Rex will return to the island. They can both feel their long honeymoon is nearing its end. Luke confirms it when he tells her to pack their bags cause someone, he doesn't know who, will come for them soon enough.

When Han Solo dies Mini Skyguy's chest bleeds red and when the caretakers see Luke clutching his blood-stained as he comes back from the cliffs the good beings panic as they frantically try to untie his robes and help. Luke pushes them away, screaming "It should have been me!. Let me die: I deserve to be alone!, I deserve to be dead!" till his throat is dry. He breaks one of the walls when Master Nu, who in panic over the worst broken heart she's ever seen reverts to her strict librarian persona and tells Luke to control himself because such uncouth screaming is unseemly for the Jedi Grandmaster. (That was the problem with your generation, you had all to choose being Jedi or Human. No wonder Dooku fell and Anakin sought comfort in Palpatine...) Ahsoka gently hugs the long suffering man even as he squirms against her, holds him and patches up the gash with her powers to the best of her abilities. That day is the only time's she's happy to see the phantom young woman, the ghost girl that somehow ages as the years crawl by shows up and Luke heals whatever wounds she bears with his back turned, a necessity since every time he and the girl try to see one another Luke has only the brief agonizing second where they can almost touch but she fades away. She tries to persuade him once the girl leaves that it's unhealthy for him to cling to this ghost so deeply but his reply is that it won't matter, stating that in less visible forms than a young girl Mara's been haunting him for a long time anyway.

She tries not to ponder on the fact his tone indicates he never wants the spirit he believes to be his dead wife to stop haunting him, that in a way he has tied his sanity to this specter girl that bruises and cries and tries to speak but none of them ever hear what's coming out of her mouth. Ahsoka does what Anakin Skywalker raised her to do: ensure no man gets left behind as the battle is about to begin.

Notes:

*Dreamul'er: plant found on Dremulae that could heal lightsaber wounds.
*In the EU it was written that Dooku and Jocasta Nu were in love with one another but they both chose to uphold the Code instead of starting a forbidden love affair.
*Upani: little brother in amatakka, Ikkalda: older sister, Ikkal: sister.
Hands out tin cup: comments please?