Chapter Seventy-Three: Warning

If Ahsoka had known she'd need to hide a pregnancy one day, she would have diversified her wardrobe to consist of more than the fitted tanks, dresses, tights, and low waisted cargo pants she tended to favor. Because in that kind of wardrobe, there was no way to hide a seven-month pregnant stomach, no matter how small she was carrying thanks to years of fighting, being on the move, and her tall stature.

Ahsoka's saving grace, though, was that she had begun to expand her wardrobe since the start of the war. Ahsoka thought it ridiculous that some diplomats and planetary leaders would judge her based on whether she wore camouflage pants and a tank or a suit or a dress. But it gave her a good excuse for the short capes and wide jackets she'd begun to wear to hide and draw attention away from her midsection. Ahsoka didn't hold out much hope that she'd be able to hide the pregnancy much longer, though. It was sheer luck no one had noticed this far.

Already, Luke and Leia had figured it out and were treating it as just one more secret to hide. When she'd started wearing the capes and jackets, Diya, seldom missing anything out of place, pointed out their newness. Before the other togruta could ask anything else or attract anyone else's attention to it, Luke helpfully interjected that he thought it was cool. Leia added that it made Ahsoka look more authoritative. It effectively diverted Diya's attention, and she agreed with them both before continuing on her way. Ahsoka had given the two a wondering stare, but the two just gave her a cheeky grin and dashed off.

Then there was the fact that they stopped questioning the still feather-like but increasingly strong and less timid taps of their unborn sibling in the Force. Instead, the two had begun to touch back, playing the ethereal tapping game they used to play with Vader in the Force when they were much younger. When they started randomly and not so subtly discussing names right in front of her, Ahsoka gave up any pretense trying to keep her pregnancy hidden from them. From Winter too. Because Luke and Leia told Winter everything, and Winter was her third adopted child for all intents and purposes.

Ahsoka still hadn't outright told them. But she wasn't as careful about keeping her hands away from her stomach when it was just the three of them around. She'd stop covering herself with blankets and pillows when she was sitting on the couch in her personal quarters and they were in the vicinity. Once, she'd even absently played the physical version of the tapping game their sibling seemed to like to play right in front of them. Her pregnancy was far enough now that they could see when the baby moved sometimes. And after Ahsoka swiped a finger across her womb and a body part visibly swiped back in the same direction, Luke had excitedly blurted out, "That's cool!" Leia kicked him, and he remembered that he technically wasn't supposed to "know" or acknowledge their mother's pregnancy.

And Winter, sweet and caring but unyielding like her mother, had taken it upon herself to bring Ahsoka her meals. Breakfast in the morning, so Ahsoka didn't have to get up early for a chance to get into the mess hall before her day started. Dinner in the evening when Ahsoka was too busy or too tired to remember. Winter took careful note of the things Ahsoka left on her plate because they made her sick and made sure not to bring them again. She also kept a stash of ration bars, jerky, water, and sometimes even juice supplied in Ahsoka's office. How the little princess was getting her hands on all of it consistently, Ahsoka didn't know and didn't ask.

An effect of her pregnancy that was less obvious to others was her new and insane sensitivity to the Force. It was like when she, Vader, and Obi-wan or any of the Jedi would meditate together, using their combined Force power to find the solution to a problem with much more ease than they would have alone. But this increased sensitivity was without meditation (because as if she have time for that).

A constant whispering in her mind when she made decisions about the Rebellion. A decision not to send aid to a Mid-Rim world that had broken out into rebellion against the Empire (the insurgency ended up running the Empire off the planet themselves while the fleet she'd refrained from sending was free to help fortify Kashyyyk). A decision to strategically retreat from Lothal, right before the Empire ambushed them with unexpected reinforcements. The decision to take Mandalore and solidify her alliance with the warrior society and make good on the promise she'd made to Bo-Katan before the Empire rose.

Sometimes, though, the sensitivity was maddening, the world was too loud, and Ahsoka had to actively work on shielding herself to tune out everything that wasn't important. She wondered if this sensitivity was what it was like for Vader. She wondered, if it was, how he'd gotten used to it. She wondered if Padmé had experienced such a sensitivity with Luke and Leia and hadn't known. Or if Padmé had experienced it but hadn't known what it meant or what to do with it.

Today the world was too loud, and Ahsoka abruptly excused herself for the rest of the day when she could no longer handle it. She would ask for forgiveness later.

When she got to her quarters, she threw off her cape and dress to put on something more comfortable, made a cup of tea, and settled into bed. Exhausted didn't even begin to describe her fatigue, and Ahsoka wondered at women who would willingly go through pregnancy more than once. Then again, maybe it wouldn't be so bad if she wasn't running a rebellion.

Deciding she wanted sleep more, Ahsoka set the tea aside and settled more comfortably onto her pillows.

The scene changed. She wasn't in her room at the Rebellion base, and hazy images flashed before her eyes. Luke sitting in the pilot's chair of her ship. Leia somewhere, not in the image, calling his name. A combination of pain, panic, fear, and steel determination in the Force. The image changed. A baby cried. She handed over a newborn to Luke and left him, Leia, and Winter with instructions to take care of her. The image changed again, a cackling laugh, lightning, overwhelming darkness but not the kind from Vader that she was so familiar with and served as a comfort, a protective shield. The call of her name, and then nothing. Not darkness. Not the dark side. But nothing.

Death.

Ahsoka opened her eyes to her room. She reached over to grab her chrono and check the time. Three hours. She didn't even remember falling asleep. She put her chrono back.

For a moment, she was still, hoping the images she'd seen were just a fleeting dream, induced by worry, stress, and anticipation for the future. Something that if she didn't concentrate on, she wouldn't remember. But ever after minutes, the images wouldn't leave her head. Images so vivid despite the surreal haze that distanced her from them when she'd seen them.

As much as Ahsoka wanted to think otherwise, she couldn't deny what she'd seen was a vision of the future. The details and how the events would all come to pass were vague. But what had been clear was she gave birth, at some point in the future, she handed the baby over to the twins and Winter, and then, sometime later, she died.

The Force had given her a vision of her death.

That's what it looked like anyway. She'd had visions before, but it wasn't something she had a particular affinity for. That was one of Vader's many talents when he focused on it. Certainly, she'd never put too much thought into all the different ways a vision could be interpreted. The future was always in motion. Visions weren't always an inevitability. That was if they could even be trusted. Most of the time, they didn't even tell the entire story. At least, that's what Ahsoka tried to tell herself.

A chime rang through her quarters, and Ahsoka put a warm robe on to cover her stomach and went to answer her door. Her vision would have to wait.

Obi-wan was standing on the other side.

"You're back," Ahsoka pointed out.

She hadn't seen him since he left almost three months ago.

"How was your mission?" Ahsoka asked after she'd let Obi-wan into the room.

"Eventful enough that I found it necessary to talk directly to your contact about my finding and how they might affect Mortis," Obi-wan said vaguely.

While Obi-wan hadn't been at their gathering, his missions were vital to Operation Mortis. He frequently passed on information he found to Sabé. Sometimes directly to Vader. He'd helped them to organize the contingency operation. But if worse ever came to worst, if something happened to her or Vader or both, he had a far more important mission. Get the children somewhere safe and far away from any fallout.

Ahsoka gestured to the couch and said, "You can have a seat if you want. But I'm liable to fall asleep mid-sentence if I sit down."

Really, it was that if she sat down, he was more likely to notice her pregnancy.

"I don't plan to be here long," Obi-wan said. "I just need to tell you about a discussion I had before I left. Something I wish you'd been included in and that I should have told you about before my extended mission but didn't have time to. I—"

"If it's about the Jedi and their concern about Vader, I already know. The twins eavesdropped on your meeting."

Obi-wan sighed and wiped a hand over his face. "I should have known. I'd forgotten how good they were at hiding in the Force."

Hiding in the Force wasn't a lesson Jedi younglings had been taught so early in the temple, especially since hiding could be associated with darker arts. Why would a Jedi have needed to generally hide back then? But it was one of the first things Ahsoka and Vader taught the twins. That the Force was with them, but not to touch it unless it was an emergency. How to cover up the light, not to put it out or smother it, but so that no would see it.

"They weren't meant to hear that conversation," Obi-wan continued.

"No stang."

"What did they think about it?"

Ahsoka shrugged, just barely stopping herself from crossing her arms over her chest. That would have instantly given the pregnancy away.

"Leia's having a hard time reconciling the…" Ahsoka trailed off, searching for a word before continuing, "reconciling the nuanced personality of Vader."

"Nuanced," Obi-wan repeated dryly. "That's definitely putting it lightly."

"Well, excuse me if I'm trying not to completely shatter the innocence of my ten-year-old children when they've come to the realization that to a lot of people, their father is the villain of this conflict. Even more so than Palpatine. And even though he's trying to fix things, selfish as the reasons may be, those people aren't wrong," Ahsoka snapped, exhaustion getting the best of her.

Obi-wan, patient as ever, looked at her and said, "You know I didn't mean it that way."

Ahsoka sighed, letting out a deep breath and releasing her frustration.

"I know."

"That said, the Jedi do have a legitimate concern, especially so given your plans."

"So what? They sent you to me as their representative to advise me on what to do about him?"

"As if you'd listen if I were," Obi-wan teased. "Besides, I think I'm hardly qualified to lecture you in that respect, biased as I am about this entire situation," he admitted tiredly. "But no. I didn't come here to advise you. I came here to point you in a direction."

"What direction?"

"Dagobah."

"Dagobah? What's that?"

"Where's that?" Obi-wan corrected. "And it's where Master Yoda's been living in exile since the end of the war."

"Yoda's alive?"

"He escaped the purge and went to confront Sidious while I went to find Vader. He lost, and Bail Organa helped him flee Coruscant."

Ahsoka wasn't sure whether she was glad Yoda had stayed out of the way or not. On one hand, in his self-imposed exile, he couldn't get in the way of her and Vader's plans. On the other, he could have used the respect people had for him to help. As an altogether different matter, Ahsoka wasn't sure if she was still angry at him for reasons that had nothing to do with Vader or the Rebellion.

"I know you have your grievances with him, and I'm not going to offer you any reasoning or justification for any of his missteps. But I think you might find value in going to speak with him."

"What possible value could I get out of going to find Master Yoda?" Ahsoka asked, rolling her eyes and almost crossing her arms again. She paced away from Obi-wan instead. "So he can lecture me about the way of the Jedi? How dealing with or enabling the machinations of a Sith is misguided when he played inadvertent servant to a Sith for the better part of three and a half years? Thirteen if we include all the years Sidious played chancellor before that. At least I know exactly what I'm dealing with."

"Ahsoka, if you really want to protect Vader, if you really want to stop a fight between Vader and the Jedi when all of this is said and done, it wouldn't hurt to have Master Yoda on your side. He may listen to you."

"When did he ever listen to what I had to say?"

"Ahsoka," Obi-wan said gently, putting a hand on her shoulder. "I know it seems like Yoda should have been infallible. But he wasn't. I can't speak for what he might have reflected on in the last decade, but I do know that he regretted the part he played in your trial and expulsion. He always did. I think he'd be willing to listen now."

"If you're so sure he might be helpful, why don't you go get him?"

"Because you're the only one with enough information on Vader to convince him if he can be convinced."

Ahsoka started to argue with him but then paused. She had no interest in trying to convince Yoda to help her if he hadn't extended it himself yet. Nor was she under any illusions that he would tell her anything except the Jedi dogma that she'd long set aside. But Yoda might be able to help her work out her vision, loathe as she was to ask him for help. This wasn't just about her future, though. It was about the future of the galaxy. The Rebellion. Her children. Vader. She owed it to them to suck up her pride and get the help just minutes ago she'd been lamenting not having.

Finally, she said, "I'll go. But not because you say so. Only because I've got a nagging feeling in the Force that I should."

"Of course," Obi-wan replied with a smile.

Ahsoka expected him to leave, the Jedi in Obi-wan never allowing him to linger places longer than necessary. Today, he hesitated.

"What?" Ahsoka asked.

Very deliberately, Obi-wan's gaze drifted to her midsection and stayed there. Then he looked back at her face, raised a considering eyebrow, and left.


Ahsoka took a shuttle with Rex and three other rebel soldiers the next morning to Dagobah. Though she tried to set the vision out of her mind until they got to Yoda, the one-day trip gave her few distractions. As though sensing her distress, she felt the light touch in the Force that was her child, her daughter, if her vision was to be trusted, attempting to play.

"Not now, little one," Ahsoka said. She strengthened her shields as to not pass on the impression of her worries to her unborn child.

The baby continued to tap, though, and finally, Ahsoka languidly reached out into the Force to tap back, making sure to send the impression of reassurance back. Seeming content with that, the child finally settled in the Force, and Ahsoka wondered if this was an indication of how stubborn this child would be.

"General. We're dropping out of hyperspace and entering Dagobah's atmosphere," Rex said.

Ahsoka got up, making sure her jacket was still in place and carefully zipped before going to the cockpit.

"It's foggy," their pilot said as he brought them into the atmosphere.

Not just that, but the planet was strong with the Force. It would take a trained Force-sensitive to navigate a safe landing. She took over for the pilot, tapping into the Force to use a sight that didn't require her physical eyes. It took a while and some careful maneuvering, but Ahsoka managed to land them safely on a firm patch of land, which was saying something considering only a few steps off the boarding ramp, Ahsoka was stepping into thick swamp.

"Master Yoda is here?" Rex asked skeptically as they waded through swampy waters and then back onto more solid land.

Ahsoka understood Rex's reservations. She would have had her own, too, if not for the insistent direction of the Force. Eventually, they came upon a small hut made of clay. Yoda was standing in front of it with his gimer stick as though he'd been waiting for her. For all the years that had passed, Ahsoka felt like she was back in the Jedi Temple again, going to face yet another reprimand from the Council that she'd, truthfully, probably deserved.

For a moment, Ahsoka just stared at the old Jedi, trying to get her conflicted emotions under control.

Finally, she managed in an even tone, "Hello, Master Yoda."

"Knight Tano," Yoda replied. "To see you doing well, good it is."

"I'm not a knight anymore," Ahsoka replied reflexively. "I renounced being a Jedi a long time ago."

"So informed, I have been."

Ahsoka wondered how he could have been informed about that on the backwater planet in the Outer Rim with no sign of sentient life besides them. Perhaps Obi-wan had visited.

"Come, come," Yoda said as he made his way into his small hut.

"He wants you to go in there?" Rex asked, bewildered.

"Yep," Ahsoka sighed. Stars, it would be a wonder if she could get through the small door with her stomach so distended now. "You guys stay out here and wait for me. Go back to the ship if you want."

"Right…" Rex said. Ahsoka knew he wasn't going anywhere.

Ahsoka carefully knelt down, and with less awkward maneuvering than she thought she'd need, managed to crawl into the small hut. Yoda had a fire going with something cooking over it while he sat on a small pallet with his gimer stick in hand. Although sitting on her knees would have been easier, that would cause her montrals to scrape against the top of the roof and force her to hunch over. Thus, Ahsoka sat on the ground and crossed her legs underneath each other.

"Expecting you, I have been," Yoda began.

"I don't know what Obi-wan told you to expect me for, but whatever it was, that's not what I'm here for."

"Only informed me that guidance, you might seek. The nature of that guidance, told, I was not."

Ahsoka didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. But at least that meant Yoda had no expectations.

"I didn't want to come here, but right before Obi-wan pointed me in your direction, I had a vision and thought, why not?"

"Seek this old Jedi's counsel for a matter of the Force, you do. Yet a Jedi, no longer, you proclaim," Yoda pointed out.

"Well, I didn't have a lot of options. I'm coming to you as another Force user for help with something that's out of my depth. But if you don't want to give it, fine."

Ahsoka started to begin the difficult process of maneuvering to crawl out the hut. Yoda gently tapped her on the knee.

"Only an observation, I made. Guidance, if it is what you seek, I am willing to give. Much conflict, I sense in you, young one."

Ahsoka settled back down. "That's an understatement."

Yoda made a gesture with his hands to continue.

"I saw my death," Ahsoka stated bluntly, "At least, I think that's what it was. But I'm not sure what the Force is trying to tell me by showing me that. Is it a warning so that I can change it? A heads up so I can be prepared? Or some self-fulfilling prophecy that if I try to prepare for or change will happen anyway."

"Concerns you, this vision does. Yet what you fear, your death is not," Yoda deduced. "Truly, what worries you, tell me, you must. Only then, perhaps decipher the will of the Force in sending this vision to you? Hm?"

Ahsoka should have known it wasn't going to be that easy.

"I… I'm afraid of who I'm leaving behind. I'm afraid of what will happen to them if I'm not there."

"The Rebellion, you speak of?"

"No. People very close to me. My…" Ahsoka trailed off and then rolled her eyes. She didn't claim the Jedi name anymore, there was no Order for her to be ostracized from, and Yoda had no grounds to reprimand her. Mostly anyway. "My children. Luke and Leia. They're Padmé's children. And Anakin's." She debated with herself for a moment before unzipping her jacket and uncovering the swell of her pregnancy. "And this little one."

"Strong in the Force, the unborn one is," Yoda pointed out.

"I know. I think it's affecting my sensitivity. I haven't had a vision that vivid in… well, ever."

They sat in silence. Nowhere near as companionable as one she might fall into with Vader when there was nothing else to say between them. But neither was the silence awkward. If anything, it was expectant.

"What think you, young Tano?"

Ahsoka had forgotten how cryptic Yoda could be. She groaned as she said, "I don't know. That's why I'm asking you."

"Some idea, you must have, hm?"

Ahsoka looked away before finally asking, "I used to think that Anakin's vision at the end of the war was a self-fulfilling prophecy. That because he had the vision and then tried to stop it, he inadvertently caused the vision to come true."

"Spoke to me of a vision of death, young Skywalker did. Of the details, forthcoming, he was not."

Ahsoka knew that. Perhaps Vader being more honest about the details of his visions might have made a difference. She didn't blame him for withholding that information. Admitting to his relationship with Padmé would almost certainly have been seen as an indiscretion that would have called all his past judgments into question and forced him out the war he was so sure he had been vital to.

"It was about Padmé, and I used to think it was a self-fulfilling prophecy. That the more he tried to stop it, the more likely it was to come true. But now I don't think so. Now I think it was a warning not of her death specifically but a warning that if he continued on the dark path he was treading, it would always and inevitably end with her death in the near future."

"Fall to the dark side, you think your master was always going to, hm?"

"No. That's not… I don't think that. I just think that he had been falling for a long time and that it was no coincidence he started getting those visions after he killed Dooku," Ahsoka replied.

She'd had a long time to think about those last few days of the Republic and gotten bits and pieces here and there from Vader about it over the years. If Padmé had always been in danger of dying during childbirth, Vader would have had that vision even without knowing that she was pregnant. So there had to have been something else that was the trigger. Sidious could have been manipulating him by sending the dreams. But from what Ahsoka knew of the dark side, it couldn't conjecture a vision in the Force that wasn't a possibility anyway, even if she bought into the idea that Sidious had sent them. Vader was a lot of things, but weak-minded when it came to blantant Force manipulation was not one of them. Thus, it followed to her that the vision had been a warning. A warning that Vader had been falling for a while and that if he didn't catch himself, there would be no return.

Ten years ago, she might not have believed that. But after spending almost half her life intimately associated with Vader, most of that time as a Sith, it wasn't hard for her to look back at things in hindsight and catalog every action, every betrayal, and every loss that had led to his fall. Every action, deed, and personality quirk that once were his greatest strengths turned into his greatest weaknesses.

"A warning about yourself, you believe your vision is," Yoda stated. "If that is what you think, the answer, only from yourself, can come. Confront your fears, you must, if interpret your vision and the will of the Force, you desire."

"I had a feeling you would say that," Ahsoka sighed as she swiped a hand over the side of her belly. The returning movement was almost instant. Finally, she said, "I think I can save Vader."

"Beyond your ability, such a task may be," Yoda pointed out. "The weight of his choices, your burden to carry, they are not."

Ahsoka was glad he hadn't shoved the old proverbial Jedi saying about the dark side forever dominating one's destiny once they turned to it.

"Perhaps they weren't meant to be. But he saved me once, even when the odds were against me, odds that were even more stacked because of my own choices that made it look like I was guilty." She paused. Then, "You could have overridden the votes of the rest of Council when they voted to expel me. Why didn't you?"

Why did you believe I could be guilty? The questioned unasked but implied.

"Know who to trust, given the circumstance of the war, we did not. A clear answer, from the Force, we could not receive. Thus err on the side of caution we did. Clouded, manipulated by the dark side, unwittingly, we were at the time. Let our fear get the best of us, we did. Ashamed to admit it, I am," Yoda admitted, much to Ahsoka's surprise. "Much time to reflect over our treatment of you, I have had over the years. One of my greatest failures and regrets, it is. For that, young Tano, apologize, I do."

Not sure what to do with a contrite old Jedi Master, Ahsoka shrugged and said, "Well, you all weren't wrong that it was my greatest trial up until then. And while I don't think it did the job of making me a better Jedi, I think I am a better Force servant because of it."

She zipped her jacket back up and began to move to crawl out the hut.

"You're right that the weight of Vader's choices is no one's burden but his own. But the same is also true of the Jedi. Vader used to be a Jedi before Sidious got ahold of him and tricked him. If the Jedi are worth saving even after being manipulated by Sidious, then I think Vader, at least, deserves the chance to prove that too," Ahsoka explained. "Thank you, Master Yoda. It was unexpectedly good to see you again."

Ahsoka didn't wait for a response. She crawled through the tiny door and out the hut.


AN: 1) I tried to be a little more practical with Ahsoka hiding her pregnancy. I'll be honest, I really don't buy that Padmé was able to hide her pregnancy as long as she did as petite as she was with twins. It would have been very possible that a scan might have missed the second child, but as public a figure as she was, I doubt she would have been able to hide it. But that's what happens when there aren't enough women involved in a movie. Canonically, Ahsoka is pretty tall and it would be much easier to disguise a pregnancy.

2) I was not going to sit here and pretend that Luke, Leia, and Winter were not going to figure out Ahsoka was pregnant. Of course, they knew.

3) The theory about Anakin's fall, his vision of Padmé's death, and exactly the parameters of Palpatine's powers is something I've thought about and philosophized for a while. And I've never seen anyone quite look at it that way. Visions don't depend on certain prerequisite knowledge... which is why I don't think... well. That's a spoiler. I'll explain that later.

4) Also, Yoda. My thoughts about him are pretty much what's in the chapter.

Hope you enjoyed. Review, please!