AN: This has been a blast to write so far. And I've probably been doing way too much research and spending way too much time on this (so much more since I vomit wrote the first chapter). But I don't care. It's fun. That said, just want to say that I'm making some basic assumptions about the Star Wars Universe based on my research.

1) That considering that bipedal beings that look human are called "humanoid," the terms "man" and "woman" are generic terms used to refer to adult female and male versions of the species. Just saying female or male just rubs me wrong.

2) That the timeline of the Clone Wars is a little effed up, and I'm just going to take some creative liberties about it. I mean, in the Clone Wars movie, Ahsoka seems to be closer to twelve. Maybe thirteen. But in the series, it seems like that aged her up to fourteen or fifteen, and by the time she leaves the order, she's around 17. There's also the fact that according to my research, Anakin is only five standard years older than her, which is confounding because that would put her at fourteen or fifteen in the Clone Wars movie. Though it's obvious someone messed that up, I'm just going to assume that given the many different species, Ahsoka very well could have been 14 or 15 standard years when we first saw her, but togruta aging is different. Yeah... that's probably what it is.

Anyway, thank you for reading. And thank you for your patience Things really pick up in the next chapter, but these calmer chapters are necessary to set up the story. Enjoy!


2

Anakin watched as this future Ahsoka sat in the common area of the ship with her eyes closed, sometimes tilting her head this way and that as in some sort of meditation without really being in a trance.

She hadn't said anything since he and Obi-wan decided the only course of action to take was taking her back to Coruscant and presenting her to the council. She hadn't seemed particularly eager about that but didn't object to it either, agreeing that the Jedi Temple might be the best place to get some guidance and find out if there was any record of anything like this happening before.

"Need something?" Ahsoka asked.

Anakin didn't think she had been aware he was standing there.

"Your presence is hard for me not to notice," Ahsoka said as she opened her eyes.

"How did you know what I was thinking," Anakin asked. He hadn't been thinking that loud. And his shields had been up.

"I know you. I don't need the Force to know what you're thinking. Also, I'm a lot more powerful than I was twenty years ago… presently?" Ahsoka wore a confused look before shrugging.

Anakin hesitated before deciding to join her fully. He sat across from her, and Ahsoka gave him an expectant look when he didn't say anything for a few minutes.

"Sorry. This is pretty weird," Anakin said.

"I know," Ahsoka agreed though Anakin thought that she didn't act like it was weird to her.

Since she was so at ease, Anakin decided to start with the obvious.

"So… you're from the future?"

"Pretty certain. You and Obi-wan definitely don't look like this where I come from," she joked.

"Ha, ha."

An awkward silence lapsed between them again as Anakin wondered just how much he could get out of her about the future. Would it be safe to ask her, or would it ruin something? Then again, she probably didn't know the answer to that either.

"So, how are you two planning on explaining this to the Council?" Ahsoka asked.

"I think they might be doing more explaining to us than the other way around."

"Either that or answer in the cryptic wise-sounding way that they do when they really have no clue what's going on," Ahsoka suggested wryly. Then she added, "No offense to Obi-wan. Honestly, we're likely going to have to end up figuring it out ourselves."

"I'd reprimand you about your disrespect of the council, but I suppose I can't, all things considered, what happened between you and them even if I was still your master."

Ahsoka frowned, then finally said with a sigh, "Yes. I suppose not."

"That said, maybe we can get on the path to figuring out what's going on now?" Anakin said. "What do you know? What's been happening on your end?"

"Maybe it would be a better idea for you to tell me what's been happening on your end. You know, since I'm the one from the future, I wouldn't want to cause something to invariably change the course of it."

"Presuming that's how it works, of course," Obi-wan said, joining them.

"I think it's a safer bet than me trying to tell you everything that happens in the future and you trying to meddle if you decide you don't like it. We at least know that much from hundreds of legends in thousands of cultures across the galaxy," Ahsoka pointed out.

Anakin looked at Obi-wan, who shrugged but nodded. It couldn't hurt.

"Where do you want me to start?"

"What year is it? Or maybe more specifically since the Clone War years are a big violent blur for me, what's happened up to this point?"

"Since you left the Jedi Order a few months ago?" Anakin asked and then shrugged. "More fighting. More sieges. Nothing significant. It seems like we take one step forward in this war and go two steps back. The same as always."

Ahsoka's frown deepened as she asked, "How long ago exactly did I leave the order?"

"Seven standard months or so ago. Anything significant happen around then that the Force would send you back?" Anakin asked.

Ahsoka shrugged. "Not that I can remember. Though the Force did feel strange right before I came here. Like it was twisted in some way."

"We felt it too," Obi-wan said. "I'd never quite felt the Force feel that way before.

"Neither have I. And I get the feeling that any information I have won't help us get anywhere even if I was sure it was safe to tell you any of it. Guess we're just going to have to wait until we get to Coruscant to explore this uncharted region in the Force," Ahsoka decided.

The finality in her tone left no room for argument, and without waiting for their agreement, she got up and went to one of the two small rooms at the back of the ship.

"That," Obi-wan began, "is going to take some getting used to."

"My thoughts exactly, Obi-wan," Anakin replied.


The future Ahsoka didn't come back out the room until Anakin knocked on the door and let her know they were about to drop out of hyperspace and that they had already requested an audience with the Council, who were convening in wait for them upon arrival. Obi-wan had been vague about why they wanted to meet, though he did explicitly say it was about a discovery made on their mission that they needed to bring before the Council in person.

Anakin gave Ahsoka a cloak before they disembarked. Though it was well into the evening, there were still plenty of Jedi milling around the temple, and the presence of an unfamiliar person alone would cause chatter. The last thing they needed was someone possibly recognizing her, though Anakin doubted it. If he hadn't recognized her, no one would.

If she was intimidated by the all the attention on her once she and Anakin were standing before the Council in the center of the room while Obi-Wan took his seat, she didn't show it with her hands calmly at her side as her face stayed hidden in the shadows on her cloak.

It started easily enough with Obi-wan routinely reporting everything that they had witnessed until they got to the part with Ahsoka and her revelation of who she was.

Anakin and Obi-wan had discussed dozens of times on the way how to delicately reveal Ahsoka to them, but neither one of them had been able to think of a way that didn't sound totally ridiculous.

"I'll take it from here," Ahsoka said, lowering her hood and stepping forward some. "To put it bluntly, as of a couple of days ago, I can add time traveler to my list of unique skills."

"Time travel?" Mace Windu said as his eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"I'm the Ahsoka Tano of the future."

Silence permeated the Council as they looked at her.

"She's telling the truth. She's Ahsoka," Anakin added.

"And what proof have you, that telling the truth you are," Yoda asked.

Next to him, Anakin felt Ahsoka unmute her presence. When he'd asked about why she constantly did that, she'd said it was a force of habit. He'd wanted to ask her exactly why that was, but he doubted she'd give him an answer.

After a moment, Yoda hummed and said, "The truth, you tell."

"I just don't know how or why?" Ahsoka said. "We were hoping that between us and the collective wisdom of the Council, we could come up with a plan of action to investigate. I get the feeling that whatever happened to bring me here is only the beginning of something much bigger. Perhaps, there's a record of something like this happening before."

Anakin had to resist the urge to snicker at her deference when not too long ago on the ship she had been cynical about any guidance that the council could offer.

Everyone looked to Yoda for answer to that. If there was, it wouldn't have been in any of their lifetimes except for his.

After a few beats, he finally said, "Stories of powerful visions where lived lifetimes, a being has. But your experience, young Tano, only legends, whispers of such a thing there has been."

"Then, with your permission, I could perhaps have access to the archives to do some research into the matter and perhaps that would give all of us more insight," Ahsoka asked.

Anakin felt the tension in the room rise at her bold request.

"Perhaps it would help," Shaak Ti began, "if you would offer some perspective about the events as they happened from your end of this timeline."

Ahsoka didn't immediately reply to that one but didn't falter. Her reactions thus far were a testament to the fact that even though her Force presence told Anakin who she was, she still wasn't his Ahsoka. Whatever she experienced had made her grow up. The calm exterior, the exercise of control, the lack of sway the Council's obvious apprehension had on her. She was so different. What turned her into this?

"I don't think that's wise," Ahsoka finally replied.

"You're hiding something," Windu said bluntly.

"That's a given. I have everything to hide. I know things about that, if revealed too soon, could alter the future for the worse. Of course, I'm not being entirely forthcoming," Ahsoka said with a shrug.

"Unrestricted and unsupervised access given the circumstances, we cannot give. But resources and the Jedi, spread thin by the war, they are. A heavy load, the Council, already has," Yoda said.

Ahsoka sighed and rolled her eyes. "Who are you assigning to babysit me?"

Yoda chuckled at her impertinence.

"Since your former padawan, our time traveling guest is, to supervise her, I suggest to the Council, you should, Knight Skywalker."

"What about my assignment in the Outer Rim?" Anakin asked though he was secretly relieved to have the break. It would give him a chance to spend some time with Padmé.

"Return to the Outer Rim, Master Kenobi will, while investigate this you and Miss Tano will. What says the Council?"

The vote was unanimous, at which time, Anakin and Ahsoka were dismissed while the Council stayed back.

After the door closed behind them, Ahsoka sighed and said, "How is it that in some way, shape, or form, I always find myself having to answer to you?"

"You wound me. I'm not so bad," Anakin joked as they walked away.

"No. But just keep in mind that while you've been assigned to me, I'm not your padawan anymore," she emphasized.

For a moment, Anakin had forgotten about that because, after the awkward time-traveling conversation, they had fallen back into old patterns. It didn't seem like this new dynamic mattered.

"On another note, though," Ahsoka continued, "Standing before the Council wasn't as terrifying and awful as I remember it being."

"Easy for you to say when you don't answer to them anymore."

"It's an exhilarating feeling."

"For someone who was just complaining that she essentially thought going to the Council was pointless, you put on a good show of desperately wanting their wisdom."

"It wasn't their wisdom I was seeking, and desperately wanting it isn't the right phrase," Ahsoka said. "Their approval of my being here even though the Force has already ordained it, yes. Better to have their slow trust and limited oversight than their quick distrust, which would have had me locked somewhere in holding while waiting on someone else to figure things out."

"That's clever."

"I learned a thing or two about diplomacy in the last twenty years. Particularly from a senator friend of mine."

Speaking of senator friend, as they took the lift down to where Anakin's assigned quarters were, Anakin stayed silent while he tried to figure out a way to essentially ditch Ahsoka without her suspicion. When she was his padawan, it was easy to use Jedi indoctrination about the authority the master had over the padawan to get her to shrug it off even if she questioned him. More than that, should he leave this Ahsoka to her own devices at all? Now that he thought about it, though the Force said she told the truth about who she was, that didn't mean they could necessarily trust her. He was inclined to, but this war had shown him the error in that way of thinking.

None of that answered if and how he was going to slip away from her, though

Once they were safely tucked away in his quarters, Ahsoka turned to him and said, "Okay. I think it's safe for you to ditch me now."

"What are you talking about?"

Ahsoka threw her cloak on the couch and said, "You know. To go see Padmé."

"Why would I go see her?"

"Because you always do when you're Coruscant-side."

"I mean, why would you think I'm going to see her this late in the evening. She's probably had a long day and doesn't want to entertain guests," Anakin said, trying to seem nonchalant.

Ahsoka gave Anakin an unimpressed look, one of the facial markings above her eyes raising as she said, "It's been twenty years, Skyguy. I've learned a lot of things since then. I probably know a lot more about you than you know about yourself at this point."

"Senator Amidala and I are just friends."

"And now you're doing that thing where you try to keep it formal between you two so no one is suspicious when everyone knows that you're friends, and it would be less suspicious to just call her by her name," Ahsoka said. "Anakin, go see your wife. I'm not telling anyone. And I promise not to cause any trouble while you're gone."

Anakin couldn't help feeling stunned now that the secret was out. Then again, it seemed like to her it wasn't a secret.

"You're… okay with that?" he asked. "You're not mad I didn't tell you."

"It's been twenty years. I've known this information for a long time now. If I was angry, and… I don't remember being angry at you for that, it's long gone by now. Besides, anger isn't the way of a Jedi."

"But you're not a Jedi, are you?" Anakin asked. It was supposed to be teasing, but there was something in the Force that told him this was the right question to ask that made it weighty.

"Certainly not in the way the Council would define it. And if they knew all your secrets, they'd likely say the same thing about you."

"Fair enough," Anakin replied. He started to leave but hesitated. "You sure you'll be okay?"

"Fine."

"It's not that I wouldn't like to spend time with you. I really would. I just…"

"Anakin," Ahsoka said with what sounded like a longsuffering sigh as she cut him off. "I'm not the padawan who left and you haven't seen in seven months. She's still somewhere in this galaxy, but it's not me. You don't owe me anything."

Apparently, the fact that she was from the future wasn't something that this Ahsoka was going to ignore or beat around. And she was going to constantly remind him of it. He didn't understand how she was able to disassociate herself like that so easily. Then again, Ahsoka was always better than him with letting things go and not having attachment. Anakin mentally groaned. There he was comparing them again when this Ahsoka was trying to get the point over to him that she was a different person than the one he knew.

Ahsoka put a hand on Anakin's shoulder and suddenly, he was aware of how tall she was now. "Go see your wife," she said with a gentle smile.

Anakin smiled and patted Ahsoka's hand. She let go and headed over to the sofa while Anakin turned to leave, but Ahsoka stopped him once more when she said, "Skyguy."

"Yeah."

"Tell Padmé that I hope her schedule's clear tomorrow evening. After I do some research in the archives, I'd like to visit."

"I'll… let her know," Anakin said hesitantly before leaving, wondering how in Sith hell he was going to explain to Padmé that Ahsoka had visited them from the future.