Chapter 12 – Confirmation

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I stand behind Luke, watching as he levitates the various large objects in front of him before carefully setting them down. It's been several weeks since we arrived on the Rebel cruiser. Since the last base was destroyed, they still haven't found another one, and decided that, at least for now, it will be safer to remain in space.

We also have yet to make lightsabers since we need to collect the materials for them, but hopefully we'll be able to do that once we go to Tatooine. Meanwhile, I've focused on the other aspects of Luke's training, such as his not-so-great telekinesis abilities. He is improving fast, though. Faster than I would have thought possible.

Above all, I'm still struggling to come to terms with everything that's happened. I can't believe Anakin could have turned to the Dark Side, and that everything could have descended into chaos like this. Whether I want to believe it or not, the truth is right before my eyes. I don't have a choice but to accept it.

Then there's the other problem. I can't leave Anakin, but what else can I do? After what the Jedi did to me, I can't stay. I can't just forgive them. What if Anakin had been in my place instead? Would they have still abandoned him? I wouldn't be surprised, but it doesn't matter. They don't trust him. They didn't trust me, either, even though I was never anything but faithful to them from the start of the war. They should have known. Force, they were supposed to be Jedi masters. They should have known whether I was lying. And even if they couldn't, for whatever reason, they should have looked at the evidence. Tarkin didn't even have enough against me to make a solid case. I could have torn it apart had I been in the right mind to do so at the time.

I can't leave Anakin. I can't let the Empire be formed. Still, there's a part of me that wonders. Could I even stop it? And even if I could, should I? That's the biggest problem. I don't want the Jedi to be destroyed, but I can't help but wonder. They are corrupt. There's no doubts about that. I simply don't know how else the Order can be fixed without being completely taken apart and rebuilt from scratch, as Luke is trying to do in this future.

A sudden knock on the door startles Luke out of his practicing and me out of my thoughts.

"Who is it?" I call as Luke slowly sets the objects back down again.

"Can I come in?" replies Leia.

"Yes, of course," answers Luke. She opens the door, stepping into the room before shutting it behind her.

"We just received the signal from Chewie," she announces happily.

"We need to leave immediately," decides Luke, looking over at me. I nod in agreement. It's really strange to be training someone who's older than me, especially since I'm not even a Knight yet. Although, I guess he is technically younger from a certain point of view…

"I'll inform the Alliance High Council that we're leaving. You prepare whatever you're going to take," Leia says before hurrying out of the room. That immediately sets the two of us into motion, preparing the few things we're planning on taking with us. And at least we're finally moving towards getting new lightsabers.

About an hour later, the three of us meet in the hanger bay with Threepio and Artoo. We board one of the ships and fly away, jumping into hyperspace shortly thereafter.

I gaze out the cockpit viewport for many long moments, watching the blur of white and blue streaking by. We're going to have a long time here to find something to do. Now would be a perfect time to speak with them. I haven't had much time to talk to Leia over the past few weeks, but now would be a great opportunity. But first of all, perhaps we should discuss plans.

I turn to the others. "Let's discuss our plans," I suggest.

"Well assuming that Han is in Jabba's palace, how would even get in there to free him?" wonders Leia, "Somehow we'd have to get there all at once."

"And try to avoid a fight, if possible," Luke adds.

I nod my agreement. "We could start by trying to make a deal or convincing him to free him," I advise, "Otherwise, we'll have to fight, in which case we need to figure out how we can all be there at once without being obvious about it."

"If one or more of us could infiltrate them, that might work," suggests Luke.

I nod again, wondering for a moment why this is reminding me more and more of planning battle strategies with Anakin. It's making me miss him even more.

"We'll probably have to discuss that with Lando and Chewie to see what they think," Leia muses.

"One thing we could try, is bringing Artoo with our lightsabers hidden inside," I propose, "That's something Anakin and I did one time."

"Really?" asks Luke attentively. Leia looks interested as well. I've told them a few things about my master, and they never cease to be amazed by the stories.

"Well, Anakin, Master Obi-Wan, and our clone commander, Rex, all went to the planet Zygeria to rescue several thousand Togrutas who'd been captured and then brought there as slaves. Anakin pretended to be in support of the queen and took me to the palace as a slave present." I smirk at the memory. "Artoo came with us. Obi-Wan and Rex dressed up as guards, which worked until Obi-Wan got captured… so we had to rescue him. Rex was nearby pretending to be a guard, and Artoo – with our lightsabers inside him – and I were with the Queen. On Anakin's signal, Artoo opened his secret compartment and we pulled our lightsabers to us using the Force."

"Then what happened?" asks Luke when I fall silent.

"I could actually show you some of that on Artoo if you want to see."

"Yes!" agrees Luke eagerly.

"Sure!" exclaims Leia.

"Artoo, can you show them the incident we were just discussing?" I inquire of the droid. He beeps a cheerful response before projecting the hologram in question.

The Zygerian queen stands in the center with Anakin on one side and me on the other. We're standing on a balcony overlooking an area with countless people of many species.

"Your highness, Zygerians, and guests from a thousand worlds," says a voice from somewhere out of sight, "Our auction begins with the slaves of unmatched quality and impossible quantity. I give you Togruta from the Kiros system."

"Oh, no," I breath as Anakin and I exchange a glance.

"This handsome sample represents a lot of numbering, no less than 50,000 beings. Note the compliance. Virtually untrained in combat. There will be no rebellion from these slaves."

"So where do keep 50,000 slaves like the people of Kiros?" inquires Anakin casually. Someone suddenly walks into view, shoving me out of the way and bowing to the queen.

Luke and Leia watch with a mixture of horror and fascination.

"Your Majesty, I have urgent news." He begins to speak quietly to the queen. None of it is picked up in the recording. I step around behind them and go to stand by Anakin. The queen waves her hand as the person walks off the screen.

"All will be revealed in time," the queen answers Anakin's original question before going to the front of the balcony we're standing on and beginning to speak to the audience.

"Before we begin the auction, I would welcome a most special guest. Obi-Wan Kenobi."

From across the arena, doors open and Obi-Wan is brought in, accompanied by a number of guards. He's led to a place out of sight.

"My friends, my good friends, do not fear the Jedi," continues the queen, "They are no different from others we have forced into submission, for they have forsaken their ideals to serve a corrupt Senate. Every Jedi has become a slave to the Republic. The Jedi Order is weak, and we will help break it." She turns to Anakin, holding out an electric whip.

"Teach the Jedi his place."

Anakin hesitates for a moment before taking it and walking away. All the while, I watch with horror at the unfolding events. Anakin disappears from the view of hologram.

Long moments pass as the queen waits impatiently. The scene on the hologram suddenly begins switching as Artoo apparently moves forward. It now shows the scene in the plaza below of Obi-Wan with Anakin standing behind him holding the whip.

"Prove to me that you are a slaver. Swing that whip or die beside him," the queen commands.

"Those are some lousy options," replies Anakin, before dramatically bowing. "You leave me no choice, Your Highness." He glances somewhere out of sight, then looks over at me. I catch his gaze and nod slightly.

He solutes and then swings the whip at the guard standing by Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan jumps up and knocks the guard over. Their lightsabers fly to Anakin's hands.

"Guards, subdue them!" screams the queen in shock. Anakin ignites his lightsaber and throws Obi-Wan his. The guards open fire on them, and they begin deflecting the bolts.

The view suddenly switches to show me igniting my lightsaber and deflecting two bolts from behind me straight back to the guards, killing them.

"Ahsoka! The queen!" shouts Anakin.

I instantly whirl around, holding my lightsaber up to the queen's neck. "Looks like your slave empire is finished, again."

"Get that thing out of my face, you little skug." She presses a button, which I don't notice until it's too late. The electric collar I'm wearing activates, electricity crackling through me as I fall to the floor unconscious, my lightsaber falling from my hand.

The hologram turns off at that.

"Well, this part we are not going to repeat," I reply with a laugh, "It failed spectacularly. We all got captured. Anakin managed to escape and break me out, but then we had to go find Obi-Wan and Rex, who were being held with the other Togrutas, and rescue them. It was a very close call. Not like that was unusual though."

"If we could figure out a way to get Artoo into Jabba's palace, that might work," remarks Luke.

"For a similar reason, perhaps?" I suggest, "We'll need to wait for Chewie and Lando to decide anything for sure."

**w**

"Why don't you consider yourself a Jedi?" Luke asks suddenly.

"What?" Of all the things he could say, I definitely did not expect that.

"You're training me to be a Jedi, but it's obvious you don't consider yourself one."

I should have guessed he'd ask me that. He probably noticed the tension I was showing towards Obi-Wan and Yoda back on Dagobah. I respect them to an extent, but they've completely lost my trust in them. It had already been badly shaken after Obi-Wan faked his own death, but after this it was disintegrated entirely. It's a good thing I came here, or I'd be completely lost. At least here I have some purpose.

"I – it's a long story," I say at last. I honestly don't want Luke to try to become a perfectly good Jedi, which I know he will, given how much he worships them. When he rebuilds the Order in his timeline, I don't want it to fall for the same reasons. Even so, I know he's very upset at Obi-Wan right now. The last thing I need is to make it worse.

"We have plenty of time," Luke reminds.

"Well, it happened just recently," I start slowly. I still don't like thinking about it much, but if I do, maybe it will help get this sorted out. "My trust in the Council had already been shaken from something that happened a few months previously."

Luke leans forwards, seeming already completely drawn into the story.

"Anakin and I had just come back from a mission. There had been a bombing at the Temple. Several Jedi and clones were killed in the explosion, and we were assigned to investigate. We managed to track it to the person who did it – or at least who we thought did it." I pause for a moment, letting out a long sigh. This is where it starts getting hard. Looking back, it was all a foolish mistake on my part. If I had stopped to think for even one minute, none of this would have happened. It's all an alternate reality, I remind myself. It's not set in stone.

"Shortly after she was put in prison, she asked me to come there. She told me there was a Jedi who set her up to do it."

"A Jedi?!" Luke exclaims. "Who? Why?"

"I'm getting there," I remind him. Maybe he'll stop asking so many questions if I go a bit faster; it's not like I want to go into many details about it anyway. "She was about to tell me when someone unseen Force-choked her to death. I was the only one there." I pause again, faltering. I should get this out, but it's so hard to talk about. It's so hard to know that the people I spent my life serving didn't have an ounce of faith in me. They were willing to throw me out to save their image.

"The clones arrested me. I'd fallen asleep, and I'm not really sure what woke me up, but when I did, I saw a keycard outside the door." I let out a shaky breath as the memories starts flooding me. "I thought Anakin put it there so I could escape. But I was wrong." For a moment I'm certain he's going to ask something else, but he doesn't, so I continue.

"I opened the door and went out into the hall, only to find my lightsabers and comm which was connected to someone. There were some unconscious clones nearby too. I didn't have a chance to figure out what to do before one of clones – Fox – walked around the corner." Now that I think about it, it's strange he was right there. Shouldn't he have been up in the front? It's a thought I'll have to consider later. "He turned on the alarms. Of course, I knew it was a mistake to leave my cell then, but there wasn't anything I could do. So, I did the only thing I could. I ran. I managed to escape eventually and went down to the Coruscant underworld where I contacted my best friend, Barriss Offee."

I try to suppress my surging emotions at the mention of her name. Even now, it hurts knowing she betrayed me like that. I trusted her. She was one of the only people I trusted. Now I know she was right, to an extent. It was also the Council's failing not to look more into how she Fell – I highly doubt she could have done all that alone – and what she was saying. She was right, even though it doesn't justify her actions.

"I continued my journey through the underworld and ran into former Separatist and Sith assassin Assaj Ventress. We encountered some clones there and fought them off, but in the end, I think that made things worse." I shake my head and sigh. What was I thinking? One stupid mistake after another. "Barriss told me to go to a nearby warehouse, which we did. Ventress left me there, but I ran into someone with her lightsabers. We fought, and I was thrown off the building. Anakin found me there and brought me back to the Temple."

I close my eyes, remembering the pain and betrayal I felt. "The Council turned me over to the Senate without even letting me defend myself. My trial at the Senate was nearly complete when Anakin came in with the real culprit. Barriss."

When I look up again, Luke's expression is a mix of stunned and horrified. "They just threw you out of the Order?" he asks disbelievingly.

I nod.

"Why?! How could they do that?!"

"They lost their way," I say at least, avoiding his gaze. "After this… I can never consider myself a Jedi again." Not after they abandoned and betrayed me. Not after I nearly died. If they did it to me, they could do it to anyone. I don't know why. Maybe when I get back home – if I get back home – I'll be able to talk to Obi-Wan. Even if I do, it's going to take me a very long time to trust him again. "There's a lot wrong with the old Order. Whenever we succeed in destroying the Empire and reestablishing a new Order, just remember that there was a lot wrong with the old rules. I think following the Grey Jedi Code would be a lot better for everyone."

"Grey Jedi Code?" echoes Luke, confused.

I sigh. Okay. It sounds like I have a lot more explaining to do.

**w**

We'll be arriving on Tatooine within an hour now. We've been talking about anything and everything we can think of, and I've told them many stories about Anakin, until I finally decided it's time to find out a little more about their pasts. That's when we veered onto the topic of their families.

"Do you know who your birth parents are?" I inquire of Leia. More and more, I've been wondering. Not only does she look a lot like Padme, but she also acts eerily similar in some ways. Come to think of it, she also has some similarities with Anakin, like his temper.

"I know who my mother is," she answers after a moment of hesitation.

"May I ask who?" I question. She hesitates again, which only makes me more suspicious. "I'm just wondering, because you remind me of someone I used to know," I explain.

"Who?" she wonders, still avoiding my question. I decide it probably wouldn't hurt to tell her. After all, if I'm right, she'd tell me. Or at least she'd react, so I'd know the truth.

"A Senator. Padme Amidala."

Leia stiffens visibly. "She was my mother." I knew it. And that means that my suspicion must be right because Luke and Leia are the same age. Time to drop the bombshell.

"Interesting," I murmur, "Because as far as I know, she's also Luke's mother." For a long moment, no one moves. They just sit there, staring at me in shock.

"Are you saying – ?!" gasps Luke.

"You think we're twins?" finishes Leia, equally stunned. My only question now, is how exactly that happened. Why did they both end up being raised by completely different families?

"Yes," I confirm.

"Which means…." Luke trails off and doesn't finish. I can only guess what he's thinking. That means Vader's her father also. I get the feeling she would not take hearing that very well, at least not at the moment. We can spare her the knowledge for now.

"What?" wonders Leia.

"Nothing," Luke mutters, wisely agreeing with my unspoken decision.

"Well, it does mean that you could probably become a Jedi if you wanted to be," I comment, turning to Leia, "You're probably as strong as Luke."

"Really?" she asks.

"I'm sure," I reply, "Your mother was about as Force-sensitive as it comes without being trained, and Anakin was the strongest Force-sensitive in the galaxy. He was the Chosen One."

"The Chosen One?" echoes Luke, confused. So, he hasn't heard of the prophecy? I suppose I shouldn't find it surprising. There was no one who could tell him.

"The strongest Force-sensitive the galaxy ever knew. He was supposed to bring balance to the Force, but I don't think anyone fully understands what that means." Not anymore, anyway. I once thought I did. Until I found out he'd turned, and before I knew anything about being a Grey Jedi. Now, I think there's something much bigger we're all missing, both the Jedi and the Sith.

"Isn't he dead?" frowns Leia.

I shift uneasily. This is not a topic I want to get on to. "Possibly. That's what Luke was told, but from what I know, nothing could kill him. He was always still there." We fall silent for several moments before I speak up again. "This is something you better not say anything about to anyone, at least not as long as the Empire is still in control. There was obviously a reason you weren't raised together."

The twins nod their understanding.

"We're going to be exiting hyperspace," announces Threepio suddenly. We immediately turn out attention back to the ship as the white and blue blur streaking past the window begins to slow down before disappearing altogether into the dark sky littered with stars. The reddish ball of Tatooine looms in front of us. Planning time.