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.

Capture, Dooku's Lair, Darth Sidious

Snarling, I stare down at the pitiful excuse for a force wielder who was crippled so easily by my sith lightning. I was hoping for an almighty immortal being who could do anything I asked of him, a dark follower to forge the galaxy in the way that I devised, but I have not received such a thing. This force wielder is weak and afraid, which causes a smirk to creep onto my face knowing that I can strike fear into the heart of such a being. His capture was only too easy for my apprentice, the best this force wielder can do is send sparks at Darth Tyrannus, but that does not mean he is not powerful. He has potential, and lots of it, so I am not willing to kill him – not that I could; he is immortal. After a few minutes of torture, he has crumbled and is kneeling at my feet. Neutrality was his weakness, but now the dark side has made him strong and I intend to guide him to gain more power but not to torture him again unless necessary – he would be able to best me easily if he sought to.

"Your name." I demand cruelly, my sithly yellow eyes running over his form. He is thin – that is to be expected since he has not eaten for days – but has a tall body, meaning that there is room for improvement. Much improvement.

"Marcus Starkiller," He replies tonelessly. "My lord." He adds, causing me to smile wickedly.

"Henceforth you shall be known as... Starkiller. Nothing more, nothing less." I decide, he has a fitting last name that makes the situation almost ironic. Behind me I can sense Dooku's cautiousness of the force wielder, no matter what environment he is in. He need not be worried, I need him for the final phase of my plan and having a force wielder on my side is something that makes things that much easier. Starkiller's glowing aura has turned black and shadow like, causing pleasure for me. "Rise, my friend." I say, careful not to use the word 'apprentice' just yet.

Standing, he meets my gaze and I cackle at the sight of his amber coloured eyes, even darker than my own. His attire will have to change, grey clothing is not suitable for a servant of the dark side. No, he will need something darker and a cloak to show his power and influence. My lips twist into another wicked smirk; the republic will be crippled by his aid of the separatists and the Jedi won't know what hit them.

It's not as if they have a force wielder to defend them.

"Come, we have much to discuss." I order, turning and walking out of the cell that has held him for many nights. He follows silently, for that I am glad, and does not spare Dooku a glance. Darth Tyrannus, on the other hand, is eyeing him like a thermal detonator, afraid it might go off and destroy him. However, Dooku will not die until the Jedi plague has been eliminated from the galaxy and then Starkiller will kill him; until that time Dooku will serve me well and be remembered for his service once he has gone.

Much to my frustration, I know that I cannot reveal Starkiller to anyone until my plan has been set into formation. Should the Jedi discover him then they will begin to form a plan to destroy him, not that they would succeed; but I would prefer that they do not begin searching for something to kill Starkiller, as my impersonation as chancellor I will be constantly bothered with requests and research details. I lead the way to the arena where several heavy obelisks are situated, obelisks which are vital to the training of a dark force user, or in this case, a dark force wielder. It does not take much use of the force to see what is going on in Darth Tyrannus' mind; he is thinking of ways to increase his training, to prove himself the worthier apprentice and of how to kill Starkiller. Yet if he does kill my greatest weapon, I will kill him in the most torturous way possible.

We reach the arena, or courtyard as I should call it, and turn to Starkiller. "Stand in the centre of the obelisks." I order, but in a tone that I know he will not refuse – not because he is afraid, but because he will feel obliged to. Obediently, Starkiller moves to stand in the centre with his hands clasped behind his back as he turns to look at me. "Lift them." I say. "All of them."

His eyes close and I watch eagerly as the glow around him dims and then intensifies. His brow furrows in concentration and the obelisks begin to shake, violently. Slowly, but precisely, they float into the air and rise to about five metres above the bases which they used to sit on. Starkiller opens his eyes and looks back at me, I can see the concentration still in his eyes even though he is not moving.

"Good," I snarl. "Good."

The obelisks float back down to their bases and I cannot help but frown when Starkiller gives the appearance of having a lot of weight being taken off of his shoulders. I will have to work hard on him, though my disguise as Chancellor Palpatine will demand my attention soon enough. Dooku shifts nervously beside me and I know that he is uncomfortable with the power of Starkiller, my favourite apprentice by far.

Second Visit, Day Three, Ahsoka Tano

I cannot believe I agreed to this.

I am standing in the middle of his lounge and trying to understand why I went ahead and accepted his offer to become my mentor. After all, I'm not even supposed to know about him and I'm forbidden to visit him, which is ironic since I'm standing in his suite right now and this is my second visit since the day I met him. He looks fairly amused as I send him a cold glare after one of his snide remarks; strangely, he cannot seem to stop making comments about the Jedi council, whom I do not want to spend a great deal of time thinking about. With all of the things he's saying about them I'm hardly surprised that half of them want to keep him imprisoned, but that might be my mind being influenced by annoyance.

"Okay, before we do anything involving your competition and such, you need to know how to lift things." Anakin says. I cannot help but arch an eye mark and cross my arms over my chest.

"Lift things?" I ask skeptically. "I'm not three, I know how to lift things."

"I meant with the force." He corrects himself.

"That's what I meant too."

Cocking his head to one side, I cannot help but feel slightly amused as he matches my posture and goes stiff. "Don't get snippy, little one." His tone carries the barest hint of a warning, but I can still hear it and roll my eyes.

"Fine, what do you want me to do?" I question.

He unfolds his arms from across his chest. "Lift the sofa." He says as if its the most normal thing in the world and I frown. The sofa? It has to weigh a ton at least, its underside is nothing but metal and I know that the only things that weigh less than a kilogram on it are the cushions - despite their comfort. Normally I would not back down from a challenge, but lifting up a sofa using the force that is made of mostly metal is something that Jedi younglings are not expected to do. Not only that, but it is considered to be impossible.

"The sofa?" I repeat it, blinking. "I can't do that, I'm a youngling. Lifting a sofa that heavy is impossible for me."

"Not impossible," Anakin corrects me. "Just unlikely."

"Unlikely?" I arch both eye marks. "More than unlikely."

"How do you know you won't be able to if you don't try?"

"Because all of the Jedi knights and masters say its impossible," I remember from all of the times I have been scolded for trying something that I will not be able to do for years at least. "You need to be a padawan and learning from a master to do something of that size."

He rolls his eyes but does not make a remark about my last comment. "Just try, okay? One try and I will know if you aren't trying your best." He reminds me. It surprises me that his eyes are staying blue and only changing shades due to his emotions and not colours; I wonder if it only happens around people he's trying to intimidate. Hiding a smirk, I realise that his attempts to intimidate me didn't go too well.

Sighing, I nod. "All right, I'll try, but Master Yoda always said that there is only do and do not, there is no try."

"Are you kidding? Of course theres a try! What are you going to call something where you try your best but just can't do it? Not giving it any effort?" Anakin snorts. "I don't think I'll ever understand Jedi." The look I send him is pure menace and he quickly changes the subject. "Moving on, try and lift the sofa and then I'll tell you how to improve."

Rolling my eyes, I mutter "Oh, joy." before closing them and focusing on the task at hand. It is harder than it sounds, believe me. Just finding the object in question through the force is exhausting, there are so many other objects in the suite that the focus I need is more than I am willing to give to much else. My force abilities aren't as powerful as some people may think, just disarming a training droid on the lowest level takes my full attention, and I find it difficult to grasp the sofa in my force grip. Being young, I do not have a particularly powerful force grip and every time I try to lift the sofa it seems to slip from my invisible grasp. I do not know whether it is shaking as I try to lift it or not moving at all, but I do know that I'm not going to be able to keep trying for much longer. Just the attempt is making me drowsy.

Ignoring the little voice in the back of my head which is telling me to stop and recover, I try to lift it one last time and actually manage to grasp it. Slowly and unbelievably shakily, I use the force to lift the sofa a foot or so off of the ground before I lose all of my energy and it lands back on the carpet with a muffled thud. It's like my energy has literally been zapped by a rod, it disappeared so quickly. As I open my eyes I can see that Anakin's eyebrows have arched and he is nodding slightly in approval or surprise, I'm not sure which.

"Very nice," He comments. "For a first try. Sit down, I'll get some shurra fruit."

"Shurra fruit?" I ask, sitting down on the sofa that I failed to lift, at least, I failed to lift as high as I would have liked.

"It calms the nerves and helps to return energy," Anakin explains, making for the room that I know is the kitchenette. "Not to mention the fact it tastes great."

Rolling my eyes, I do not notice when he disappears from view, I lean back against the cushions of the sofa and stare at the door to his suite. If anyone, particularly a Jedi master, were to come in and find me here I would be in more trouble than I have ever been in. It's strange that they cannot sense me in here, I suppose that Anakin is able to shield the room whenever he wishes, and that none of them even suspected that I might come back. Maybe they figured I would do it at night when no one would be around to see me; I wonder if that would have been the best idea but it's a little late now, my visits are usually in the day time.

When Anakin reappears I frown at the fruit in his hands that I have never seen before, shurra fruit isn't exactly widely eaten in the Jedi temple. I have never actually seen one before, to my shame, and it actually looks quite nice. What kind of youngling has never seen shurra fruit before? I resist the urge to shake my head, if Anakin saw he would probably make some comment and I would blush, despite my efforts not to. Then again, I doubt he really cares whether or not I have seen a piece of fruit before; he's most likely seen everything in the galaxy, or at least knows about it.

"What?" Anakin asks, frowning and looking from me to the shurra fruit in his hands and back again. "Don't tell me you've never seen one before."

I am glad that it takes a lot for me to blush since it would be a clear give away on the subject, and for the fact that answering back is one of my specialities. "It's been a while," I lie, surprisingly easily. "Shurra fruit looks different when I picture it in my mind." That wasn't a total lie, was it?

"Sure it does," Anakin says with a knowing look and I silently curse the fact that he is a force wielder and extremely force sensitive. "Here." He hands me the shurra fruit and I glance back up at him for a moment before taking a bite. To my surprise, it actually works quite well to restore my energy and to strengthen my connection to the force. Making a mental note to carry shurra fruit wherever I go, I look back up at him. "Thanks," I murmur, my mouth still full but I quickly swallow and take another bite.

"Do you have any ideas about who's going to cause you a problem in your class competition?" Anakin asks me. I think about it as I eat, who are the strongest people in my class? No one thinks that I'm very strong, even though I have a high midi-chlorine count. There's Barris, of course, but she is my best friend and I'll be damned if I'm going to knock my own friend out of the competition.

"Well," I begin, unsure for what is not the first time since I've met Anakin. "I suppose everyone has their strengths. So they're all the strongest in the class, it just depends on what subjects we are learning."

Anakin nods, frowning and rubbing his chin. I decide it's best not to bother him and take another bite out of the shurra fruit. It is only when I look back up that I notice he has a hand held hologram projector in his hand. Frowning, I watch it with curiosity as he activates it and an image of one of my class mates appears. Blinking, I wonder why he has images of someone in my class; I remember that he is a force wielder who can do next to anything and silently scold myself for thinking he actually had these images all along.

"What are his strengths?" Anakin asks. I realise, then, what he is trying to do and swallow the food that is in my mouth to answer. If any of the other younglings have a mentor like him, which I seriously doubt they have, then it probably won't matter what strengths they have. I suppose it doesn't really matter though, a persons mentor can't change everything about them.

"He's the best fighter in our class," I inform him. "But he's as dumb as a post and all you have to do is give him a brain teaser and then you can knock the saber right out of his hands."

Anakin smirks. "Reminds me of someone I know," He comments, obviously far away for that moment. "Anyway, what about her?" He swipes his finger across the image and it changes to show Barris, someone I know I won't be fighting.

"Oh, that's Barris." I say calmly. "I won't fight her, she's my friend."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"All right then," He changes the image again and I cringe slightly. Next is the youngling that is as bad as the three bullies that used to be in my class put together, he just never does anything unless theres an important competition and he has won every single class event so far - apart from the time when I disarmed him and he threw a massive hissy fit and stormed out of the room. I cannot remember a time when I have laughed so hard.

"That's Slimo," I say with disgust.

"I didn't know that Jedi were allowed to say that kind of language." Anakin mocks, arching an eyebrow.

I sigh and roll my eyes. "No, his last name is Slimo. He's the meanest kid in my class, worse than the three who were chasing me put together. He always wins by bullying or breaking the rules and when he doesn't he throws a massive fit and storms out." I inform him gloomily. "There's no way I'm going to beat him, he cheats."

"I beat someone who cheated," Anakin says suddenly. "You just have to be prepared for everything and hope for the best. So, what are your weaknesses? We already know who the toughest kid in your class is."

When someone asks what your weaknesses are your natural reaction is not to tell them, right? I mean, why in the world would a person tell someone their weaknesses, it only makes you easier to be beaten, or worse, killed. Once I overcome my reflex reaction, which is to stay still with my mouth shut, I think for a moment and gloomily realise what they are. "Everything," I say sadly.

Anakin frowns at me. "What do you mean 'everything'?"

"I mean, I'm not very good at anything apart from being light on my feet and I'm sort of good at climbing. Other than that I'm not good at anything." I explain. Anakin regards me and I cannot help but see the resemblance between his look and Master Kenobi's when he thinks I'm saying something stupid, force help him if he calls me an idiot.

"That's..." I don't hold my breath because that would be acting like an idiot - which I am not - and simply wait for his answer. "...untrue."

I frown, confused. He's been a force wielder for, what, his whole life? And that is what he says to me? That's new. "Uh, okay." I say slowly.

"I didn't mean it to sound so pathetic," He amends. "I don't have much experience reassuring people that they're better than they think they are."

I resist the urge to comment that he doesn't know how because no one bothered to fix his huge ego and shrug my shoulders, wanting to move the conversation along. "Right," I give a slight indication that I want to make a comment but don't. "What should I do? I mean, to cover my weaknesses?" I ask, eager to learn something - I'm not particularly picky, I just hate sitting still when I could be doing something else.

"Well... I only know a little about saber combat, since I didn't choose that subject, and -"

"Wait, what do you mean you didn't choose that subject?" I ask, frowning and cocking my head to the side a little.

"Never mind," He says quickly. "Moving on. Your competition is going to be in a woodland area so you should probably know how to set up traps."

"You want me to trap my own class mates?" I ask, confused. "That doesn't sound very Jedi like."

"Who said you were going to trap them?" He asks, arching an eyebrow. "I mean simple things, well they can be really complicated if you want them to be, things that will either make them run for the hills or put them out of the competition. You have to stun them to get them out, do you have any ideas how your going to do that?"

"There are two training sabers hidden around the area," I remember. "And some stuff to the right that you want to go for."

Anakin shakes his head thoroughly. "Don't go for them," He says decisively. "It's a trick to eliminate as many people as possible quickly. When you start you will be stood in a field, I want you to turn around and run straight for the forest behind you. No cutting corners or anything, just turn and run."

"How do you know where we start?"

"Force wielder," He reminds me plainly. "Now, I have a trick that I want to teach you. It's basically a quick fire way of making a thermal detonator." I sit up straighter, unable to help myself, no one has ever taught me how to make a thermal detonator before - or anything close to it - though I doubt that I will be using it in my competition, I don't want to kill anyone.

"Okay," I say eagerly.

"Do you know what a Siffle plant is?" He asks me. I cannot help but snort.

"Well, duh."

"It's roots have traces of gunpowder in them." He says, surprising me.

"They do?"

"Yes, they do. To get it you just have to rub your hands on it and then the gunpowder will be left behind on your hands, believe me, there's a lot of it." Anakin's tone is caution and I pay attention because even I don't want to blow something up by accident. "When you have the gunpowder, keep the roots because you can use them as a fuse, just find something really simple - like a conker shell - put it inside, attach the fuse and you have a bomb. A small bomb but a bomb none-the-less."

"But... I don't want to kill anyone in my class." I remind him.

"Put some leaves together for the shell, that way no one will get hurt, and add some magnesium for a bright light. Then it will blind but not harm, at least not permanently or seriously." He adds.

"So... it will blind them, for how long?"

"Depends on how much magnesium you put in."

"And where would I get the magnesium in the first place?"

He shrugs his shoulders. "Jump in the river, there's some on the river bed."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm a -"

"Force wielder, I know." I cut him off.

He rolls his eyes but does not comment on what I said. "Do you remember how to make a bomb?"

I frown and look at the ceiling, trying to remember. "I think so," I say slowly. I was much more interested in hearing how to make a flash bomb that wouldn't hurt anybody I know. There was a plant, get the gunpowder from its roots, shell of a conker and the roots used for fuses. Set it all of by lighting the fuse, as with most bombs, I think I've got it.

"Okay, show me. The stuff to do it is on the table."

Quickly and silently, I make my way back through the vent on my way to my room. My vision is still a little blurry from the flash bomb that I set off by accident after my fifth attempt at making it went perfectly. I hadn't meant to set it off but I wasn't looking and the flame from the match hit the fuse, before I could stop it the flash bomb went off and blinded me and Anakin. I have to work hard to stifle my giggles because it was actually quite funny, especially the swears I heard Anakin saying fluently; he managed never to repeat the same word and I know that my vocabulary in the swearing department has just increased dramatically.

I don't think I've ever had so much fun in my life, or laughed as much as I did a few minutes ago. It took an hour for my vision to return to normal, or as normal as it could before I realised that it is already past dark, and hastily said goodbye before rushing out of the room and into the vent which I am in now. Running down the vent to the next cover where I can get out and sneak back to my room, I hope that Anakin can clear up all of the mess we made making those bombs and flash bombs. Even his force wielder powers couldn't make the blindness go away any quicker, but he was able to see an hour before I could and made a point of not helping me out because he was mad at me - even though I knew he was smiling.

Silently, I take off the cover to the vent and climb out before resecuring it and half walking, half running back to my room. My footsteps are silent because, as I told Anakin, I am light on my feet. When I reach my room and walk inside I freeze at the sight of Master Kenobi sitting on my bed, his arms crossed over his chest. He is giving me a knowing look and I remember the cover story I came up with in case something like this happened; I wonder if I am really that late for bed or not.

"Where have you been?" He asks me, his arms still crossed.

"I lost track of time," I say, knowing that it is not a total lie. "Watching Coruscant go by can be really interesting sometimes."

"And you failed to notice that it was getting dark?" Obi-Wan cocks his head a little.

Thank the force I am one of the best liars in the temple. "You know me, Master Kenobi. I'm never watching what time it is."

Obi-Wan chuckles and pure instinct prevents me from letting out the breath that I'm holding. "You certainly aren't," He agrees, standing. "Well, I came to check on you and see if you were all right. You seem to be fine. Next time try not to stay out past curfew for twenty minutes."

"You're holding something against me because I was gone an extra twenty minutes," I comment quietly, arching both of my eye marks in total surprise.

"Good night, Ahsoka."

"Good night, Master Kenobi."

The moment he leaves my room I sigh and flop onto the bed in relief. That was very, very close. I suppose he must be more worried about where I was because he and the council know that I know about Anakin, but I just have to remember what Anakin told me and then it will all turn out all right. He told me to play it safe for the next three weeks until my competition and then, in a week, when they ask me about a force wielder to fake not knowing what they were on about and then to remember. I just hope that they buy it.

Yawning, I snuggle under the covers - not bothering to change into my sleep wear just yet - and wait until my vision returns to normal completely, by that I mean no dots floating around, before changing, going into the 'fresher and then snuggling back under the covers. I had more fun today than I ever did before and it makes me feel extremely tired, but I'm not complaining. With another yawn I close my eyes and fall asleep, loving the dreamless sleep that I am getting.