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.

Third Lesson, Day Seven, Ahsoka Tano

I wake up in the usual fashion, though force knows I wish I didn't. The chrono's beeping is still the most annoying thing to date and I make a mental note to disable the alarm clock setting at some point. Yawning, I am about to reach over to turn it off when the beeping stops and I frown. Usually it beeps for about a minute before it turns off. Opening my eyes, I blink and look around to see that Master Ti has turned it off for me. I try not to frown.

Wasn't she supposed to be on Kamino.

"Master Ti?" I ask, wondering if I'm still dreaming or hallucinating from how tired I am.

"Good morning, young one." She says. "You appear to be more tired than usual."

"I spent eleven hours yesterday reading things about acklays and giants and all of those things that are designed to knock someone out of the competition," I hide another yawn and sit up. I rub my eyes since there are still a few blurry images from being woken at six o'clock after a horrendous day.

"It must have been quite a revision session. Now all the younglings are talking about is whether or not you know how to knock out a giant." Master Ti informs me.

I turn bright red for a second and look away, it just so happens that I do know how to knock out a giant. You're supposed to go for the weakest point on it's neck, the soft tissue on the front - I wouldn't call it soft tissue but that's what Anakin told me it's called.

"I must return to Kamino but I felt the need to check up on you before I left," She states, though somehow I know that isn't entirely true. "Good luck in the competition, little one."

"Thank's, Master Ti." I say as she departs my room. The second the door closes I let out a long sigh. How many Jedi masters are going to be checking up on me morning and night? They can't exactly check up on me in the middle of the day because I'm with Anakin at that time. Stifling yet another yawn, I climb out of bed and sleepily grab my clothes before going into the 'fresher and changing.

When I walk back into my room the first thing I do is pick up the miniature planet that Anakin gave me. There are large parts of land now, not green as I would like them to be, but land none the less. I look at the chrono and decide that breakfast can wait; there are more important things for me to be doing, or more fun things, whatever you want to call them.

Dragging out an options tab, I scroll through what I can add and pause when I notice that there is another tab that wasn't there before. Curious, I pull it open and look at it curiously when I notice that it contains several plants and seeds. Naturally, I select grass seeds and drag and drop them onto pretty much every piece of land there is. I don't know whether or not it will take the same amount of time that it did for the water to go down and show different parts of the miniature planet that are land – instead I close all of the tabs and put it back into my pocket, picking up the datapad as I do. The puzzles that I need to figure out are on it and I focus on the next question as I walk out of my room and into the corridor.

I am so busy concentrating on figuring out the puzzle that I do not notice the twins as they walk up to me and peer over my shoulder to see.

"What in the universe is that?" Kay asks, startling me.

I turn around to face them and notice that they are more awake than usual. "Just some puzzles that make no sense whatsoever," I say lazily. "You look like you had a good nights sleep for once."

"So do you, but that's probably because you slept in," Jay says with a smirk. "The Jedi masters set the alarm on your chrono for seven because you looked really tired."

"How do you know that? I didn't notice," I question.

"Oh, they told us not to come in and wake you when we arrived at your door. Master Plo went in to check up on you and your alarm had already gone off three times but you didn't so much as move, so they let you sleep another hour."

"Really?" I ask. I'll admit that I've slept through some pretty loud and disastrous things, but the alarm on the chrono always wakes me up. But this also means that I can go to Anakin straight away, how convenient. "I missed breakfast," I remember gloomily. "Oh well, I'll get something from my mentor."

They mumble something that sounds like 'lucky' and walk with me down the corridor. We all walk the same way most of the time but now I just veer off in another direction because of the area of the temple that Anakin's room is in. "Hang on," I begin. "Why was there more than one Jedi master in my room?"

They shrug their shoulders. "Don't know, probably have their reasons." Kay says. "See you later, 'Soka. We have saber practice."

"Yeah, see you." I reply, my thoughts somewhere far off. As they turn down one corridor I turn down another and make a B line for the vent cover. I quickly climb inside the vent and replace the cover before turning and making my way down the all too familiar vent to Anakin's room. As I walk I begin to wonder about why the council continue to check up on me.

What Master Kenobi said before he went to deal with the separatists is unsettling to say the least and I'm not entirely sure that the council have forgotten about me stumbling upon Anakin – the conversation I had with Master Kenobi is proof enough that they think I'm revisiting him, which I am. But if they think I'm revisiting Anakin then why aren't they doing anything? If they made me promise not to go looking for Anakin then don't stop me from visiting him they obviously have something on their minds, I just don't know what.

I really do not understand the Jedi council.

Shaking my head, I should stop trying to figure out how the galaxy works, my footsteps echo quietly off of the metalic walls of the vent before I stop beside the next vent cover and pull it off. After climbing through and replacing it, I walk down the corridor to Anakin's room and knock on the door. I am not sure what time it is but it usually takes me an hour to walk through the vent so I suppose it must be some time around eight or just after it.

The door slides open and I can tell that Anakin has been awake for a while, although he smiles at me like he always does when I arrive his gaze seems to be far off. It is quite obvious that there is something on his mind and he is failing to hide it.

"Morning," He greets. "You look really tired."

I roll my eyes. "The statement of the day," I comment. "Good morning to you too."

Anakin smirks and heads for the lounge as I walk inside and the door automatically closes behind me. For once I can actually sense his emotions through the force and none of them seem to be that good. Nervousness, confusion, anxiety, those emotions are enough to make anyone a little apprehensive. What I'm concerned about is what could be bad enough to worry a force wielder, it's obvious that something shook him pretty badly. The thing that I notice after that is the strange way that there seems to be a glow around him, something that you have to really focus on to see that it's there - and even then you can't even see it.

I watch him carefully as I sit down on the sofa and he seems to be really agitated by something. "What's wrong?" I ask.

He turns to look at me. "What makes you think there's something wrong?" Anakin questions.

"It's pretty obvious," I explain. "I can actually sense your emotions through the force for once."

Anakin mutters something under his breath which sounds like a curse. "Fine," He conceeds. "I can sense something, well, someone powerful. He seems so familiar and then not familiar at all, and he's on the dark side."

I frown. "Is he a force wielder?"

Anakin nods sadly. "I think he is," He sounds grim. "But it's so strange because there are hardly any dark force wielders, which makes me think that he was forced into it."

"How can you force a force wielder to change sides?"

"He probably hadn't chosen one, there are so many neutral force wielders that it's almost impossible to tell who's chosen a side." Anakin explains. "Besides, you can't exactly choose a side until your sixteen so I think he's just a kid, but he seems too powerful to be a child."

"Well, do you know where he is?" I ask.

"No," Anakin answers. "I don't know who he is so I don't know what to sense for." He sighs. "I doubt it matters anyway, someone will probably go to deal with him soon enough."

"What do you mean?" I ask, tilting my head to the side slightly. "You mean, the other force wielders, don't you?"

Anakin smirks. "Yes, they prefer to keep the galaxy darkness free. Except mortals would go hysterical if they knew we existed, why do you think I ended up in here?"

I nod, unable to disagree with him. "Is that why they don't interfere with the war between the republic and the separatists?" Anakin nods sadly. "So... is there a community of force wielders? Where are they all? Someone would know if they were in this galaxy, so they must be somewhere else."

Smirking, again, Anakin sits down on the sofa beside me. "Well, most live on a planet in another galaxy - that is true - but others live in remote areas. I know someone who lives in the space between galaxies, don't ask me how he did it because I still don't know myself."

"And, where do you live? I mean, where did you used to live? Before you got trapped in here."

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Anakin says with a smile.

"I think I'd believe anything at this point." I contradict.

He regards me for a second before nodding slowly. "Okay, I have a home outside the boundaries of the universe."

My eyes widen. "You live outside of the universe?" I ask. "But how? That's impossible."

"You'd think so, wouldn't you?" Anakin seems amused by my disbelief. "The force is everywhere, Ahsoka, even outside of the universe. Besides, what makes you think that there is only one universe?"

This time my jaw drops. "There's more?"

Anakin chuckles. "You have a lot to learn," He says. "Which reminds me, when's your life day?"

I blink. Why would he ask me that? "In seven months," I say. "Why?"

"Just curious," I am unconvinced by his statement, it's obvious he wanted to know for a reason. Anakin pulls something out of his pocket and I frown at it. It's basically a ball of glowing, white light and it looks so different. I could swear that I saw the outline of a shield in the centre of it but it disappeared before I could make it out.

"What is that?" I ask.

"Something that I'm really tired of having sitting in my pocket," He states casually before setting it down on the coffee table. "Anyway, I promised to show you how to make light, didn't I?"

I smile. "You did."

Holding out his hand in front of him, Anakin holds it flat so his palm is face up. "It can work in a lot of situations, if you want to create it just think of all the good times in your life or - in an emergency - it will just happen as a reflex once you've learned it." I make a mental note to not do this in front of anyone if I am ever in a dire situation. "Try it like this," One second there is nothing happening, the next there is a swirling ball of light in the palm of his hand which he allows to float up into the centre of the room and add to the lights that have now been turned off. "You try."

Now, I'm not sure if anyone has tried to make light before but it's damn near impossible. My first attempt just makes a load of sparks in my hand which almost set fire to the carpet and my second attempt makes something like a firework appear, which flies into the air and explodes. I arch both eye marks and look at Anakin.

"What was that?" I ask.

"Just a failed attempt, nothing to worry about," He shrugs it off. "Keep trying."

I am a little more cautious this time as I concentrate again. This time it makes a strange crackling noise like someone stepping on egg shells, this makes me cringe, and then a strange wooshing sound. Slowly, I open my eyes to look and am relieved to see that there is a ball of light in my palm. Just before it floats away I get a very strange feeling. My senses feel more sharp, my mind feels guarded and I get the strangest sensation that I can do anything - what makes me frown is the fact that I have no idea where the sensation came from. Just as soon as the feeling comes it goes and I look at Anakin, wondering if he had anything to do with it. I also notice that the glowing orb that he set on the table is gone again.

"Nicely done," Anakin comments, preventing me from asking my question. "You should probably keep practicing."

Now I am a little suspicious that something is going on but decide that I probably should get some practice and focus on trying to create another ball of light in my hand. Before long, there is another ball of light in my hand and - instead of letting it float up to join the two orbs in the air already - I retract my arm to see what it really looks like up close. Of course, it's just a ball of light that I can't see any detail on and my attention from it is diverted when I feel a sharp sensation on my left arm - like there's a pin in it.

I turn quickly to look at it only to see that there is nothing there, and Anakin is busy reading about reports on his datapad to have done anything. He looks at me and frowns. "Are you alright?" He asks.

"Yeah," I say slowly. "I just thought something was in my arm, that's all."

His frown deepens. "Do you want me to take a look at it to make sure?"

I nod. "Yes, please."

Setting down his datapad, Anakin takes my arm gently and his hand begins to glow - sort of like when he healed me the day I met him - as he inspects it. I decide it's best to just let him go about his business and pull out my datapad and try to solve some of the puzzles. The first one - or second one if you count the one I did yesterday - is harder than anything I have ever seen before and in my concentration I do not notice the way that Anakin's hand has begun to glow golden. When I do notice, I frown and watch as he lets go of my arm gently.

"There's nothing wrong with you," He says. "Just a growing pain, that's all."

"I thought growing pains were supposed to be even more painful?" I ask with a frown.

"Sometimes they can feel like a pinch," Anakin explains. "Nothing to worry about. But you should probably keep using the force a lot of the time."

"Why should I do that? Do I need to?" I question.

He shakes his head, though I can see that there is something he is uncertain about. "No, you don't need to. You should just keep practicing, that's all." I don't know how I should respond since it sounds as though he's withholding some information - it must be the dark force wielder that's troubling him - so instead I nod and turn back to the puzzles that I am supposed to figure out. "Aren't you supposed to be practising with the training saber?"

"I thought you asked me to figure out these puzzles?" I remind him.

"I know, but learning how to fight better sort of takes priority, don't you think? Oh, and you need to learn the names of certain types of planets."

I groan and put my datapad down on the coffee table; I swear, if today is anything like yesterday there will be nothing to stop me from falling asleep.

Strangely, I don't feel bored at all, even after a lecture on why I should know what plant does what and so on. It is when I am fighting the training droid that things start to get weird. The first thing that happens is I start to sway for no reason at all - I pass it off as nothing, but Anakin notices and in a heartbeat uses the force to turn off the training droid.

"Are you alright?" He asks, walking over to me.

"Yeah, I'm fi-" I falter as my senses switch off for a moment and I almost collapse onto the floor, except Anakin catches me and holds me steady.

"You aren't alright," He says, which I roll my eyes at - even in my condition. "I think you might have come down with something."

I sigh and almost fall over, again, but Anakin is still holding me steady. His hands start to glow so I guess he is trying to figure out what is wrong and I am thankful for this since my vision is starting to go blurry. It does not take long for Anakin to find out what is wrong and by then he is practically supporting all of my weight.

"You've had a reaction to it," He mumbles.

"A reaction to what?" I ask, trying to stay on my own feet.

"You should lay down, come on." Anakin helps me over to the sofa and I am barely half conscious when I lay down. "There is no way you are going back to your room today, you'll probably pass out just outside the door."

"What if the council check on me?"

"They won't, it's been a week and half of them are off fighting the war." Anakin says casually. "Go to sleep, Ahsoka."

It takes me a few seconds to do as I'm told. For some reason I feel as though I do not have a choice, but that's the way that force wielders do things. At least, that's the way that Anakin does things.