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.
Crystal Cave, Ahsoka Tano
I am having a very interesting day today. After yesterday's attack from Starkiller there has not been one moment where Anakin has not been in the same room as me. We went back and he drank his slush puppie like the lucky person he is whilst I had to eat shurra fruit because what he said actually was true. For someone with orange skin, I was really pale. What annoyed me was that right after we had finished Master Plo came in and said that I had to go to sleep right away because tomorrow I was going to Ilum to retrieve my lightsaber crystal. That wasn't the annoying part. Get this, my entire clan is going to get them when I was the one who won the competition. Apparently, the competition was just something to promote sportsmanship between us. How is nearly dieing promoting sportsmanship?
Let me just say that Anakin is absolutely brilliant at providing anger management. It's none of that releasing your emotions to the force stuff because according to him they just come right back to you if you aren't careful. I have spent my entire morning ever since I woke up punching Anakin as hard as I possibly can. He has padded hands and such but it still gives me the same amount of relief as when I hit him for real. Although, I'll admit that it was really awkward when Master Plo came in to collect me and saw me slug Anakin right in the face. It took a long while to explain to him that it was just anger management because I was frustrated about the uselessness of the competition. I had a real hard time explaining it on my own since Anakin was out cold for the whole thing and let me tell you now he was not happy about being left on the floor.
Even worse than that, if anything could get any worse, is the fact that when I got my lightsaber parts together in my pocket and left with Master Plo to the ship I found out that I was sitting next to Pedro. Yes, Pedro. True, there is a small space between us but I thought that when they saw what happened yesterday they would at least have the common sense not to put me beside an idiot. I guess things really couldn't get worse today for me in my little youngling world. There's always the chance that Starkiller might show up but Anakin said he was still recovering from being beaten and that is good enough for me.
I avoid all of the weird looks that my clan mates are giving me and focus on glaring right back at Slimo. Honestly, I do not know how he is still here but I do know that if every one of the people who are supposed to be my friends no matter what keep looking at me like I'm an outcast I'm going to lose my temper in record time. The only person who isn't looking at me like I'm the newest thing in town and doesn't know what to make of me is Barris. I can always count on Barris not to do anything too rash against me when things seem to not be in my favour. Why can't anyone just let things go around here? It's not like I'm a threat. The only one with enough power to blow up the temple with a single thought would be Anakin but I'm smart enough not to tell anyone.
"Hey, is it true that you can do the things that force wielder can?" My clan mate, Liam, who has recently recovered from being attacked whispers to me.
"No. It's not." I whisper back and resume ignoring everyone and everything around me.
For the love of the force, aren't Jedi younglings supposed to be sophisticated instead of nosy and persistent? I wait for a really long time in my seat for us to arrive on Ilum. My clanmates come and go as they please for bathroom breaks, rests, food and so on. We are being taken to the planet by a Jedi padawan who has to do it as a sign of initiation so that he can become a Jedi knight. I can't help but wonder if one day I'm going to become a Jedi knight. Anakin said that he was going to take me back to his planet and that's in another galaxy. Well, I guess that once Starkiller is dealt with then I can come back and continue on with my life as normal. It's not that I wouldn't like to have met Anakin but I do want to be a Jedi knight. It's my life long dream.
I manage not to move for hours and remain in my seat right up until we land. I'm not sure how I did it and all I know is that I did. When we land I keep my focus souly on getting my crystal and getting out. The blizzards are cold and harsh which makes the warm coats that we are wearing seem much more useful than they do sitting in the closet. It's still freezing cold and I cannot help but wonder why I am going through all of this when there's a perfectly good force wielder sitting in the temple who can get one for me. Is it because the crystal can only be retrieved by it's rightful owner? I have no idea. The caves of Ilum used to hold hundreds of crystals in one place from what I've been told. Now there are only blue and greens ones with the occasional other colours scattered around. It's a shame really.
We come to a stop in front of a cliff face and I completely zone out for the next five minutes. I don't even know why I was suddenly thinking about sleeping for that amount of time. There isn't a chance of me being tired since I went to sleep early and woke up at a time later than six o'clock. I believe it was around eight if I remember correctly. When I come back to reality the huge cliff face in front of us has opened up to reveal an entrance to what I am guessing is the cave where all of the crystals are held. The padawan leads us in and I can tell by the way that he doesn't look at any of us or try to assure us that things are okay that he does not want to be here. I keep my gaze on the floor because I'm starting to feel really faint. What's wrong with me?
Master Yoda is sat on a make shift seat that looks like a random piece of rock that is connected to another piece and so on until it reaches the wall. A large sheet of ice is covering what I am guessing is the cave where all the crystals are held along a large wall. I don't see the point of this since surely you could just blast your way in with a thermal detonator or something similar. Well, I've never had a Jedi right of passage that hasn't seemed strange to me in some way before. These things are designed to be harder than anything else we can experience in life but I say that it's all rubbish. Facing battalions of droids from a separatist army far outweighs the difficulty of finding a crystal in a cave that points you in the right direction.
"Younglings," Master Yoda greets. "Welcome to the crystal cave."
Okay, first impressions. I'm not seeing so much crystal in this cave so I am going to take a wild guess and say that the crystals are behind that huge ice barrier on the wall. There's obviously something on the other side of that thing. I don't really get to see a lot of the place since it appears that I have just become the 'outcast' of my clan. It used to be this kid called Lee who couldn't eat sugar and completely lost it when he did but apparently the honour has now fallen to me. To be honest, I'm not seeing what's so bad about being an outcast in my clan. I don't have to get stuck between Paranoid Pedro and his goony friend or answer stupid questions about what type of lightsabers there are.
"To collect your crystals face trials you must. The force, guide you it will to your one true crystal." Master Yoda begins to explain and I don't even try to understand. First thing I pick up: the force guides us to our crystals full stop. "As the sun rises upon Ilum, melt away the ice wall it will. Go in, you must, and get out before the wall freezes once more or trapped inside you will be."
Oh, well, that's worth the price isn't it? Go into a cave that will challenge us and try to kill us, from what I heard the padawans saying, and get out with our crystals before the wall freezes over and traps us inside. I don't understand how that works but I do know that this seems pretty much pointless now. There are a lot of useless challenges that Jedi initiates have to go through that are probably considered to be good for us. Jedi have to be ready for anything but I'll bet that no-one thought that they would have to defend themselves against immortal beings that can do anything. Well, they probably would have known this would happen if they remembered exactly what they did to them. Attacking a peaceful race... that isn't exactly a part of the Jedi code.
A ray of sunlight streams in through an opening in this... I'm going to refer to it as an 'entrance cave' from now on... and hits the ice wall dead on. It takes a short while but the ice wall melts away and, strangely, upwards. I am a little confused since the padawans talk about using the force to open the wall for a certain amount of time but if this is the quicker way then I'm not about to complain. So, what do you do when there is a gigantic ice wall that will freeze over if you don't get out in time and there is something you really need on the other side? The logical thing to do would be to send someone else in to get it for you or not get it at all. Then again, since when have I ever been logical?
"Younglings, remember you must to follow the forces guidance." Master Yoda reminds us. "Now, go you will and seek that which is yours."
What a happy way to send us off. No 'good luck' or 'try your best' like any caring Jedi master would say but I suppose that when you surpass the nine hundred year mark things start to get a little hazy in the brain. That reminds me, I wonder how Anakin is so powerful if he is only twenty years old. The force wielders are immortal so shouldn't there be some people who are over a thousand years old and so on. Maybe there's someone who's a million years old... wow. That would be the most awesome thing in the world. They'd have lived through the sith wars and the old republic and the moments that defined the entire Jedi order. A history book if there ever was one.
"May the force be with you."
On that, I'm not going to say happy note, we walk forwards and up the steps. I'm at the back since, as I explained earlier, I am not the outcast of the clan and the outcast always walks at the back or way ahead in the front where no-one can talk to them. It's a lifestyle that could use a lot of improvement but, hey, what are you gonna do? One by one was pass under the ice barrier and enter this new cave. Everything is dark with just a bit of light for us to see and lots of winding pathways for us to choose from. The force is stronger here than it is on Coruscant which is most likely why the lightsaber crystals were formed here instead of on more populated planets. It's always unfair that the most important things are found from places really far away.
"So, which way are we gonna go?" Katooni asks once we get far enough into the cave so that we are not near the entrance any more.
"We just do what Master Yoda said. Trust in the force and let it guide us." Byph suggests.
I start to sense through the force the location of my crystal when I come across something else. Anakin's force presence. Oh, I swear, if he is anywhere near here I am going to kill him and bury him in the flower beds at the room of a thousand fountains. Looking more closely, I find that his presence isn't actually on this planet but that he is trying to contact me. I have a lot of experience with speaking to others through the force because of the amount of different species in the temple who can only communicate that way. Letting down my mental shields slightly, I listen to what he wants to say.
"Follow the path on the left."
Without bothering to say anything to my clan mates, I turn and head right for the opening on the left hand side which must lead somewhere closer to my crystal. I stop when I hear the annoying voice of Pedro.
"Where are you going?" He asks with a guarded look.
I turn around to face him and my clan. "Naboo." I say sarcastically. "Where do you think I'm going?"
"Oh? Let me guess, your force wielder buddy told you to go that way." Pedro says with a glare.
"Actually, he did." I reply. "Don't you have your own crystal to find?"
Turning back around, I continue walking through the opening and along the narrow pathway that looks like it could have been carved into the rock by something or someone. Maybe when the caves where first formed the miners who came here needed more than just that entrance to get to where they wanted to be? I don't know. I can't hear any more advise from Anakin so I guess when I get to the end of this pathway my direction will be pretty clear. There is a faint scuffling sound behind me but I really couldn't care less. The only thing behind me is the clan members who don't know what to make of me any more and the people who I once considered to be friends.
When I get out of the pathway I come into a large cavern. Sunlight is coming in through a visible beam that illuminates most of the cavern and leaves the rest in shadows. On the other side of the cave is a glowing, green crystal and I sigh in relief. Well, this certainly didn't take as long as I would have imagined it to. Looking behind me, I check to see whether or not there are people following me when the rock grows together and seals me in. Panicking, I rush up to the space where the opening used to be and check to see if there is any way for me to get back out. To my despair, I find that there isn't any and I have to use three force calming techniques to make sure I don't panic any more.
Taking a deep breath, I turn around to look at my lightsaber crystal again. I know that it is my crystal because of two reasons. One; the force is telling me that it is. Two; Anakin told me exactly where to go to find it. Sometimes I wonder if he has a permanent map of where things are in his head. All of those games and stuff that he summons when he can't have been carrying them all when he came back to this galaxy. I still haven't asked him about that. Oh well; anything to take my mind off the fact that I am trapped inside a cave with no-one to help me. I take a few careful steps forward towards my crystal to test if there are any traps set up but nothing happens.
Sighing, I start to walk forward without hesitation and then everything around me suddenly goes black. Now I really start to panic. Looking around frantically, I try to catch a glimpse of light or a cave wall or anything but still find nothing. Suddenly, I hear a voice behind me.
"Ahsoka," A woman says in a singsong voice and I whirl around on the spot to see a smoky image of a female Togruta with her arms outstretched. A moment later, a younger Togruta jumps into them. "Good girl. Are you learning how to use your force powers?"
The toddler makes a lot of noises but no real words. It's obviously positive since she has a smile on her face... a face which has really familiar markings. Wait, did that woman just call her Ahsoka?
"Cami!" A male Togruta shouts before he comes running into the image. "They found us. I'm sorry, we have to give her up if we want her to survive."
"But Ale, what if they figure out who she is before she can protect herself?" The woman, Cami, asks desperately.
I realise slowly that I am watching... my parents. The Jedi order never tell us about our parents unless we refuse to calm down without them and that's what I did. I was told that my mother allowed Master Plo to take me when I was three but that my father wasn't anywhere to be seen. I'd always assumed that he had just ditched us but I never realised that it was like this!
"I already made sure that no force wielders would be able to sense her. There aren't any in the next galaxy to find her so you have to go!" Ale says with a similar desperate look on his face.
"But they'll kill you when they find out that you sired a dimidium semino! It's forbidden!" Cami tries to reason with him.
"I know, that's why I won't tell them. No amount of torture will break me." He sighs after that and hugs Cami and younger me tightly. "I love you. Both of you. Now, go. Go!"
I stumble backwards as the smoky image disappears. What the hell is going on? The force just showed me my parents and them sending me away because force wielders were going to kill my father? What? I turn back around when a strange sound captures my attention and see yet another smoky image. This time my father is stood with chains around his hands and ten people stood on podiums around him. Since I am stood beside him, they are also standing around me too but they can't see me since this happened when I was just a baby. A baby who was learning to use the force on a planet with force wielders... I can only think of one place where that is possible. Being born on the planet that Anakin talks about just seems so impossible that I shake my head trying to get the thoughts out. It's just not possible!
"Ale Tano," The man with a deep voice standing on the tallest pedestal speaks. "You have been found guilty of wedding and bedding a non-force sensitive from another galaxy. Such actions are illegal and punishable by death in accordance with the law prohibiting the creation of a dimidium semino for the safety of our empire."
"Your empire will not live long," Ale snaps. "You are too cowardly to remain in power when the chosen one is brought here. He will destroy you and that name for such a wonderful gift will be lost forever."
"Dimidium semino is the appropriate name for a child born from a force wielder and a non-force sensitive." A woman says who is standing on a smaller podium. "They are dangerous and need to be exterminated to ensure the purity of our species. You will answer our question. Did you have a child with Cami Heryni?"
"No. I did not." My father lies and my eyes widen ever so slightly when I realise that everything I am seeing really did happen. I'm the dimidium semino that they're talking about... the one who they want to kill and yet Anakin wants to take me back to his home planet? That lying shaak!
"Then there is no need for you to remain alive. Sentence is execution. Immediately." The man on the tallest podium says and my eyes go wide when they use sith lightning to torture and eventually kill my father.
This realisation is too much for my brain to handle with everything that's going on and I walk backwards until I hit the hard rock wall. The images in front of me disappear at once and light floods back into the cavern. Breathing heavily, I slide down the wall until I am sitting against it with my knees brought up to my chest. My body is literally shaking and I feel so tired that I just want to go to sleep and forget all about what I've seen and realised. The force wielders had an empire that was stopped by the chosen one. But... the Jedi order would know if the chosen one was alive so that must mean that the empire still exists and that Anakin wants to take me back there so that I can be executed.
"Ahsoka? Snips, can you hear me?" Anakin's voice asks in my head.
Clutching my head tightly in my hands, I bury my face in my knees. "Go away." I say outloud. "I don't want to talk to you. You just want to kill me."
"No, I promise I don't. Look, Ahsoka, I really didn't want you to find out this way but I am not the force. I'm the next best thing, I'll admit, but even I can't stop what it wants to do." Anakin replies. "That empire that you saw is gone, Ahsoka. The law that they made is gone now but I have to take you back to my planet because it isn't safe for you here."
"How can the empire be gone?" I ask, trying to pull myself together but not lifting my head from my knees. "He said that only the chosen one would get rid of it.
I hear Anakin sigh through our connection. "Ahsoka... I'm the one who got rid of the empire. I am the chosen one. The son of the force. Prince of the netherworld. Heir to the universe itself. I can't just go around telling people that because you know how your order will react. Please, just get your crystal and get out. It's been fifteen minutes... time runs differently in that cave and when you went off my radar I panicked so you really need to get out now."
Inhaling a shaky breath, I push myself up into a standing position and look directly ahead to see my lightsaber crystal sat neatly on top of a rock. The rock is smooth and looks like it could be used as a seat without a back but it is probably meant to look like that so that people can see the crystal easily. I walk forwards slowly this time because I really do not want to see any more of those flashbacks or revelations. Nothing happens but I don't speed up. When I finally do reach the crystal I have taken enough time to calm down and realise that Anakin doesn't want to kill me or do anything to hurt me. So, the force showed me the truth but Anakin cleared up any issues that I had so far. It's just like a father son team... oh no, I never thought I'd refer to Anakin and the force as that.
Carefully, I reach out and pick up my lightsaber crystal from its spot and sigh in relief when nothing else happens. A rumbling sound behind me makes my breathing stop again and I turn my head to search for danger only to see that the place where the rocks sealed together is opening up again so that I can go back through. It takes me half a second to make my decision and I sprint through the pathway as fast as I possibly can before it decides to close again or something worse. When I get out of the passage I see that the ice wall is three quarters of the way closed and that most of my clan mates are already out there. Well, all except for one. Katooni isn't out there and I can tell by the way that Pedro is masking his guilt behind his face that he knows where she is but has left her in here.
I turn away from the ice barrier and run in the direction that the force guides me to as I try to find her. She definitely wasn't out there and I can only imagine how much trouble she must be in if a skilled youngling like her can't find her crystal and get out again. I run through a long pathway but don't make it to the end because of one small problem.
"Ahsoka! Help!"
Skidding to a halt, I turn around and search around me for Katooni and find her trapped in the wall with ice sealing her in.
"Oh force... Katooni, are you okay?" I ask, walking closer and checking around for a way to get her out.
"I'm fine. I got trapped in here but Pedro wouldn't help me because he needed to find his own crystal." Katooni says unhappily. "I found my own but the ice wall closes soon and then we'll get trapped in here. Just go, Ahsoka. Save yourself."
I put on a cocky smirk just like Anakin does to assure her that I have a plan even though I don't. "Look, Katooni, I couldn't get hurt in here if I wanted to. The only person in danger right now is you."
"What do you mean?" Katooni asks, confused.
"Let's just say that being friends with a force wielder has its perks," I reply cryptically as I find a small opening that I could use to break the ice barrier. "Okay, sit tight. I think I can get you out."
I place my hands in the opening and start to pull. The ice barrier sealing Katooni inside starts to crack and break until it then tries to freeze over my hands and trap me inside. Once again I find myself thanking the force for the fact that I have a protection field. The blue shield that appeared when Starkiller attacked me appears again around my hands and then promptly sets itself on fire and melts the ice barrier in a large flash like that of a flame thrower. I yelp in surprise whilst Katooni lets out something between a shriek and a scream. The smoke clears and I can see that, thankfully, neither of us is harmed although Katooni does look a lot more scared than she did before.
"What... the force... was that?" She asks in between breaths.
"Protection field," I answer.
"What?"
"Don't ask," I reach out and pull her out of the hole in the wall by the hand. "Let's go! We can't have more than a minute before the wall freezes over!"
We run as fast as our legs can carry us through the many openings, pathways, twists and turns that I had to go through just to get to her until we finally reach the ice wall. I stop on the spot when I see that we reach it just as it freezes over. We are too late and now we're trapped inside. I really need to kill Pedro for this. He should have been helping Katooni instead of just going after his own crystal first then none of this would be happening. Then again, if he had gotten his hands frozen to the ice barrier that held Katooni captive then I would have had to save them both and then he would have called me a name or some other bad thing.
"Damn it! We were too late." Katooni curses. "Now we're trapped in here."
I sigh in defeat. "I guess we could just wait a day for the sun to come back around and melt the wall again."
"But how do we know that they'll be waiting for us?" Katooni questions. "The rules are very clear. When you don't get out of the cave you are left behind. That's why the Jedi training from here on out is so hard."
"Okay..." I say slowly. "There's got to be another way out of here. I mean, if people got left behind then why aren't there any skeletons of other Jedi that failed? Not everyone got out. It says so in the archives. That means there must be another way out."
"How are we going to find it? This place is huge." Katooni complains before looking over her shoulder and going completely still. "Um... Ahsoka?"
"Yes?" I ask, looking at the ice wall for a way out.
"You know how you said there were no skeletons here..." She trails off and I turn around and freeze.
Standing there, feathers and all, is a strange creature with four legs, a mane and wings. Yes, wings. I have no idea what it is but judging from the way it is leaning down slightly with its head pointed towards us I can imagine that it's going to charge.
"Look out!" I shout when it rams the wall beside us and I pull Katooni out of the way.
"What is that thing?" She asks curiously when it jumps backwards and then launches itself at us once more.
You see, this is the good thing about when things happen quickly. The pain is at its peak the moment the injury happens but after that you can pretty much clench your fists and hope for the best. The animal, or beast as I will now refer to it, actually hit us this time and sent us right through the ice wall. I mean, I know that we should have been paying attention but that was just about the most painful thing that has happened to me this week. We both land flat on our backs and startle the rest of our clan who were on their way out with sad looks on their faces, excluding Pedro the Pompous Prat. The ice wall seals itself up so that everyone gets to see the beast that threw us out of the cave for a few good seconds before the wall is sealed completely and we are all left in silence.
With a relieved sigh, I turn my head to Katooni. "That could have been worse." I reason with a slight shrug of my shoulders and grin.
"How could it have been worse exactly?" Katooni asks with a frown.
Someone clears their throat behind us and we turn around to see Master Yoda standing there looking at us with a stern face. I look back at Katooni.
"That's how it could have been worse."