***This story is going through a rewrite. It is not abandoned, though it may be a little while before another update.***
A/N:
Set seven years after the rise of the Empire.
Ahsoka is sent on a mission to retrieve information on something the rebellion has come to call "The Emperor's Secret Weapon." Though, it is still unknown exactly what it is. When she arrives at this small uninhabited planet, she finds out that this "weapon" is kept in an old Sith temple, and that there is a strange Force null space there, where the Force is completely suppressed. Following a group of scientists into the inner chamber of the room, she's startled to find that the "secret weapon" is... Anakin. Or more accurately, Anakin's, as in more than one. Clones.
Seeing her long-lost master experimented on for the last seven years, Ahsoka is overcome by guilt, and she attacks the group of scientists and stormtroopers holding him, attempting to free him. However, she finds out that he's in too rough of shape to wake up as he's been in stasis for almost a decade. So, she kidnaps a scientist and steals an Imperial shuttle, and plans to take Anakin back to the rebellion where she hopes he'll recover and help them defeat the Empire.
But what does seven years of loss mean for Anakin, and what happens when he finds out who's behind the mask of Darth Vader?
XXXXX
I've seen other "cloned Anakin" stories before, and the premise has always intrigued me, though, admittedly, it takes away from the whole "Anakin falling" arc of the series. Also, cloning Force sensitivity seems to be taboo in SW, but I figured I'd give it a shot anyway.
If that's a deal breaker for you, then that's fine. I hope you find another story you like.
Also, this will end up being a slow burn Anisoka story as Padme is dead in this universe, as are Luke and Leia. Most of the other stuff is based in canon. (i.e. Order 66, Empire taking over, Darth Vader, Inquisitors, etc.)
Being set just seven years after the birth of the Empire, the rebellion is in its younger years.
XXXXX
Ahsoka dropped down from a hole in the ceiling, landing quietly on the stone floor below. Igniting one of her lightsabers, she held it up above her head to get a little bit of light in the otherwise pitch-black room.
"Come in, Fulcrum," her comm crackled to life. "Fulcrum, are you in?"
Ahsoka lifted her wrist "Copy, base. I'm in."
"What do you see?" the other voice asked.
Ahsoka moved her lightsaber all around, noticing some strange runes and symbols carved into the walls. She walked over to get a better look.
"Interesting," she murmured, frowning.
"What's Interesting?" the other voice asked.
"There are all these runes and symbols carved into the stone."
"Runes and symbols?"
"Yeah... and I think… I've seen them before."
Igniting her second saber for more light, she got closer to the wall.
"These are Sith runes!" she exclaimed, her eyes opening wide. She spun around. "They're everywhere!"
The person on the other end of the comm was silent for a moment. "Why would they keep it in a Sith Temple?" he asked.
Ahsoka shook her head. "I have no idea, but I intend to find out."
The 'it' they're talking about is what the rebels have come to call "Palpatine's Secret Weapon." It's something that they discovered combing through encrypted Imperial transmissions.
Some in the rebellion have speculated that it's an ancient weapon left over from a long-lost civilization. Others have guessed that it's some sort of Force sensitive artifact. Though, nobody really knows for sure.
Ahsoka looked up at a giant door in front of her. "I see a door, base. I'm going to try to open it."
"Be careful, Fulcrum," the voice responded. "If you encounter any danger, don't worry about the weapon. Just set the charges and get out of there. I'd rather blow the whole thing to the Unknown Regions than lose you trying to figure out what the weapon is."
"Understood," Ahsoka said and put the comm away.
Approaching the door, she ran her fingers over it. The stone it was made of was smooth, almost polished in appearance. It also had the same runes engraved in it that were on the walls.
Lifting her hands, she called upon the Force and tried to open it. But, instead of the door opening like he expected, the Force seemed to fall into a bottomless abyss, disappearing into nothingness. Frowning, she lifted her hands again, but just like before, the Force seemed to just disappear into the void.
Intrigued, Ahsoka opened herself up all the way in the Force, a dangerous maneuver in the middle of an Imperial controlled installation, and stretched her senses beyond the door to try and find out what was causing this massive disturbance. But just like before, it seemed like there was a siphon, drawing all the Force in the area away.
She knit her eye markings in confusion and tried to think of what could possibly be so strong that it could suck all the Force energy in the area away. But before she could figure it out, her comm sparked to life with an urgent message. "Fulcrum, you have incoming. Fifteen seconds."
Ahsoka quickly searched the room, and hid behind a large column, masking her presence in the Force. Not that it really matters with a giant Force void in the area. A few moments later, the outer door to the room opened and the lights came on. Then two men in Imperial science officer uniforms walked in, followed by a small detail of Stormtroopers.
Ahsoka stuck her head out from behind the column as watched as one of the Imperial science officers stepped up to the wall and pressed a button on a remote, causing a small panel to appear from behind one of the polished stones. Once displayed, he leaned down, and let the panel scan his eye. Then, he stood back up and placed his hand on the panel to read his palm.
With a loud noise, the massive door then retreated a couple inches inward and began to open, sliding sideways into the wall. Once it was open all the way, the group of men moved into the inner room, with the door starting to quickly close behind them.
With no time to think it over, Ahsoka made a mad dash towards the rapidly closing door, somersaulting through a small opening and landing inside, with only seconds left to spare.
Once in, she immediately scrambled behind a large trunk pipe in the corner of the room, and took a moment to catch her breath; watching the stormtroopers carefully to make sure that no one saw her dash in. After a few moments, she let out a breath of relief and began to take stock of her situation.
The first thing she noticed as she began to scan the room was that she was completely cut off from the Force. Like there was a giant hole where the Force should be.
She frowned. "Maybe the disturbance is the secret weapon."
It sure seemed to work a whole lot better than the other Force repelling agents or restraints that she'd experienced before. And it could obviously cover a large area, large enough to render whole teams of Force sensitives moot. Though, without getting close to your target, a weapon like this would just be unnecessary.
She continued to scan the room, noticing some large tanks in the corner. She didn't pay much attention to them at first, but when she saw who it was that was floating in the tank, her blood went cold.
"Anakin,' she whispered, horrified.
Looking at the other tanks now, she noticed they were all filled with her former Jedi Master.
"They cloned him?" she frowned in confusion. But if that was the case, which one was the real Anakin?
"Prep patient zero for cloning," one of the science officers said, bringing Ahsoka out of her thoughts. "The Emperor wants to try a new procedure for copying his midi-chlorians."
The other officer looked at him, confused. "I thought we were already able to copy his midi-chlorians."
"We can," the first officer agreed. "But our current success rate is low. The last few clones have only been able to use about 70% of patient zero's Force potential. Emperor Palpatine wants it higher."
The first science officer then walked up to a stasis pod in the middle of the room and keyed in a code, and Ahsoka watched with rapt attention as it raised from the ground and opened in front of her.
In it, Anakin Skywalker, the real one, laid still, emaciated, and covered with tubes. His hair had grown well past his shoulders, and his body was filled with cuts and bruises from what Ahsoka was sure had been torture.
"That's why I couldn't feel him after Order 66," she realized with a start. "He was here, in this Force forsaken room, the whole time."
Then, all of a sudden, a crippling shame began to course through her body, and Ahsoka looked at Anakin with sadness. If she'd only known he was here, maybe she could have done something about it.
Thinking of what he probably had to go through over the last seven years, something in Ahsoka snapped, and she gripped her lightsabers. She wanted nothing more than to free him. To be… near him again.
One of her greatest regrets over the last decade was not being there for him when everything went down. Sure, they may have drifted apart a little bit when she left the Order, but her connection to him, her… feelings for him, had always remained. And she wouldn't just sit idly by and watch as he was used as a tool for the Emperor, not when she could do something about it.
Wait…
…tool…
"He's the secret weapon," she realized with a start.
Which makes perfect sense. What better way to take out the remaining Jedi than to use the most powerful Jedi to ever exist. Though, from the sound of it, it seems like they were having trouble making a one-to-one copy of him, which was really good news, considering she's seen what a fully powered Anakin Skywalker could do on Mortis.
"Giving them issues, even when unconscious, huh Skyguy?" she quipped to herself, a small smile on her face. "That's my master!"
Ready and primed to strike, Ahsoka flipped out from behind her cover and took out the three stormtroopers closest to her. She then dove over the stasis pod and cut down the scientist at the controls. After that, she threw her one of her lightsabers at another stormtrooper behind the stasis pod, impaling him gruesomely in the face.
Leaping over another console, she hid behind a large condenser and took a moment to catch her breath. Without the Force constantly supporting her, she noticed that she could already feel exhaustion starting to affect her body.
A blaster bolt whizzed past her face, and Ahsoka barely had enough time to stagger backwards, chastising herself for letting her focus slip. Without the Force, she needed to keep her head in the game, else she get herself killed.
The door to the room began to open, and Ahsoka spied the last scientist running for the outer chamber. She glanced up at the ceiling and spotted a huge HVAC unit positioned right above the door. With a flick of her wrist, she tossed her shoto blade at the support cables, cutting all but one of them, which snapped under the weight of the unit, and sent the HVAC unit crashing down in front of the door to block it.
The remaining scientist then dove behind the same trunk pipe that Ahsoka had hid behind when she first got in the room, scared out of his wits.
Ahsoka retrieved the lightsaber that she threw at the stormtrooper earlier and peered around the condenser to take stock of her situation. Without the Force, she couldn't call her other blade back, so she'd have to make do with one for now.
"Only three bucketheads left," she thought to herself as she made a mental note of where the other troopers were likely hiding.
She could see two of the last three hiding behind one of the cloning tanks. So, with a little effort, she jumped over the condenser and ran up to the tank, stabbing her saber into it, causing the bacta fluid to spill all over the floor.
The stormtroopers noticed this and tried to run, but the slippery medicinal fluid all over the floor caused them slip and fall as they tried to scramble for new cover. Ahsoka was quick to catch up to them, cutting through each of their weapons before slashing them across the chest, killing them.
"Two down, one to go," she commented, ducking behind another one of the tanks.
Without being able to access the Force, Ahsoka knew she would have to rely on her Togruta biology to find the remaining stormtrooper. So, she leaned down and let one of her lekku lay on the floor.
Closing her eyes, she could feel the different subtle vibrations in the room. The constant hum of the machinery provided a background score that she was able to filter out as she focused on the more irregular sounds of the stormtrooper's steps. Knowing his location now, Ahsoka picked up her head and headed towards the sound of the footfalls.
With blinding speed, she ran up behind the unaware trooper and stabbed her lightsaber though his chest, watching as he fell to the floor. Now that he was dead, it was just down to her and the last scientist.
Ahsoka sheathed her lightsaber and leaned against the control panel for the stasis chamber. "You can come out now. I have no desire to hurt you," she called out, crossing her arms over her chest.
A couple moments later, the scientist shakily stepped out from behind his hiding spot with his hands up. "I- I- I don't have any money or anything," he offered, thinking her a bounty hunter.
Ahsoka shook her head. "I'm not here for money," she pointed to Anakin. "I'm here for him."
The scientist's forehead creased in confusion. "You want… patient zero?"
"His name," Ahsoka retorted quickly. "…is Anakin. And he's coming with me."
The scientist lowered his hands cautiously. "But he's in stasis…"
"I know," Ahsoka said. "Which is why you're going to help me wake him up."
"I- I- I can't do that," the scientist stuttered out, shaking his head.
"What did you say?" Ahsoka ignited her lightsaber and started walking towards the man.
He immediately put his hands back up and started to backpedal. "Wait," he said, his voice full of panic. "What I mean is… I can't wake him up here," he motioned around the room. "We don't have the equipment I need."
Ahsoka paused for a moment as she absorbed this information.
Seeing that he was getting through to her, the scientist continued his explanation. "He's been in stasis for a little over seven years, so I can't just bring him out of it. It's going to take time and a lot of around the clock monitoring."
Ahsoka stayed silent as she pondered what to do. She looked over at Anakin and her heart began to ache for him. To have been kept in stasis for seven years without knowing if anyone he cared about was still alive… she couldn't even imagine.
She brought her hand up and stroked his cheek. "If I can get you the equipment you need, would you be able to wake him up somewhere else?" she asked quietly, her eyes never leaving her former Master.
The scientist nodded quickly. "Yes."
Ahsoka nodded in response. "Okay. Let's get him out of here." She then turned to look at the scientist. "And you're coming with me."
The scientist didn't say anything, and Ahsoka did a quick cursory check of the room. "I assume you occasionally have to take a clone out of this room, right?" she asked.
The other man nodded his head.
"How do you normally do that?"
He pointed to a med pod on the wall.
Ahsoka looked over, then looked back at the stasis pod. The two were almost identical. "Okay, I need you to prep him for transport," she said, nodding towards Anakin. "We're just going to use the stasis pod instead of the med pod as it looks almost identical. Will that work?"
The scientist thought for a moment, then nodded. "That should work, yes."
"Okay, good," Ahsoka said. "Last question. How did you get here? I assume you came in a ship."
The scientist nodded again. "Yes, there is a lambda shuttle waiting for me on the landing pad outside. But…" He stopped talking and Ahsoka could tell that he was hesitant to say something.
"But what?" she asked after a moment.
He looked around the room at all the dead bodies. "They'll be suspicious if I come to the ship without any stormtroopers."
Ahsoka looked around the room and thought for a moment. "Don't worry about that," she said, finally. "All I need you to do is get us to the ship and get us past the blockade. I'll do the rest."
"But there are two star destroyers up there," the scientist couldn't help but say. "And each of them has over fifty tie fighters!"
Ahsoka waved her hand as if it was no big deal. "Don't worry." She turned to look at Anakin, a small smile appearing on her lips. "I was taught by the best."
The scientist took a deep breath, but eventually nodded. "Okay, I'll prep him for transport," he said.
But just when he began to move, Ahsoka ignited one of her lightsabers and held it to his throat, freezing him in place.
"I told you before that I don't want to hurt you," she said, her voice starting off warm, but then getting colder. "But if you so much as hurt a single hair on his head while you're getting him ready for transport. I will not hesitate to cut you down. Do you understand me?"
The scientist nodded quickly, swallowing. "Yes. I won't try anything."
Ahsoka looked at him for a moment before lowering her saber. "Good."
Fifteen minutes later, Ahsoka came up to the scientist clad in stormtrooper armor, holding the helmet under her arm. "Ready to go?" she asked.
The scientist looked over the stasis pod one more time before turning to her and nodding.
"Okay, let's go," she said, putting on the helmet.
They turned to make their way over to the door when Ahsoka saw the HVAC unit blocking the way. "Oh yeah," she muttered, looking around for something to move the unit.
Not seeing anything, she turned to the scientist. "Wait here," she said. "I'll be right back."
Then she jumped over the HVAC unit and went to the very far end of the outer room.
As soon as she got a few feet away from the cloning lab, she could feel the Force start to flow back into her. She let out a breath of relief. It felt refreshing, like finding water in the desert.
She raised her hands and called upon the Force to move the giant HVAC unit. But when she sent out a Force push, nothing happened.
Ahsoka sighed in frustration, knowing that she would need to give it her all to get it to move. "You should probably stand to the side," she called out to the scientist. "Far away from the unit."
He hurried to the side, bringing the pod with him. "O-Okay. I'm out of the way," he called back, unsure what she was about to do. But having seen her take out the stormtroopers, he didn't dare underestimate her.
With him out of the way, Ahsoka called upon the Force again, this time with everything she had, and released a giant Force push at the HVAC unit, sending it skidding a few feet along the floor.
The scientist poked his head out of the newly created hole, wide-eyed. "You're a Jedi," he said, his voice higher, showing his excitement.
Ahsoka smiled at his excitement but shook her head. "I'm no Jedi."
The scientist didn't say anything more but seemed to look at her in a different light, and the pair both walked up to the outer door.
"Are you ready?" he asked.
She nods. "Are you?"
Without saying another word, the scientist opened a small panel in the wall and scanned his eye and his palm. Then he stood back as the outer door began to open, revealing a dark, rainy landing pad with a single, solitary, lambda shuttle sitting at the end of it.
The two of them were able to make their way to the end of the landing pad with no issues, but when they got close to the ship, the pilot came out, eyeing them suspiciously. "Where are the others?" he asked, hand on his blaster, obviously nervous.
Ahsoka tightened her grip on her blaster, ready to draw it. But to her surprise, the scientist stepped forward. "They're still in the lab," he said, calmly and evenly. "You should know that Imperial regulations state that the majority of the security detail has to stay with whoever's in the lab."
The pilot just looked at him silently for just a moment, as if he was trying to work out if his answer was acceptable or not. But then he odded and turned around, moving his way back up the ramp.
However, just when he was about to enter the ship, Ahsoka took her blaster and hit him on the back of the head, knocking him out.
The scientist then quickly took the stasis pod up the ramp and into the small medbay, hooking it up, while Ahsoka drug the unconscious pilot off to the side.
After she was done, she pulled out a small detonator from her pocket and flipped the switch, showing a timer of ten minutes counting down on the screen.
While the scientist was getting the stasis pod ready for transport, Ahsoka set the charges she brought with her all around the laboratory, not wanting anything of the Anakin cloning project left to be restarted later.
She then walked up the ramp and jumped into the pilot's seat, closing the ramp behind her, and lifting the shuttle off the ground. When they got to the outer atmosphere, one of the star destroyers contacted them.
"Lambda Shuttle A8FH4, please state your number, purpose, and clearance codes."
Ahsoka looked over at the scientist, who nodded in understanding and picked up the comm. "Imperial Scientist 43H4T. On a mission for the Emperor, headed to Imperial Center. Clearance code is FF989K7."
The radio fell silent, and Ahsoka began to calculate their hyperspace coordinates, in case they needed to make an emergency jump. But not fifteen seconds later, the star destroyer came back with an answer. "Roger, A8FH4. You're cleared for Imperial Center."
Ahsoka traded smiles with the scientist. "Roger, flight command. Lamba Shuttle A8FH4 out," he said.
Ahsoka then pushed forward the hyperspace lever, sending the world around them into streaks of blue.