With a desperate cry of rage, pain and exhaustion, Ahsoka launched herself feet first onto Vader, swinging her lightsaber in an arch. His single blade parried her right sabre, but the left one caught his mask and slashed it in half, bringing forth his own cry of pain as sparks flew around them and she used her remaining strength to jump over him, using his chest as a stepping stone to propel herself. She tumbled and landed on her side.
"Ahsoka, hurry!" Ezra called from where he stood with Kanan, behind the fastly descending walls of the Temple pyramid.
She made to stand up, gathering her lightsabers, ready to make a run for it and abandon Anakin's killer to his fate, but then he spoke, and Ahsoka's heart swelled and froze all at once. His voice was raspy, whispered even, half mixed with the deep robotic tones of his voice box, but even amidst the chaos and lightning of the collapsing Sith Temple she would never mistake that voice for anyone else's.
Anakin.
He called her again, in that tortured wheeze of his broken mask.
"Ahsoka."
It wasn't Darth Vader she saw standing in front of her any longer, but Anakin, almost twenty years ago, holding out her Padawan beads and pleading with her to stay, to not walk away from the only thing she knew – to not walk away from him –. The look of betrayal he gave her when he understood she wasn't coming back had tormented her ever since. She had abandoned him, and there was the outcome of her decision, towering over her in black armour.
Everything within her screamed for her to turn and run. He was a Sith, working for Palpatine. He was the shadow that haunted the dreams of all surviving Jedi, the secret weapon of the Empire, the one who had been sent to hunt down all remaining Force users. The one that made Darth Maul cower in fear.
"I won't leave you," she promised, rooting her feet on the floor. "Not this time."
Vader – Anakin – peered at her from behind his shattered mask. His eerie presence in the Force was stiffened and misty with doubt, and for one second Ahsoka could entertain the idea that he was being overflown with the same memories that left a bitter taste in her mouth.
Her hopes crumbled as his unmasked eye narrowed, and the Force around him hardened and boiled as it shifted from doubt to something else.
Resolve.
"Then you will die."
His lightsaber ignited, red and sinister against the black of his helmet.
Rushed steps coming from behind her announced Ezra coming to her rescue – to his death – and Ahsoka pushed him away with the Force. This was between her and Anakin.
The first strike she deflected with her back still turned to Vader. The next was almost enough to make her lose her footing.
Vader forced his own pace on the duel, his massive body delivering earth-shattering blows which required both her blades to block.
White against red, their lightsabers clashed together, crackling and hissing almost as loudly as the stones that crashed around them. Ahsoka had no time to test his defence, no opportunity to get bold and experiment, no breach to exploit. There was only ever a split second between her and death. All she could do was parry one blow, then another, and another, and another, as they came from her right, her left, downward, left, upward, downward, downward downward, wearing her down until her reflexes would inevitably fail her, and the killing blow would come.
For a hysterical second, she wondered if her death would awaken something in him, or if it would destroy whatever was left of Anakin.
A thunderous whump stopped the duelling pair, and each leaped to the safety of one side of the room when a chunk of the ceiling came crashing down to the spot they had been standing, but there was barely time to catch her breath before Vader was on top of her again.
Her arms ached with every strike she parried, and her brain worked double time to adapt her style to defence, applying every bit of the Soresu training she received from Obi-Wan to make his lightsaber slide away over hers at each strike. Yet his blade kept coming for her, aimed efficiently for her head, and all Ahsoka could do was retreat further and further until she had her back dangerously close to the wall, and her reality narrowed to accommodate only his black cloak, his red blade and his orange eye that threatened to pierce her deeper than his lightsaber possibly could.
Keeping this up indefinitely wasn't a possibility. She would run out of luck soon, and he would defeat her and go after Ezra and Kanan. Vader would torture them. He would take the holocron and hand it to the Emperor, and the Rebellion would be doomed. Between one strike and the next, an idea sparked in her mind. Maybe she couldn't win, but she could make sure he would lose.
Summoning all her might, Ahsoka plunged her lightsabers into the ground, drilling them deep, shattering the stone beneath her; if Vader was going to kill her, she would bring him down with her, down beneath the foundation of the temple where he could harm no one ever again.
Ezra and Kanan would be safe. And Rex.
Above her, Vader raised his blade and aimed for a final swing that never descended.
The ground gave in, dropping them into the dark chasm that opened under their feet, as an ear-splitting blast and a flash of light brought the temple down, sealing them below.
Vader fell in first, giving Ahsoka the high ground for the briefest moment, and she took full advantage of it, slashing her sabre against him, using the Force to delay her fall and the rocks around to manoeuvre, trying to inflict as much damage as she could before his mass turned once again to his advantage.
Their blades were the only source of light where they landed, glowing red and white, casting long shadows on the ancient walls. The chamber echoed with the humming and crackling of their lightsabers, but beneath it Ahsoka could hear the distinctive sound of Vader's breathing apparatus, and the unnatural wheezing noises it made. It seemed to be failing, and slowly but surely his swings were becoming less precise and frequent, allowing her to dance around his lightsaber, dodging his strikes rather than waste energy parrying them. All she had to do now was outlast his respirator; if she could just do that, it would be over. Still, Ahsoka was tiring fast, her twin blades seeming to weigh more with each swing as she got desperately close to the last of her strengths. And then she saw it; an opening.
Ahsoka moved in for what she hoped could be a final strike, leaping high above Vader just on the moment he switched his grip to strike, aiming both sabres at his throat. But in the dim light of their blades, she saw his eye narrow, and her gut sank in the heartbeat between spotting the trap and springing it.
His blade moved impossibly fast, sweeping underneath and around her lightsabers. She twisted her body to catch his blade between hers, but it was too late to fully block it before his attack found her upper left arm.
The cave filled with the needling stench of searing flesh, and her scream echoed on the stone. Her guard dropped. Vader prepared for another strike, but she was still faster, and backflipped away to a safer distance to recompose. Breathe, she told herself, trying to mentally assess her wound without losing focus on him. Her arm was still attached to her, and still held a somewhat firm grasp on the lightsaber. Good.
Vader stood within leaping distance from her, lightsaber ignited, but with his guard lowered. She wouldn't make the same mistake twice, she knew he was baiting her.
With her left arm shaking furiously and cold sweat dripping down her brow, she repositioned herself, placing both blades between her and Vader. Patience was essential now; another mistake would cost more than a third-degree burn.
Ahsoka studied him, searching for any of Anakin's tells; for the way he would tense up right before his strikes, or anything at all she still knew about his style after years of sparring together, but he stood perfectly still, the troubled wheezing of the respirator being the only sound to hit her montrals.
Then silence befell the chamber, heavier than stone, only to be broken by a sequence of undignified gasps as Vader fell to his knees and dropped his lightsaber.
"Anakin!" Before she could think better of it, Ahsoka rushed to his side, all pretence that she could possibly bring herself to kill him tossed aside and forgotten. "What do I do? Tell me what to do!"
The respirator came back to life with a renewed hiss. His yellow glare shot up to meet her, and for a horrible second she saw his hand inch toward his lightsaber. Then his gaze flickered to fixate on something above her, and his eye widened.
"Move!" Anakin bellowed.
A powerful Force blow caught Ahsoka's chest and she found herself flying sideways across the chamber. The back of her head hit the wall, and her last sight before everything faded to black was of Anakin being buried alive.
It was cold. Cold and hard. She was lying on her back, it seemed. But where?
Still too dizzy to open her eyes, Ahsoka curled fingertips, only to find that they were the only part of her body she still had control over. As for the rest of her limbs, they felt like someone had weighted them down with lead. Her left arm was stiff and stinging. Her head was impossibly heavy, and thick mist clouded her mind as Ahsoka attempted to place herself. Where was she? What planet was this, in what part of the Galaxy? Why had she passed out? She fought through the fog until one word emerged from the haze to trigger an avalanche: Malachor.
The Sith temple, Kanan and Ezra, the holocron, Maul, the Inquisitors. Vader.
Anakin!
The thought jolted her fully back to awareness, and she forced herself to sit up, ignoring the throbbing behind her forehead and the burning on her arm. Ahsoka groped around for her lightsabers. Upon finding them, she struggled to her feet and ignited one white blade to provide herself with a bit more light so she could assess the situation.
It was far worse than she could have imagined. On the spot Anakin had been kneeling, there was now a wall of debris rising to the ceiling.
There was no way he could have survived it. There should be no way. Yet, when Ahsoka reached out through the Force, her presence brushed against his as he clung to life below the rubble.
For a haunting second, Ahsoka entertained the idea of simply leaving him there to be buried in that forsaken temple. He deserved to die. He deserved her hate. He had taken more Jedi lives than she could count on both hands, and Ahsoka could make sure that his killing spree ended right there, right then. It was as though the very temple whispered into her ears, singing to her of the greatness that awaited once the Galaxy knew that she had slain Darth Vader. But from the depths of her mind, Anakin's voice rang with words from years and years before, from the Halls of Healing in the Jedi temple. Your job is to save as many lives as you can.
"I'll get you out of here," she practically yelled, partly for him to hear, but mostly to herself.
Ahsoka knelt down next to the wall of rubble and closed her eyes, placing the still ignited lightsaber on the ground by her side.
At first all she could focus on was the pain, hers and Anakin's alike. On the nameless agony of being crushed and cut and burnt and suffocated. On the loss, grief, fear, and crushed hope.
There is no emotion, there is peace. She let the words sink into her until they dissolved into nothing but meaning, and Ahsoka and the rock were all that was.
She reached into it, feeling its strength, its weight, its almost proud resolve, and let herself be one with it, imbuing it with her Force presence, making it light, movable, humble. Piece by exhausting piece, the debris shifted away as she held up the stones and shuffled them into renewed balance to hold up the ceiling in a delicate and deadly puzzle. The stone fought back, demanding to be put down, threatening to crush and crumple whatever stood beneath it, but Ahsoka resisted, stealing its pride to herself even as her back hunched forward and her nails dug into the palms of her hand until they bled.
The pain was all consuming, blurring her vision and numbing her thoughts. But she couldn't give in. She had to save Anakin.
As the last stone found its place, forming a precarious pillar to hold up the ceiling, Ahsoka dared to finally look.
Vader's yellow glare met her. He had managed to push himself up to awkwardly sit on his side, and his newly freed hand was tightly fisted around the smashed hilt of his lightsaber. Somehow his suit had withstood the weight of a thousand rocks collapsing onto him. A spark went off from the half-shattered case on the chest area of his suit, and the Force jolted with his pain.
It was as though black ink leaked into Ahsoka's eyes, leaving dark patches into her sight. Cold sweat bathed the back of her neck, and her stomach stiffened and stung as she retched, spilling out all its content.
She was only mildly aware of Darth Vader's presence next to her as she heaved and gagged over a puddle of her own vomit, at least until he reached to push her lek away from her face. She froze under his touch, too stunned even to recoil, and he pulled away.
After a moment of silence, over which Ahsoka's stomach seemed to fall back into place, he was the first to speak.
"You survived."
Perplexion and the acid sores in her throat kept her silent. Did he mean she survived Order 66? That she survived their duel? Or that she survived the ceiling collapsing? Was it joy that she sensed arising from him? Ahsoka cleared her throat.
"We'd better get out of here." Her voice came out hoarse and weak. "Can you stand?"
She quickly found that one of his legs was awkwardly bent to the side, and was probably rendered useless. But it didn't seem to hurt. The notion glided around in her head until the pieces fit together with a pang of sorrow. A prosthetic. Anakin had lost a leg.
His gaze followed hers, and his joy withdrew, replaced by hostility.
"Leave it," he said, his voice raspy behind the broken mask.
"What happened to…" she began
"I said leave it," he repeated, and she discovered that he did not need a fully functioning voice box to sound menacing.
"Alright, alright," she grumbled. Perhaps it was best to ask questions later, after they'd found an exit from that cursed place. "Can you sense a way out?"
Vader hesitated, then stretched out an arm. After a couple instants, he pointed a bit to their left.
"There are fewer obstacles in that direction."
Ahsoka looked at the wall he was pointing at. It was about ten metres away — an easy jump even in her condition, if she didn't have to carry Anakin.
"Alright," she repeated, squatting up next to him to wrap his arm around her shoulders, then filled her lungs with air until they felt like they would explode, and released it all at once as she pushed herself to her feet with a groan.
Saying that he was heavy would be the understatement of the century; just standing up required all her strength. Vader did his best to support himself on his working leg, but the broken prosthetic dragged behind, rendered entirely useless. At least it hadn't been his flesh leg that was crushed, or Ahsoka might have had to perform an impromptu amputation, and – if the puddle of vomit a few steps behind was any indication – she might not have the stomach for it.
Ahsoka took a tentative step forward, but her ankle threatened to sprain and send them both tumbling back to the ground. Next to her, Vader's broken respirator increased its rhythm to keep up with his effort to keep himself steady, but even then her legs would have buckled under the weight if she didn' rely on the Force to keep standing.
Gritting her teeth, she channelled her focus further down to her legs and back muscles and took another step. This time her foot stood the weight, so she went for another one, and another.
"Couldn't you have made this thing a little heavier?" She panted, her voice loaded with sarcasm. "Just so that I would really not stand a chance here."
They took a few more steps in uncomfortable silence before he answered.
"I did not have a say in the matter."
She hadn't really expected him to say anything, and wasn't sure if it was good or not that he did. It was odd that Anakin would choose, or even accept, not being the one to design his own suit, but given how he had reacted to her just looking at his prosthetic leg, it was probably better not to press the matter.
They reached the wall after what must have been a couple of standard minutes, but felt like hours, and were presented with yet another issue.
Her left arm was swollen and half numbed at the shoulder. The adrenaline that had been keeping it at work had begun to wear out, and now it hung close to useless at her side. There was no way she could hold a lightsaber firmly enough, let alone use it.
"I have to put you down," said Ahsoka.
"Why?"
"I can't cut our way through while holding you."
Between one wheeze and the next, Vader made a scornful noise.
"Give me your lightsaber."
"Nice try," she scoffed. Giving him a weapon sounded like an awfully good way to get herself killed, or to become a hostage and live only long enough to be tortured for names and locations. "Now hold on to the wall."
His arm tightened around her shoulder instead.
"It will only delay us. Give me your lightsaber."
"Not a chance." She tried to unwrap herself from him, but found that she was trapped in his iron grip.
"You will not trick me into allowing you to escape."
Ahsoka ceased struggling and suppressed a sigh. This was so typical of Anakin, always afraid of being left behind. She had chosen to let the temple collapse over her head rather than leave him again, moved hell and earth to save his life when she could well have walked away, and still he doubted her intentions.
"How many times do I have to say it?" She muttered. "I won't leave you."
Against her better judgement, Ahsoka unclipped one lightsaber from her belt and handed it to him. He slouched against her, almost enough for her to drop, and eased his grip on her shoulder.
Vader ignited the lightsaber and held it out in front of him. Ahsoka's hand inched down to her other sabre, knowing full well that her injured arm couldn't take one of his blows. It would be foolish to kill his only means to get out of the Temple, but Anakin had always been unpredictable; he could decide that killing her and attempting to fix his leg was the way to go, or that the journey ahead would be more comfortable for him if he held a blade to Ahsoka's neck at all times. Who knew.
After what could have been an eternity, he thrusted the blade into the wall. The stone was as thick as a blast door, it seemed, judging by how long it took him to draw a wide enough arch for them to fit in.
Once he was done, Vader stretched out his hand, still holding her lightsaber. The Force strained around him, but the wall stood unmoved. His respirator increased its rhythm again, and Ahsoka looked up to see that his eye was squeezed shut.
A raspy groan escaped him, and for a moment the chamber burned with his power, stinging Ahsoka's heart with the familiarity of his Force-presence, albeit cold and dark where it used to be bright and warm.
Finally, the rock rumbled as it moved back and allowed them to squeeze through, Ahsoka half guiding and half dragging Anakin behind her until the arch widened into a spacious cave. Anakin held her lightsaber above their heads to cast as much light as possible into the darkness ahead, revealing a fairly clear path with only thick, pillar-like stalactites to pose as potential obstacles.
Ahsoka took a deep inhale of the stale air before they resumed the painfully slow paced journey. Right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot; she repeated it like a mantra.
His respirator was growing increasingly unsteady again, but there was little she could do about it other than minimally speeding up their pace, and even that carried the considerable risk that they could fall and further injure themselves, given how tiring her grip on the Force was proving to be. It was as though the very air was draining energy out of her; her body begged for mercy on each step, to let go of the excessive weight, but with each wave of pain Ahsoka only held Anakin tighter.
Ahead of them, a column of light cascaded down from a hole in the ceiling. It must be where Ezra fell through earlier, she thought. That would be their way out.
By then, Ahsoka's whole body was shaking, and beads of sweat stuck to her brow. Finally, her legs betrayed and mutinied against her, refusing to take another step.
"Why have you stopped?"
"I need a break," she groaned. "Hold on to the wall."
He hesitated for a moment, but eventually let go of her to awkwardly support himself against the wall, and she let herself collapse to the ground with her back against the rock, not completely unaware that Vader still had her lightsaber and all the advantages he could ask for at that moment, but finding that she lacked the willpower to do anything about it. Besides, she didn't sense much hostility coming from him, or at least not as much as earlier. A moment later, he switched off her lightsaber, leaving only the hole in the ceiling to illuminate the cave.
Ahsoka stared up at the light. It seemed impossibly distant. Her legs hurt so much, and her arm was stinging madly now. Could she even stand up again?
Meanwhile the wheels in her head turned in search of a plan, Vader slid down the wall to sit next to her. His respirator made an alarming high pitched noise, but the raspy mechanical breathing soon fell back into rhythm.
"I think," she whispered, and he turned slightly at her, just enough so that she could see some of his unmasked face. "There's a fair chance that we'll both die in here."
Vader was quiet for so long she thought he might not have heard her, or at least chosen to ignore her. She didn't think it was exactly acceptance that kept him silent – Sith weren't known for how well they took the idea of death –, but she wondered if he had also somewhat expected this outcome when they engaged in their duel.
"This place weakens you."
There was a strange familiarity in his tone, a mixture of teaching and comforting, but she elected not to acknowledge it.
"Yeah, I know," she answered.
Indeed, it was like the very stones were eating away her energy. Her use of the Force wouldn't normally feel so taxing.
"It could strengthen you."
She rolled her eyes in a way only Anakin could make her.
"Let me guess, all I need to do is use the Dark Side," she used every bit of sarcasm she had once learned from Obi-Wan.
"The Dark Side is the only path – " his respirator failed again mid-sentence, leaving him to gasp for air for several seconds before he could finish speaking. "To true power."
A surge of anger ran up Ahsoka's spine, heating up her head, and she closed her hands into fists. Then she took a deep breath and relaxed them again. There was nothing she wanted more than to grab him by his shoulders and shake some sense into him, but she couldn't afford to spend energy in another fight. What good would it do, anyway? He was stuck to a machine, shattered probably beyond repair, and the thought of how restless Anakin used to get whenever he felt cramped, or even when he had to spend longer than a day in the Halls of Healing, broke Ahsoka's heart.
"Look what true power has gotten you," she muttered.
His answer came as short and efficient as one of his lightsaber strikes.
"I could still kill you."
She laughed through her nose.
"Don't flatter yourself, a porg could probably kill me right now."
The Force shimmered around them, spreading out its tendrils and pulsating with dim light, and Ahsoka sensed a flicker of warmth within him. If she didn't know better, she would swear he came dangerously close to a chuckle before he hardened his shields again, and the shimmer receded back into the chill of his Force signature.
"You are under the illusion that carrying me out of this cave will bring your old master back," he said, leaving her to wonder what that was meant to achieve. Shouldn't he be leading her on, giving her hope so she would feel more tempted to carry him out instead of abandoning him?
"I know what you have become." She attempted to meet his eye, but he was looking away. "And I know there's no way to undo this. But don't ask me to pretend that you are someone else, Anakin."
That did the trick. He turned to glare at her, and the Force rumbled around him.
"Anakin Skywalker is dead." He uttered with all the gravity his broken vocoder could still provide.
The words sank into Ahsoka like a spear, taking her back fifteen years, to the commanding bridge of a cruiser on its way back to Coruscant, when a sudden ache had exploded in her, tearing her heart and soul, and an unexplained lump in her throat choked her. At that moment she knew, she just knew, that Anakin was gone. There was no name for the pain she had felt at that moment, and there was still no name for the pain of sitting next to him right now, knowing what he'd become.
"I thought you were," her voice was barely a whisper as her mind trailed a bridge between past and presence, barely aware of the rage that radiated from him. "And I missed you so, so much."
Fifteen years had gone by since she had missed her last opportunity to say that. Would it have made any difference, if instead of wishing him good luck before he left to save Palpatine, Ahsoka had hugged him and promised to be around more once she returned from Mandalore? Part of her knew that there were deeper reasons for his Fall – Maul had said as much, at least – but she couldn't shake off the voice she heard in the temple on Lothal: where were you, when I needed you?
"I won't leave you again," she promised. "Even if you do decide to kill me."
His burst of rage was suddenly extinguished, snuffled out by the weight of her words. Ahsoka could feel him reaching out and pulling back in the Force, but uncertainty held him back every time. Still, if she closed her eyes and opened herself to him, she could feel the distant resonance of something she had long thought to be dead, as though someone had used the wrong wiring to finish a circuit, allowing only a limited amount of power to flow, but it was there. Their bond. The sacred line that linked them as Master and Padawan.
Tears pooled in Ahsoka's eyes and she relished in the feeling of completeness it brought. It was unnatural for her to be alone after growing up surrounded by the light of ten thousand Force-sensitives, whose presence comforted her in her meditations even once she walked away from the Order. Having them cut off from her was an unfamiliar, constant ache that still troubled her even after so many years on her own. Now, despite the darkness that clouded Anakin's presence, feeling him was a soothing lullaby.
Ahsoka was ripped from her thoughts by the sudden high pitched crackle of a lightsaber and her right hand darted instinctively to her belt before she regained a sense of her surroundings and relaxed.
Her blade gave off a slow hum as Vader held it up and made slight movements in the air. He lightly tossed the weapon from one hand to the other, and ran one gloved finger down the markings of the thin handle. The Force had gone still, and the familiarity of it sent another wave of joy pulsing through her. Ahsoka had seen Anakin like that a million times in their shared quarters in the Jedi temple, taking things apart to put them back together, or building mini droids out of scrap pieces. Those were the only times when the Force went completely quiet around him.
"The blade is white." His manufactured steady tone couldn't quite hide a hint of inquisitiveness.
"It used to be a Sith crystal," she explained, but only spiked his curiosity. "I healed it."
He switched off her lightsaber and handed it back to her. So holding her hostage seemed to be off the table for him.
"You have become powerful." His vocoder had failed entirely, and the proud remark came solely in Anakin's voice. Worst of all, Ahsoka's heart warmed up at her former master's approving tone. "You would make a fine addition to the Emperor's ranks."
Of course, he had to ruin the moment.
"I already make a fine addition to the Rebels' ranks," she said.
"The rebellion will soon be crushed. You would be wise to walk away while you can."
When had he become such a defeatist? They had beaten worse odds… At some point. Probably.
"Maybe I'm not wise," she said. Given that she was doing everything in her power to save a Sith, that was likely true.
"You were wise enough to walk away from the Jedi."
"It's not the same."
Ahsoka abruptly decided she had had enough of that wretched temple and rolled to sit on her hip and push herself back to her feet, immediately regretting it when she put her weight on her injured arm. Pain immediately overcame her, and a yelp escaped her lips. A strong hand caught her right shoulder and pushed her up, helping her regain balance without the aid of her left arm. The touch felt so out of place that Ahsoka was ready to believe Kanan and Ezra had somehow come back for her and materialised inside the cave. It was only after she looked down and saw the gloved hand gripping her arm and the golden eye staring at her that she understood it had been Anakin holding her. His eye trailed down her shoulder to see the bloody and blackened mark his lightsaber had left on her.
"Does it hurt?" He asked with an incongruous amount of concern.
You hit me with a lightsaber, of course it kriffing hurts, Ahsoka wanted to yell, but held back.
"I will be fine," she said instead. "Come on, we have to get out of here."
Of course, it was easier said than done. Jumping back through the hole while carrying Anakin was certainly out of the question. It would be quite a feat in her best days, let alone now. But there were plenty of loose rocks around, some large enough for both of them to sit on.
"Those could serve as a lift," he said, pointing at the rocks. Apparently, he was more attuned to her than she had realised.
"Yeah," she agreed, and turned back to him and offered her hand. "Come on, Skyguy."
The way he froze and widened his eye, as if hit by a stun blaster, certainly mirrored herself. His old nickname had rolled down her tongue so naturally she hadn't even thought of it until it was out there. She braced herself for another burst of anger, but the only sound coming from Anakin was the irregular wheeze of his respirator. His gaze was locked on hers, not as much glaring at her as simply looking, perhaps sharing the same memories that flooded her mind. You are stuck with me, Skyguy, she had told him when they first met. It was not supposed to end like this.
His hand hovered close to hers for a while, held back by hesitation and uncertainty. Finally, his fingers wrapped around hers and she pulled him to his feet.
His weight fell onto her again, and they resumed the laborious walk to the large rock that sat right beneath the opening to the planet's surface.
The silence that accompanied them wasn't at all uncomfortable, although it was thick with unspoken words.
"I'm going to put you down again," she announced. It had only taken a few steps for them to reach their destination, but she was out of breath, and her head hurt.
Anakin was not looking good either. He dropped onto the stone like a sack of meilooruns, almost falling on his back before Ahsoka pulled him to sit straight, and his respirator hissed rapidly and out of rhythm.
"How much longer do you think your respirator will last?" She asked.
His lack of response was all the answer she needed to confirm her worst fears. Time was running out.
"I don't think I can lift this rock alone," she admitted, measuring it with her eyes. It wasn't overly thick, but sturdy enough to hold their weight, and its gently edged surface was wide enough to accommodate them both.
"It will take our combined strengths," Anakin agreed, and Ahsoka knew it was the closest he would get to admitting he was in no condition to lift the stone on his own either.
Ahsoka lowered herself to sit next to him on the stone and raised her hand to grip the shoulder plate of Anakin's armour, earning herself yet another glare from him. She didn't sense anger as much as disapproval, as though she had failed to execute a very basic Shii-cho movement.
"I trust that you don't truly need to degrade yourself with such initiate techniques to commune with others in the Force."
"We don't have time for multiple attempts here," she snapped back at him.
A few low wheezes and a dangerously long second of silence went by before Anakin answered.
"Suit yourself."
His voice was choked, and Ahsoka tightened her grip on his shoulder plate.
Ahsoka closed her eyes and relaxed her body. Breathe in, breathe out. The Force in the Sith temple was stale and cold, its ice claws threatening to overpower Ahsoka, to bend her will and break her spirit. Next to her, Vader's presence was overwhelming, a whirlwind of sheer power even in his weakened condition, and Ahsoka had to use all her concentration not to not lose herself in the painful icy burn of their point of contact, where her light and his darkness crashed together and battled for dominance, roaring and seething and smoking. Breathe in, breathe out. The Force was much broader than the Dark Side, she knew – all aspects could often be found within the same place, the same particle even –, and Ahsoka drew on the Light, trusting it to shield her from the darkness she had blindly leaped into. Her fingertips twitched with the tingling warmth of the Force as it lit the cave, timid at first, faint next to the all-consuming darkness, but Ahsoka kept breathing into it, feeding it until she could easily sense every stone that had been invisible to her open eyes. Soon she was no longer aware of her breathing, only of the gentle humming of the Force as it danced through her body, flowing into her, through her, and into Anakin, weaving her essence into his and easing the stormy combat of their signatures until they were one tightly woven fabric. Ahsoka was now part of the whirlwind, a conduit of light amidst his chaos, and she shivered when Anakin channelled their combined power down to the rock with a thunderous command: upward.
The rock lifted, hovering lightly over the ground at first, but gathering speed rapidly as it carried them up to the planet surface. As they climbed, the novelty of their collaboration gave way to a quieter, more familiar sense of unity. Ahsoka didn't need to concentrate as much now to feel their bond, and through it she could lightly brush away the layer of Anakin's power and peer into him. She could feel the pain in his lungs, the numbness of his legs, but beyond that, beyond even the pit of darkness Ahsoka didn't dare look into, she sensed something akin to joy. And she could feel when something in him snapped, tearing the fabric they had weaved together with a painful shock just as the rock shot out of the hole and onto the surface.
Lost in the trance as she had been, Ahsoka hadn't heard when Anakin's respirator failed entirely until her eyes flew back open on impact and saw him lying on his back, gasping and heaving for air, but without the aid of the machine his lungs were utterly useless. Through what was left of their connection, Ahsoka could feel how his blood boiled, pleading for oxygen, and how his lungs burned as though he'd inhaled incandescent air.
She darted to his side again, kneeling next to him to place a reassuring hand on his shoulder plate as she scanned their surroundings to search for anything that could save him, and found a capsized TIE-fighter.
Ahsoka didn't bother making Anakin stand again. She knew he lacked the strength to do so, and time was of the essence. Determination surged within her as she bent down and gripped his arms, mustering every ounce of her remaining energy. With a grunt, she lifted his upper back, and began to drag him along the ground towards the ship.
Each step felt like an eternity, the weight of Anakin's body pulling her down as his eyes remained locked on hers in an unreadable expression.
"Don't you dare die on me, Skyguy," she grunted between her gritted teeth.
The distance to the TIE-fighter seemed to stretch out endlessly ahead of them, and Ahsoka's body protested against each and every step. The strain on her muscles was immense, and exhaustion threatened to consume her. Yet she pushed forward, fueled by urgency and fear.
Finally, they reached the ship, and Ahsoka carefully manoeuvred Anakin to push him up into the cockpit, summoning the Force once again to aid her, and jumped in after him.
The panel would be unreadable to most non-Imperials, but Ahsoka had had to deal with a fair share of TIE's – particularly on sabotage missions –, so setting it straight and taking off was less of a challenge than she originally expected, especially considering that this particular ship was heavily modified to the point that it included both a life support system and a hyperdrive. She then punched in the coordinates back to Atollon and turned her attention back to Anakin.
He lacked the strength to gasp now, and his breathing was laboured, growing weaker by the second.
Ahsoka knelt down next to him to remove his helmet, and her heart clenched at the sight of what his mask had been hiding. His skin was pale, almost translucent, and his golden hair was gone, replaced by deforming scars.
Pushing down the shock, Ahsoka gently placed the ship's built-in oxygen mask around his face in hopes that it would provide him some relief and buy them more time, but it seemed to do very little, if anything, to aid his failing body.
"I don't know what else to do." Despair choked her, and tears stung the back of her eyes.
Anakin's right hand reached out to touch her cheek and she wrapped her fingers around his, bathing his glove with her tears. It wasn't fair. Not after they had been through hell. Not when she had come so close to getting him back. He weekly squeezed her hand, but his grip soon fell limp as he drew one last, painful breath.
The Force cried out in anguish, weeping the loss of the Chosen One, and grief yet unknown to her strangled Ahsoka's heart, so tight she bent herself in half to try and hold on to whatever was being wrenched from within her. Unsaid words and missed chances spilled out in unarticulated sobs, and cradling his hand against her face did nothing but worsen the sickening feeling of his life force withering and leaving.
But not all of it. Not yet.