Chapter 1 - Framing
Plot: Vader, now Anakin, survives the Death Star, but his fight is still far from over. There's something wrong with Luke, something growing steadily darker about him that Anakin doesn't understand. And when Anakin is arrested on false charges of treason against the new Republic, after attacks by his former apprentice, Starkiller, he begins to question what's really happening behind the scenes.
Author's Note: I feel like I didn't do the plot of this that well, but hopefully no one else thinks so? xD Or at least hopefully it's still enjoyable...
I was trying to do an arc of how Anakin would get from what I think his mental state was at the end of ROTJ to how he was in the Ahsoka series. Hopefully it makes sense...
Also RIP Rex, the Bad Batch, Han, and Ezra who were supposed to be important but were so unimportant that no one would notice if they were missing from the fic entirely. D:
This is a gift for Padawan_Of_Ahsoka_Tano on ao3.
~ Amina Gila
Metal screeches over Anakin's head, as he adjusts the connections in the hull of the ship he's underneath. There's hardly even room to move down here, where he's lying on his back working, but the sheer freedom of being able to move that freely again enough that he can climb under a ship in the first place is enough to take his breath away.
It's been over twenty years since he was last able to do this. It's been over twenty years since he was able to feel the air against his face or to feel anything at all.
Anakin's hand clenches involuntarily around the tool he's holding – the sensation isn't nearly as real as a human hand, but it's been so long since he's felt anything at all, he's just grateful he even has this much.
Luke had all of his prosthetics replaced, and almost everything about his life support was changed, after the Death Star. He's still full of mechanical parts and it will never be the same again, but for the most part, it's not something that he needs to think about anymore. Not something that constantly haunts every moment of his existence, the way it always used to. He still has a respirator installed in his neck, but it doesn't make a fraction of the amount of noise his old one did.
He forgot there was a time the world could be so quiet.
Sometimes, Anakin still sits in silence just to marvel at it, even if it's been almost a year since the Death Star. It doesn't feel like that long, though, for how much of that time he spent unconscious. Recovering after the Death Star took... a long time.
Anakin still doesn't understand how it's possible that he's so free of the machines that defined his life for so long. Luke had handled most of it, and Anakin never really pressed for details, but he wonders sometimes because for all that Sidious has lied to him, he doesn't know if it could've been that far. The Sith Master claimed there was no medical treatment better than what he was getting. Not that that means anything.
A familiar swell of bitterness, betrayal, and anger rises the moment he remembers the Sith, remembers their final moments of the agony of the lightning crackling across his body, of –
"Who would choose the Chosen One, and why would they not choose another?"
"You are but a tool that can be discarded when it no longer functions."
No, now is not the time to get lost in thoughts of him. Sidious is gone.
Anakin tries to let go of the emotions anyway the moment they come, because he's light now, and he can't – He can't let himself start to slip again, for any reason. Doesn't trust himself enough to know what will happen if he does, if he loses control of himself again.
He turns his attention back to the ship he's tinkering with in his spare time, trying to distract himself before he starts spiraling.
"Sabine?" Anakin calls, shifting on the matted grass beneath him.
"Yeah?" the girl calls back, voice a distance away.
"Can you pass me the wrench?"
Boots rustle through the grass, growing closer from a distance away. "Sure." The Mandalorian's head appears in the space between the hull and the ground moments later, shoulder-length purple hair falling in her face. "Here."
Anakin takes it from her, gaze flicking back to the ship. He still finds it strange sometimes, to be working with other people again. As Vader, it was always those he was commanding or those who were above him. Who he served, as always. He never... had that sense of companionship with anyone, that he did a lifetime ago.
Sometimes, he doesn't think he realized how nearly unbearable that loneliness had been until things started... changing.
"Your comm's been beeping itself off the table in the ship," Sabine comments, eyeing him, "Were you expecting a call?"
Anakin perks up, nearly thwacking his head on the hull.
"Watch it," she advises, dryly.
It's still hard to remember he doesn't have a helmet anymore. "Who's calling?"
"Luke."
"I'm coming," he says, scooting out from under the ship, which is not far from Sabine's home on Lothal. He's visiting here in the time he has off from his... relatively new job in the Republic military.
Luke had been so excited at the idea of getting to fight alongside him.
Anakin... wanted to fix things, to make things better after everything he'd done, even if he... didn't want to fight. Not really. He doesn't want to hurt people anymore. He's done that enough. And he doesn't have to do that, to fight the way he is now, but it –
Not that it matters. What he wants isn't really what matters, especially when he hardly knows that himself. He wants to make things right and he – he wants to be the person Luke saw him as, and nothing else really matters. (Sometimes he wishes that wasn't true, that... The only one he knows he can follow is the Force, but he's always struggled with not having someone to follow, to obey, even if that makes him uncomfortable more than anything else now.)
And he feels far more content now – even if there are times he's still restless and just doesn't – than he has in so many years, and it's... it's nothing like it was with Sidious, so it's fine.
He heads onto the ship to pick up the comm that's still beeping on the table. Luke shouldn't be calling this urgently unless something's wrong.
He quells the small surge of disappointment he feels – he was hoping to spend the time off he has here with Ahsoka and by default, her new padawan Sabine, but whatever this is must be important.
"Father?" Luke asks when Anakin answers the call. His expression is grim, gaze unusually tight. "There's been a development I think you should hear about. It's not something that you need to handle, but it's... important."
"Go on," he requests.
"Someone's been attacking some Republic outposts in the Outer Rim. I know you've heard of that, but someone got footage of the last attack. It was someone wielding a lightsaber."
Anakin stills. The inquisitors are gone, as far as he's been aware. Unless –
"Can you show it to me?"
Luke nods, a certain dark edge to his gaze that... Anakin's seeing it on him more frequently and he doesn't know why. Something changed in the time Anakin was in a coma recovering, and he didn't really know what. It's not obvious enough that he can even ask about it either; it's more a feeling. It... worries him sometimes.
Luke shifts the hologram so it's displaying the footage.
None of it's clear, but Anakin can still make out the hooded figure with a mask. He's wearing a small amount of armor, but the design is way too familiar.
Anakin knows that armor, that mask.
It's –
Force.
He's been wondering what happened to him for so long, where he was.
"Send me everything you have on this... Imperial," Anakin replies, voice coming out more faintly than he intended for.
Luke nods, eyeing him. "Is everything alright?"
Anakin wordlessly shakes his head. "I'm going to look into this personally."
The boy perks up a little. "Is there anything I can help with?"
"It's alright. I'll handle it. Give me the information as soon as you can." He needs to know what's going on before he gets anyone else involved in this. He'd rather investigate it on his own, because...
Many reasons.
Because if this person is really Starkiller, his long lost second apprentice, he would rather look into it on his own, figure out what he's up to, before risking bringing the entire new Republic on the boy's tail.
Starkiller's path is... on him, and he's going to find him.
**w**
Sabine is sitting at the base of the ramp when he heads off the ship. There's something far away in her gaze as she gazes across Lothal's grassy plains,
He doesn't have to ask, to know what's on her mind. "Are you alright?" he asks, momentarily ignoring his own hammering heart, his... desperation to follow this lead and figure out what's happening. Sabine is family, too. She's Ahsoka's apprentice.
She looks up at him, expression tight. "Yeah."
Which means no. She just lost her family not long ago, when Mandalore was destroyed. And he knows that cutting grief far too well. He was lost in that too, for years. He can see clearly how much she's struggling but there's nothing anyone can do about it, except stay with her.
Anakin hadn't known anything about Mandalore until after it happened. At least he... hasn't hurt Sabine Though he nearly killed her once on Lothal, along with the rest of her family, but...
She used to be Imperial, too. She's just as well acquainted with bad choices as he is.
He touches her shoulder, for a moment, and she sighs quietly, leaning into it a little.
"Where's Ahsoka?"
Sabine glances up at him. "Meditating inside." She gestures for the ship. "Is something going on?"
"I have to go. I'll explain it to you both."
He heads back up the ramp to where he can sense Ahsoka in the ship – Sabine was probably in there too until his comm had interrupted her – and he opens the door. Ahsoka is seated on the floor meditating, but she blinks back to present a few seconds later of sensing him, looking up. "What's going on?" she asks, standing.
Sometimes, it's still jarring to see her so old. She's as tall as he is now.
They've been with each other for months now, and things with her have been by far the easiest, truly. If... he hadn't come back when he did, he doesn't know what would've happened with Ahsoka and Sabine. Sabine was struggling with the Dark Side, and Ahsoka was struggling with teaching her, afraid that she was going to Fall, and –
She couldn't let go of the fact that he'd Fallen, and her... own struggles over that.
But he and Ahsoka are together again, and it had been so long he never dreamed that could happen again. He has her back, and that's far more than he could've asked for. Maybe they don't spend nearly every waking moment together the way they did during the war, but they're still close, still together much of the time, and after years of loneliness, that's enough.
"I have to go. Something came up." He's never talked to anyone about Starkiller, except in passing. The boy was gone, and Anakin had no idea where to find him. And he doesn't generally talk about any of what happened while he was Vader.
"Anything I can help with?" Ahsoka inquires, crossing her arms.
He hesitates a moment. Ahsoka doesn't work directly for the Republic military the way Luke does – doing something unsanctioned won't get her in trouble. "One of the inquisitors I aided in training was... more of an apprentice than an inquisitor," Anakin begins, finally, "I... was training him to aid me in searching for Luke. Sidious suspected me of betrayal, so I sent him away so he would not be harmed. I did not know what became of him, until... now. There was footage of him attacking a Republic base. I must find him."
Guilt dully worms its way through him, thinking back to those days.
He... had picked Galen Marek – Starkiller – up in a difficult environment.
He was a slave, held prisoner in an arena where his owners forced him to fight animals because he could sloppily use the Force and they found it entertaining. Vader had taken him, trained him. And maybe he hadn't intended for him to be more than an inquisitor, but the boy was a child who desperately needed someone to raise him.
And Anakin had cared about him. There was no way he couldn't have, no matter how lost in the Dark Side he may have been then. So much of that was because he was so alone with no one, and Galen had... been the first to start changing that. And of course, Galen had cared about him.
But Anakin'd taught him to use his anger and hate to fuel him, and – everything Vader was that Anakin walked away from him. He'd taught him to be a Sith and that's something he has to make right. He has no idea why Galen is doing what he is or where he's been for the past one and a half years since he left, but he has to know.
"I didn't know you trained someone else that personally," Ahsoka muses. "You sure you don't want me to come? Whatever this is, you could use some help."
They don't often get to work together on a mission. How could he say no to that? "Alright," Anakin agrees, "If we can leave now."
"What'd we be waiting for, Skyguy?" Ahsoka asks, grinning for a moment.
"I suppose I'll be coming too," Sabine says, standing in the doorway.
She rarely leaves Lothal – it's her home and the place she promised her brother to protect. "If that's what you want," Anakin acknowledges.
"That's part of being a padawan, isn't it?" she asks, exchanging a momentary glance with Ahsoka.
"Well, come on, padawan. Let's get ready to go," Ahsoka advises.
**w**
The hyperspace ride to Galen's last sighting point is several hours but it feels like they're dragging by endlessly. He's used to being patient, but he's still finding it hard to feel that right now.
It – it was this fire that destroyed everything. He knows that. Knows... still doesn't trust himself to make the right choices, doesn't trust that he won't start slipping to the Dark Side again and be unable to pull back, but if he – tries to be what Luke wants, that won't happen. But on this, it's hard to feel... accepting about anything. Not about Galen. He has to find him, has to make that right.
"So, what was this second apprentice of yours like?" Sabine asks, dragging Anakin out of his thoughts. She and Ahsoka are in the cockpit together with him.
"Stubborn. Determined." He smiles faintly before the levity fades. "But he believed in the Empire, like I taught him." He still doesn't know what to think of the new Republic. It's not strong enough to protect the galaxy and keep it together, but it's not Anakin's place to do anything about that. That's not –
Fighting for the Republic is what Luke wanted of him. And it's – it's the only way he could help people.
Ahsoka lightly bonks his arm. "Hey, there wasn't much else you could've taught him at that point. I'm sure if there's anyone he'd listen to, it would be you."
"I... hope so." He doesn't know why Galen's doing what he's doing. He needs to talk to him first.
"I didn't know Sidious was suspecting you when you were looking for Luke," she comments off-handedly, and Anakin nearly freezes at the unexpectedness of that comment.
He looks away, forcing himself to breathe in and out, willing himself not to remember the flames burning far too close as he'd struggled to drag himself up Mustafar's shore for a second time. Even if he couldn't feel the fire then. Didn't mean it didn't throw him back into the moments it happened the first time so much he could almost – No, he doesn't want to think about any of that, even if it still... haunts him sometimes. Could never truly not.
"He... realized my intentions immediately. He was angry and he... did not react well." He looks away, forcing himself to breathe, trying not to remember the feel of the Force around his neck and Sidious' mocking words.
"How does it feel, Lord Vader? To be so weak? To know such fear?"
"Did he... hurt you?" she asks, tentatively.
He never talks about Sidious. Sometimes he wants to, but he – It's easier not to think about it at all. Anakin looks away. "Yes. He..." Not that he can begin to tell her that. It's not something she needs to know, either.
He still remembers the feel of flames crawling across him, and no. He's not going to start thinking about that right now.
"Anakin..." Ahsoka's voice yanks him out of his spiraling thoughts and he tries to focus on her, tries to stop thinking about it, but sometimes it's hard to make the memories stop. They never do.
"I shouldn't have brought it up," she says, lips pressing together.
"It's fine." Except that he can hardly breathe.
Which is stupid. Sidious isn't even here. He's gone. He can't hurt him anymore.
Anakin presses his hand against the arm of his seat, focusing on his ability to feel. The touch sensors in his new limbs allow that, at least.
Ahsoka moves forward abruptly, leaning closer to awkwardly wrap her arms around him. He breathes in sharply, the touch ground as he catches her, winding his arms tightly around her. "Sorry," she mutters.
It just makes him feel worse. She doesn't need to apologize to him for literally nothing. "It's fine," he assures roughly, lightly trailing a hand along her back lekku. The sensation isn't completely real, but he can still feel the lekku's fuzziness and it helps. Force, he's missed holding her.
"Sometimes I... I didn't realize it was so bad," she murmurs, "I wish I could've gotten you away from him sooner." He's told her a little of Sidious, but not much. It doesn't really matter. He's just glad to – to be free.
"It's not your fault," he promises fiercely, squeezing her tightly for a few moments before she pulls back.
"Anyone wanna play Dejarik?" Sabine interjects,
The suggested distraction is relieving. This isn't something he cares to dwell on anymore. It's enough that he's about to run into Galen again and he has no idea how that meeting is going to go down.
"Sure. Been a long time since I beat you, Skyguy."
He snorts. "Don't count me on beating me, Snips."
"I'll be looking forward to seeing who wins," Sabine smirks.
**w**
By the time they finally reach the planet, Luke's sent Anakin the rest of the information they have on the attacks. They don't have a very discernable pattern, and from inspecting them, he primarily just gets the feeling that it's intended to get attention.
Is it intended to get his attention? Anakin can't help wondering, but if Galen wanted him, he doesn't have to do it like this. Unless he's... angry. Angry that Anakin turned on everything he taught him, but he doesn't think Galen would do something like that. Still, he needs to be prepared for anything.
They get a sudden incoming transmission about two simultaneous attacks happening right now, just as they're flying down through the atmosphere.
Something about this is not right, but Anakin can't place what.
But he has an inkling of where he needs to go. He needs to get to the closest base where the attack is happening. Ahsoka and Sabine should be able to handle the other. When he reaches out with the Force, he can sense the faintest traces of Galen's Force presence here, and that hurts. He's... hurting people, killing people.
Just like Anakin taught him to do, as Vader. And he needs to make this right. It's not the boy's fault how he was raised. It's his and he has to find him. How he'll deal with how the new Republic will handle him is... something he's not sure of yet. First, he has to try to find him.
But they won't be able to stick together if they're hoping to track something down.
"You sure about this, Skyguy?" Ahsoka asks, arms crossed.
No. Something's wrong, but he can't place what. "You and Sabine need the experience of working together," he replies, because they really do, especially with all the difficulties they've been having lately.
Sabine's gaze darts between them, before she nods her agreement.
"We'll drop you off then," Ahsoka decides, flying the ship in low.
The base is already smoking, and he can feel the death in the Force. He moves to the ramp, and Ahsoka lingers a moment longer, watching him. He has no idea why that moment suddenly reminds him a little of when he ran into Ahsoka in that pipe over the underworld, right before she jumped. Right before... everything started falling apart after that.
It feels like something's about to go very wrong now too, and he doesn't know why, but he'll... be careful.
He doesn't have time to talk to them about it, though. He needs to search this place and they need to get to the other base a distance away before it's too late.
**w**
By the time Anakin gets on the ground, the Republic troops scrambling around the outskirts say that the attack is already over, or at least that they can't locate any more attackers in the vicinity. If it was Galen again, no one's quite sure.
They're still trying to lock down the perimeter, but they already swept the building and didn't find anything else. Anakin doesn't have time to wait for them, though. He has to track what he's sensing.
But when Anakin enters the building, he can sense faint lingering traces of Galen's Force presence, but it doesn't exactly feel like he was just here. This is where the last attack happened too, after all. Maybe he was here before. Right now, all he can feel is the echoes of death on the walls, and there's something –
There's something else here, calling to him. It feels like a Kyber crystal, and more than that, one that's familiar to him. One that was once his, but it's crying, the way it always did as Vader.
That's... strange. The lightsaber he has now is one he made after he recovered. It's blue again. He thought Luke had taken the lightsaber when they were leaving the Death Star, but then he never saw it again, and it had slipped his mind to even ask about it. But if Luke did have it, there's no reason he wouldn't have given it to him. But he has to know what the crystal is doing here in the first place, so he keeps moving forward.
The feeling is coming from an empty room, and he's just stepping inside when the Force suddenly screams in warning. He throws up a Force shield around him – unable to scramble out of the way in time – as a blinding explosion goes off.
Anakin lands on his back on the opposite side of the room, thrown from the sheer force of it. It's the heat of the fire, the sheer familiarity of it, that jars him so much. As Vader, he could never feel fire. But now he can.
Mustafar is burning furiously in mind and he can't shake the memory of agony of the flames crawling across him, of –
Focus.
The room is collapsing around him, and he can feel a piece of durasteel cutting into his side, but it's not bad. Thanks to his metal limbs he's able to shake himself off easily enough, slowly standing. He's... relatively uninjured, aside from bruises – which is hardly a concern – but the explosive was obviously planted here intentionally.
How did no one detect it when they initially searched the base after it was attacked? They said they already did that.
Unless –
He's momentarily distracted when his eyes fall on something glimmering from the glowing flames that are starting to die out. Anakin calls it to his hands – it's definitely a lightsaber.
His former lightsaber when he was Vader, and he has no idea how it ended up here. That doesn't make any sense.
Approaching footsteps ring out down the hall, and Anakin looks up sharply to see a group of Republic troops approaching, blasters raised.
"Search the – " he begins.
"It's him," the officer in front barks, and they open fire.
Anakin ignites the lightsaber instinctively, wincing at the red blade that springs to life. It feels wrong to be using it again, but he doesn't have the mental space to worry about that right now. He's trying to focus on deflecting the shots away, but the troops aren't stopping. He's trying not to kill them because he doesn't want to do that anymore, to – to do what he always did before, but it's getting increasingly difficult.
And then one of the shots strays, hitting one of the troops in the chest. He feels it as the life blinks out, and it hurts.
He never can seem to... to stop. That destruction and death follow him everywhere, no matter what he does.
Anakin lashes out, Force-throwing them into the wall away from him, forcing them to drop their blasters.
"What are you doing?" he demands.
"You're a traitor," the commanding officer snaps, "Stand down."
"I am not the one who did this. I'm here to investigate," he replies, eyes narrowed. There's something about all of them that isn't quite right, even if he can't figure out what it is.
"The entire base was clear of explosives. Until now. And you've already attacked Republic troops."
Attacked them? They attacked him. Even if that doesn't stop the swell of guilt that's flooding him, because he just killed someone again. He wasn't supposed to do that anymore, but he just did. It's not the first time it's happened either, but that doesn't make it any easier. Doesn't mean... He can't trust himself anymore – not that he ever did – to make the choice of... of how far he should go in anything. Can't let himself start slipping towards the Dark Side again. And killing someone is only a choice the Force gets to make. He always did it because of orders, to the point it was just... a mindless acceptance that it's what he had to do. But he can't do that anymore. Even if Luke doesn't consider that as being dark if the person isn't considered innocent.
"I did not – "
"If you're not responsible for this, then stop resisting and we'll take it to higher command," the officer replies, sharply.
He doesn't even have the rank to do this.
Then again, if they're accusing Anakin of treason, he technically does. It still doesn't make sense that this lightsaber is here somehow.
This reminds him way too much of when Ahsoka was accused of killing Letta. It's a set-up. There's no question of that. He just doesn't know who's doing it. But he's not going to make the mistake of trying to resist like she did and make everything worse. Not... He'll take this chance, even if he doesn't know if it's the best idea.
"Alright," Anakin concedes, even if he has a very bad feeling about this, "We'll take this to Republic authorities."
He deactivates the lightsaber, passing that and his new one to the troops who approach. They seem wary about it, but they still snap restraints on his wrists. He lets them lead him out of there, unable to help thinking that... along series of things, including coming here, is both a set-up and a mistake.
Final Notes: Reviews are always appreciated! ^-^
Come hang out on Discord (delete spaces), discord . gg / nqSxuz2 or find us on tumblr at fanfictasia (our more serious blog which does have controversial posts on it; I won't be offended if you choose to block it, promise), and disastertriowriting (which is our fun blog with crack posts or incorrect SW quotes)
We've got a YT channel for tributes! (delete the spaces) youtube channel / UC_g1M5rSCxJUzQCRS29B6pA
ALSO: We have SW gift request forms for General, Anakin-Clones-centric, and Bad Batch fics. :D (delete spaces) bit . ly / CourtesyTrefflinFicRequests