Chapter Text
Chapter 1
Coruscant, 20 BBY
The total darkness slowly gave way to light. At first, Luke could see nothing but a blinding light in front of him. Then came the pain. A dull, throbbing ache pulsed behind his eyes, spreading from the back of his skull to his temples. He drew a sharp breath and tried to move, but even that seemed to make the entire world spin. For several seconds, he remained still.
Something felt wrong in the Force. Not necessarily bad, but… unusual. Luke could feel it all around him, but it wasn't the usual small current he felt in his surroundings. It now seemed to vibrate through everything— the floor beneath him, the walls, the air. He could feel so much life, so much intensity in the Force that it felt unreal. For a second, he almost thought that he had died.
Until he opened his eyes. The room came into focus. They were still in the same room as before, only it looked different. Luke blinked, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. The shelves were still there, stretching in every direction, but the room no longer looked the way it had moments ago. The walls were cleaner, the shelves seemed newer, and the only lighting that the room now had was the dim green lighting that orned the shelves.
It was upon realizing that the room had no more lighting coming in from the outside that Luke saw that the opening in the wall where Han was leaning was now completely gone. In fact, there was no opening in the room at all. No way out. They were stuck inside.
Luke pushed himself upright. "Ugh." His head spun again.
A few feet away, Han was lying on his back. He groaned, rolled onto his side, and finally pushed himself to his feet. "What the hell just happened?"
Luke stared at him. "I have no idea."
Han looked around. His expression hardened. "Great."
To Luke's right, Leia was beginning to stir. She sat up slowly, one hand going to the side of her head. "Are you two alright?"
"I've got a terrible headache," Han muttered. He rubbed his forehead and looked around again. "What happened to the doorway?"
Luke followed his gaze to the now wall of metal that replaced the opening that had been here moments before.
Han was the first to get up. He approached the wall, and found a control panel there that definitely wasn't there earlier. "Well, let's see if this place has gotten any friendlier." He pressed one of the buttons. Something hummed, and the metal part of the wall which had replaced the opening— which Luke now realized was a door— slid aside, revealing a narrow hallway leading towards what appeared to be another durasteel door. Han smiled. "Well, that was easier than I thought." He stepped forward.
As he was about to make another step into the hallway, Luke felt a small, almost imperceptible ripple through the Force. His instincts reacted before his mind could. He reached out through the Force, and just as Han's foot was about to touch the ground in his next step, he was suddenly yanked backwards, back into the main room Luke and Leia were still sitting in. "What the—"
A brilliant red beam flashed across the hallway where his foot had been just half a second earlier. Then another appeared, and another, until the entire hallway was filled with a lattice of glowing red laser beams. If Han had stepped forward just a little further, he would've ended up dead.
Leia looked towards Luke. "Do you think we can shut it off?" Luke reached out through the Force. Nothing happened. He was hit with the same strange feeling that the Force was now completely different as it had been just this morning.
Han stood up from where he had been lying on the floor since Luke had pulled him back, and looked around the room one more time. He froze. "Wait a second."
"What?" Leia asked.
"It's gone."
"What is?"
"The glowing cube." Luke's eyes widened. The three of them all looked towards the spot where the artifact had been. There was nothing there. The glowing object was completely gone. There wasn't even a trace on the floor of what had felt like an explosion when they had touched it. Luke stared at the empty floor. He could still feel a fait impression of it in the Force.
He closed his eyes, trying to find… whatever it was that he was looking for. The coldness that had surrounded the Imperial Palace was still there, but now it was coated with something else. Something warm, something almost… happy. Luke frowned. This wasn't his happiness. The last thing he expected to feel right now was happiness. But this feeling felt distant, yet familiar. He couldn't explain it at all.
"We have to find a way out of here," Leia said, standing up herself. "Any ideas?" Silence met her question. Luke looked towards the sealed doorway beyond the lasers. There had to be another way out. He reached out even further. Somewhere beneath the durasteel door and machinery, he could sense a simple purpose. Open.
Luke sat up straighter, crossing his legs. "You have got to be kidding me," Han said.
Luke opened his eyes and looked at him. "I'm going to meditate."
Han nodded incredulously. "He's going to meditate," he repeated while looking at Leia. "While we're trapped in a room with a death trap of a hallway."
Leia crossed her arms. "Do you want to try shooting the lasers instead and see what happens?" Han arched an eyebrow. "Right, then let him meditate."
The sounds of their bickering gradually faded in Luke's mind. He breathed slowly. He let his thought become still. Reaching out was more difficult now, as though the Force was now coated with a heavier weight than it had been before. He reached outwards. Past the floor, the walls, the machinery. He searched for the door, and found a faint connection, and followed it. The door didn't only have a mechanical lock— it was locked through the Force. He reached further. He had barely ever done something that required so much strength. But, after probing for a few more moments, he finally found it— a release to the door, hidden in the Force. He opened his eyes and stood.
Leia and Han looked at him. "Did you find something?"
"I think so." He stepped towards the hallway and raised his hand, pulling through the Force. Nothing happened. He concentrated more. The door remained closed. Luke gritted his teeth, curling his fingers, pushing and pulling harder, until the Force gathered around his had. The door trembled, and a low groan echoed through the room. Luke continued pushing. The door moved only an inch, then stopped. Luke's breathing became heavier. He could feel that the mechanism was resisting him, and it was way stronger than he had expected. The door groaned again. He focused harder. The Force surged through him. The circular door shuddered violently. For one moment, nothing happened. Then, with a deafening metallic screech, the door began sliding sideways.
The instant the door cleared the threshold, every laser in the hallway vanished. The sudden silence was almost disturbing.
Han looked from the empty hallway to Luke, then to the hallway again. "Well, I take back every bad thing I've ever said about Jedi."
Luke's arm trembled. He had never felt the Force resist him like that before. He knew that if he broke the connection, the door would close, and they would be trapped again. "Go," he whispered. "Get to the door before it closes."
Han took Leia's hand and they hurried through the hallway. Luke slowly opened his eyes, and followed them. Upon taking a few steps, his connection to the door abruptly weakened. The door began sliding shut again. Luke stumbled forward, losing his momentum in the Force. He hurriedly reached out again, but the Force didn't answer. So he ran through the hallway instead, and lunged forward as the door was shut three quarters of the way. One moment, his body was halfway through, and the other, the door slammed shut behind him with a hiss. He fell hard onto the floor outside of the chamber. He rolled onto his back, gasping for air.
Han crouched beside him, helping him sit up. "You alright?"
He took another breath before responding. "Yeah. I just… lost the connection somehow." Han offered him a hand and hauled him to his feet. For a few moments, none of them spoke.
The place they were now standing in looked nothing like the archives they had left behind before finding the artifact. The shelves were full now, filled with thousands of holobooks, datapads, scrolls, and any informational type of document Luke could think of. Light poured in from the large windows. The most noticeable change, though, were the dozens of desks and chairs scattered throughout the vast chamber. Each one contained an interface built directly into it, and some displayed lines of text, others diagrams, maps, or star charts.
Luke then focused on the farther areas of the room. While the desks next to them were empty, the ones at the far ends of the chamber seemed otherwise be occupied by… actual people. There were children at the table. Luke blinked, thinking he was hallucinating. The three figures were still there— a human girl, a Twi'lek boy, and a young Wookiee. "There are people here," Luke whispered, before realizing that Han and Leia had walked further into a corner, behind some shelves, unable to see what he was just seeing.
"People?" Leia asked. "That can't be, Mon told me access to this place was strictly forbidden, and that we were the only ones allowed."
"I'm telling you, I just saw—"
"Hey!" A voice echoed through the aisle they were standing in. All three turned towards the end of the aisle, where a young girl stepped into view, carrying a box filled with holobooks.
She was a Togruta, and a seemingly young one as well— perhaps a teenager, only a few years younger than Luke, though something in the way she carried herself suggested far more life experience than one of someone her age. Her blue-and-white montrals framed her faace, while white facial markings contrasted sharply against her orange skin and bright blue eyes, blue eyes that were now fixed on the three of them. She kept staring at them, then her gaze went to the sealed doorway they had just left through.
Luke glanced at Leia. His sister looked just as confused as he was. The girl shifted the box in her arms. "Were you just trying to enter the vault?" Han raised an eyebrow. She frowned. "You know access is forbidden to anyone who isn't a Master."
Master? Luke thought. That had only been a term used for slavers— which was highly unlikely as slavery had been long abolished on Coruscant— or the highest individuals of the Jedi Order… before the Empire, and the great Jedi Purge, which was decades ago. So why was this girl talking to them as if Jedi Masters existing was obvious?
Luke's stomach tightened. The girl was either ignorant of his distress, or didn't care about it. "Who are you?" She asked before walking closer. Her eyes moved over them carefully. She was very clearly trained in reading people, and seemed very wary of who they were. "I've never seen you around here, and you aren't wearing any robes." Her eyes narrowed. "You can't be Knights, I'd have seen you before." Han looked at Luke. It was the most puzzled expression he had ever seen on his face. Luke understood the feeling.
He stepped forward. "What did you mean by the vault?"
She blinked. "What?"
"You said access to the vault was forbidden unless someone is a Master."
"Yes." She replied to his question as though he had just asked if the sky was blue.
Luke looked back at the door. "So… what is this?"
She paused before answering. Her expression was starting to match Han's. "It's the Master's vault."
Han threw his hands up in the air, standing up straight and walking up to Luke. "Great, that's really helpful." He pointed towards the durasteel door. "There wasn't even a door. Now there is a door." He gestured wildly. "We didn't even know this was a vault until we touched that… that glowing… cube thing— then we almost died, but we didn't die, and we ended up locked inside that— that vault where we found the glowing cube thing—" he pointed accusingly at Luke and Leia. "Even though I specifically told them not to touch it." Luke watched the Togruta's expression become increasingly bewildered. "Then I almost got killed by invisible lasers, and he"— he jabbed a finger in Luke's direction— "almost got chopped in half by the door that wasn't even there five minutes ago!" He turned back towards the girl. "And the only reason we got out, is because he used his… his Force Jedi tricks to open the door." Silence. The girl kept staring at him. Han slowly lowered his arms. "So… yeah." He took a deep breath.
The girl's expression was unreadable. She looked at Han, then Leia, then Luke, then at the door. Her gaze finally settled on Luke. "You used the Force to open that door?" Luke nodded. "And… it obeyed you?" He nodded again. She took a hesitant step towards him. "That's… impossible. That door is sealed, it can only be opened by a Master."
"Well… it did open at my command. Maybe something went wrong." She arched an eyebrow. He shrugged helplessly. "I don't know what happened." She stared at him for another long moment. He could feel her confusion in the Force.
Her gaze went up and down his body, and stopped at the hilt of his lightsaber, clipped to his tunic. Her expression changed. "Are you… a Knight?"
He looked down at his lightsaber. "No." Technically, he wasn't. Not in the way it usually had been, at least. He was the last Jedi alive, at least that was what Yoda had told him.
"Then what are you?" Luke opened his mouth. Nothing came out. What was he? A rebel? A pilot? A Jedi? The last Jedi? It seemed as though, for this girl, being a Jedi was just as normal as having an office job. "Who are you?" She specified this time.
He took a deep breath. "I'm Luke, and this is Han and Leia." He gestured towards his friends as he introduced them. "I'm not sure what happened, but, to be honest, we're as confused as you are." He paused. "We don't even understand where we are. At least, not exactly."
She set the box she was holding down on the floor. "You're in the Archives of the Jedi Temple. You just left the Holocron Vault, a vault magically sealed by the Force, that only Masters can enter. Which is why I am confused about how you got out— and how you got in."
"Holocron Vault?" Luke muttered.
"If you aren't Jedi— which I am also very confused about because you wield a lightsaber,— I don't even understand how you could've entered the Temple. The Temple Guards have always frowned upon outsiders, even more so now that security has been tightened." She paused.
Luke frowned. "So… this is the Jedi Temple?"
She blinked. "What else would it be?" She asked. He kept in mind that she thought of it as the Temple and not the Imperial Palace.
"Are… people trained to become Jedi here?"
She arched an eyebrow. "Did you hit your head on somehting? How did you get in here without knowing where you are, or why you're here? And what—"
"What about you?" Leia cuts in. Luke realizes it's the first time she's spoken since they'd met the girl. "Who are you?" The Togruta hesitated. Luke could feel her uncertainty in the Force— she was clearly trying to find out whether either of them had any malicious intent. "We aren't here to hurt anyone," Leia continued. "We just want to understand."
The girl sighed. "I'm Ahsoka. I'm a Padawan learner, and, right now, I've been tasked with helping Madame Jocasta to sort the newer additions to the Archives' library."
Han furrowed his eyebrows. "What's a… Padawan?"
Ahsoka, seemingly exasperated more than confused now, looked as though she'd been insulted. "Really?" All three nodded. "A Padawan is a Force-sensitive individual who is being trained to become a Jedi Knight by a specific Master. Before becoming a Padawan, you're a youngling, and as soon as you master the basic skills required to be allowed to become an actual student, you become a Padawan."
"So…" Luke started. "You have a Master?" She nodded. "And he can open this vault?"
Ahsoka shook her head. "My Master is technically only a Knight. He was a Padawan himself only three years ago. The rank of Master in the Order and Master of a Padawan isn't exactly the same thing, but, quite frankly, I barely understand the system myself, and I grew up here."
"Do you think he could tell us about strange, glowing artifacts?" Leia asked.
"I dunno. But... I suppose I could take you to him. Maybe he'll make a better sense of whatever is happening to you three."
She paused for a second before grabbing the box she had placed on the floor, deep in thought. She looked back towards Luke. "I'm gonna need that lightsaber of yours if I'm gonna trust you with anything."
Luke hesitated. Should he really trust this complete stranger with his most valuable weapon? He stared at her stretched out hand for a few seconds, his own prosthetic hovering over the lightsaber at his hip. After giving it a little more thought, he finally unclasped it, took it into hand, and hesitating a few more seconds before handing it to Ahsoka. She hung it on her hip, along with her two other lightsabers that Luke hadn't noticed before. "Thank you," she said, a small smile on her face. She then turned around and headed for the main area of the Archives. "Follow me."
Neither Leia nor Han moved, seemingly waiting for Luke to move first. So, he took a deep breath, and followed Ahsoka back to the entrance of the Archives. As they walked, Leia leaned closer to him, whispering in his ear. "Are you sure about this?"
"Absolutely not," Luke replied quietly. "But if we get even a small chance at figuring out what happened to us, I'm taking it. Besides, she doesn't look evil at all."
They stopped in front of some sort of reception area, where an elderly woman was researching something on a datapad, and behind her were multiple boxes full of holobooks. "Madame Jocasta," Ahsoka said. The woman lifted her head, eyes brightening at the sight of Ahsoka, but becoming more wary at the sight of Luke, Leia, and Han, as well as the very obviously full box that the Togruta was still carrying. "I'm really sorry, but I've got a last minute call from my Master, and he said it was an emergency. I've got to help those three to go meet him for a— erm— meeting, about the implications of the war on their home planet."
War? Luke thought. What war? The war had ended, or at least, he thought it had.
The woman's eyes narrowed, but she gave Ahsoka a warm smile and grabbed the box from her hands. "It's alright, young one. You can help some other time. Besides, I was hoping to get to have some of the younglings help me as well. Tell your master I said hello."
Ahsoka returned the smile, thanked her, and headed for the large marble doors leading to the exit— doors that hadn't been there when they had entered, and that, Luke assumed, had been covered by Palpatine to hide the room when this was his palace.
What they saw after walking out was something Luke had never imagined he'd be able to see. The gigantic hallway was filled with people of all shapes and sizes, whether they were children, adults, teenagers, human, Twi'lek, Mon Calamari… the only place Luke had seen so many different people had been the Rebel base. The second thing Luke noticed was that they were all wearing the same tunic, same leggings, and same boots, sometimes with brown robes thrown on. And, the last thing he noticed, though it was probably the thing that stood out the most when he'd seen it, was that some of those people, mostly the adults, had a lightsaber clipped to their belt, as if it was some kind of accessory they could wear.
Luke closed his eyes and blinked, thinking he might have landed in some kind of parallel universe or, maybe, was just having a very anxious dream ahead of exploring the Palace— yes, that could be right, maybe he was just going insane over stress, and it was late at night, and he actually wasn't looking at dozens of Jedi, in a place where the Force was booming with anticipation, curiosity, sometimes happiness, and familiarity.
When he opened them, they were all still there, and he had nearly walked into a small child running after his friend.
"What kind of alternate reality did we just walk into?" Han muttered, probably to himself. Luke looked at him. He had no idea.
Ahsoka was leading the three of them, walking with that confidence he had felt in her since they had met, but also the hidden guardedness of fearing that something dark was surrounding her— she was being careful, and she had every right to, because, while her world was something Luke, Leia, and Han were completely alien to, the three of them could seem the exact same way to her.
They followed her through the different hallways of the Temple, which were each so full with life Luke could almost burst into laughter like a madman because of the sheer delight he could feel in the Force— the feeling that mostly came from the children, while the adults were more guarded and controlled.
As they walked, the hallways were becoming more deserted, until, after minutes of silence, they made one last turn towards a huge opening leading to what looked like a landing hangar. Luke could be in heaven right now, because there were so many ships there that he had dreamed of flying as a small child— gunships, starfighters, X-wings, Y-wings, Headhunters… the small farmer boy from Tatooine would've already fainted.
Upon entering the hangar, Luke noticed the dozens of soldiers present in the hangar, some working on maintenance, others practicing combat, and some even playing a simple game of dejarik against one another. As Ahsoka slowed to match their pace— or perhaps to look for her master in the crowd,— Luke noticed something else, something that he, once again, had to blink twice to make sure he wasn't hallucinating—
"They all have the same face." Han said. His voice was about two octaves higher than usual— he wasn't believing this either.
Ahsoka turned around, an eyebrow already arched into the expression that Luke knew was utter confusion about their state. "…They're clones," she said, as if it was the most normal thing in the galaxy to have fifty people share your face.
This was getting weirder and weirder. Clone troopers had been completely discarded by the Empire within the few years of its rule and replaced by stormtroopers, yet a bunch of them were sitting here, in the Jedi Temple. And one of them was walking towards them right now. What Luke noticed about the clones was that each of them had at least one thing that distinguished them from the others, whether it was a haircut, facial hair, or a tattoo. The one approaching them had no tattoos or facial hair, but his head was shaved in a buzz cut, and his hair was bleached blonde. The blue and white helmet he was holding at his side seemed worn out from visible combat, and had a significant amount of hash marks drawn by a black marker.
"Rex," Ahsoka said, walking towards him. Luke followed, and so did Han and Leia.
"Commander," he greeted her, standing up straighter. "Who's that?" He arched an eyebrow.
"This is Luke, Leia, and Han." Ahsoka gestured towards each of them in turn. "I don't exactly know who they are, which is why I'm here. Have you seen my master? He told me he'd be here briefing the troops on the Felucia mission."
"Briefing's over," Rex said. "I think he's over in the back with the boys, giving them a few extra instructions." He pointed backwards, further into the hangar. You didn't miss anything." He smiled.
"Thanks, Rex. See you later," she said before walking towards the far left end of the hangar. "Follow me," she said. Luke spared one last glance at Rex, who was looking at him even more suspiciously than Ahsoka had, and then followed. Most of the troopers they walked past stared at them for a moment, then quickly returned to their occupations once they saw that Ahsoka was leading them. They walked behind a gunship, and found about ten more clones all gathered in a half-circle, listening to someone speak. They all had the same blue and white armor that Rex did, which made Luke think that they were probably from the same battalion.
He couldn't really see the person speaking, but from the booming voice sending out orders and explaining a deployment, he could tell a man was speaking— and that man was probably Ahsoka's master. Ahsoka stood there, waiting, probably for him to finish speaking before going to talk to him herself. Luke looked at both his friends. Han was leaning against the gunship, and Leia was standing nervously at Luke's side.
Maybe a minute or two passed before the clones separated at the order of the man, and Ahsoka finally decided to go talk to him. "Master," she said, walking towards the man who had been at the center of the circle made by the clones, who were now separating, letting Luke finally see who this man was.
He felt like his heart had just sunk to his feet.
The man was tall, way taller than anyone should actually be, and towered over Ahsoka in a way that made it look like she was a toddler and he was a fully-grown adult. His hair was dark blonde and unruly, sticking out from each side, his eyes were blue, impossibly so. He was wearing darker clothes than those that Luke had seen while walking through the Temple. One of his hands was gloved, and the other wasn't. He, like most of the adults Luke had seen, had a lightsaber clipped to his belt— a lightsaber that Luke knew too well, a weapon that he had lost along with his right hand a long time ago, the weapon that had been given to him by none other than Obi-Wan Kenobi.
He had seen this man before. He had spoken to him, weeks ago, alone by the fireside, and, even though he knew that this was impossible, that there was absolutely no way that what he was seeing was true... he knew this man, and he had never thought that he would ever be able to meet him properly. The man standing in front of him, despite every odd or rule of life ever established, was none other than...
Anakin Skywalker.