Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Ahsoka ran aimlessly through the sewer drains, using the slivers of light above her to navigate forwards, and the sound of splashing boots to determine where not to go.

She needed to get to an opening, some clear ground where she could stay at a safe distance from her pursuers but still give them one last goodbye. That opportunity came in the form of a drain opening out into the city’s lower levels, but something called her down a shadowed side tunnel instead. Something familiar that she had believed to be lost for good.

 “Ahsoka, what are you doing?” Anakin’s voice was near and she jolted. But he was on the opposite side of a thick grate. He could try to cut through but knowing she would bolt if he did, he only stood on the opposite side trying to conceal the nervous energy coursing through his shoulders.

”You didn't even try to come and help me,” she said.

“They wouldn't let me in to talk to you.”

“You could have if you tried.” She scanned the area behind her. Was there something, someone in the shadows? Whatever it was, she wasn’t sure it was entirely there.

Anakin continued to ramble. “How would that look, Ahsoka, huh? Forcing my way in would've made you look even more guilty.” She whipped her head back around.

“I'm not guilty!”

“Then we have to prove you're innocent,” He argued. “The only way we can do that is by going back.”

“I don't know who to trust.” Who else was there? After all the losses from the war, after Anakin’s own master had disappeared without a trace, she was losing anyone to reach out to that wouldn’t react like this, or shun her altogether.

“Listen, I would never let anyone hurt you, Ahsoka, Never.” She believed him. She couldn’t look at him. Behind her, something cloaked was definitely emerging from the shadows. She braced herself, but wasn’t afraid. Nothing could be worse than what she had already gone through. “But you need to come back and make your case to the Council.”

“No,” she refused. “I'm not going to take the fall for something I didn't do!”

Anakin’s pleading having failed, he turned forceful. “I am ordering you to put down your lightsaber and come with me now! Trust me.”

“General Skywalker, where are you?” A trooper asked over the comms. Anakin turned his head at the call but didn’t reply.

“I do trust you. But you know as well as I do that no one else will believe me. Anakin…” Ahsoka paused and turned.

The figure had called her.

“Ahsoka,” it said again in a low, strained voice with a Coruscanti accent.

“Who’s there?” Anakin growled. He finally lit his lightsaber, and its glow reflected off of the shallow water to illuminate some of the figure’s features. His eyes were hidden, but the end of a light beard was visible.

He reached out an arm, and Anakin’s mind whirled as Ahsoka actually stepped toward him.

“What are you–” he tried to make out the low conversation they had behind the grate. When Ahsoka fell deeper into shadow with him, he’d had enough and began to slice through the grate as thick as his arm. “Troopers, I’m over here! I can see her!”

Ahsoka looked back in affront. The man looked up as well, his hood falling away in the process.

Obi-Wan Kenobi’s face, though pale and sunken, was mostly the same.

His eyes glinted with gold and Anakin’s stomach dropped.

“Ahsoka!” he cried. 

She looked torn but stuck to Obi-Wan’s side. “Wish me luck,” she whispered.

And followed him into the dark.

A week later Anakin was in the Council chambers, alone in the center of the room. They had called him there the day following Ahsoka’s departure, but he hadn’t come. Only after a day of fruitless searching and four sleepless nights at Padmé’s had he answered their request.

They’d informed him he would be placed on leave from the war indefinitely. 

At first, he had argued. “The Open Circle Fleet needs me more than ever–”

“You can be of no help to them when your mind is so occupied with other things,” replied Master Koon. His vocoder translated his words as usual, but could not hide the distant tone. Anakin could tell he wasn’t the only one so deeply affected, so why was it only him they were holding back?

“This isn’t a punishment, Anakin,” Master Windu stated.

“I– I know.” he bowed his head.

“We wish there was more we could do to help you through this,” Shaak Ti’s holo added. “But the best we can do for now is allow you the space and time to heal on your own.” The sympathy in her eyes was less effective when distorted by holo interference.

Anakin said nothing, and kept his head down as the elder Jedi filed out of the room. Master Yoda slowed his gimer stick to a halt at his feet. 

“Resources we have left, few there are. But at your disposal, your home is,” he hummed. “Take advantage of the gardens, I prefer. Many frogs there.”

“... Thanks, Master.”

“...framed by a fellow Jedi warrior, Barriss Offee.  Experts believe this is unequivocal proof of schism in the mysterious organization…”

Ahsoka stared at the screen in quiet horror. As tears welled in her eyes the image of her supposed friend was mercifully blurred. She could hardly believe it. 

“Obi-Wan…”

He didn’t reply. “Obi-Wan.” She turned to find him still curled into a knotted meditation pose in the corner of the transport they had stolen. Darkness muddied the air around his hunched shoulders.

Before when Ahsoka would catch him meditating (or meditate alongside him), he would be perfectly relaxed in impeccable posture, his body as motionless and calm as his mind. Now, his thoughts spiraled and drilled down into darkness with a frightening determination. His head would jerk under his constantly-worn hood and his muttered musings escaped without him seeming to notice.

Instead of fortifying him, this meditation seemed to drain him. And yet he continued down this path.

Ahsoka couldn’t fully understand why. Yet . She didn’t understand yet, he kept telling her. The only thing keeping her here by his side was her devotion to the man she had briefly known in her apprenticeship, and knowing what faced her back home without his protection.

She watched him for a minute longer with worry and stepped toward him. “Obi-Wan,” she said more gently and hovered a hand over his shoulder. Before she could even touch him he turned to face her. Those eyes still startled her, especially up close with the dark bags underneath them. “Um… you should see this.”

She replayed the news report for him and watched his reaction. He stroked his chin, and with his beard thinning it was easy to see how hollow his cheeks had become. But those golden eyes were alive and studied the screen.

“I told you the Order was dangerous.”

“But this wasn’t all the Jedi, just… her.”

“Barriss was one of the best healers and a champion of peace. She was corrupted by the Jedi.”

“Or maybe something else,” Ahsoka suggested under her breath. Obi-Wan glanced at her and she shrunk.

“If you’re insinuating it was the Dark Side, I wouldn’t disagree. If you are implying my connection to the Dark would lead me to similar actions then you still do not wholly understand the Force. You have much to learn.”

As his words veered toward patronizing she huffed and said nothing.

The report continued. “Celebrity Knight Anakin Skywalker was the hero who uncovered this plot and brought the traitorous Jedi to justice.”

Ahsoka straightened. “He did it.” Obi-Wan stared at the image of Anakin on the screen intensely.

“Perhaps Anakin will see the faults of the Order on his own,” Obi-Wan mused.

Ahsoka felt a spark of optimism. “Do you think he’d join us?”

“Possibly.”

Obi-Wan's voice and expression were carefully neutral.

“Do you… want him to join… you?” There was a difference between joining them and him . Ahsoka’s eyes were still blue. She had checked in a mirror after waking up in a sweat her first night at Obi-Wan’s side.

A rueful smile crossed his face as he turned away from the screen. “Mmm,” he replied. Ahsoka was very unclear on whether that was a yes or no, and she suspected Obi-Wan was unsure himself.

He sat back down and returned to his flagellating meditation.

“What’s it like?” Ahsoka asked. “To fall?”

“Not as bad as anyone says it is, more gradual, too,” Obi-Wan answered. “There’s no rock bottom to hit, only deeper to explore. It’s freeing in that way.”

“Oh, okay.”

“You learn you can do what you know is right. And nothing can get in your way.”

Ahsoka contemplated this. She closed her eyes and counted out her breaths.

And sat down beside Obi-Wan to meditate.

Chapter Text

Mace Windu found Anakin Skywalker in, of all places, the library.

He was typing away with deep concentration and jolted when Mace called to him.

“What is it?”

“Why don’t we take a walk.” It wasn’t a question.

Anakin squinted at the sunlight when they stepped onto the terrace.

“I haven’t seen you around the Temple these last few weeks.”

“You’ve been gone,” Anakin replied moodily. “Everyone’s off defending the Republic while I’m stuck here.”

“True, even now Aayla is all the way off on Felucia. But she told me she’s tried to call you a few times, yet you never answer.”

The Knight shrugged. “I keep myself busy. We’ll catch up when she gets back.”

“Busy?” Mace asked. “Busy with what?”

“Nothing.”

“You aren’t losing sleep over nothing, Anakin. Jocasta’s seen you researching night and day, and with Stass’ quarters sharing a wall with yours, she can hear that you’re constantly up.”

Anakin said nothing as they came to a stop at a balcony overlooking the city, facing the Senate building. He ignored Mace’s look of concern by cocooning himself further into the robe he was wearing. It was smaller and more scuffed than his usual oversized one, possibly one of Obi-Wan’s, Mace realized with a pang.

“Searching for your Master and Padawan fruitlessly will not solve your desire to–”

“Don’t you think if I wanted to find them I’d be out there? I could have stolen a ship and scoured every corner of the galaxy by now if I wanted to. I would have found them weeks ago if I wanted to. I don’t .”

Mace gave him no reaction, and slowly Anakin calmed on his own, though his jaw stayed clenched. “If they want to hide in the shadows being selfish, fine. We don’t need them. I can bring peace to the galaxy without their help.”

The Jedi Master tried again. “What have you been searching for?”

“I don’t know exactly yet. I’m just following leads, and where the Force guides me,” Anakin explained. “But things aren’t adding up. About the start of the war, or why it never seems to have an end in sight.”

“Are you saying someone is prolonging it?”

“Not exactly,” Anakin shook his head. “I don’t know. But I can’t stop searching for the truth.”

“I understand. It’s a worthy use of your time, but take care of yourself, Anakin.” The boy nodded and Mace shifted to leave. “This sounds like something the Council should be informed of.”

Anakin wanted to argue, but couldn’t risk losing one of the only things keeping him going. “Okay, but promise me it won’t spread further than that.”

“Of course.”

“And give me some time to organize my thoughts and findings. So I don’t just sound like someone who’s been mind tricked one too many times.”

Mace nodded with a smile. They bowed, and he left Anakin to watch the city settle into the evening. He yawned and leaned forward to rest his head on his arms.

His comm chimed, and the distinct pattern had him pulling the communicator out as quickly as possible.

“Padmé?”

“Hello, my darling. Can you come home tonight?”

“Always. I’ll leave now.”

“Good. There’s something important I have to tell you.”

“Important good or important bad?”

“Ani, something wonderful has happened.”

There is nothing special about the day. It’s not the anniversary of the day he killed the Duchess, though the look on Kenobi's face as he did so is still as fresh in his mind as if he had done it yesterday.

No, it is just an ordinary day as Maul continued to expand his empire that the pathetic man finally arrived to try for revenge.

“My Lord,” Rook Kast called, running into the throne room and skidding to a halt. She knelt and bowed quickly while taking her helmet off, not even waiting for him to permit her to speak before she continued. “Someone– or a team of two, we believe– is attacking the city. They only entered the system an hour ago and already they are inside the dome and heading for the palace.”

Maul chuckled. “Interesting. He’s never shown this determination before, even when trying to rescue his beloved. I must see this.”

“You know who it is, my Lord?”

“Of course I do, isn’t it obvious?” the Sith snapped. “It’s Kenobi, back for his revenge.”

Rook looked up. “He hasn’t been seen in months. Must have been planning this for a long time. What are your orders?”

“Continue sending defenses to get in his way,” he waved. “It can’t hurt to make him think he’s doing well, tire him out a bit. As for anyone helping him, try to separate them.”

“Yes, my Lord.” She bowed again, put her helmet on, and barked some orders into it as she ran back into battle. Through the open door Maul could spot a firefight in the distance. He smiled, and relaxed back into his throne.

Ten minutes later, he counted, the door burst open again. Maul could hear pained screams echoing off the high walls. That was certainly new for Kenobi. As was his visage.

His enemy stalked forward in sleek dark clothes, not Jedi tunics. In one hand was an unlit lightsaber. In the other, a horned helmet that he tossed to the side. Kenobi pulled back his hood and stared at Maul.

The two looked at one another like prey with their mirrored golden eyes. While Obi-Wan held his face as stiff as durasteel, Maul couldn’t help but grin.

“You’ve finally stooped down to my level. How wonderful.”

“Maybe so,” Obi-Wan replied. “But if you think that gives you any advantage, you’re mad.”

“Nothing has changed, Kenobi,” he growled, jumping from his seat. “You will leave here broken and empty as you did before, or maybe you won’t leave at all.”

Obi-Wan rolled his eyes and ignited his saber. “Stop stalling , you coward.”

“Glady.” Maul called his double-bladed weapon to his hand and began to stalk around his opponent. “You’ve kept me waiting long enough, but no amount of preparation will save you.”

“What makes you think I’ve spent all my time thinking of revenge on you? Just because I seem to be your mortal enemy does not make the same true of me. There are others who have tried to ruin me. They all failed, and you’re simply next on the list.”

Maul impulsively made the first move. Obi-Wan parried in his usual smooth movements. Unfazed, he stepped back onto the stairs leading to the throne and began to attack from above. Maul jumped back out of range.

“In all the times madmen like you or Dooku tried to exalt the greatness of the Dark side to me, nobody had ever shown me how simple it is,” Obi-Wan explained, swaggering down the steps towards his prey. “When I was a Jedi, questions of morality and good were neverending. Doing the right thing was a burden. And no matter how much I tried, no matter how much I fought for the Light, I still suffered. I thought I was meant for infinite sadness. Now I realize that was a falsehood meant to keep me in line.”

“You–” Maul tried to retort, but Obi-Wan’s attacks were too much. It was all he could do to concentrate on not being touched by his dizzyingly fast swipes. And yet the man hadn’t even broken a sweat.

“It used to be difficult,” he said, hitting harder with each step. “To defeat the challenges I was faced with. But now…”

Done with swordplay, Obi-Wan used the Force to lift Maul up by his throat. “It was too easy to kill pirates. And the Pikes and bounty hunters and even Dooku… I thought you would be harder to kill like this too!”

He threw Maul to the floor in frustration. The Dathomirian scrambled to get upright and crawl further away. He did not stand, but prostrated on his hands and mechanical knees. “You’ve become the mad one, Kenobi!”

“I understand the universe now. If that makes me as mad as it is, so be it.”

“So you’ve noticed it,” Maul looked up. He saw an opportunity to be spared, if even for just a moment to find an escape. “The imbalance towards the Dark.”

“Anyone with the Force can see it,” Obi-Wan said. He studied Maul’s shaking form like a butcher examining his next fresh cut. “But yes, now that I have embraced the Dark I can see through the fog that clouds the Jedi’s vision.”

“There’s someone pulling the strings,” Maul responded. “Have you realized who it is yet?”

Obi-Wan frowned. “No.”

“With our power combined, we could–”

Obi-Wan burst into laughter. Maul shrunk.

“Spare you? Trust you? After everything you did to me in some twisted search for revenge? From the start, it was you that dealt the first blow against me, and I will not know peace until I give you what you’ve been asking for all these years.”

Maul tried to crawl away but Obi-Wan locked him in place with the weight of all the air in the room.

“Please–”

“And I can find this puppeteer without you.”

Cutting Maul at the waist didn’t work the first time, so this time Obi-Wan raised his blade up and sliced down. There was no sound except for the thud of two halves of a Sith on the ground.

Obi-Wan took a steady breath in, and exhaled shakily. Then he turned and marched outside, not once looking back.

Ahsoka was waiting outside, at the base of the palace. She was watching Mandalore burn around her, worried contemplation glazing over her face. When she spotted Obi-Wan, she jumped up and followed behind him.

“Was he not inside? Maybe he hid in the sewers.”

“No, I found him. And killed him.”

Her still-blue eyes widened. “Wow. That was fast.”

Obi-Wan huffed in frustration. “I expected more of a fight, but he’d gone complacent in his riches.”

Everything was easy now. Too easy . I bothered Obi-Wan more than he would admit to Ahsoka, who was still on the fence about embracing the Dark Side. On some level, he still knew that the challenges he’d faced as a Jedi had made him all the better a warrior, and that pushing against the universe’s darkness only proved they had been going in the right direction. But sometimes, he had learned, you must swim with the riptide to keep from drowning.

Ahsoka shouldn’t have been thrown into the deep end at all, but she was already here. There was no turning back.

“What’s going to happen to Mandalore?” she asked.

There were already sleek blue gauntlet starfighters landing ahead of them, and helmets painted with owl eyes streaming out. Bo-Katan and her soldiers had gotten his message. “It will sort itself out. Frankly, I don’t care.”

Ahsoka looked at him sideways. “That doesn’t sound like you. What about all its people?”

“Things can’t get worse for them. And at least they’ll have one of their own leading them. Besides, there are larger forces at play.”

They neared their own ship and Ahsoka began preflight checks. “Set a course for the core,” Obi-Wan instructed.

Ahsoka hesitated. “Not… Coruscant though, right?” Obi-Wan said nothing. “I’m not ready to go back there.”

“Do you want to end the Clone Wars or not?”

“What are you talking about? Of course I do. What are you planning now?”

“Just trust me, Ahsoka.”

She stood up. “It gets harder to do that every time you ask me.” Ahsoka marched out of the cockpit and slammed the door shut faster with the Force.

Obi-Wan was beginning to think Ahsoka resented him, hated him. It hurt, and he let it wash over him as they entered hyperspace.

Chapter Text

Ahsoka wiped the sweat off her palms before entering the council chambers. She bowed to the masters she hadn’t seen in so long and allowed a polite smile to grace her lips. 

“Ahsoka Tano,” Mace began. His voice was still weak but he looked full of energy, as did the other Jedi. There was no more war to exhaust them, after all. “We would like to officially thank you for your help in ending the war, and defeating the Sith that perpetuated it.”

She bowed. “Thank you, masters. I only did what anyone would do in my place.”

“That’s not true, Little ‘Soka. You did what a hero would do,” Plo told her. Ahsoka felt tears come to her eyes and looked up so they would not spill.

One day earlier.

Obi-Wan pressed a finger to his lips, reminding Ahsoka to stay silent in the unlit Senate hallways. She could see his eyes glow with anticipation and a shiver washed down her spine. Still, she gripped her sabers tightly, prepared to do what they had come here for.

But apparently, they weren’t the only ones.

Inside Chancellor Palpatine’s office, Lord Sidious’ chambers, wind and broken glass flew everywhere. Even Obi-Wan had to get his bearings for a moment, looking up from the bodies of three of the Order’s best to three more Force users at a standstill.

“You are under arrest, My Lord.” Mace Windu declared.

“Anakin! I told you it would come to this. I was right. The Jedi are taking over!” Palpatine blubbered. Ahsoka could easily tell he was bluffing, now that she could clearly see the darkness surrounding everything he touched. Including…

“Anakin,” she whispered. Obi-Wan put a hand on her shoulder.

“He won’t be able to stop us,” he assured her.

“Why would he want to? Isn’t he here to help Master Windu? Even if we’re not Jedi anymore… we still want the same thing as them.”

The yelling became difficult to hear over the growling lightning that burst from Palpatine’s fingers, singing and melting his skin while Mace deflected it. The effort on his face was clear, but Anakin still just stood there, torn and confused.

“He is a traitor, Anakin.”

“ He’s the traitor, stop him !”

“Come to your senses, boy. The Jedi are in revolt. They will betray you, just as they betrayed me.”

Anakin tilted his head back and forth. Ahsoka stared with conflict of her own. It was like watching her own indecision over the past few weeks play across her master’s face in a fraction of the time.

“You are not one of them, Anakin. Don't let him kill me,” Palpatine told him. “I am your pathway to power, I have the power to save the one you love. You must choose . You must stop him .”

“Don’t… listen to him, Anakin!”

“Help me! Don't let him kill me. I can't hold on any longer. Ahhhhhhh . . . ahhhhhh . . . AH–!”

Palpatine’s cries were silenced by another red blade. Obi-Wan’s.

In the chaos, he had snuck through the shadows and wasted no time in killing his target. With a simple slash through his head and torso, the Sith Lord was no more.

As soon as the lightning shorted out, the only sound was the wind howling for a long moment.

“There,” Obi-Wan sighed in relief. His eyes were wild.

“Y-you killed him,” Anakin said quietly.

Obi-Wan looked up from his kill. “Hello, Anakin.”

“You killed him!”

“I ended this war once and for all.”

“He had too much control, Anakin,” Mace said, stepping down from the windowsill heavily. He looked at Obi-Wan wearily but seemed grateful for the help, for now. “He was too dangerous to be kept alive.”

“He should have– should have stood trial.”

Ahsoka couldn’t help but scoff. “Please, like that would have changed anything.”

Anakin turned to stare at her in shock. Again, she found she couldn’t meet his eyes.

He sank to the floor, putting his hands over his tangled curls. He was muttering something, and only Mace stepped toward him.

“Don’t worry, it’s over now–”

“I NEEDED HIM!”

Energy exploded out of Anakin. Everything and everyone in the room was pushed back. Ahsoka hit the back wall but had enough time to brace herself. Obi-Wan crashed into some furniture, and Mace, still near the broken window, had flown right out of it and down into the city below with a distant cry.

Anakin barely seemed to notice. He was up, his lightsaber ignited, and glaring down Obi-Wan.

“You ruined everything!”

“I’ve made many mistakes,” Obi-Wan said. “But that was not one of them.”

Anakin threw himself at his former master. Power, more than skill, was what they used to hold their ground against one another. Ahsoka watched helplessly, refusing to engage herself, as her lineage destroyed itself.

At first, Obi-Wan was only blocking Anakin’s furious blows, but his own anger grew and he began to fight back with real malice.

But it wasn’t enough. Clear as day, Ahsoka could see he was losing.

All the hatred that had fueled his fights against Dooku, Maul, and finally Palpatine, was expended. And Ahsoka knew he could never truly hate Anakin, no matter how much he tried to convince himself otherwise. His heart wasn’t in this fight and only wanted it to end. Without that motivation to fuel his Darkside energy, he had little. Only the body he had been depriving of sleep, food, and comfort in order to reach his now completed goals.

And for what? Mace and Anakin had been about to defeat Sidious themselves, hadn’t they?

Ahsoka’s mind spiraled and ached. Her bonds with both men were dissolving.

She held her breath when Anakin gained the upper hand, disarming Obi-Wan. “Alright, you’ve proven whatever it is you had to prove,” Ahsoka shouted. “Now please, stop.”

“You kidnapped my padawan,” Anakin growled at Obi-Wan. “You left me with all your messes to clean up,” he closed his fist and slowly lifted it. Obi-Wan began to choke, his arms and feet dangling above the ground. “And you destroyed my only chance at saving Padmé!”

“I– don’t–”

Ahsoka tried to get through to him. “Anakin, please. He didn’t kidnap me, and he only did what he thought was right! We weren’t the best, but we stopped worse things from happening!” He ignored her.

“You betrayed me.”

“Ana–kn…” Though he couldn’t get any words out, Obi-Wan gave his former padawan a look of remorse.

“I hate you.”

His royal blue blade, which had deflected countless blaster shots from hitting Ahsoka, impaled Obi-Wan in the gut. He choked once more before Anakin let him drop to the floor with the broken glass. His eyes were glassy, dim and light blue.

“No!” Ahsoka screamed. She ran to his body. “Why?”

No answer came from behind her. She looked up as tears poured down her face, and found Anakin had already moved to the Chancellor’s desk. 

Ahsoka stood up, wiping the tears away. Anakin continued to ignore her as she slowly walked toward him. With each step, she thought of everything she once had that was now gone, if not because of Obi-Wan or Anakin, then of her own choice to follow either of them.

“What are you going to do now, Anakin? You’ve ruined any chance of things going back to normal.”

“Things needed to change,” he muttered, pulling up some holo documents emblazoned with an altered version of the Republic cog. “Palpatine might have been a Sith, but he knew that much. I can use his plans. Not just to save Padmé, but to bring true peace to the galaxy.”

Ahsoka was behind Anakin, and grabbed one of her lightsabers, her finger hovering over its switch. He stiffened immediately, and turned to face her.

His eyes burned gold, rimmed with red. “You don’t have to fight me. You can join me.”

“How can I trust you? You killed Obi-Wan, and probably Master Windu, too.”

“Ahsoka,” he reached out his hand and offered a manic smile. “I would never let anyone hurt you. Never.”

She didn’t trust him. But she lowered her saber and took his hand with her open one. She followed him away from the window and desk, towards the center of the room. Obi-Wan’s smooth voice echoed in her mind. You can do what you know is right. And nothing can get in your way.

Ahsoka knew that Anakin needed to be stopped before he could go too far, and she knew that, despite what Mace had said of Sidious, the Jedi would not see him as a threat deserving of the ultimate punishment. They would try everything they could to reel him in, and it would not work. Ahsoka wished, more than anything, that it could work, but Obi-Wan had shown her reality in all its Dark glory.

“I did miss you, Master.”

“So did I.”

She stopped, and Anakin turned to face her. Reaching up on her tiptoes, she embraced his broad shoulders. He hugged her back tightly, fiercely.

“I’ll miss you,” she whispered. Ahsoka still held her lightsaber in her hand, now locked above Anakin’s exposed neck. When she lit it, its green light drowned out the redness of the room, making everything seem dead and gray for a moment.

Anakin’s body fell to the floor, just feet away from Obi-Wan’s and Palpatine’s. Ahsoka was the only one left standing, but that didn’t last long. Her legs had forgotten how to move, and her lungs forgot how to breathe. The room turned entirely black as she lost oxygen and collapsed.

The next day.

She woke up in the Halls of Healing, blessedly alone. Time enough for the previous day’s events to fully return to her and make herself presentable before Master Che arrived to check on her. The woman seemed surprised that she was found unscathed, save a few minor cuts and bruises, but said nothing until leaving the room again. “The council would like to see you, when you’re ready.”

She had no idea what to expect, what they knew. But they only congratulated her bravery and were glad she wasn’t hurt when Obi-Wan and Anakin killed each other. Tragic, yes, but it led to the end of the war. Peace was restored. All was well.

“Under the circumstances, we have also decided you may return to the Order,” Mace announced. “Since you were framed, your expulsion has been nullified, and we have agreed it would be fitting to reinstate you as a Jedi Knight.” 

“What? Really?” Ahsoka looked around the room. The Masters all smiled serenely and nodded in agreement, though Master Yoda was quiet and only studied her face. He seemed distant, but did not object. Ahsoka rubbed her eyes before bowing. “That is an honor, Masters. I accept.”

She left quickly and looked at the carpet to avoid the stares of others that recognized her. Halfway to the living quarters her comm beeped. It could only be Padmé, she knew, because very few living people still called her, and the senator had already sent her dozens of unread messages. Ahsoka let it ring and walked faster.

Finally in her room, she felt like she could breathe. The lungfuls of air she took in tasted stale. Nobody had entered in a long time, and everything was the same as she had left it.

She made a beeline for the bathroom and drank straight from the faucet before looking at her pale complexion in the mirror. Ahsoka pulled a small case out of her pocket and made room for it on the counter.

Leaning closer to the mirror, she used one finger to hold her eyelid open and the other to pluck out a blue contact lens.

“Great, you fooled them,” she mumbled and she removed the other contact, revealing golden irises. “Now you just have to keep this up for… ever.”