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Anakin was nearly at the elevator to the Chancellor’s office when he quite literally ran into someone. He bounced off whoever it was and stumbled back. He tried to circle around, but the blue and orange figure moved into the way.
Anakin tried to go the other way, but they stepped into his path again.
Finally, he looked at them. The living obstacle was a Tortuga, taller than Anakin and dressed in brightly colored clothes. After a moment, he recognized her.
“Ahsoka?” Anakin asked.
Last time he saw her, though, she had been still shorter than him. And it hadn’t been that long ago. How could she have grown so fast?
“Hello, Master,” Ahsoka said bitterly. “Off to save the Chancellor yet again, I suppose?”
Anakin floundered. He didn’t even know the answer to that. He needed Palpatine alive. He needed to learn how to save Padme. But he knew every Sith Lord was a threat to the Republic and the Jedi, to which he owed his loyalty.
“Palpatine is a Sith Lord,” Anain said. “Master Windu needs me to defeat him! They won’t be able to capture him without me.”
“Is that what you told yourself?” Ahsoka asked. She laughed without any joy. “I don’t know what happens up there, but I do know I can’t let you go there. We will just have to trust Master Windu. He can probably kill Sidious on his own.”
“Kill?” Anakin repeated, his eyes widening and his heart dropping. “He can’t kill Palpatine! Palpatine needs to face trial!”
Ahsoka scoffed.
“Like Dooku had to face trial?” Ahsoka asked. “Why should the Master face trial when you executed the apprentice?”
Anakin didn’t know how to answer that. He just knew he couldn’t let Palpatine die.
“I don’t have time for this!” Anakin snapped. “I’ll explain later.”
Anakin went to walk around Ahsoka, but she stepped in the way.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Anakin demanded.
“Stopping you,” Ahsoka said.
“Don’t you dare,” Anakin started.
“Shut up,” Ahsoka snarled, her voice going deep. Her presence in the Force flared, bright and wounded. “You have no idea what I have been through at your hands. Do not try me, Master.”
Anakin blinked. He didn’t understand what she was talking about. He hadn’t ever hurt her, besides in training, where a few light burns were unavoidable.
Sometimes, these days, it felt like he knew nothing at all.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Anakin admitted. “But now isn’t the time to talk. I need to help Master Windu with capturing Palpatine. We can talk after that.”
Anakin felt a bit proud of that. He had been clear, and offered a more reasonable time to talk. But Ahsoka didn’t seem swayed.
“You are no longer my commanding officer, nor my teacher. Do not try to manage me,” Ahsoka growled. “I told you that you just need to trust Master Windu, who will capture Palpatine if he can. But what benefit could there possibly be for keeping the Sith alive?”
Anakin met Ahsoka’s eyes, and took a moment to really look. It felt odd looking up at her. She looked very serious and Anakin was sure she would not follow his orders. He swallowed his frustration. Trust Yoda to give him the most stubborn Padawan.
Despite Ahsoka’s seeming betrayal, Anakin didn’t want to fight her. Primarilly because he was in a rush, and fighting her would be a significant time sink. Right then, he regretted teaching her to fight. But to avoid fighting her to get past her, he needed to convince her to let him past. And maybe to help him.
“Padme’s in danger, Ahsoka,” Anakin admitted. “She’s in danger and Palpatine is the only one who knows how to save her.”
“Ah, yes, your wife,” Ahsoka smiled unpleasantly. Anakin didn’t know if the angry smile was from the fact that he was married or from the jolt of shock that ran through him as he realized she knew. “What is the future mother of your children in danger from?”
“Childbirth,” Anakin confessed, since she already knew Padme was pregnant. “I’ve seen it. If I do nothing, it will happen; Padme will die.”
“Don’t do nothing then,” Ahsoka said dismissively. “There’s plenty of reasons ways to help Padme besides asking a Sith Lord for help.”
“I tried,” Anakin snapped. “Master Windu refused to raise me to the rank of Master, which would have given me access to the holocrons I needed. An action you did as well. Sometimes it feels like you’re conspiring against me, to prevent my true potential from being recognized.”
Ahsoka rolled her eyes.
“I mean, you could have asked for help,” Ahsoka said plainly. “There are the healing halls. You could have explained that Padme needs help, and had the Healers help her. You know, the Healers who are trained in these things?”
“Confessing to being married would get me expelled from the Order,” Anakin argued.
Ahsoka frowned in confusion. Then realization sprung across her face like lightning heralding a storm. Her face twisted thunderously and Anakin thought the hallway grew chilly.
“That’s why you did it,” Ahsoka snarled. “Everything for your ego. Nevermind the physical wellbeing of your pregnant wife, nevermind that seeing the Republic fall would destroy her; you couldn’t handle the thought of being rejected! Nevermind your Padawan, vulnerable and trusting. Nevermind your Jedi Master, far away yet close enough for you to harm. Throw it all way for Sith healing without even going to the Jedi Healers! Destroy everyone who cares for you before they can see you for what you are! You are evil. I despise you.”
“Ahsoka!” Anakin scolded. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I don’t deserve being called evil or you despising me. What’s gotten into you? Why are you here?”
“Like you care,” Ahsoka scoffed. She pulled her lightsaber from her belt and flourished it, unlit. “Fight me or return to the Jedi Temple; fight me or leave Darth Sidious to die.”
Anakin scowled and drew his own lightsaber. Ahsoka left him no choice. Anakin’s attempt at talking to her had failed. And without her second lightsaber, she would be easier to defeat.
The stood in stillness for a moment, the soft hum of Anakin’s saber making his answer clear. The blue light lit Ahsoka’s face coldly, turning the shadows on her orange skin darker in comparison to the white patterns and blue stripes.
“So be it,” Ahsoka murmured. She seemed calm again, almost sad but in a steady, certain way.
Ahsoka made the first move, lunging forward faster than Anakin expected. Worse was the shock as her lightsaber ignited; it was not the blue he had expected, not the blue he had tuned it to be before returning Ahsoka’s lightsabers to her. Nor was it the green Anakin remembered it had been before Ahsoka left the Order.
Nor, fortunately, was it the bloody color of a darksider’s lightsaber.
Instead, it was a color Anakin had never seen in a lightsaber. Void-like, swallowing the light, with a white halo around the blade.
It was surprising enough that Anakin barely got his blade up in time.
It was clear, within the first couple of exchanges, that Ahsoka’s style had changed dramatically since Anakin last sparred with her. He would have expected her to merely be rusty, but it seemed that she had gotten new training after leaving. He didn’t know where, but he didn’t like the options.
Ahsoka used new stances that Anakin didn’t recognize. Yet they seemed familiar, like Anakin had seen those stances before. Ahsoka was also using forward-grip, the thing she had refused to use for so long.
It tripped Anakin up, constantly. He expected Ahsoka to jump around and attack from all directions. Instead, she attacked straightforwardly, with few tricks or flourishes, relying more on speed, power, and an implacable offense to slowly drive Anakin back.
Anakin tried to bring some aerobatics in to the mix, jumping over Ahsoka despite the ceiling above. He was sure he could do it. Hadn’t Obi-wan leaped over Maul, and won his battle, back when Anakin was a young child and Ahsoka was unborn?
But Ahsoka proved him wrong. She raised her blade and, with a precise flick, cut off Anakin’s hand at the wrist.
Anakin yelled with rage and shock as his attack was foiled. Not in pain, though; Ahsoka had cut off his prosthetic hand, not his flesh one. Huffing in irritation, Anakin pulled his lightsaber into his intact hand.
Ahsoka had taken advantage of Anakin’s distraction to perform her own jump. She was just as light on her feet as he remembered. But she hadn’t attacked, merely repositioned herself to stay between Anakin and the elevators.
Anakin scowled.
“So eager to see my friend dead?” Anakin spat out. Anger curled around his lightsaber like an old friend. He remembered the Tuskens. He had killed those he should not have, before, but never someone he had trained, never someone he had once considered his.
But now, Anakin was afraid for Palpatine and for Padme. And Ahsoka was standing in his way, between him and their salvation. Ahsoka, now, was the enemy.
“Victory is sweet, but vengeance is sweeter,” Ahsoka said, a smirk showing her sharp teeth but not touching her focused eyes.
Fine. So be it.
Anakin lunged, putting all his effort into setting the tempo. He was in his element when on the offensive, and it showed as he managed to push Ahsoka back several feet, forcing her to retreat under his blows. He aimed for her throat, for her head, for her heart. He would have revenge, if nothing else, for her betrayal.
Ahsoka snarled or laughed or something between the two, and drew a knife with her off-hand. It was nearly as long as her forearm, and serrated. She held it in reverse grip, unlike her lightsaber. It must have been made of some special metal, because when Ahsoka blocked one of Anakin’s attacks, the knife held, merely glowing slightly when Anakin withdrew his lightsaber.
Anakin lost the advantage. Despite all his power, two blades had an advantage against one, and Ahsoka was more than good enough to take advantage of that. Missing one of his hands, Anakin was also a bit off balance. He had no chance of seizing control of the fight again.
Step by step, Anakin lost the ground he had gained. Bitter shame rose. Here he was, not even able to defeat the person he had trained. It was humiliating. He was putting all his effort into this duel with his own half-trained Padawan, and loosing.
Anakin embraced his rage, drawing on it in an attempt to increase his speed. If she just moved a little faster, maybe he could overcome his enemy. And his rage was right there, bubbling and boiling with power.
But Ahsoka laughed wildly.
“There you are!” Ahsoak exclaimed. “I knew it! Die, Darth Vader!”
Light bloomed, like sunrise over mountains, like an explosion breaking the night. Both Anakin and Ahsoka faltered. Anakin couldn’t remember a time in his life when the Force had been so bright. Above them, Mace Windu’s Force-presence shone with tired relief and grief. Anakin could sense no one else near Windu.
Palpatine was dead, then. Anakin had failed. He had lost his only hope of saving Padme. He was going to lose his wife.
Pain blossomed in his stomach. He gasped and looked down.
Ahsoka had recovered faster from Palpatine’s death, it seemed. She drew the knife with a squeltch from Anakin’s midsection. It was dripping blood, the silver blade stained red.
Anakin dropped his lightsaber and clutched his stomach in a futile attempt to keep the blood in. He swayed, but managed to stay standing.
Ahsoka’s eyes were cold over bared teeth. He could see no sign of regred.
“I think I’ll leave you for Master Windu,” Ahsoka said. “Have a short life, Vader.”
With that, Ahsoka darted past Anakin, jogging the way he had come. He had to turn to watch her go, and that unbalanced him. He fell hard. By the time he had blinked the spots from his vision, Ahsoka was gone. Vanished.
Anakin lay on the floor, bleeding. He felt so cold and so furious. He tried to get up to go after Ahsoka. What he would do, he did not know. But by the time he managed to stand, agony coursing through him, the doors to the elevator opened. Mace Windu walked out of the elevator.
“Knight Skywalker,” Master Windu said. He sounded concerned. “What happened? Why are you here? Who did this?”
Windu strode forward as he spoke, hurrying towards Anakin.
Anakin met Windu’s eyes, and the Master’s steps faltered.
“It was Ahsoka,” Anakin told him. “I don’t know what’s gotten into her. She just attacked me out of the blue.”
“Let’s get you to the healing halls,” Windu said. A sadness suffused his Force-presence, along with wariness. “May I carry you?”
“Fine,” Anakin grumbled. “As long as you promise to hunt down Ahsoka and bring her to justice. I might be out of commission for a bit, but I can’t ignore what she’s done.”
“I understand,” Windu said soothingly, his eyes sad. “I’m going to pick you up, now.”
Windu crossed the last few yards between them and carefully lifted Anakin into a bridal carry.
“Deep breaths will help with the pain,” Windu advised as he started to walk again, the jolts of his stride sending shocks of pain through Anakin’s stomach. “Try to relax.”