Chapter Text
The Force, it seemed, did not want Ahsoka Tano to die. Not when she was sixteen on Mortis, when the Son had killed her after poisoning her with the Dark side, and not seconds ago on Malachor, when she had tried to pull the Sith temple down on herself. No, it seemed that the Force had other plans for Ahsoka, and wasn’t that an idea. Ahsoka wasn’t a stranger to the idea of the Force having a will entirely of its own. Even if the the idea that the mysterious will of the Force could allow so many bad things to happen sat a little bit uncomfortably in Ahsoka’s mind, one didn’t spend three years as Anakin Skywalker’s apprentice without figuring out that some things were a little too lucky to be happenstance.
Not Anakin Skywalker, she amended. Darth Vader, the cruel and uncompromising Sith lord who had been trying to kill her for the better part of a year and who had nearly just succeeded. But the Force had had other plans, and now, instead of being cut in half by her former master, Ahsoka was… here. Gingerly, she sat up, looking around at the place. It looked like space, had that same vast nothingness feel that was always slightly disconcerting, but that wasn’t it. She could breathe, for one, and she was pretty sure that space didn’t have a ground. And she was definitely sitting on a ground.
And she wasn’t alone, either. Movement caught her eye, and for a split second Ahsoka thought that it was Anakin - Vader - speaking to her, but the second passed and Ahsoka realized it was Ezra Bridger. An older Ezra Bridger.
“Wait. What happened?” she asked. “Where am I?”
Ezra sputtered about having seen her fight Vader, and the portal, and pulling her out, but Ahsoka could barely hear him. She was looking around in amazement. The Force was strong here, like it was on Mortis, and Ahsoka kept thinking she heard voices, only for them to disappear when she tried to focus on them. There were pathways all around her, branching out and leading to strange doorways to nowhere. Ahsoka had the feeling that there was something she was missing about all of this, but she didn’t know what it was. She tried to center herself, but her head was still racing from her fight, and her mind as well as her body was exhausted.
So she followed Ezra and saw Kanan’s final moments, and even though she could feel his pain - so raw, and so like her own - she told him he couldn’t save his master, just as she couldn’t save hers. And then, from across space and time, he attacked.
Sidious’ blue flames licked at their heels as they ran, and as Ezra sprinted towards the portal he had entered with, Ahsoka knew she couldn’t follow him. The Force was calling her, telling her to turn back, to run down this pathway, and then that one, and on, and on until she came to a tall, triangular door. Whatever was behind it was shadowy, but Ahsoka didn’t have time to wait - Sidious’ fire was almost on her, and there were no other pathways to turn. So Ahsoka took a deep breath, drew her lightsabers, and stepped through the door.
She landed heavily to find herself on the bridge of a ship. It rocked, suddenly, and she looked outside to see a battle going on. It reminded her of the great space battles of the Clone Wars, but it was a big galaxy, and there were any number of battles going on at any given point in time. She could be anywhere, at any time. There was no use hoping she was somewhere she’d already been.
Ahsoka crouched down and looked around. The bridge appeared to be empty, save for a chair that was pointed out towards the windows, but Ahsoka could feel presences somewhere on the ship. She crept closer, hoping to catch whoever was in the chair off guard.
“Now, this is very interesting, isn’t it?” a voice said, and Ahsoka’s blood ran cold. “Tell me, where did you come from?” The chair swiveled, and Ahsoka found herself face to face with Darth Sidious.
“You ,” Ahsoka snarled, and her lightsaber was ignited and pointed at Sidious’ throat in a split-second. Wherever this was, whenever this was, it was clear what Ahsoka was meant to do. She gripped her saber tighter. She didn’t see a weapon on him, but Ahsoka knew from experience that no Force-user was ever truly unarmed. And whatever the Jedi might have to say about killing outside of self-defense, Ahsoka was pretty sure that killing the Dark lord of the Sith was the right thing to do under any circumstances. She raised her blade to deliver a killing stroke, ready to end Sidious’ tyranny once and for all. She never got the chance.
A door opened behind her, and for a second Ahsoka was caught off-guard, because it felt so much like Anakin, but it was Sidious, of course he would have his apprentice nearby, and she whirled and ignited her shoto, ready to continue her fight with Vader.
Standing atop a platform outside the door was not Darth Vader, but Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi. She gaped, but before she had time to say anything, Anakin pushed out, and Ahsoka flew through the air until she slammed into a support column near the window. She saw, dimly, as Anakin and Obi-Wan rushed over to Sidious, but she was rapidly losing her fight for consciousness, and before she knew it she was out cold.
Ahsoka didn’t know how long she was out, but she came to just in time to see Anakin fighting - could it be? Yes, there was no mistaking that perfect Makashi - Count Dooku. He was alone, Ahsoka noted, and glanced around to see Obi-Wan lying under the platform, which had partially collapsed.
She panicked and reached out with the Force just enough to make sure he was alive and in stable condition before returning her gaze to the duel that was going on. If Dooku was still alive, that meant she really was in the Clone Wars. And, as she now noticed, Sidious’ hands were bound to the chair. Which meant that the battle right now was the attack on Coruscant, and her younger counterpart was dealing with Maul on Mandalore.
It also meant that the Jedi Order was going to fall in a matter of days.
Ahsoka struggled to sit up, but her head was pounding. Going straight from fighting Vader to running away from Sidious’ fire to being tossed into a durasteel column was doing her no favors, it would seem. She managed to get to her hands and knees, wincing as she did so. She had hit the column hard on her side, and she would be lucky if she hadn’t cracked a rib.
She picked up her lightsabers from where they had landed a few feet away. She wasn’t sure what, exactly, her plan was, but if it wasn’t too late for Anakin, then maybe she could convince him not to Fall. Together, she was sure, they would have the strength to defeat Sidious. They could prevent Order 66, end the war, bring peace - bring balance, like that Force-forsaken prophecy had foretold.
Dooku cried out, and Ahsoka looked up to see him kneeling before Anakin, cradling what were now the stumps of his arms. Anakin held his lightsaber and Dooku’s in a deadly V on either side of the Sith lord’s neck.
“Kill him.”
Although Ahsoka had been about to do the same thing, more or less, she wanted to scream out for Anakin not to kill Dooku. Hypocrite, she thought, but she shoved that away. She was not on the verge of Falling, and she hadn’t been about to kill on the orders of a Sith.
She watched as Anakin hesitated, and she opened her mouth to tell him not to, but by the time she spoke his name it was too late, and Dooku’s body fell to the ground.
Anakin turned his head to her. He stalked over, still holding both his and Dooku’s lightsabers. “And who,” he said, “are you supposed to be?”
Ahsoka swallowed. Anakin was practically radiating Darkness already, the way his emotions swirled around him - anger, confusion, fear. “It’s me,” she said. “Ahsoka.”
“Ahsoka is on Mandalore,” Anakin said. He reached out with the Force, probing, and Ahsoka let him, though her guard remained up. “You might look like her, but you don’t feel like her.” His face darkened. “And Ahsoka would never try to kill the Chancellor.” He raised his lightsaber, holding Dooku’s to the side.
“Anakin, the Chancellor is a Sith,” Ahsoka said, stepping back. If she were at her best, she might have a chance against him, but her fight with Vader had proven that even that was a slim one. And now, exhausted and with a bruised rib and probably a concussion, she didn’t stand a chance.
“Maybe you’re a Sith,” he said, matching her step. “After all, I did just see you try to kill the leader of the Republic.”
Ahsoka clipped her lightsabers to her belt. “Please,” she said. “Just - hear me out.”
They were both thrown off balance by another shock to the ship, and an alarm started going off, somewhere. Anakin glanced worriedly at Obi-Wan, then back to Ahsoka. “We need to get out of here.” He waved his arm in the Chancellor’s direction, and the cuffs popped open. He hurried over.
“Anakin, we aren’t safe here,” he said, the picture of a frightened politician who knew nothing of combat. “We need to leave.”
“I agree,” Anakin said. He tossed Dooku’s lightsaber aside and stuck his hand out to Ahsoka. “Lightsabers. Now.”
Ahsoka hesitated, and Anakin used the Force to pull them off of her belt and into his hand. He clipped them to his own belt and walked over to Obi-Wan, though Ahsoka noticed he made sure both she and the Chancellor remained in his line of sight.
“Anakin, we’ll never make it if we bring him along,” Sidious said, and Ahsoka glared at him. She looked over to where Anakin was kneeling by Obi-Wan, and saw his face fixed in resolve.
“He’s coming with us,” Anakin said, and grunted as he slung his old master over his shoulders. He pointed at Ahsoka. “So are you, and don’t try anything.”
Ahsoka wanted to take her chances again with killing Sidious, but the likelihood that she would survive such an attempt were low, and she’d prefer a situation where she could explain herself to Anakin first. So she nodded, and they hurried down a hall, looking for an escape route. If they made it off this ship alive, she swore, she would figure out how to get rid of Sidious and stop Anakin from Falling.
The Force had sent her back for a reason, and Ahsoka would be damned to all nine Sith hells before she let the galaxy make all the same mistakes it had in the past.