Ahsoka parked her T-6 Jedi Shuttle on the dead planet, having chased and tracked down a dangerous Sith artifact here. Once she left the shuttle, she immediately sensed something wrong.
The air felt wrong.
Ahsoka made sure to keep her hands on her light sabers, fully aware of her surroundings, as she started walking toward the shattered temple.
This planet had an oppressive force, making Ahsoka fully alert.
She looked around the ruins, ancient, possibly older than the Republic, perhaps even older than the Jedi texts she'd once studied.
The Force here felt strained, like a wound that refused to heal. Every part of her wanted to run away, escape this world, but she needed the artifact and have it destroyed if possible, so that nobody tempted by the Dark could ever find it and use it for evil.
Ahsoka walked into the temple and instantly she felt it, the pain, fear, and echoes of something warning her to leave, but Ahsoka could be stubborn sometimes, especially when close to her goal.
She stopped in her tracks, eyes trained on the altar, where the artifact hovered, a jagged crystal lattice wrapped in blackened metal, humming with unstable energy.
Ahsoka immediately sensed the energy wasn't exactly Sith. More diluted, slimy, like ants crawling on the skin. It was definitely something worse.
Ahsoka took a step back when she felt her connection to the Force becoming shaky the closer she got to the altar.
She decided to go back and find more experienced help, now understanding the severity of what she found, but it was already too late. The crystals fed on the Force, and were now bending space, and tearing holes where it pleased.
Ahsoka sensed danger and tried to run outside the temple, but she was already being sucked into the expanding hole tearing the fabric of space and time.
But she wasn't going to give up. She used the Force to propel herself toward the exit, and was nearly successful in her escape when the Force behind her reacted and suddenly visions slammed into her mind.
These visions were not of Sith or Jedi, but of people hiding, children afraid, powers misunderstood. Cities she had never seen.
A different world where the Force reacted differently.
"What's happening?" Ahsoka whispered, eyes snapping open.
And the artifact cracked.
The Force went wild. The tear expanded faster than her Force could propel her. Wind howled as gravity twisted, tearing stones from the floor and flinging them into the ever-growing void.
Reacting on instinct and experience, she ignited her sabres and used them to anchor herself, but the Force itself was slipping through her grasp.
"No," she screamed, digging in. "I've faced worse than you."
But the rift wasn't attacking her.
It was pulling.
And despite her fierce determination to ensure her survival, Ahsoka knew deep in her heart she wasn't going to make it. That small doubt made her Force fluctuate uncontrollably.
And that's all it took for her sabres to flicker, and the next thing she saw was being sucked into the void. Ahsoka Tano was gone, and the rift closed in on itself.
It was as if nothing ever happened. After all, this was a ruined temple, and the Force had become stable once again. The only proof Ahsoka had stepped foot in this world was her shuttle still parked outside.
•••
Ahsoka landed hard on cold pavement, sirens loud in the distance, the Force around her different yet the same but also chaotic. She couldn't focus on anything, so she made a brutal decision to silence the Force, at least for now.
When everything was silent and she could think again, Ahsoka stood up unsteadily, looked around, and saw people staring at her, flashing her with odd devices.
But it wasn't their weird technology that made Ahsoka pause. It was the hate in their eyes. She'd seen this kind of hate before, but she didn't know what spurred it on.
A tall, burly man, clearly with sinister intentions, hate and disgust written all over his expression, approached her.
"Hey fucking mutie, how dare you show your disgusting form in front of us?!"
Ahsoka didn't react to the insult. It meant nothing to her, but she understood the intent behind those words.
From how he looked compared to her, Ahsoka immediately realized it had something to do with race.
'Of all the worlds, I ended up in possibly the worst one,' she thought nonchalantly as she picked up her fallen light sabres and strapped them where they belonged.
"Are you deaf, mutie? I said, how dare you show your disgusting form in front of us."
Ahsoka tilted her head, realizing this man was more afraid than courageous to walk up to her and do what he intended in his mind, speak with violence.
'Maybe he's actually reasonable? Then perhaps we can have a rational conversation.'
"I don't know what a 'mutie' is," Ahsoka said calmly. "But I know hate when I hear it."
The man scoffed. "You freaks think you can just walk around like you belong—"
Ahsoka stepped closer.
It wasn't to threaten, but in the man's mind that was as clear a threat as it could possibly be.
"In my galaxy," she said, eyes steady, "people were hunted for how they were born. The ones doing the hunting always believed they were right."
She tilted her head, studying him with something almost pitiful.
"They weren't."
"What are you babbling on about, you freak? I don't care what you say, just fucking leave."
Ahsoka sighed, disappointed, but she understood there was no reasoning with this kind of person.
She turned around to leave, but as expected the man used this to gather his false bravado and tried to attack her from behind.
On instinct, with how she generally dealt with this type of person, she used the Force to stop him in his tracks, but with how chaotic it had become, it pushed the man quite a distance. He hit a street pole with the side of his shoulder, taking damage that made him let out a piercing scream.
Ahsoka turned and frowned.
'What's happening? It was only meant to stop him, not throw him that far.'
Ahsoka looked at the man as he forced himself to stand, pain written on his face, but adrenaline-fueled hate helped him get up, mitigating some of the pain.
He glared at her, then looked at the people standing by, their phones aimed at Ahsoka and himself.
"You saw that, right?" he shouted to the crowd.
"That's what these things disguising themselves as humans are capable of. It doesn't matter what the X-freaks do to protect us. We should rely on ourselves, not those freaks. Because sooner or later, they too will turn on us, because they protect their own. Record the video and post it on all social media platforms. Show the world what these abominations are capable of."
Looking at the inspired crowd, Ahsoka knew she wasn't welcomed. Relying on her unreliable Force, she propelled herself upward, trying to land on top of a building, but instead she made herself fly.
Now she had to find a way to land without hurting herself.
Somehow, using the Force, luck, and probably some prayer, she managed to land moderately safely on an alley's concrete ground.
She stood up, looked up at the sky, and thought about everything that had happened so far. A feeling of isolation, which she should have been used to by now, took over as she realized something important.
She was no longer home.
°°°
Letting out a sigh, she was about to start walking toward an undetermined destination when the air suddenly shifted, the Force reacting to something.
Even when she decisively cut off her connection with the Force, it was still a part of her in a way that was nearly impossible to sever completely.
The change began with pressure, so subtle but deliberate, a kind of intuition that had saved her life on multiple occasions. She straightened reflexively, lekku (Long head-tails) twitching as she impulsively reached for the Force and stopped immediately.
It wasn't yet time, not when it was responding chaotically.
A low whrrr echoed overhead.
She looked up just in time to see a sleek black aircraft cut through the clouds, unnaturally quiet for something moving that fast. It hovered for a brief moment before banking sharply, disappearing behind the buildings.
"Military?" she assessed immediately, but not like any she'd seen before.
She barely had time to think before something else prickled at the edge of her awareness.
Not the Force, something similar perhaps. Someone was watching.
•••
Seven minutes prior:
Miles away, beneath a sprawling estate hidden from the world, Cerebro sang.
Jean Grey gasped, hands tightening on the armrests of the chair as psychic noise flooded her senses.
It was fear, anger, chaos, and more. Threaded through it all was something else.
"Charles," Jean said sharply, eyes snapping open. "There's someone out there. I've never felt anything like this."