Summary:After years of fighting the Empire and trying not to lose all hope, Ahsoka Tano is thrown back in time to the invasion of Naboo. Now it seems like she's the only one who can save the galaxy, and she'll do it or die trying.
She may be disoriented, but this stagnant, not-yet-war-torn galaxy isn't ready for her, either. What happens when Ahsoka—veteran soldier, Purge survivor, rebel agent—appears and starts tearing through a thousand years of corruption and Sith schemes?
Everything changes.
Now somehow the immensely adorable nine-year-old Anakin is her apprentice, and he's not even her only apprentice. Maul is obsessed with her. She's giving the Jedi Order a rude awakening. There might be a chance to stop Dooku from becoming a Sith. The Republic is falling apart in an entirely unfamiliar way. And that's just the beginning.
Whether or not all this change will be a good thing remains to be seen.
And there's one thing Ahsoka cannotlet happen: Darth Vader. She doesn't know who he is or where he came from, but she does know that she's going to find the unstoppable monster who terrorized the galaxy once, and she's going to kill him.
Notes:"I wish there were more Ahsoka time travel fics," I said to myself.
"Be the change you want to see in the world," I said fifteen seconds later, and the rest is history.
I've had this in the works for a long time. Hope you enjoy it!
(See the end of the work for other works inspired by this one.)
Chapter 1: SandstormNotes:(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter TextFor years after the Purge, Ahsoka had no idea if Obi-Wan was still alive. Until one day, Bail Organa pulled her aside and asked her to memorize a set of coordinates on Tatooine, with the understanding that if the Empire captured her, she should die before giving them up. Following them had brought her to a small hut built into a cliff face in the middle of the Jundland Wastes, and the years had not been kind to him. He opened his door with a gaunt face and a beard mostly white, and it was not joy but worry that filled his expression when he recognized her.
"Ahsoka?" he said, after a long silence. "How?"
That one word held so many different questions, but she settled for answering the one that would put him most at ease. "Bail sent me."
"He did?" If anything, Obi-Wan only looked more anxious. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing! Well—" Ahsoka had to amend that statement. You couldn't say there was nothing wrong, not while the Empire was still standing. "Nothing more than usual. I just… I just wanted to see you, Obi-Wan."
"Ah." There was a moment's silence, and then Ahsoka rushed forward, wrapping him in a ferocious hug. Obi-Wan made a startled noise, but after a few seconds he returned the hug.
"I had no idea you'd survived," he said.
"I had to go underground."
"So did I."
They were silent for a long time after that, Ahsoka refusing to be the one that ended the hug. Finally, Obi-Wan stepped away and gestured to the interior of his hut. "Would you like to come in?"
"Of course." Ahsoka cast an eye around their rocky, desolate surroundings as she stepped over the stoop. "Why Tatooine? Of all the places you could've picked…"
"I had my reasons." Obi-Wan's expression turned oddly pained. "I'll make us some tea."
Ahsoka followed him into a small sitting room. There wasn't much to see, just some bare furniture and accouterments that didn't look much different from his room in the Jedi Temple. She recognized a tapestry as Obi-Wan's weaving, and in one corner a small Mandalorian sigil had been carved into the wall.
And then, unexpectedly, the Force rippled around her. Something in this room was calling to her.
She zeroed in on it almost immediately. A small wooden box on a shelf across the room, just big enough to hold—to hold—
She recognized the familiar feeling as she reached for the lid. Obi-Wan, coming out of his kitchen with two clay mugs, froze. "Ahsoka—"
But Ahsoka was opening the lid as his warning tone reached her. She reached in, her fingers closing around cold metal, and she withdrew a very familiar lightsaber hilt.
Anakin's.
Obi-Wan quietly joined her side as she stood there, speechless, only able to think of one reason why he would have this in his possession.
"No," she said. "No."
"I'm sorry."
"He can't be dead. He was the most powerful Jedi in existence."
"Power is no guarantee of one's ability to survive," Obi-Wan said, laying a hand on her shoulder.
Ahsoka shook it off, trying to hold back a sob. "But he was Anakin!" She'd joked many times over the years that her master's unerring ability to find trouble would lead him to an early death, but to actually know that he was…
Her grip on the saber tightened. "He can't be."
"I was there."
Ahsoka stiffened. Her entire world seemed to be shrinking to one singular point: the lightsaber in her hand. "You—But you were on Utapau."
"He survived the initial purge. It was only afterward. I saw him die in front of me."
"So who killed him—Palpatine?"
"No. Vader."
Vader. The name was enough to send a freezing chill up and down Ahsoka's spine. She'd only heard that name whispered around her, and only seen that dark, unmoving visage in a few Imperial holos. But everyone knew just how dangerous he could be. The Emperor's right hand seemed more mythological than real sometimes, but the stories of surviving Jedi cut down in seconds, unruly planets holding out against Imperial rule bending to his will in a matter of hours, and conniving Imperial administrators being brutally murdered for trying to undercut his power were all horrifically true. Bail, the only person she knew to have come into contact with Vader, simply described him as 'malevolence incarnate.'
Ahsoka had long considered the possibility that someday, she would have to face him. She'd already killed one inquisitor. She was too powerful to be left to the devices of those two-bit Imperial goons for long. Sooner or later, the Empire would decide to send in real firepower against her. She could only hope she was ready.
But now, hearing that Vader had cut down Anakin, the best fighter she'd ever known, what hope was there for her? A thought struck her very briefly, that maybe she should just give up and move out to the middle of nowhere, maybe become Obi-Wan's neighbor and spend the rest of her life watching the sand dunes. She immediately felt ashamed for thinking it, but the thought stuck in her mind, refusing to budge. She shoved the lightsaber back in its box and slammed the lid shut.
"How did you survive Vader?" she asked.
Obi-Wan was quiet for a moment. The sound of a distant howling wind scraped at Ahsoka's ears.
"I wish I knew," he said finally. The whistling of the teakettle undercut his last words.
Tatooine-type tea, even made by Obi-Wan's skilled hand, was noxious and bitter, its only apparent benefit being that it could be used to stretch out sparse stores of water. Still, Ahsoka drank it deeply.
"I take it you've been working with Bail in the rebellion," Obi-Wan said after some conversation, rubbing his chin. "I had no idea. He does well to keep his information compartmentalized."
Ahsoka nodded. Very compartmentalized. Very few others knew she existed; not even Kanan Jarrus. "If you can even call it a rebellion."
"All rebellions have to start from somewhere."
In the uncomfortable pause that followed, it seemed that neither of them wanted to acknowledge that most rebellions also didn't go anywhere.
"And what have you been doing here?" Ahsoka said.
"Guarding." Obi-Wan put down his mug and gazed out over the landscape. "There's something here that needs to be kept safe. As far from the Empire as possible."
"What?"
"Our future."
Ahsoka didn't push. It was safer if she didn't know. But there was one thing she could know…
"Why here?" she asked, running her finger along the edge of the mug's rough rim. "There's a million and one empty planets on the Outer Rim, most of them less populated than this. I'd know, I stayed on a few of them."
"That is true." Obi-Wan inclined his head. "However… There's one thing that drew me to Tatooine. I know that Vader will never, ever look for me here."
"Oh." Unwillingly, Vader rose up in Ahsoka's thoughts again, and her mind seized upon something that she hated to ask, but absolutely needed to ask.
"Did Anakin suffer?"
Obi-Wan looked up, startled. "What?"
"When Vader killed him. Was it at least… quick?"
Obi-Wan didn't say anything, and that told Ahsoka all she needed to know. She didn't remember much of the conversation after that. Just empty words, a vague feeling of wanting to vomit, saying she needed to get back to her ship, and then stumbling out into the desert.
She had never felt so lost as she did wandering through those sands, feeling as if she'd just been stabbed through the chest. For years, she'd managed to hold onto the hope that Anakin was just lying in hiding somewhere, or maybe operating rebel cells from the shadows, or perhaps he'd even just given up on the future and retired to a quiet farm life somewhere without expectation of anything better. Any of those things would've been better than this.
If the Empire could take down Anakin, what hope was there for the rest of them? Bail had told her Yoda was in hiding just like Obi-Wan, and that was it. Ahsoka was the last and most powerful Force user in the galaxy opposing the Empire. And she was no Jedi.
What chance did she have? As soon as she got pesky enough to really get the Empire's attention, they'd bring their full might down on her, and that would be it. Maybe there was no point in fighting on. What could she do? She was alone.
It was then that the sandstorm began.
A distant rumbling drew Ahsoka back to consciousness. She could feel harsh sunlight beating down on her, painfully bright even with her eyelids squeezed shut. Her face was pressed down into something tough and gritty, and an odd, shifting weight pressed down on one side of her.
Sand. The last thing she remembered was the sandstorm, a sudden and violent curtain slamming into her, then losing her bearings and sinking to her knees in a sand dune as stinging particles lashed at her skin. And then, nothing. She raised her head, feeling out the area with her montrals, finding nothing.
With no other option, she raised her head and eased her eyes open. The light was blinding, and at first all she saw was white, tinged by a faint yellow. She extricated one arm from the sand and raised it to shield her eyes. It was then that she realized the rumbling had gotten much louder.
It seemed to be coming from all around. Too rhythmic to be another sandstorm, but what—
Everything darkened, and for the first time, Ahsoka could actually see. She looked up and saw the outline of a sleek, gleaming ship. It blotted out the sun as it descended, almost directly above her. The shadow falling over her allowed her a moment to look around, and it was mostly the same as before; somewhere in the wastelands of Tatooine. The dunes looked different, but sandstorms could reshape anything in minutes.
The ship touched down, still shielding her from the sunlight. With one ferocious yank, Ahsoka pulled herself completely out of the sand and tried to get to her feet, only to nearly collapse, suddenly weak and dizzy. How long had she been out here…?
A clunk and a hiss signaled the lowering of a boarding ramp. Ahsoka had no idea what to make of her apparent rescuers. She was grateful to have someone—she felt about two hours from dying—but this was the middle of nowhere. Nobody went out here unless they had a reason. And usually, they were bad reasons. Steadying herself on her knees, she looked up again. Two figures appeared at the ship's exit, still mostly obscured by the escaping gas from the hydraulics. Ahsoka's mind jumped to her lightsabers, tucked safely in her boots, but only reserved for the most dire of emergencies. She wasn't quite there yet.
The two figures descended the steps—human males, one older, one younger, and—and—
Ahsoka's heart nearly stopped as a familiar feeling rang out in the Force. They were Force-sensitive. And they were wearing… Jedi robes? What kind of mockery was this? What slain Jedi had they stolen those clothes from?
Ahsoka gritted her teeth. This wasn't the first time the Empire had found her, but… Well, she wouldn't be going down without a fight.
She readied too-stiff muscles, her hands starting to go for her sabers, but just then, the older one spoke.
"Are you all right?"
Ahsoka froze. Those words had no malice in them, no sign of deception that she could sense.
"We sensed you when we were flying overhead," he continued, coming closer.
Sensed? Ahsoka stared. Who just volunteered that kind of information without knowing who was around to listen?
"Who are you?" she said, her hands moving closer to her sabers again.
The older one—tall, long hair, a neatly-trimmed beard—spread his arms, revealing empty hands. "It's all right, stranger. We're Jedi. And we're a bit lost ourselves."
Ahsoka didn't hear the rest of what he'd said, because she was too busy choking on one word. Jedi. JEDI?
What the kriff was going on?
"Who are you?" she repeated, liking this situation less and less. She only knew of two Jedi still in existence, and both of them were old and defeated, but certainly not stupid enough to call themselves a Jedi out loud.
"My name is Qui-Gon Jinn," the older man said, and Ahsoka's mind began to backpedal frantically as she dragged up old memories she hadn't touched in years. Wasn't that—
"And this is my apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi," Jinn continued, laying a hand on the shoulder of the younger man.
Ahsoka blinked, focusing on the other man. It took her a second, but she recognized that thoughtful, searching expression even if it looked several decades younger and considerably less bearded. What the—
At that point, Ahsoka had heard enough. Summoning a burst of Force energy, she leapt to her feet and drew her lightsabers in a flash, the white blade-light bouncing off the desert sand and refracting at the edges of her vision.
"Jinn" and "Obi-Wan" both took a step backward, surprise evident in their eyes and their Force presences. Which only frustrated Ahsoka further.
"Is this a trick?!" she hissed. They weren't lying. She could sense the truth in their words. Which meant the Empire had to be doing something well and truly kriffed up to trap her now. Messing with her Force sense? Brainwashing two lookalikes into actually thinking that they were Jedi?
She reached out into the Force again, almost throwing her senses at the 'Jedi.' And again, it told her something that shouldn't be possible. Two strong Force presences. Honest confusion, honest concern. No darkness.
"I certainly hope not," Fake Obi-Wan said, which didn't help the situation at all, but also bothered Ahsoka immensely because it sounded like the sort of thing Obi-Wan would've said in a situation like this. Whoever was imitating him…
…But the Empire knew Obi-Wan wasn't this young anymore. This was… She'd only ever seen Obi-Wan look like this in pictures from before she was born. And they knew Qui-Gon Jinn was dead. One thing could be said about the Empire, they kept their facts straight. Especially when it came to Jedi hunting.
Then what? She lowered her lightsabers, ever so slightly, considering that maybe things were even stranger than they appeared.
"That's an impressive pair of lightsabers," Fake Qui-Gon said, tilting his head at her. "White is a rare color."
Ahsoka stared at him. Seriously?
"Show me yours," she said.
"Hm?"
"I want to see your lightsabers!" It took every ounce of self-control to keep her voice from turning outright frantic. If their lightsabers were normal, it wouldn't do much to reassure her, but if these two did have red lightsabers, she could get the talking part of this over with in a hurry.
"I usually like to get someone's name before I have to fight them," Jinn said, and that also bothered Ahsoka because again, that sounded like something Obi-Wan would've said, which he could've very well gotten from his master.
"I don't want to fight you," she said slowly. After a few moment's consideration, she turned off her sabers, still holding them at the ready. "I just need to know if you really are Jedi."
The probably fake Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan exchanged a look, and then slowly reached into their robes and drew out gleaming hilts. Then, in a very non-confrontational stance, they lit their blades. Green and blue.
Ahsoka's breath almost caught at the sight. She wanted to believe this was somehow Obi-Wan in front of her. But she'd seen Obi-Wan Kenobi just an hour ago. She'd sat in his tiny little hut on Tatooine and stared at a face that seemed to have aged three years for every year since they'd last met. This couldn't be him.
And Qui-Gon Jinn… there was no doubt about it. She didn't know the details, but she knew there was a body (unlike someone else from that fight, her brain thought unhelpfully), and she knew that body had been burned at his funeral. Not even Sith magic could bring back the dead. Obi-Wan had confessed to meeting his ghost on Mortis.
So. What. Was. This.
She reached out into the Force again. It had stayed mostly quiet throughout their encounter, but now she was begging it for an answer. Something. Anything. Just a hint to explain. Maybe she'd finally gone insane.
Who are these people? she screamed silently.
But then, feeling her question resonate in the air, she noticed something else. The Force felt different. It felt… more alive. There were… She blinked. It hadn't felt that way since… before the Empire.
An answer floated back to her on the breeze, soft and somehow reassuring.
Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi.
There was something else in that breeze, the sensation of a million other souls, bright candles in the Force spread out through the galaxy. Some of them familiar, some of them not. Jedi. So many of them. Another whisper came to her from nowhere.
You are not alone.
This time, she believed what it was saying. At least a little bit.
Ahsoka took a deep, heaving breath, and lowered her lightsabers. Her arms suddenly felt incredibly heavy.
"Masters, do me a favor, please?" she said.
Jinn gave her a questioning look as he shut off his lightsaber.
One who was supposed to be dead, one who was supposed to be old. Flying a flashy ship that would attract way too much attention. Neither of them hiding their Jedi status, or being concerned by running into another Force user.
She'd been to Mortis. She knew that after that, nothing was out of the question. But this, this thing she was considering now felt almost too outlandish even in comparison to disappearing planets and Force gods.
"Tell me, what year is it?" she asked.
"You're quite lost, aren't you?"
"The year. Please."
But Ahsoka had a pretty good idea of what the answer would be even as Qui-Gon said it. Several seconds of quick mental math later, she was resisting the urge to swear for about the fourth time that minute.
If they weren't lying, if she wasn't somehow misunderstanding the entire situation, if this wasn't some trap or vision or hallucination, then… she had traveled back in time. The Empire, the purge, the clones—all of it was years away. She was now older than Obi-Wan Kenobi. By several years.
She swayed on her feet ever so slightly, and the real Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon both moved forward.
"Do you need help?" Obi-Wan said.
"May we ask how you got here?" Qui-Gon added.
Ahsoka paused, words getting stuck somewhere in her parched throat. "Masters, you wouldn't believe me if I told you."
And then she blacked out.
When Ahsoka woke up on a sofa, ensconced in cool conditioned air and a fleecy blanket, she was greeted by the sight of a teenage Padmé Amidala sponging her forehead. And this time, she actually did swear, because Padmé, the closest thing she'd ever had to a mother figure, was definitely dead. She'd been at Padmé's funeral. The Empire, of course, had blamed her death on the Jedi.
Not-dead Padmé seemed unphased by the vulgarity. "How do you feel?" she said, withdrawing the sponge. "I can call for the Jedi. They performed healing on you while you were unconscious."
Ahsoka stared.
"Who are you?" she said finally, even though she knew perfectly well.
"I'm Padmé," she replied. "One of the Queen's handmaidens."
"The queen? Hand—" Ahsoka was interrupted mid-sentence by a tremendous protest from her lungs. When she'd finished coughing, Padmé handed her a cup of water. She nodded in thanks and sipped, racking her brains. Padmé, former queen of Naboo, the handmaidens—oh, right, Padmé's bodyguards. Who all looked exactly like her. So much that at various visits to Padmé's office, Ahsoka had accidentally hugged Rabé, Dormé, Eirtaé, and, yes, Sabé—Force, it'd been so long since she had to remember any of this. They'd done this switcheroo thing a few times, she could remember that now.
"Hi," Ahsoka managed. The closest thing she'd ever had to a mother figure was now… fourteen. She was the adult figure now. "Nice to meet you."
"We'll take it from here, Padmé," came a voice from the doorway, and Ahsoka glanced over to see Real Obi-Wan and Real Qui-Gon standing in the doorway. Jinn had his hands on his hips, watching Ahsoka carefully, but without hostility. Obi-Wan's expression was more unreadable.
Padmé nodded and slipped out, leaving Ahsoka alone with the two Jedi. Jedi. Jedi. Ahsoka was in a room with multiple Force users for the first time in… too long. She wanted to hug Obi-Wan, relish the feeling of his strong, sturdy Force presence, but that wasn't possible anymore. Obi-Wan didn't know who she was. No one did. She turned her attention to Qui-Gon Jinn, who… Well, she had no idea what to expect. Anakin had only known him for a few days, and Obi-Wan did not like to talk about the past. Which was now the present, apparently. Kriff, that was going to trip her up a lot.
"Masters," she said, pulling herself up into a sitting position. "Thank you for rescuing me."
"We got there just in time," Jinn said, pulling up a chair and sitting down next to her sofa. "You were dangerously dehydrated when we found you."
Ahsoka nodded. "I got lost in a sandstorm."
"Must've been quite a sandstorm."
"It was." Ahsoka could hear the pointed question hidden in Jinn's voice, and she wasn't going to take the bait. Not because she was trying to hide anything, but because she had no idea how the hell to answer.
She looked over at Obi-Wan and nearly choked. He was looking at her with the slightly cautious, deferring demeanor of a Padawan, which was, no. What. She wasn't used to Obi-Wan looking at her like she had seniority.
"Care to tell us your name?"
"Uh—" Ahsoka hesitated, knowing all too well that people who hesitated when asked to give a name usually didn't seem all that trustworthy. Fulcrum? Ashla? Probably best to just go with the truth. They would notice if she lied. She felt too tired to lie right now.
"Ahsoka Tano." She took a long drink of water immediately after.
"Hmm." Jinn tilted his head. "Pleased to meet you, Master Tano."
It took a few seconds for those words to sink in, and when they did, Ahsoka almost laughed out loud in bitterness. They were addressing her as a Jedi. And why wouldn't they? Instead of having a breakdown over the fact that her relationship with the Jedi was hopelessly complicated at this point and further muddled by the nostalgia of a time when everything she held dear still existed, she simply shrugged.
"Pleased to meet you too."
"Now, I can't say I'm old—" Jinn began.
"I can," Obi-Wan said.
"Padawan," Jinn said quietly, chagrined.
Ahsoka choked. That sounded exactly like Obi-Wan and Anakin. Except Obi-Wan was supposed to be the one getting called old.
"—Age notwithstanding, I've certainly been around the Temple a few times. And I never once met a Jedi named Ahsoka Tano. In fact, as far as I know, there's only five Togruta Jedi in the order, and you definitely are not one of them."
"I…" Ahsoka tried to stall by going back to her water, only to realize the cup was empty. "You shouldn't," she said finally.
"Why is that?"
Ahsoka couldn't answer this. Even if she did tell the truth, how could she possibly expect them to believe her? She wasn't even sure what the truth was.
"Master Tano." Jinn raised an eyebrow. "I don't believe you have any malevolent deeds planned—unless you're very good at shielding your intentions—but I am rather suspicious of an unknown and powerful Force user popping up out of nowhere. As will be the rest of the Jedi Order."
"Well—" Ahsoka faltered, only to be saved when the door opened again and a helmeted man slipped inside. He leaned down and whispered something to Obi-Wan, who turned to Jinn.
"Master, it's getting to be noon. We should head for the settlement if we want to be back by nightfall."
Jinn paused for a moment, considering, and then nodded. "Very well." He turned to Ahsoka. "How are you feeling?"
Ahsoka tested her extremities. "Much better."
"Excellent. We have to go into town and buy some new parts for our ship. You'll have to come with us."
"What?" Ahsoka stared. "Why?"
"Because, regardless of what I sense in the Force, you are still an unknown entity, and it would be foolish of us to leave you with this ship, which you could easily steal without both of us around to guard you." He inclined his head. "Seeing as I need to go, you'll have to come along with us so we can watch you."
"...Fair enough," Ahsoka said, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed and bending down to tighten the laces on her boots. Wasn't like she could argue with that. "Who else is coming?"
"Just this astromech."
"Fine by me—" Ahsoka heard a stunningly familiar bleeeeep, and looked up to see Artoo, looking shinier and newer than she'd ever seen him, trundling into the room. She almost choked on her own tongue.
Whatever was going on, it was going to take some getting used to.
Notes:Asking someone "what year is it?" is always a fantastic way to make a first impression.
I'd love a comment if you've got anything to say, and I mean anything. You could literally just leave a comment that says "Aeiou" and it'd still make me weep with joy.
Chapter 2: Dinner With The DeadNotes:Thank you for the response to the first chapter! I'm so incredibly honored.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter TextThey'd taken her lightsabers.
Ahsoka understood why, but it was incredibly disconcerting, almost terrifying to not feel the reassuring weight of those hilts stowed safely in her boots. Her lightsabers were supposed to be her last line of defense, the emergency measures if the Empire really found her, and her instincts were screaming at her that no lightsabers meant something was seriously, seriously wrong. The years between getting rid of her old ones and building the new pair on Raada had been the worst of her life. She couldn't stop herself from twitching every time the wind whistled over the dunes.
They were almost to the settlement. Qui-Gon had one of her sabers, Obi-Wan the other. She could sense them strapped to their belts. Although Qui-Gon had been quite cordial about it, the undertone of suspicion was clear.
And how exactly was she going to clear up that suspicion? Ahsoka had spent the entire walk trying to think of a way to explain her appearance here without telling them she was from the future.
"Master Tano?"
The sound of Qui-Gon's voice pulled Ahsoka out of her thoughts, and she glanced up to find him looking at her expectantly. They had arrived at the outskirts of the town.
"Er, sorry?" she said. "I didn't hear?"
"I was asking if you sensed anything unusual," Qui-Gon said, folding his arms under his robe.
Ahsoka extended a hand, reaching out into the Force. She breathed in slowly. The Force around them was calm, but two things in the distance leapt out at her. One, dark and debilitating, a distant cloud radiating hatred, far off beyond the horizon. And the other, much closer, slow and clumsy, but whispering of hidden depths. Like a krayt dragon rising from slumber.
"A disturbance," she said. "And something else. Something that isn't a disturbance. I can't tell what."
"Hmm." Qui-Gon frowned. "I only sensed the disturbance."
Ahsoka froze. Topping a Jedi Master's Force sensing ability was not a good way to ensure she appeared as unassuming as possible.
"What is this other thing you feel?"
Well, the loth-cat was out of the bag on that. Ahsoka reached out again, probing the second presence gently. It was strong, that much she could tell. And it felt strangely familiar… But then, so did the dark presence, and she wasn't going to admit that right now.
"Don't know. Very strong," she said.
Qui-Gon rubbed his beard in a method eerily reminiscent of the way Obi-Wan did it, and then shrugged. "Well, let's see if it wants to find us."
With that, he strode onward. They were a strange convoy as they entered the settlement—Qui-Gon towering over everyone as he walked, Obi-Wan skulking behind, clearly having the job of keeping a close eye on Ahsoka, and Padmé (still pretending to be a handmaiden), who had talked her way into the trip somehow. And Ahsoka. Being outsiders was bad enough, but there was a good chance she was the only Togruta on the planet right now. She could feel the stares directed at herself from all quarters.
Tatooine was an odd place. Almost completely hostile to life, and yet it persisted in so many places, in so many pockets, and was impossible to root out. Even under the Empire life seemed to have gone on as normal there, looking no different than it did right now. That duality of hostility and stubborn life, it meant… something. Only Master Yoda would've been able to explain it easily. But Ahsoka could make at least some sense of it. And that sense was: If she had to pick a planet that would've thrown her back in time, she would've picked Tatooine.
And she was almost completely sure this was time travel. The more she moved around, felt the Force around her, and interacted with her new companions, the more sure she felt. This felt real. Real enough, at least.
Hm.
Tatooine. Ahsoka stopped short, causing Obi-Wan to run face-first into her shoulder blades.
How could she have completely forgotten?! Anakin was from Tatooine. He was alive and on this planet right now!
And he was so much younger. She reached out into the Force again, ignoring Obi-Wan asking her why she'd stopped, and this time she recognized the mysterious Force presence, which now felt much closer.
It was Anakin. He'd never been one to talk much about how he joined the Jedi Order, and on the rare occasions between battles when Ahsoka had squeezed some backstory out of him, he was always frustratingly vague. What Ahsoka had gathered was this: He'd lived as a slave on Tatooine until Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, escaping Naboo, landed there and found him. And now, by the virtue of apparently traveling through time, she was getting a firsthand look at his past.
She muttered an apology to Obi-Wan for the accident and rounded a corner, only to almost run into Qui-Gon.
He gave her a curious look. "I've found a shop," he said, motioning to the earthen door of the building next to them.
Right. Ahsoka took a deep breath and followed him in. This was fine. Wherever Anakin was, he would get to leave this planet soon, just like he'd told her. Unless… Unless her arrival had somehow messed up the sequence of events and maybe Anakin would be stuck on this planet forever.
As Qui-Gon conversed with a Toydarian, she drifted off to the side, noticing a small exit to some sort of courtyard filled with scrap. Stepping outside, she took a deep breath and collected herself.
Hm. She glanced around. That presence in the Force, the non-disturbing one she'd felt earlier, was only getting stronger, but she still couldn't figure out where it was coming from.
"You're not from around here."
Ahsoka spun around to face the new voice, was momentarily thrown off by the apparent lack of anything in the vicinity, and then looked down. Immediately, she felt like she'd been punched in the face on three different planes of existence. Anakin Skywalker peered up at her from below, blonde-haired, innocent-faced, a kriffing child.
Ahsoka stared. Anakin was wide-eyed, taking in every inch of her.
"Anakin?" she said, the name out of her mouth before she could stop herself.
Anakin's eyes bugged out, making him look positively Gran-esque. "How do you know me?!"
Resisting the urge to curse loudly, Ahsoka tried to think of a suitable answer. Fortunately or unfortunately, Anakin kept talking.
He pointed to her armor. "You're not dressed like anyone from around here. Are you from offworld?"
"I…" Ahsoka still couldn't find words. He was here, he was alive again, and he had no idea who she was. "I am."
She really wasn't supposed to be talking to him! Whatever had happened to get him off Tatooine, she needed to step back and just let it happen the way it did. "I think you're needed inside," she added hurriedly.
Anakin didn't seem to have heard a word. "Really? Wow! Where are you from?"
Oh Force… Ahsoka felt the bizarre urge to squish his cheeks, because he was an adorable child, but he was her master. She couldn't squish the cheeks of her old master, no matter how young he was.
But before Ahsoka could reply, a voice rasped from inside, "BOY! Get in here!"
Anakin glanced towards the voice, then up at Ahsoka with apologetic eyes. "Sorry! Watto needs me!" Then he darted past her before she could reply.
Ahsoka followed him inside, dazed. Just… hours ago, or twenty years before… or whatever, however her time worked now, she'd found out Anakin was dead, and now she was seeing him in front of her again, but he didn't know who she was. If this was the galaxy's way of fixing everything, it had a terrible sense of humor.
Watto spat a few words in another language at Anakin, and Anakin nodded frantically, bowing his head and scraping his foot against the ground. Obi-Wan was lurking inside near the door, one eye trained on Ahsoka from underneath his hood.
Ahsoka scowled at the shopkeeper's backside as he flew out to the courtyard again, before glancing around the shop again, watching Anakin closely as he began cleaning one of the shelves.
He was a slave. He had an exploding chip somewhere in him. What did that do to Anakin, growing up knowing that there was something buried in him that would end him if he tried to take control of his life? She wished she could just reach out with the Force and yank that chip out of his skin. But that risked setting off the chip.
She looked away, her gaze bouncing around the shop. She was torn between wanting to keep her eyes glued to Anakin, and being unable to bear seeing Anakin as a slave and being treated this way.
"Are you a pilot?" Anakin's voice said at her elbow, and she jumped a kilometer, looking down to see him wiping grease off his hands with a rag.
"Sort of."
"Where are you from?"
It took Ahsoka a few seconds to figure out a safe answer. "Shili."
"Oh." Anakin squinted, thinking, and then brightened. "You're a Togruta!"
Ahsoka barely held back a chuckle at his enthusiasm. "Yep. You know your species better than most human kids I've met."
"I ask all the pilots that come here about where they go," Anakin said. "I want to go to all of them someday." He paused, but only for a moment. "Have you met any Jedi?"
"...A few," Ahsoka said, swallowing back a tangled mass of emotions.
"Really? Wow! What were they like?"
"Powerful. Honorable." Ahsoka tilted her head, remembering the last things the Order had done to her, and then chose to focus on the best memories, the ones that counted for so much more. "Always helping others. Brave," she said finally. It helped that the best Jedi she'd ever known was standing right in front of her.
"Whoaaaa." Anakin gave an appreciative nod before darting sideways to push a crate under a shelf. "I've always wanted to meet a Jedi. But I don't think they'd ever come here."
"You never know," Ahsoka said, glancing over to Obi-Wan, who gave her a pointed look that was probably saying DON'T BLOW OUR COVER.
Unfortunately, Anakin noticed her looking.
"Who's that?" he said, inclining his head at Obi-Wan.
"My friend." Ahsoka left it at that. The less she said, the better for making sure nothing got messed up. Of course, this would be easier if she knew what had happened on Tatooine beyond a few vague sentences. She really, really wished Anakin had talked about his past more.
Qui-Gon and Watto re-entered the shop, and Ahsoka straightened, only to realize his face was lined with disappointment.
"We're leaving," he said, nodding to Ahsoka and Obi-Wan.
Ahsoka blinked, trying to remember if this was how it was supposed to go. Obi-Wan had mentioned this once; there was something about the shopkeeper refusing to sell, and they'd had to… Something happened that led to Anakin podracing for the ship and his freedom. So… keep quiet and follow Qui-Gon's lead for now. She could do that.
They'd been back in the harsh desert sun for a few minutes when Obi-Wan turned to Qui-Gon and said, "No luck, I take it?"
"He doesn't deal in Republic credits," Qui-Gon said, sidestepping a slow-moving speeder. "Is there anything on the ship we can barter with?"
"Just essentials, a few small arms, and the queen's wardrobe."
"Hm." Qui-Gon was silent for a moment, and then he shrugged. "I'm sure another situation will present itself."
Ahsoka shot a sideways glance at him. Had this been part of the original plan the first time around?
"Excuse me, Miss?"
The group turned around as a familiar voice struck them, and Ahsoka found Anakin looking up at her.
"You dropped your communicator back in the shop."
Ahsoka looked at the thing Anakin was holding out to her. It was rusty, caked with dust, and looked like it hadn't been working in years. "I didn't—"
"How did you know my name?" Anakin burst out.
Oh, kriff. Ahsoka could feel Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan staring at her.
"Sometimes I dream about people coming and taking me away from here," he continued, his eyes locked onto her. "Are you those people?"
Ahsoka looked to Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan for help with a glance that she hoped would communicate she hadn't planned any of this.
"It's best not to spend your life hoping for things like that, child," Qui-Gon said, bending down to meet Anakin's eyes. "You can waste a life like that, waiting for something that'll never happen."
Anakin pouted, but only for a moment. "There's a storm coming up. Where's your ship?"
"On the dunes," Qui-Gon said.
Anakin shook his head fiercely. "You'll never make it back in time. Sandstorms swallow people up in less than a minute. Don't go into it." He turned back to Ahsoka, fixing a pleading look on her. "You can stay at my place until it's blown over."
Ahsoka glanced at Qui-Gon, who looked to the sky in thought. There was a line of clouds gathering on the horizon—at least, Ahsoka thought they were clouds until she noticed them growing in size, taking up more and more of the sky at a deceptively slow pace. A sandstorm—how sandstorms were supposed to look when they weren't throwing you back in time.
"I think we'll defer to your knowledge, young one," Qui-Gon said, nodding to Anakin. "Lead the way."
Anakin broke into a huge grin. "Come on! It's this way!" With that, he broke into a bounding run.
Qui-Gon gave Ahsoka an arch look as they followed.
"You know this child?" he said.
Ahsoka considered her options, and decided that the truth, on technicality, would be the only thing that worked.
"Yes and no."
Qui-Gon stared at her. She could sense him probing with the Force, trying to get a read on her emotions, and in response, Ahsoka made no effort to hide the genuine exhaustion and the confusion that she felt.
Qui-Gon was silent for a long time. When he spoke again, his voice was thick with suspicion.
"Once we've delivered the queen safely to Coruscant, the Council will have a long talk with you, Master Tano."
It was easy for Ahsoka to nod her assent. She was used to long talks with the Jedi Council.
Ahsoka was at a table of ghosts. Ghosts that ate, drank, conversed, and didn't know that she would outlive all of them. She ate slowly, her eyes darting around the table.
Qui-Gon. Dead before Ahsoka ever had the chance to meet him. Something of a looming legend in her consciousness. Seeing him flesh-and-blood was… disconcerting.
Padmé, listening intently to Shmi. Anakin, looking intently at Padmé. Both of them dead in twenty years. Never able to be out in the open about their relationship. She had no idea if they'd died together or apart. Padmé had been pregnant. Did they ever get a chance to see their children? Obi-Wan, old Obi-Wan on Tatooine, had been too reluctant to speak of any of that.
Obi-Wan. Dead in spirit when Ahsoka had found him. Technically alive, but only in a crude sense. She knew the expression of someone defeated, someone who could only wait for the tides to turn again. He was waiting for death. She'd seen that same emptiness in the younglings hunted by the Trandoshans.
Shmi. A woman Ahsoka knew nearly nothing about. According to Anakin, she was a kind person who would've done anything for him. The kindness was obvious from the first moments when Shmi welcomed them in. And from one passing glance at the mostly-bare pantry of the Skywalker abode, Ahsoka could tell there wasn't enough food to spare for visitors. But that didn't stop Shmi from doing her best to accommodate the newcomers, and somehow each place at the table had a bowl of food when they sat down. And to Ahsoka's surprise, Shmi had known that Togrutas were carnivorous and given her meat only. She knew where Anakin's kindness came from.
Anakin only talked about her once or twice, never about her death. All she knew was that she couldn't come with Anakin when he'd left, and then ten years later she was dead despite Anakin flying home to save her.
And now Ahsoka was sitting across from her, listening to her explain just how slavery thrived in the Outer Rim, and she found herself wondering, how could they NOT rescue Shmi too?
She did know that Anakin had wondered that more than a few times.
"At least I… I was able to bring her back," he had said, his voice trailing off into nothingness as he spoke. He'd been alone on the bridge of the Resolute with her when he said that, leaving Coruscant for their first mission after she'd been rescued from the Trandoshan kidnappers. Ahsoka never pressed further on the subject.
Ahsoka had mourned some of these people, and seen others mourn for the rest. And now, she had to learn to accept that they were here again.
But despite how impossible it all was, Ahsoka was more and more sure that these people, this planet, this time, were all real. Which meant that every one of these people could be saved. She could save them from a fate they had no idea of.
She looked at Anakin again. She couldn't think of him as her former master anymore. He'd never know about that. He was a child now, looking up to her. She… What was she supposed to do around him?
It was then that Anakin noticed her looking at him. He turned to stare at her, his expression full of curiosity.
"Are you a Jedi?" he said quietly, his voice filling a sudden lull in the room.
Something clenched in Ahsoka's chest, and she had to take a minute to finish chewing her food, swallowing it slowly as she considered her answer. The last person to ask her that had been Bail Organa, his words tinged with sad irony as they conferred in his office. Are you still a Jedi?
After a moment's thought, she gave him the same answer she'd given Bail: "And what if I am?"
"Are you here to rescue us?" Anakin said, his eyes as wide as she'd ever seen them.
How similar to what Bail had said. His answer was, I've been in desperate need of one of those lately.
Shmi was watching her thoughtfully. Ahsoka couldn't outright say no, not when she knew Anakin was about to be rescued somehow. She looked to Qui-Gon for help.
"What makes you think she's a Jedi?" he asked, folding his hands in front of him.
"Jedi can read people's minds. She knew my name before I said anything."
"Perhaps it was a lucky guess."
Anakin shook his head rapidly, never looking away from Ahsoka. "Luck doesn't happen here."
There was a long pause, and then Qui-Gon leaned forward, a slight smile playing over his face. "There's no hiding it from you, I suppose," he said, fixing his gaze on Anakin. "We are, in fact, Jedi."
Anakin finally looked at Qui-Gon, his eyes widening again, as big as Ahsoka had ever seen them. But almost immediately he turned back to Ahsoka, directing his question at her. "Have you come here to free us?"
Ahsoka swallowed hard. She didn't know what the right answer was. She didn't know what would get Anakin off this planet. She didn't know how her presence here was changing events. What she did know was that she was the only person in the galaxy who could save everyone.
Saving everyone was impossible. That wouldn't stop her from trying, of course.
One night later
Ahsoka laid in her bed, staring up at the ceiling as her mind roiled with confusion. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. This wasn't how it was supposed to go at all.
Earlier that day, Qui-Gon had approached Watto and arranged a bet with him, and that made sense, that was correct, but the content of the bet was all wrong.
The way Anakin had told it to her, once when he was in a jovial mood after seeing a podrace on Malastare, he'd said, "It was the most important bet in the history of the galaxy. Qui-Gon bet Padmé's ship on me, and if I won, he'd get my freedom and the parts for his ship. Good thing I won, or we'd be losing this war right now."
But the way Qui-Gon had just made the bet with Watto today, he was betting the queen's ship, and Watto was betting the parts needed to repair the ship. There was no mention of Anakin or his freedom. Even if Anakin won the race, he'd still be stuck here.
This was the chilling proof that Ahsoka's presence could and would drastically change everything. Anakin was focusing on her when he should've been catching Qui-Gon's attention. If he didn't know, he wouldn't have any reason to rescue Anakin.
It was too late to change the bet, and Ahsoka knew Qui-Gon wouldn't listen to her if she tried to suggest rescuing Anakin. Something else would have to be done to get him off this planet.
An idea had been forming in her head for the last half-hour. A terrible, leaky, dangerous idea that could get herself killed if it went wrong, and could get all of them killed if it went catastrophically wrong. But as long as Anakin wasn't coming along with them, things were already going catastrophically wrong.
If her presence meant that things were already being changed radically, then, well… she might as well lean into that and let herself change things too.
Ahsoka glanced sideways at Qui-Gon's bed, a meter away from her. He was sleeping soundly on his back. She slowly raised herself out of bed and edged closer to Qui-Gon, her breath bottled up in her chest and her heart rate coaxed down to a near-crawl. She refused to allow herself to feel any nerves in this moment. Any step out of line, any emotional crack would resonate like a plucked string in the Force, waking Qui-Gon instantly.
In the pitch-black, she was seeing only with her montrals, reading the dim outline of Qui-Gon's sleeping body as she drew near. At his waist, his robe was thrown to one side, letting her recognize two distinct hilts that glowed brightly in the Force. One was Qui-Gon's, and one was hers. Ahsoka paused, sensing the tightness of the elastic strap that held her lightsaber against his waist, and took a slow breath. No going back. With the most delicate application of the Force, she eased the strap upward, just far enough for her lightsaber to come loose, and then she urged it towards her, levitating it just millimeters from Qui-Gon's side. She pulled it towards her, holding her breath as the lightsaber slid in her direction.
Qui-Gon grumbled in his sleep. Ahsoka froze, her hilt in midair just above his torso, and considered calling it to her at full speed and making a run for it.
But he fell silent, and Ahsoka continued summoning the hilt to her, not taking a breath until it was solidly in her hand. She looked sideways at Obi-Wan and wondered if she should try taking her other lightsaber, which he still had.
Better not to push her luck.
She was almost to the door when her montrals picked up on something at the other end of the room. She stopped, tilting her head, and sensed a small, recognizable Force presence. She couldn't see Anakin, but she could detect him in the doorway, watching her. Ahsoka turned to Anakin and then tilted her head towards the doorway, indicating that he should follow. He did.
Outside, the streets were quiet, the distant whistle of the wind and the occasional distant yell from the cantina the only signs of life.
"Where are you going?" Anakin whispered. His eyes went to the lightsaber in Ahsoka's hand. "Are you going to kill someone?"
Ahsoka shook her head.
"Then what?"
Ahsoka wasn't quick to reply. She didn't want to tell Anakin her plan yet, lest she get his hopes up and then come back empty-handed. Or not come back at all.
"I'll tell you when I come back."
"What do you need your laser sword for?"
Ahsoka couldn't help but bare a ferocious grin in the moonlight, letting her fangs show. "Persuasion."
Anakin nodded rapidly, understanding flooding his face. "Good luck."
Ahsoka nodded, tucking her lightsaber into her belt, and jumped straight upward, landing on the roof, and leapt forward again, landing neatly on the sand behind the settlements that marked the beginning of the wastelands. She took off running, a deadly spring in her step.
Getting an audience with Jabba the Hutt would've been a challenge for most people, but for Ahsoka, it was a matter of a few Force-suggestions to the guards and a chamberman, and several long minutes later the crime lord came slithering into the throne room, looking enraged. A weedy Iktochi hurried in moments afterward, bowed deeply to him, and listened as Jabba spat out something in Huttese.
The interpreter turned to Ahsoka and said, in a quavering voice, "The illustrious Jabba demands to know who has aroused him from his slumber."
Ahsoka glanced around at the several Gamorrean guards already hefting their axes, and decided to dispose with the pleasantries. She turned on her lightsaber.
Jabba recoiled, and several of the guards sprang forward, but Ahsoka turned to face them. One enterprising guard actually swung his axe at her in an atrociously telegraphed move, and she sidestepped the attack, slashing her saber through his axe handle as he stumbled forward off-balance. The weapon clattered to the floor, and the guard scrambled backwards, shouting something in an unrecognizable tongue.
The other guards suddenly looked much more reluctant to engage. Ahsoka turned back to Jabba and shut off her saber. Jabba, looking much more awake, shouted something at the interpreter, who could barely get his words out now.
"The mighty Jabba wishes to know why a Jedi has dared to trespass on his lands. He warns you to tread carefully with your answer, because although you are powerful, he can turn the might of an entire planet against you with a wave of his hand."
"I'm no Jedi," Ahsoka said calmly. "I'm a bounty hunter."
"Then why do you carry a Jedi weapon?"
"I killed one."
There was a long silence, in which Jabba suddenly appeared more thoughtful then angry, before he spoke again.
"The exalted Jabba regrets that he did not recognize such an accomplished bounty hunter."
Ahsoka nodded.
"And he would like to know what you want at such an inhospitable hour."
Ahsoka lifted her lightsaber a little bit higher. "I want to make a deal."
It was close enough to sunrise on the dunes that the lightening sky gave Ahsoka more than enough light to see clear to the horizon. The land was featureless in all directions; exactly what she needed.
She looked to the west, where the sky was brighter, more white than dark blue, and bent down to one knee, placing her hand in the sand.
Closing her eyes, she concentrated, sending a powerful pulse deep into the ground with the Force. It could be felt from miles off by the right creature.
She squinted, scanning the distant line between sand and sky for a telltale disturbance. Three failed attempts and hours of searching with the crude maps Jabba had given her had led to this moment. The Force was silent, except for that same strange, Dark, distant presence she'd sensed when they were entering the village. She had, at most, an hour before Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan would wake up and realize she was gone with a lightsaber.
And then she saw it. A distant cloud, but not the walled cloud of a sandstorm, a single cloud rising from the ground like a spurt of water. At first, it seemed to move from side to side, but eventually it seemed to cease motion and hover. That only meant it was heading straight for Ahsoka, like an enemy fighter acquiring a missile lock.
Ahsoka took a deep breath and reached into the Force, collecting herself. When making a deal with Jabba, one needed to offer him something he couldn't get from anyone else.
Like a sandstorm, the cloud was slowly growing bigger, but it was something even deadlier. At least with a sandstorm, you had a small chance if you hunkered down and tried to wait.
There was a distant rumbling now. She closed her eyes and began to whisper.
"I'm one with the Force."
The ground beneath her feet began to shake.
"And the Force is with me."
The rumbling was almost a roar. The air itself felt like it was vibrating around her.
"I'm one with the Force."
She'd made a deal with Jabba that he couldn't refuse.
"And the Force is with me."
The sand beneath Ahsoka's feet began to slip away from her, and she leapt straight up just as the ground exploded, an enormous head bursting out of the sand, a gaping maw passing just inches from Ahsoka's twisting form, bone-white teeth larger than her glinting in the first rays of dawn.
There were very few people in the galaxy who could kill a Krayt dragon, after all.
Ahsoka ignited her lightsaber and turned as she rose, coming to fully face the dragon at the apex of her leap. The Force flowed all around her, sharpening her senses and rendering the world in one frozen moment, sand spraying around her in slow motion. The Krayt dragon was twisting too, slithering upward out of the sand as it tried to find the prey that had been on the sand moments ago.
As it rolled, Ahsoka saw her chance, a gigantic black eye coming into view beneath her. She tightened her grip on her saber and called on the Force again. She plummeted with blinding speed, closing the distance between her and the dragon in an instant. Her aim was true, and the glowing white blade, even brighter than the jagged teeth beneath, plunged straight into the dragon's eye. It kept going, deeper, deeper, and then Ahsoka was plunging her arm in too, as far as she could get it into the beast's head.
Her saber hissed and crackled, and Ahsoka knew she'd hit something delicate, something that already meant death for the dragon no matter how much it might thrash in the coming minutes.
A deafening roar shattered the silence of distant villages, and twenty kilometers away, Anakin Skywalker sat bolt upright in his bed.
When Ahsoka walked back into Watto's shop, Anakin was in the corner, cleaning a pit droid. He brightened when he saw Ahsoka, then paused when he realized she was covered in dust and scrapes. Ahsoka gave him an encouraging smile and marched past. Watto was at the counter, looking at something on a datapad. He looked up as she approached.
He grunted. "Your friends around this morning? I want—"
Ahsoka interrupted him by tossing a pouch on his counter. Watto stared at it and then picked up, peeking inside. When he caught sight of its contents, his eyes bulged.
"These ingots—"
"Real. One hundred percent pure."
Watto started to reach into the pouch, but Ahsoka put a hand on his wrist, stopping him.
Watto put down his datapad and narrowed his eyes, really looking at Ahsoka for the first time. "Be careful walking around with all this money, lady. Someone might want it more than you do."
"Oh, don't worry." Ahsoka pulled back her cloak, revealing another pouch affixed to her belt. "There's more where that came from."
Watto's jaw dropped.
"I'd like to make a purchase."
"Purchasing those ship parts?" Watto chuckled and leaned an elbow on the counter. "At least someone's smart enough to realize how stupid yous' friends' bet was."
"No."
Watto blinked. "Eh?"
Ahsoka glanced back at Anakin, who was still cleaning the pit droid and trying to pretend that he wasn't listening to their conversation. She gritted her teeth, hating how she was about to have to talk about him.
"I want to buy their freedom. Anakin and Shmi."
"Are you crazy? Why would I sell my most valuable property?"
Ahsoka swallowed down the bile that rose in her throat, resisting the urge to go for her lightsaber. Forcing calm into her voice, she spoke again.
"Because I've got the money to buy them."
It would be so easy to kill Watto right then and there, but that would only make things worse. She needed access to the transmitter that would detonate Anakin and Shmi's tracking devices if they tried to escape, and he couldn't give them up if he was dead. And killing a slaveowner to free slaves would not go down well on a Hutt-controlled world. They—and all the other slaves in this town—would have targets on their backs immediately.
"Ha." Watto snorted and shoved the bag back at her. "Even twice this amount wouldn't be enough."
"Good thing I've got more." Ahsoka pulled her coat back one more time, revealing the other three pouches she still had hidden under her cloak.
Watto stared, his hand hovering over the pouch on the counter. "Why the sudden interest? If you wanted your own slaves so bad, there's plenty of cheaper ones for sale around here."
"I don't want a slave. I want their freedom."
"Huh." Watto grunted, visibly unimpressed. "You've been here for what, two days? What do those two matter to you?"
"I have my reasons."
"Hm." Watto squinted, pulling an ingot out of the pouch and inspecting it closely. "It'll be a lot of trouble to get some more. A few days at least. That's lost labor, lost profit."
Come on, take the bait, you slimy pile of flesh, I'm giving you more money than you ever deserve to have.
Ahsoka could feel Anakin staring at her.
"If you don't want to sell them, I guess I'll just take all this money with me."
"Let's not be hasty, eh?" Watto gestured to the pouches on her belt. "If you're serious about this, then you won't have a problem paying the full price."
"Which is?"
"Everything you've got."
"Deal." Ahsoka reached for the pouches on her belt and dropped them on the counter.
Watto chuckled. His smile was the worst thing Ahsoka had ever seen. "Pleasure doing business." He held out a hand.
Ahsoka didn't shake it. "I want the chip transmitters. Now."
"Of course. Give me a few minutes." Watto turned and fluttered into the depths of the shop, and finally, Ahsoka allowed herself to exhale. She turned, leaning against the counter and gripping it tightly, almost unable to believe what she'd done.
Anakin had dropped the power coupling he was holding, his mouth wide open. "Miss Ahsoka?" he said, his voice quavering.
Ahsoka tried to think of anything to say to him, but she had nothing. Absolutely nothing. She glanced sideways, searching for words, and saw Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan standing in the doorway, staring at her in surprise not far off from Anakin's.
Qui-Gon had a hand on his hip, in the exact spot where one of Ahsoka's lightsabers would be if she hadn't stolen it from him. After a moment, though, he crossed his arms, straightening.
Finally, Ahsoka found her voice. "Anakin?" she said. "Why don't you go tell your mom what just happened?"
Anakin nodded twice and then scampered out of the shop, squeezing between Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan on his way out. Qui-Gon turned and watched him leave, waiting until he was out of view to face Ahsoka again. Ahsoka readied herself.
"Master Tano, I believe you took something off me during the night."
Ahsoka nodded.
"I'd appreciate having it back, please." Qui-Gon's weight shifted ever so slightly, just enough for Ahsoka to know that he was getting ready for trouble.
Ahsoka slowly withdrew the hilt from the folds of her robes, keeping it pointed at herself, and placed it on the floor before kicking it over to Qui-Gon. He bent down to inspect the hilt and nodded. However, he did not relax his posture.
"Why steal the saber from me, and not Obi-Wan?"
Ahsoka shrugged. "Just needed my dominant hand saber. Didn't want to push my luck."
"A wise move. Obi-Wan is a light sleeper, and he would've been alerted to your nighttime escapade. Speaking of which, care to tell us what you were doing?"
"I killed a Krayt Dragon for Jabba the Hutt to earn the money needed to buy Anakin and Shmi's freedom." Ahsoka spoke the sentence without blinking once, staring directly into Qui-Gon's eyes.
Qui-Gon stared at her. Obi-Wan didn't even try to hide his surprise.
"And why… would you want their freedom specifically?"
Once again, Ahsoka sensed that anything but the truth would be a dangerous answer here. Although the truth wasn't much less dangerous. She glanced over her shoulder, making sure Watto or Anakin hadn't returned, before lowering her voice. "He's Force-sensitive."
Qui-Gon raised an eyebrow. "I sensed it too. If he had been born in Republic space, we would've brought him to the Temple long ago."
"And you were just going to leave him here? Especially after he knows you're Jedi and thinks we came for him?"
"No, actually." Qui-Gon took a step into the shop, tilting his head. "I was going to make another bet on the podrace, for their freedom."
Oh.
"I… didn't know," she said.
"Obviously. So you made your own plan, freed him and his mother on your own terms, going against our direct wishes in doing so… I certainly cannot find any dispute with the results of your actions, but my Padawan and I do find ourselves wondering why you have so many plans of your own, Master Tano, and why you seem to know so much."
There was the slightest hint of a pointed question in the way Qui-Gon said master, and Ahsoka took a deep breath, her chest tightening. She'd been hoping this wouldn't come so soon.
"You've been an enigma ever since our paths crossed. I think it's time you were honest with us."
Ahsoka swallowed, her mind racing. "Maybe we should sit down for this."
Qui-Gon glanced around the cluttered shop. "Where, exactly?"
In reply, Ahsoka bent down to the floor, dusting off the floor before crossing her legs and looking expectantly at Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, who nodded and followed suit.
"The truth, masters, is…" There wasn't any room for the truth. Maybe there was a chance they—and the Council—would believe her, but even if she could tell them the entire story of Palpatine, the Clone Wars, the Purge, the Empire, they would ask how she had survived all this. And she would have to tell them that she'd left the Order. And then they would no longer trust her or her story of the future. The Council would be unable to believe what had made Ahsoka leave the order, because they wouldn't believe that their future selves could be so wrong.
No, telling them the future would only bring endless suspicion on her. So, after so many truths, half-truths, and evasions, Ahsoka would have to lie. Thankfully, once upon a time, Anakin had given her some advice for lying to other Jedi.
"Make the lie match the truth, Ahsoka. If the truth is really boring, like 'I dropped my lightsaber in the fountain during my exercises,' then the lie has to be boring too, like 'I left it in the repair shop.' And if the truth is really weird, like 'Chancellor Palpatine took me to a seedy dive bar to show me how lowlifes live,' then the lie has to be weird too, like 'I was spying on Master Yoda to see if the rumor that he eats live frogs was true.'"
Well, with how the truth was looking, it was time for her to get weird. "What do you want to know?"
"For starters—yesterday." Jinn looked Ahsoka dead in the eyes, and she could feel his Force presence settling over her. "How did you know Anakin's name? You said he looked like someone you knew, and I believe that. But there is something about him that makes me think this is more than just coincidence."
Ahsoka nodded, concentrating on keeping her presence as untroubled as possible. "And you were right. I didn't… tell the entire truth. I recognized Anakin as himself, not as someone else."
Qui-Gon gave a noncommittal hum, signaling her to continue.
"I recognized him from… the future."
"The future?"
"I… have visions. I have visions of the future. I have had them for most of my life."
"Hmm." Qui-Gon squinted, then looked sideways to Obi-Wan, who, after a moment, shrugged. "A Jedi with such a propensity for visions would be the center of attention within the Order, no? And yet…"
"There's a reason for that. Nobody alive knows who I am."
Another look. "And why is that?"
"Well, Masters—" Ahsoka shifted, gathering herself. "Remember how you found me in the desert?"
"Another paradox. No water, no food, no weapons, the nearest settlement several days away."
"Yeah." Ahsoka sighed. "It didn't make any sense to me either. Until I realized I was taken there."
"By who?"
"Not who. What." Ahsoka ran her eyes over the assorted machinery. "I… I don't know how to explain it. I don't even fully understand it myself. I'm not sure what brought me here. One minute, I was walking through the dunes towards my ship, and then the next minute, a sandstorm came up, and when it died down… I didn't know where I was, and I was being approached by an unfamiliar ship…" She shrugged. "Well, I wasn't sure who you were. So I had to be careful."
"Surely you recognized us as fellow Jedi."
"I thought you were Sith."
"Sith?" Qui-Gon looked almost taken aback. "They've been extinct for a thousand years."
"Oh." Ahsoka closed her eyes and looked down, rubbing her face with both hands. She could thank her various undercover missions for giving her decent acting skills. "That's what I was afraid of."
"Afraid of?"
"Master Jinn, as far as I remember, the Sith are alive and well. In fact, I recall them being the dominant force in the galaxy."
Qui-Gon's brow furrowed. "I don't follow."
"Do you remember when I asked you what year it was?"
"Oh, that." Qui-Gon exchanged another look with Obi-Wan. "We thought you were delirious."
"No." Ahsoka centered herself, focusing on complete calm. "I'm not from this time. Far from it."
The only response to that was dead silence.
Another trick of lying Anakin had taught her: build your lies on as many truths as possible. Up until now, she'd been able to stick mostly to the truth, and he would've been proud of her. Now, it was time to see if she could sell the actual lie. No going back from it.
"Somehow, I've traveled through time." Ahsoka opened her eyes, facing Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan. "I'm from the past."
Notes:To everyone who included 'aeiou' in your comments on the first chapter: You are the absolute best. Thank you.