ANAKIN SKYWALKER

Anakin sat calmly in the sand, eyes closed in a few final seconds of meditation, waiting for a fallen Ahsoka to finish it. But she didn’t. He opened his eyes for a moment, hopeful for a second that she was having second thoughts, and maybe considering being merciful.

But she wasn’t. The green and white lightsabers she had poised to kill him weren’t swiping down to sever his head from his body. She was staring at him, with a look of confusion in her sickly yellow and red eyes.

Luke. Luke, are you there? He sent towards his son.

Yeah, I’m here. Are you okay? I tried to tell the others you were in danger, but they didn’t believe me. He could almost see Luke’s sunburnt skin, golden-brown hair and big blue eyes in his mind’s eye. I don’t care if I get in trouble for it. I had to tell you: you just walked into some sort of bubble. It’s a trap, but I don’t know what it is.

Thanks, kid. That really helps me out, he thought to him. Now find somewhere safe to hide. There are bad people running around out there. And Luke?

Yeah?

Your father would be so proud of you.

I know. Thanks, Dad.

Then Luke broke off the telepathic communication. Anakin knew that he should have been shocked, but he wasn’t. His son definitely knew more than everyone gave him credit for. And now that he knew what was happening, he knew what he had to do.

“I don’t understand,” Ahsoka said. “You’re supposed to be fighting back, or– or begging for mercy!”

“You have it wrong,” he replied calmly. “It’s not the Jedi way. You’ve won.”

Her perplexed expression deepened. “But you’re not most Jedi! You must have something up your sleeve, or something!”

A smirk cracked his calm mask, widening into a mocking grin. “You’re right.”

This was the opportunity he had been waiting for. His hands hung loosely at his sides, or so an onlooker would have thought. But what he was actually doing was slowly inching his fingers towards the twin blasters he had stashed in his boots. “I am definitely not most Jedi.”

He rolled to the side, and Ahsoka reacted a split-second too late. Hopping to his feet once he was out of range of her lightsabers, he fired several shots in rapid succession in her direction. She dodged them all easily, but that was what he wanted. Speed and surprise were his friends today.

He fired again, this time making a tight arc over her head. She evaded every one by sinking into the splits, and put her lightsabers back on her belt. She was taking the bait, just as Anakin had known that she would.

Because after all, she had finished her Jedi training with Obi-Wan and not with him. And there were a few things he had learnt on his own and invented that he hadn’t been able to teach her before she had left the Order. They would be the tricks up his woolen sleeves today.

He fired more shots, making sure to aim them close enough to warrant dodging them, but not so close that Ahsoka would need her primary lightsaber and the white one that she had stolen from Anakin to deflect the shots. She flipped or somersaulted out of the way each time, but that was all part of his plan.

He waited for another few moments. And then, as she was beginning to tire from her athletic maneuvers, he used the Force to yank his lightsaber from her belt. As it flew into his hand, he stuffed one blaster back into his boot, and he rose slowly from his stooped position for straighter and easier shooting.

“And that, my old padawan, is why you have to learn to expect the unexpected,” he said, and fired a shot at her shoulder.

Ahsoka cried out, and sank to the ground, clutching her shoulder. He pointed his lightsaber at her neck, threatening to run her through. “I’m giving you one chance to live,” he said. He wanted to be sure that this thing wasn’t his Snips. “What did I tell you after we detonated the charges on Christophsis?”

She fixated him with her alien yellow eyes. “You told me that I was going to be a brilliant padawan, and that you were lucky to have me.”

“Wrong answer,” he said, and cut off her head. As soon as his lightsaber had beheaded her, she disintegrated. He smiled.

“You know what I said to her that time, Maul?” he said to the bubble, which was slowly beginning to evaporate. “I said, ‘You’re reckless, little one. You never would have made it as Obi-Wan’s padawan. But you might make it as mine.’ Remember that next time.”

Then he left, sprinting off towards the real wreckage of the New Hope.

*Anakin has discovered the truth. The illusion of Ahsoka didn't know the one thing that she would have always remembered: what he told her when he first accepted the fact that she was his padawan. And now that Luke knows that his father is alive and well, what will he do? And what has happened to the real Ahsoka? And is Lux really dead, or was it just part of the illusion? You'll find out in the next thriliing chapter of the Unchronicled Adventures Of Ahsoka Tano!

Aaaaannnd now you know. YOU SEE, I TOLD YOU ALL IT WOULD GET BETTER!!! I love to play with the emotions of the reader, but I'm not mean enough to destroy feels for too long. There's an estimated two or three chapters left of the battle sequence, but I might drag it out longer. We'll see when we get there...

Get married to someone who's been forbidden to love on Naboo and may the Force be with you,

Sharron*