The Clone Wars: One-Shots

The Truth Is Hard To Tell

Tumblr prompt: "Don't come in" with Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano
Requested by Ahsokryze

A/N: Sorry I wasn't active these past few days. Had a lot of stuff to do, and I prob might be like this for the next few days/weeks, who knows.

Ahsoka numbly rocked herself back and forth on her bed as she processed the past few hours.

Not hours; days.

It had been three days on Mortis.

She wasn't sure what happened; everything for her was a blur, and she was just now starting to catch up.

They had woken up on a planet. Anakin had been separated from Obi-Wan and her, and that led to her vision.

Seeds of the dark side have been planted by your master.

What did that mean? Sure, she had seen his emotions sometimes get ahold of him, but she was never afraid of him for that.

(She would always see a flash of fear in Anakin's eyes every time he saw one of his loved ones injured, she included. Her brow markings would furrow and look at him in worry as she saw him threaten a culprit with death, a lightsaber held at their throat. She would try her best to calm her master down every time he held a grudge against one of the people that injured or offended her and the others, silently noting the dark fiery hate that sparked in his eyes)

Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering. She definitely knew that from the number of times Obi-Wan lectured about it.

Then, they were taken by the gods and lifted into the arena, where Anakin was tested to see if he was actually the Chosen One.

(She remembered the icy cold that flooded her as the Son's gargoyle form grabbed her arms, her mind screaming from the raw power)

Apparently, he was. They had left him alone, and sometime after that, they had gone back to the ship, then she-

Now the information she was just told clicked. Anakin had explained her 'possession of the dark side, and this is what led her here, in the dark, rocking back and forth. She had run away from him as she realized she had tried to kill him and Obi-Wan, ignoring her master's pleas to come back.

(Darkness flooded her vision as the Son bit into her arm, everything turning hazy as she collapsed, finally realizing that the chains really were the easy part)

She was interrupted out of her train of thought as a soft knock rang at her door.

"Ahsoka?"

She stayed silent, breathing quietly.

"Please, I know you're in there."

If she listened hard enough, she could hear the small weight being shifted between Anakin's feet, hear him squeezing his hands into fists and releasing them again. She rubbed her arms, trying to get rid of the strange haunting feeling on her skin. It was like her body wasn't her own, her center off-key, and she felt...tainted. Dirty. Used.

"I'm going to-"

"Don't come in," she uttered, staring blankly at the door. It was loud in the emptiness and Anakin's voice faltered.

It was better this way. The further she was away from him, the less of a chance she had to hurt him. She still felt his presence standing on the other side of the foot. It was silent again as she pondered what to do next, absentmindedly still trying to harshly scrub off the imaginary stain, her arms turning a light shade of red from the repeated motion.

"I-I'll be waiting here."

She closed up her mental walls, not answering, and felt a small hint of hurt waving across their bond only to find it quickly buried beneath his mental shields. She could already feel the turmoil radiating from him, the emotions shoved deeper and deeper until it was bottled up. Her pupils widened as she saw it in her mind's eye, how he felt powerless from what happened, and she realized like any other day, she could always count on him to help her through her problems.

She sighed and took a deep breath as she stood up, slowly walking towards the door. She look down at her hand hovering over the button, slightly trembling. She mustered what courage she had left and clicked it.

Her door whooshed open and she came face to face with her master.

They said he was the Hero With No Fear one of the mysterious Jedi who was prophesied to be the Chosen One (which he is, but they weren't going to talk about that), but to her, he just looked like...Anakin. A human who wasn't emotionless, who had many fears, and who did his best to protect the ones he loved, just like her. His face was filled with barely masked relief as she let him in, making her way to sit on the bed. He tentatively lowered himself beside her, keeping a respectable distance, but he looked ready to jump out of his skin at ay moment.

They sat in awkward silence.

"How-"

"Can-"

Anakin and Ahsoka both paused in their sentences, then grins settled on their faces before it disappeared off of Ahsoka.

"You go first," Anakin gestured, a small smile still plastered.

She nodded, then repeated her question.

"C-Can you continue your story?"

Anakin's face seemed to pale and she immediately tensed for what she was going to hear next. She hesitantly outstretched a hand onto his shoulder, and he relaxed, the stuff muscles relaxing at his sister's touch.

He thought about his wording. How could he tell her that she died? She was already traumatized by the Son's control (why does she keep rubbing her arms?) and he really didn't want to add to the pile. But she deserved to know. After all, this was her, not him. He could find out what happened to him after all of this.

(Ahsoka caught the gist of his thought process and fought against looking away. She only hoped that it wasn't her that he was going to ask for the gap in his memory. His golden eyes still bore a hole in her head, and she pushed the image away)

"After...that. Obi-Wan had the dagger, which could kill the gods, from what we saw. He was about to give it to me, but you took it, bringing it to the Son."

Ahsoka watched quietly, soaking in every single word.

"He took it, and he...h-he-"

"He what?" Ahsoka whispered, anticipating for what came next. She had woken up beside the dead Daughter, feeling so out of herself, and she wanted to know what was the final crevice in her memory. She wanted to know what had her feeling changed.

Anakin took a deep breath as he remembered the life draining out of his padawan, the immediate fear and anger coursing through his veins as he shouted her name, her limp hands letting go of her lightsaber. He looked his padawan straight into her eyes, icy blue meeting an ocean.

"He killed you."