The Unchronicled Adventures Of Ahsoka Tano, Book Ten

Chapter Eighty-Six: Nightmare

AHSOKA TANO

Ahsoka felt like she had been walking for hours, and yet even after all this time, she was no closer to her destination than when she had began.

The ground beneath her feet was smooth, and glimmered in the weak sunlight like polished marble – or, more accurately, like obsidian, glass forged from the lava of an ancient volcano and colored the deepest charcoal.

And suddenly, in the shadow of one of the angular stone pillars that rose from the ground before her like the jagged teeth of some great beast, there appeared the figure of a man. As he turned towards her, the light caught on his dark robes, golden brown hair and tanned skin.

"Anakin," she called, and he smiled, stepping out from behind the pillar. But then, without warning, everywhere the light of day was touching him burst into flames.

Ahsoka screamed and tried to run to him, but invisible arms held her back. She could only watch, tears streaming down her face, as he collapsed to the ground with a bloodcurdling shriek of pain. He writhed back and forth until his robes were in tatters and his body was covered in raw red and black burns sluggishly oozing blood.

The flames finally abated as his left arm and both legs shriveled away into nothingness. He lay still for a long moment, save the frantic, heat crazed twitching of the fried electro-nerves in his cybernetic fingers, and Ahsoka was sure he was dead.

But then, he stirred, and slowly began to rise. As he brought the ruined stub of his arm down to support himself, metal grew from the charred flesh, twisting and turning around itself until, circuit by circuit, another cybernetic arm was created. The same thing happened for his legs as he pulled himself to his feet; metal sprang from sinew and bone, forming all the way down into a foot just in time to absorb the impact of being pressed to the ground and lift him up.

He coughed weakly and took a rasping breath inward, and a respirator array flickered into being around his collar. It was soon followed by a dark suit of armor and heavy canvas that swirled into being around him like colored smoke, adopting shape and texture as it touched him.

And as his eyes opened to reveal haunting yellow orbs, Ahsoka found herself straining to get away. "You're not Anakin," she whispered.

"No," he agreed, his voice deepening abruptly as a helmet appeared and hid his face from sight. "I am Vader – the other half. I am what was left behind, mangled and scarred, when Anakin died. And, when the time comes, I am what will destroy you."

Then, as a lightsaber sparked to life in his hand, the ground crumbled from beneath her feet, sending her plummeting down into the darkness below. As she fell, she saw hundreds of beings – thousands –, all of which she knew she had failed somehow. And they were all reaching out to touch her, screaming the same thing as one: "Why did you leave? You abandoned me; you failed me!"

"Do you know what I have become?" Anakin hissed. "I have become a monster."

"He's not beyond my reach," Ahsoka whispered to herself, shutting her eyes as the faces pressed closer. "Not yet. I couldn't save you all, but can still save him if I'm brave enough... if I can look past the monster. He's not... beyond–"

The air was knocked out of her lungs as she hit the ground, but she summoned the strength to get up and run as Anakin materialized before her, dripping down into existence the same way the fog had formed itself into a life support suit around Vader.

Ahsoka threw herself into his arms, burying her face in his shoulder. "Anakin, I'm so scared. I... I saw..."

"It's okay," he soothed her, hugging her tightly. "It's all okay now. They're just ghosts. They're not real. They can't hurt you so long as you're with me."