Star Wars One Shots

My Brother

I sat in the co-pilots seat of the sleek Naboo Royal Starship piloted by Senator Amidala. We were on our way to Mustafar, a planet I had visited once before near the beginning of my training. Anakin's and I had come to rescue a pair of babies that Cad Bane had kidnapped. For what, we didn't know.

As I reminisced about that mission, a tear rolled down my cheek. It was nearly impossible for me to fathom what Anakin, my master, best friend, brother had become. That he could slaughter his own kind, kill younglings without a second thought. It broke my heart, and I couldn't imagine what it was doing to Padme.

I looked over at the young, pregnant woman. She had been quiet the entire ride and showed no emotion, though i could feel the emotion exuding from her through the force. I sensed that she was heartbroken and concerned for Anakin, not to mention confused as to why he was doing what he was doing.

I couldn't understand it either. Sure the Jedi were hypocrites and had wrongfully accused me of doing something with little to no evidence, but they didn't deserve this. What they needed was guidance to get back on the right track, not to be ruthlessly slaughtered by their own soldiers.

My thoughts were disrupted when I felt the ship exit hyperspace. I looked out the front window of the starship to see the bright red, magma covered planet below. I looked over to Padme again as we made our descent onto the planet. We hadn't really come up with a plan yet, and we needed to come up with something quick.

"So..." I began, "what's the plan?"

The young woman finally looked at me.  "Well, I hadn't really thought of one. I was thinking of going in with one of Anakin's infamous no plan plans," she said smiling weakly.

I mustered a soft giggle, but immediately got serious again. "While normally I would be on board with that, this an extremely delicate situation. One wrong move could send Anakin over the edge. We have to choose our words and actions very carefully."

Padme thought for a second before responding. "I suppose you're right. Do you have an idea?"

"Kind of," I replied. "My thought is for you to go talk to him first, while I stay on the ship, masking my presence so he doesn't know I'm here. If you can't get him to see the light, then I'll come out and try to convince him what he's doing is wrong."

"That's actually a pretty good plan Ahsoka," Padme responded with a semi-smile. I knew under normal circumstances the young woman would be proud of me for the plan, but these weren't normal situations.

"But Padme, there's one more thing that I need to tell you about the plan."

Padme turned back to me. "And what's that Ahsoka?"

I took a deep breath. "If... if it doesn't seem like Anakin is coming back..." I trailed off as tears started to form in my eyes. I didn't have to finish, as she knew what I was thinking. I could see the tears start to build up in her eyes as well.

"Let's not think about that, okay?" Padme said trying to stay strong and confident. I wiped the tears from my eyes and nodded back at her.

While I was hoping, praying it wouldn't come to that, I wasn't really too sure. The Anakin I saw at the Temple... that wasn't Anakin. It was some evil, twisted version of my master, but it wasn't my master. His force signature felt different, like he was hurting.

We touched down on the landing dock of the only inhabited part of the planet. Padme looked at me and I nodded to her. "Good luck. I'll be waiting here." All she did was nod in response and get up. I followed her to the hangar and pressed the button to lower the ramp. As it descended, I hid in a corner and masked my force signature so Anakin, or whatever he called himself now, didn't know I was here.