When Ahsoka was a youngling she had a dream of her death. She imagined herself being killed a monster on a long dark hallway in the Jedi Temple. She had always feared that hall at night because it seemed to never end. In her dream she followed got lost in the corridor and ended up walking for what seemed like forever before she became face to face with a Sith. At the age of five she saw the Sith a giant beast with menacing red eyes, piercing her soul. The creature lunged at her, but she rolled away, pretending she was a powerful Jedi master. But the Sith monster was too quick and pounced on her. She had woken up when its claws were centimeters from her face.

She started to cry, waking her roommates. One of the other younglings called for a master and he, she could not remember who, had held her until she fell asleep again, mumbling old nursery rhymes in her ear to sooth her. Ahsoka had recovered quickly, but that was the first dream she remembered in the morning and she never forgot it.

When she was eleven and the other younglings and she had begun to imagine of their apprenticeship and who their master would be, she dreamt of her death again. But instead of being killed at the hands of a Sith, she saw herself on a remote planet drowning in quicksand. The terrifying part wasn't that she knew she was dying, but her master, a faceless Jedi in her mind, was scolding her for being so stupid and dying of quicksand of all things.

That dream came from her anxiety about her eventual apprenticeship, but a long talk with Master Plo calmed her nerves easily.

The next came only a few weeks after she had joined Anakin in the field. Ahsoka was fourteen at the time, far too young to be placed in a war. She got along with her master, but she barely knew him or any of the clones yet and often found herself missing the familiarity of the Temple. She feared dying and no one recognizing her body. One night after a day of open combat she finally laid her head to rest on her mat at a makeshift camp with Anakin beside her, equally as exhausted. She wished for a dreamless sleep, but the moment she closed her eyes she found herself on the battlefield once more.

She was standing the middle of enemy fire, lightsaber out, whipping around to block their bolts as best she could when one shot through her defenses and straight into her gut. More piled on to her, and the pain was unimaginable. She tried to will herself to wake up, but could not and for a fleeting moment she thought that she wasn't dreaming and she was actually dying. It wasn't until a droid aimed his blaster directly at her head and fired that she was shaken awake by Anakin. She was crying, unable to hold in the tears despite her best efforts to remain strong. She master held her until the sobbing subsided, one of the few displays of affections he had ever openly shown her. When she began to breathe normally he whispered something in her ear she knew she would never forget:

"Don't worry, Ahsoka. I get nightmares too. I won't let anyone hurt you."

Jedi were not meant to show their Padawans that kind of attachment, they weren't supposed to show anyone that kind of attachment. But Anakin Skywalker was no normal Jedi, that she was sure of.

When her dreams foretold her death again she was almost seventeen and had been hardened by war. Ahsoka saw herself on her knees before Count Dooku, lightsabers in pieces in front of her. He laughed cruelly at her exhaustion and pain, and she realized she was unable to move, rooted in place. He beckoned to the side and a group of battle droids marched into view, shepherding Master Yoda in. The Grandmaster made eye contact with her, his eyes void of any feeling or emotion she knew they usually possessed. Dooku raised his own lightsaber and stuck Yoda down. She swallowed her scream and held her composure, at least for the moment.

One by one everyone she knew and trusted was lead before her and struck down. Barriss, Padmé, Lux, Rex, Master Plo Koon, and even Obi-wan were killed in front of her eyes, and all she could do was watch. Slowly she lost her control and when Dooku struck down Rex she felt her mask slip. And when he decapitated Master Plo she screamed and when he stabbed Obi-wan in the stomach she cried for mercy. The last one was led out, this time by General Grievous himself. She didn't even need to look to see who the victim would be. As he was led over, Anakin followed her with his eyes. While the faces of the others had no personality in them, his did, as it always did. She could tell he was pushing her to fight, to break free, but she didn't. She couldn't.

Ahsoka tried to collect herself, to be strong for her master, for her friend, but when Dooku struck the final blow to Anakin Skywalker all her emotions flooded the air around her. She raged and shrieked, the bodies of all she held dear lying dead before her.

Dooku stepped forward and pulled her chin up so they were eye to eye.

"Look what you've done." The dream monster spoke to her, but not in his voice. It sounded familiar, but she couldn't place it. It would be years, long after the Republic and the Order fell, that she realized that it was Palpatine, the Emperor, taunting her through her dreams.

"You have murdered your master and your friends. It was your fault, girl. You are the reason that they are dead." He continued. "It's your fault."

His lightsaber pierced her heart and she almost welcomed it.

When she woke she felt that her cheeks were wet and her breathing was rapid and scared, but she ignored it. She did not make a sound as she rose from her bunk on the cruiser. Ahsoka checked Anakin's bed and he was still snoring happily. Obi-wan was present too, having been aboard for a briefing. She found Rex in the command center peacefully looking over some plans. Everything was as it was when she went to sleep. Once she was satisfied with her proof that the dream was only a dream, she returned to her bunk, and allowed sleep to take her again, this time absent of dreams. She thought of this five months later when she left the Temple for the last time, leaving Anakin and the Jedi behind.

Years passed before she had another premonition of her death. She was older and wiser and no longer a Jedi. But she had nightmare that nearly every Jedi had had in their lives. In her sleep she saw herself standing before her. The copy of her clad in black with gleaming yellow eyes. There was no one else. There was no Lux, who often graced her happier dreams, or even Barriss, who usually decorated her nightmares. It was just her and her shadow self, standing face to face, each with their lightsabers alight in their hands. Her new white ones were held at the ready while the Sith Ahsoka's blood red ones were lying laxly by her side.

"Are you ready?" The creature yet again did not have the voice she expected. This one came with a tone she hadn't heard in a very long time. It was of Anakin, using the inflection he had used when he comforted after her nightmare so many years ago. It held a softness and a kindness so rarely seen in her aggressive master.

She stared into her own eyes that shown with a violent shade of yellow. Somehow she found the ability to nod, entranced by herself.

The monster charged, suddenly moving with a force Ahsoka hadn't seen since the Clone Wars. The battle that resulted was wild and intense. Ahsoka was powerful, but could hold her won against the sith.

Without warning she was pinned on the floor with herself baring down with all her might.

"Do you surrender?" Anakin's voice came from the Sith's mouth, still the same gentle tone.

"Never." She responded, and pushed forward with all she had. But it was no use. "To my last breathe." She murmured. The Sith Ahsoka's blade found her chest and she felt herself die.

When she awoke, there was no fear, not like any time before. She was calmer than she was when she went to sleep. In her mind she picked through what she remembered of her dream. But soon she turned over and fell back asleep. She no longer feared death. Only dying without a fight. To die an honorable death was a gift in the world she lived in now. If she died it would not be a punishment, but an escape.

She had imagined her demise every way possible, in dreams and reality. Sometimes, in the days of the war, she even daydreamed about sacrificing herself for her troops and dying in fiery explosion. It had seemed a better way to go than shot by an old clanker. You could not fight as many battles as she had and not wonder about how you would eventually going to go. But, as it always seemed in her life, what actually happened was far from even her most horrible nightmares.

For a Jedi, death means being one with the force. And within the force is all those who have perished before you. Ahsoka had often imagined seeing all the friends who died in the war again when the death that was meant to take her in the Purge with the other Jedi finally caught up to her. Above all she imagined Anakin. She imagined the pride he had for all the good she had done as a rebel and she imagined his reaction to the woman she had grown in to. She imagined it being the same as the days she treasured in her heart above all else. She had lived a good life since the war, but she secretly missed her time as a Jedi, especially Anakin, Rex, and the clones. She missed the way it was, something that separated her from the unsentimental Jedi.

But instead of Anakin's being the first face she saw after she joined by the force, it was last thing she saw before she died. He had struck her down, but he stood over her as she faded. The last person she ever expected to turn to the dark side did. Ahsoka could barely fathom the man she knew falling to the dark side, but there he was, coated in darkness to the core. Honestly, she was surprised she didn't sense it before. His force signature was twisted and warped, but familiar. He fought like the man who trained her, which is part of the reason why he was able to best her so easily. He taught her everything she knew, and he had lost all sense of reserve he had had as a Jedi. She wildly wondered in the storm of emotions as they fought what kind of horror must have occurred for him to fall as far as he had. Even as he murdered her she still felt a connection to him, she refused to abandon him, like she had before. The greatest mistake she ever made, she realized. She could see his eye through the crack in his helmet shining clearly yellow as he took her life.

The man she once trusted above everyone else, had betrayed her in the most dire way possible.

A part of her had known it was him, she suspected, but couldn't expect it.

And she may have imagined it through her pain, and she most likely did.

But could have sworn she saw his one visible eye flicker blue for a moment.

And then she was gone, one with the force at last.

Or was she?

Author's Note: This is the first chapter of The Second Chance. Most of this story lives in the realm of The Clone Wars and Ahsoka's continued narrative in Rebels, but will eventually end up in RotS and beyond. This is my first time writing a Star Wars fanfic so updates will probably be pretty inconsistent. Forgive my grammar or spelling mistakes, I'm not the best editor. Please try to stay kind in the reviews, but constructive criticism is always welcome as long as it stays respectful. Fair warning, I am not a Star Wars expert, I am more a casual fan with a particular interest in Ahsoka and her story. Thank you!