Disclaimer: still not mine :)

"So, you killed Grievous", the ghost was musing, "and were fired on by your own men… yet Anakin and Windu are unhurt and themselves. Has it occurred to you that you may all have been lifted from different points in time?"
"Well, Master Windu did say he saw Anakin vanish before he himself did."
"No, that's not what I'm saying", the ghost replied, "you see, when this order was given, the five Jedi sent to stop Sidious were its first victims, it was only when they fell that the other orders were given."
"So?" Obi-Wan queried, tired of the constant guessing he had been forced to endure since arriving, tired of the ambiguity of knowing or not knowing who to grieve for, and tired of the secrets. Even now, he sensed the ghost was holding back, not telling him something. The way the boy had stared at them in the cave, it had meant something, he had even noticed the hushed discussion taking place between them during his and Anakin's own louder exchange, and was sick of the secrecy.

Thankfully, the ghost deigned to meet his question with a answer, albeit laced with his usual cryptic vagueness, "so you saw the aftermath of their actions, the deaths of hundreds of Jedi, because the clones didn't just turn on you, my friend. What I am saying is that for them, this has not happened yet…" the ghost lapsed into thought again, leaving Obi-Wan in a maddening silence, devoid of any of the answers he was so desperate to learn. After days of supressing his curiosity, to have the answers he yearned for so near to him, only to be denied, Obi-Wan Kenobi's cool practiced façade cracked.
"Time for what?" he demanded, "there is no time, there's nothing we can do. We are decades into the future, and even if we weren't, Yoda's came here from Kashyyyk, me from Utapau and you yourself said that Anakin and Master Windu fell against Palpatine. We are powerless to stop this!"

Without realising it, he had allowed his voice to rise throughout the rant, until he was almost shouting the last words at the ghost, who just stared at him calmly. "Calm yourself", it reprimanded him sternly, "too many good Jedi have been lost to their anger without you adding yourself to their ranks".
"So what happened? I must know", it was a surreal experience attempting to convince himself, with the exception of being both from a far off point in his future, not to mention dead, to part with information that might help prevent the deaths of almost everyone he had ever known. Yet he sensed there was something being withheld from him, a reason for the ghost's reluctance, so he pressed on with his questioning.

Finally, it seemed to decide on something, as it suddenly abandoned the almost disinterested visage and looked at him intently. "You must have been sent here for a reason", it explained, "when I first felt the tremor of a time jump in the Force, I assumed it was likely a permanent jump to turn the tide of the struggle against the Empire. I doubt that will case however", he said, smiling at the look of alarm that had briefly crossed Obi-Wan's face. "You came here from crucial turning points in the war, without even realising that was what they were. If you are to do something to change them, and I imagine that is why you were sent to see the repercussions they had on the galaxy, you will need to know what happened."

Throughout the ghost's tale, Obi-Wan began to feel the helplessness of it all, how the Jedi Order had been deceived for so long and how its own trust in the loyalty of its own troops had allowed it to fall so easily. The ghost couldn't tell him exactly how or why the troops had betrayed them, except that it had occurred simultaneously across the galaxy at the same time as the confrontation and revelation of Palpatine as the hidden Sith Lord. He had been briefed on the Chancellor's secret by Anakin shortly after they had arrived, but he was still surprised at how calmly he accepted the revelation as the ghost told him. This surprise was short lived, however, as he finally dared to ask what had happened in the Jedi's desperate attempt to oust the Chancellor from power. "I never learned the details", the ghost replied, "but out of the 5 people who tried to arrest the Chancellor, only one survived."
"Who was it? You told me both Anakin and Windu fell in the fight against Sidious."
"No, Windu was killed. But Anakin, Anakin truly died…"
"What do you mean?". Worry coloured his voice now. It was the ghost's tone which had done it; he was a Jedi, trained to master his emotions, but still, he was positive that if something had happened to the man he viewed as being like his own brother, he would have been angry. He knew that even all those years later, he would have been furious, but he sensed none of that in the ghost. Instead there was only sadness, the pain of a decades-old wound which had never healed.
"Anakin Skywalker died that day, and Darth Vader was born".

Obi-Wan wanted to deny it, tried to convince himself there had been a mistake. He had seen Anakin only hours ago, and his friend had seemed fine. He stared into the ghost's eyes, hoping for some sing of a trick, or even a trap laid for him, and saw himself staring back. With a sudden numbness, he remembered the hesitancy with which Anakin had informed him of the Chancellor's true identity, he had known the two were close, but would never have suspected the depth of the deception at hand. A father figure was the one thing Anakin had always craved, he reflected bitterly. He remembered the bond which had formed so quickly and effortlessly between Anakin and his old Master, Qui-Gon Jinn, when he had first met the boy on Tatooine. If Sidious could have been that for him, he could have manipulated him, of course, but Obi-Wan doubted that would be enough to turn him to the dark side as completely as the ghost had implied.

"How did it happen?" he asked, still reeling from the revelation.
"I don't know what drove him to do it", the ghost answered honestly, "the last time I saw him was before I left for Utapau, but you know that don't you?"
"I remember" Obi-wan replied cautiously.
"The next was on Mustafar, where we both fought to kill. He had fallen completely to the dark side by that point." Noticing Obi-Wan's horror at what we said, the ghost clarified solemnly, "the things I saw him do, you don't understand: this was not the same man we knew. The clones may have turned on Sidious' command, but the destruction of the temple, that was Anakin. I couldn't believe it until I saw it through the recordings, but the massacred the younglings, all of them. There was no mercy, not even to his own wife… He's more machine that man now. After I defeated him on Mustafar, I assumed he had died for a long time, the last time I saw him as he was, he was burning alive on the slopes of a lava river."

"He killed Padmé?" Obi-Wan surprised himself with that question. The marriage barely surprised him after what he had learned, but Anakin's treatment of her did. He knew his friend well, well enough to know that he would go to almost any lengths for the ones he loved, becoming extremely emotional, and bordering on sheer desperation until they were safe. He had seen it when Padmé had fallen in pursuit of Dooku, and twice with his friend's own padawan as she had been first kidnapped and later forced to live as a fugitive from the order. He knew how deeply Anakin cared for Padmé, despite his former padawan's efforts to mask his emotions, and knew that he would never have hurt the senator unless the man he knew had truly died.
"Not directly no", the ghost replied, "he thought she had betrayed him by allowing me to sneak onto her ship to kill him. In reality, after I told her what I had seen, she was desperate to see him, and I used that desperation to board the ship in secrecy. Anakin didn't wait for an explanation, however, and choked her through the Force for her betrayal. I was left with no choice but to engage him then, and after realising what I must have done, she had nothing left to live for." Obi-Wan was sure the ghost would be crying if it were possible, he could feel the beginning of tears forming in his own eyes but fought them back.

"Anakin couldn't do that", he stated resolutely. You saw him moments ago, whatever made him turn in your time, maybe that's passed. You saw how the Council played him against Palpatine, maybe Windu accused him of being in league and he had was trapped into it!"
"Your denial is admirable, unlike your speculations", the ghost said accusingly but then, softening his tone, he continued, "but your faith in him is a quality you share with Luke."
"His son?"
"Yes. The man he has become is an unfeeling monster controlled only by anger, pain, and his master Sidious, and yet Luke still testifies to the good in him. I fear I may have lost this blind hope in the long years after the fall of the Republic but seeing your arrival here. There may be a chance. Talk to Luke, find out what really happened before Darth Vader fell to the dark side, but I warn you, it could only lead to more suffering."
Obi-Wan considered his response for a long time. "Master", he said respectfully, "if what you have told me is true, then I don't see I have any excuse but to try." The ghostly form of his future self just solemnly nodded its head at that, and with a small sigh, began to fade into the darkening night.

He remained there long after the twin suns had dipped below the horizon, and the thousands of stars of the galaxy had begun to throng the night sky. There were more here than on Coruscant, he plaintively, remembering how his thoughts had been similar when he had first arrived on Tatooine, many years ago with Qui-Gon. He wondered if the grim future the ghost had described may have been different if his old master had survived to take Anakin on as his own padawan, as he had originally intended. Although he had moved on from his guilt surrounding Qui-Gon's death many years before, he couldn't help asking himself why the Force had only intervened now, after so many good people had already needlessly died in a war created and controlled by one person. With these thoughts weighing heavily on his mind, he began to walk slowly back towards the temporary camp.

It was dark when he arrived. Normally have guessed Luke may have employed some sort of defensive measures around the cave, or at least covered the entrance with some of the stray rocks littering the path to help avoid unwanted Imperial attention. To his surprise, however, as he neared the camp, he was greeted not by the expected scramble down the dark slope, and slow journey along the wall to find the small landmarks he had picked out before leaving, but by roars of laughter. Confused, he began to accelerate his pace, his concern mounting as he saw the fire which had been constructed outside the cave entrance, and the two men he had left earlier moving about it like lunatics.

They were fighting, he noticed. Each was holding a wooden stave, a neat trick for an impromptu training session he had taught Anakin during the early years as his padawan and were fighting a mock duel. As he grew closer, about to issue a stern warning about the danger the fire posed to being spotted by imperial patrols, he overheard the end of one of Anakin's pointers.
"An effective block", his friend was saying, "but predictable. If you hold it that far above your head and freeze to catch my attack, I can just do this." Anakin punctuated his last sentence by swinging his stick at the back his unsuspecting son's knees, which buckled instantly, sending the boy to land heavily on the floor as Anakin moved to stand over him with a twisted expression on his face and malevolent glare in his eye. To Obi-Wan's relief, the expression lasted less than a second before his face cracked into a grin and he howled with laughter, "you've… you've gotta do the face." He wheezed, "that's the face they all make, every last one of them. If you're gonna beat a Sith, you've gotta learn to not flinch, now come on, up you get, let's give this another shot."

It had only been a split second, but for a moment, Obi-Wan had tried to imagine that face sewing death amongst his friends, committing the genocide he had been warned of, and it was easy. As he stared at the twisted, hateful expression on Anakin's face, he was scared, and he was ready to act. Now the moment had passed, and all he could feel was shame. He watched as Anakin playfully taunted his son through the sparring session and had to suppress his own chuckle at Luke's impression of Anakin's Sith face, which was so horrendously over-exaggerated that Anakin again howled with laughter.

As he watched the two men fight, the realisation hit him: Luke knew. Luke knew what his father would become, and yet the young Jedi still trusted the man in front of him, maybe he should do the same. He was tired from the draining nature of their current situation, and if the Force had brought Anakin to the future, maybe there was a chance the man in front of him avoid the fate which befell his future counterpart. Smiling, he began to relax as he remembered the similar missions Anakin and himself would undertake during the Clone Wars, where the friendly insults and the opportunities for competition were seemingly endless. He was not going to let that stop now, he decided.

"The trick is to keep moving", Anakin was saying, "if you freeze with your lightsabre, you give the enemy an opening, like this", he began to swing the staff around in a flowing complicated manoeuvre, no doubt intended to impress his son, Obi-Wan assumed. However, he decided, a demonstration of the technique's weaknesses was probably in order before the boy inflated Anakin's ego any more than it already was. Selecting a small rock, he used the Force to gently levitate it off the path where it had lain discarded and launch it at the back of his friend's head, where it landed with a satisfying clink. Or at least he assumed it must have been satisfying, for at the same moment he had launched the projectile, Obi-Wan had flipped off his narrow ledge and into the firelight, summoning Anakin's staff into his hand as he passed overhead and landing comfortably in his well-practised defensive stance opposite Luke. Noticing the wide-eyed expression on the young Jedi's face, he gave a small mock bow, "and by doing so", he continued Anakin's sentence casually, as if nothing remotely out of the ordinary had happened, "you are forced to focus on your manoeuvre, and can't pay sufficient attention to your surroundings."
"How long were you waiting there for that?" Anakin asked him jokingly.
"Oh, I'd just arrived", he brushed off the accusation, "you make it exceedingly easy sometimes."
"I knew you were there", Anakin said dismissively, "I was just let you do it as a demonstration for Luke". The two Jedi locked eyes at that for a few moments and burst out laughing.
"Seriously though", Obi-Wan turned to Luke, "what Anakin is suggesting is incorporating Form 4 elements into your technique, which, as you can see, can leave you slightly exposed to projectiles if you are caught unprepared, I would suggest, adopting a more defensive position, like this…"

Almost two weeks later, Anakin glanced up at the night sky. It was clear and crammed with stars each desperately trying to outshine their neighbours in an endless display. He was pleased with the progress with son was making, he reflected, already Luke had begun to lose the rigid form he had begun their first fight with, and the exaggerated power swings were subtler and harder to predict. However, he mused, he doubted the boy would last long in a fight against a true Sith yet. As had become their custom, the trio had lit a small fire outside the cave and were stretched out around its warmth as they recounted their best stories from their time as Jedi. It was strange, he thought, he doubted he had ever seen Obi-Wan so relaxed as his old Master vigorously retold their daring rescue of the Chancellor, with more embellishments than Anakin would have deemed possible. He had grown used to this ritual, however, and had come to love such evenings. In many ways, he felt closer to his Master than he ever had before. The strange circumstances that had led them to where there were had seemed to have a significant impact on the Jedi. His strict adherence to the code had relaxed slightly, and after what they had discussed about Padmé when they had first arrived on the planet, their relationship had become more open, with Obi-wan even delving into some of the details of his mission to Mandalore, during which he had first met Satine. However, occasionally he would still catch a concerned glance from his Master or even his son, and once as he returned from a foraging trip to a local settlement, he had found them in the midst of a heated discussion, which they had dismissed as a friendly argument about their respective lightsabre designs. The furtive glances he had noticed afterwards told him an entirely different story, but he knew better than to press them, and so his patience held.

At the moment, especially, there were more pressing matters on his mind, as Obi-Wan described how he had boarded the ship holding the Chancellor, "obviously we didn't know he was a Sith at that point", he was clarifying, "but after fighting our way through what must have been half the battle droids on board the ship, we finally confronted Dooku."
"Who force choked him and knocked him out with ease", Anakin finished helpfully, jerking his head in Obi-Wan's direction to show who his playful insult had been directed towards, "while I single-handedly challenged and killed him."
"Anakin…"
"What?" he demanded, "I did."
"Humility is a Jedi's greatest virtue," reprimanded Obi-Wan.
"Really" he was incredulous now, "you're pulling that one, after you 'fought your way though half the battle droids on the ship'?" his exaggerated impersonation of Obi-Wan's voice gleaned a small chuckle from Luke, and he even saw the ghost of a smile appear on his old Master's face.

As he opened his mouth to continue the story, he sensed a presence, faint and overhead somewhere, but still very clear. It was unmistakeable, another Force user or at the very least a force sensitive being was nearby, they must have been found. Bolting upright, he shot an alarmed glance at the other two Jedi. To his surprise, Luke still lay sprawled by the fire, calmly watching the stars above him. "I recognise that feeling", he said by way of explanation, "don't worry, it's Leia."
"So she did make it", Anakin replied, beginning to relax, "I didn't know she was Force sensitive. But if she's here, what happened to the other two?"

He was referring of course to Masters Windu and Yoda, who Luke had likely heard of from any communications he had received from Leia, but he did not question Anakin on them, with his interest instead being piqued around Leia. "Force sensitive?" he exclaimed, "Leia's not Force sensitive, she's just-"
"Here they are." He was cut off by Obi-Wan, who, relieved, had decided to announce the arrival of the two other Jedi as they too emerged from hyperspace. "What took them so long, do you reckon?" he inquired.
"Probably Leia," Luke replied, clearly irritated at the lack of answers to his earlier question, "before coming here, she needed to speak with Lando to gauge the right time for her and Chewie to attempt their infiltration of the palace… I'll explain later", he said dismissively in response to their confused looks.

"Good idea", Anakin confirmed, lowering his mental defences to search for the signal with greater clarity "I'd say the most important thing we can do right now is regroup and discuss a plan to-" he stopped abruptly. He had felt something. It was faint, very faint in comparison to the other Force signatures he could feel, but it was there. After years of training to recognise it, he was confident he could feel his former Padawan, not here, not even with the rebels on their far-off forest base, but somewhere else, somewhere far. A quick glance at Obi-Wan told him that the jedi had felt the same thing. His slightly stunned face was gazing towards the sky with a slightly glazed expression on his face. Renewing his efforts, he began actively searching for it again, it wasn't hard to find, "she's searching for us", he realised with pleasure, beginning to extend his own presence to meet the one he felt. To his horror, he felt it shrink from his touch, vanishing into the empty vacuum of Space. "She's, she's gone…" he murmured in disbelief, glancing at Obi-Wan in shock. To his surprise, the Jedi Master appeared untroubled by this, but simply laid a gentle hand on his shoulder, "I imagine we've got until daybreak until the others reach us", he informed them, "assuming they land their ships at a local port. It should give me enough time to meditate deeply enough to locate the source of what we felt", he glanced at Anakin, "she probably just wasn't expecting you".
"But she expected you?"
"My ghost blazes a pretty strong trail through the Force", he said light-heartedly.

With that, Obi-Wan assumed a meditative position, crossed legged on the floor just inside the cave with his back brushing the wall. As he closed his eyes, Luke remarked how the small rocks of the cave floor had begun to float gently off the ground. "It's a sign of a deep meditation", Anakin explained, "although knowing Obi-Wan, there's a reasonable chance he's doing it just to show off. Not all jedi hold so closely to the absolute humility they preach", his father joked in response to Luke's puzzled expression.
"Who were you talking about?" he inquired after a short pause, "when you refer to this presence you felt?"
"Ah, you wouldn't have met her, would you?" Anakin realised. "Her name was Ahsoka Tano, she was my former padawan. When I last heard from her, she had just taken Mandalore, and was in the process of preparing to transport its former Sith leader back to Coruscant to be tried. After arriving here and learning about this purge, I assumed she must have been killed along with the rest of the other Jedi, but after what you told me of there being no record of Jedi involvement in the Siege of Mandalore, I began to wonder. You would have liked her, Luke. She was an excellent warrior, resourceful, cunning… and a good friend" he trailed off, lost in thought.
"I would have liked to meet her", Luke said solemnly.
"No, you don't understand", Anakin horridly corrected him, "we felt her, she's still here, still alive. Except she shrank away from me", he explained dejectedly, "Obi-Wan thinks it's because she was trying to reach the ghost we saw earlier, but I know there's more to it than that."

Luke was tempted to tell his father then. To tell him everything he knew, to beg him not to turn, but he held back. After everything he had been through, he doubted Anakin could take another blow like that, especially on the verge of possibly rediscovering this padawan of his. Hence, he kept quiet as he was filled in on the intricacies of the Clone Wars, and the personal importance this 'Ahsoka' must have had to his father. "I can't believe we didn't tell you about her sooner", Anakin reprimanded himself as he finished his summary to Luke, "oh she's going to be furious when she finds out."
"Well he's not going to lack for information for long," Obi-Wan said, appearing behind them, "she's on Malachor, almost the other side of the galaxy. Fortunately we'll be able to get there without crossing into mid or inner rim territory and alerting the Empire, but it won't be a short journey."

Luke noted how quickly the two jedi had adapted to the new galactic situation, but didn't comment on it. Instead he reasoned with himself. If Leia was here now, that would mean it was her turn to take on his intelligence and reconnaissance duties of the Hutt palace, leaving him free to train and hone his skills. Or it would leave him free to meet his father's mysterious padawan, and gain a further insight into what his Anakin Skywalker had been like before his fall to the dark side. The decision was not a hard one, Leia apparently had her own jedi companions after all. "Then we go", he said with a sense of finality he was not entirely sure he felt.
"What about your friend?" Obi-Wan inquired.
"How do you thin Leia knew where to come?" Luke responded, "she was always going to take over for this part of the plan, besides, I'm sure your friends wouldn't mind assisting her?" he caught a knowing glance from Obi-Wan.
"You really want to come don't you?"
"More than you know." He sensed the jedi had caught the true meaning behind his words, for he immediately backed off.
"Looks like young Skywalker is in then", he remarked.
"Now just to convince the others…" Anakin remarked ruefully.

Luke caught the concerned undercurrent in his voice, gathering that the new arrivals and his current friends may not always have seen eye-to-eye. As the first of the twin suns crested the horizon in the distance, he glimpsed the silhouettes of a small band slowly making their way towards their location and steeled himself to play the mediator in the inevitable conflict of interests he could see coming.
"Relax", he turned to find Obi-Wan standing beside him, "we'll go and find her".
"But if your friends disagree?" Luke raised an eyebrow.
"We'll go anyway", Obi-Wan reassured him.
"How can you be so certain?"
"Anakin's never really been one for strictly following the will of his senior Jedi, you'll learn to like that about him eventually", he joked.

As he looked at the tall, sandy-haired man standing with his back to them and his hands clasped firmly behind him waiting on the small ridge signifying the sheer drop at the edge of the path, Luke reflected on whether he had been foolish to place his trust in him so easily. Anakin Skywalker had a way of putting him at ease, and for one of the first times since Han had been taken, Luke had felt truly happy in his father's presence, even knowing the dark fate that would befall him. He knew it might be some sort of elaborate trap by the Empire, but had relaxed into an almost nonchalant acceptance of that fact in the time he had known the two jedi. No, he vowed to himself, he would go with them to find this 'Ahsoka Tano', whatever it might mean for him.

So that was the end of a mammoth two-part chapter. I hope you all enjoyed it, and like where the story's beginning to develop to. As always, anyone who has any advice or any ideas where I could go, don't hesitate to let me know.

Take care everyone! – AW117