Anakin sat on the edge of the building in a meditative position. The last Skywalker took a deep breath through his nose before placing his hands together and closing his eyes.

"Why are you sitting on the edge like this? Actually, scratch that. I'm still trying to figure that out along with why you want to put your lightsaber back together when it's already working and in one piece," Ahsoka asked. Anakin sighed.

"I don't know. I'm usually not one for meditation," he said.

"There's still no point in trying to put your lightsaber back together. What if you end up breaking it?" Ahsoka said exasperatedly as she walked in a set pattern behind him.

"I won't. I meditated over my crystals and constructed my lightsaber myself. Several times in fact," Anakin said, rubbing his head from the memories. "Several hours I sat there and meditated over my crystal before constructing it every time I lost a lightsaber. The Jedi seemed to think that was punishment enough, cause I had to do it every time."

"You meditated over your crystals? What's that like?" Ahsoka asked.

"Boring, I can tell you that first of all. But there's a type of... bond between the crystal and the wielder. Like... it is your weapon. Your companion," Anakin said, looking at the side of the ground while still in his meditative position. "Now that I think about it, what Obi-Wan says makes more sense. It really feels like your life. Or part of it at least. More than likely he meditated over his crystal as I did."

"The experience sounds peaceful. But I was happy with the lightsabers I had," Ahsoka said, looking to the side as she remembered she gave hers away.

"We're going to find you more, but you are going to meditate over yours as I did," Anakin said, closing his eyes again.

"Where do expect to-"

"I did not only meditate over my crystal at the age of eighteen, Padawan. I also went with Obi-Wan to pick the crystal. In the ice cold caves of Ilum. They can appear there. Though they aren't just strewn all over the place like plants. You must reach out find them through the Rite of Passage. It's exactly what you shall do. But my senses of the Force have changed since I was eighteen. I should only have to meditate over it again," Anakin said. Ahsoka looked at Anakin strangely. As he spoke, he sounded strangely serene. Almost like Master Obi-Wan was speaking for him, but it was his voice.

"Is that why you have that ship?" Ahsoka asked, pointing at the ship in question.

"That was so we can get around. Don't worry. There's a clone bar not far from here. After his brothers get a few drinks in him, the pilot that was assigned to me won't remember a thing," Anakin said calmly before opening his eyes to the city of Coruscant and allowing his deep blue eyes to take in the sight. More than he felt in his life, he felt extremely peaceful. As he sat here with Ahsoka. No stress. No struggles. Not until he was ready to take them by the reigns again. Then he stood up.

"I assume we're flying to Ilum?" Ahsoka asked.

"Of course. Get in the ship. There's gear in there as well. You should be fine," Anakin said, putting a gentle hand on Ahsoka's back and ushering her forward. Ahsoka shivered from the strange touch as she continued towards the ship. Her master's- Anakin's hand was surprisingly callused for spending years in a glove. But strangely pleasant.

"You touch weird," she said. Anakin raised a puzzled eyebrow at his Padawan.

"What do you mean I touch weird? I happen to think I touch perfectly normal, thank you very much," he said somewhat haughtily.

"No, it's like... your hand is strange to the touch, but warm and weirdly pleasant. Tell me how that works? Cause I sure don't have an answer," Ahsoka said.

"Plenty of climbing training for the calluses, years trapped in a glove for the warmth, and as the for the pleasant touch, I don't have an answer. I guess it's the way your skin reacts to certain things. Maybe it happens to like the fact that it's a hand, not a glove," Anakin said, looking at his hand from front to back.

"Suppose that makes sense. Now let's get going Flyboy!" Ahsoka said, waving him over to the ship. She would never admit it to him, but she was kinda giddy from being able to make her own lightsaber. She took Anakin's statement about meditating over it being too boring, and threw it to the side. Her master was always an impatient type. Even then, the pros outweighed the cons. Even then, the con wasn't much of a con.

"Flyboy? What happened to Skyguy?" Anakin asked.

"That too! Come on!" Ahsoka exclaimed, getting in the ship. Anakin grinned. He could tell she was excited to make her own lightsabers. Even though she questioned him why he wanted to bother reconstructing it. He shook his head with a small roll of his eyes. His Padawan - Ahsoka could be stranger than him sometimes.

Anakin squinted his eyes slightly through the biting winds as Ahsoka did the same. The cold, crippling winds shook hard against them and it was slightly harder to walk, but through focused Augmentation of the Force made this irrelevant for the both of them. Ahsoka looked out at the distance and saw an oddly shaped cave entrance. Distantly, she could feel a push and pull feeling through her senses. A feeling that drew her towards the cave; wanted her to know more. But at the same time, there was a feeling of wariness; something telling her to be careful.

"You can feel it from here, can't you Snips?" Anakin said, walking up to beside her. Ahsoka could see through her and his mask that his eyes were closed and he looked liked he was taking in the feeling. She had seen him more serene within the span of a few hours than she ever had during the war. Even when relaxed, never had Ahsoka felt this level of peace in Anakin. To feel it brought a smile to her face that was hidden by her mask.

"I can sense the happiness in you. I can feel everything when I'm this right with myself, which has only happened once," Anakin said before looking at Ahsoka and giving her a small smile. But like Ahsoka, it was hidden by the mask of his face gear. "What brought about it?"

"The feeling of peace from you. It's a bit toxic, I must say. I've never felt it in you before. I'm glad," Ahsoka said kindly.

"I was never going to feel that around the Jedi. I'm no longer hesitant to be who I want to be. While in some cases, that's not the wisest thing to do, it certainly feels good," Anakin said before walking towards the cave, Ahsoka in tow.

Anakin and Ahsoka's boots crunched under the snow as they neared the cave. As they both walked closer, they felt the ground beneath them get considerably slicker. Ice was covering the floor of the entrance. She remember Anakin saying that crystals were only found through the Rite of Passage, but where exactly was that? She knew this place felt familiar, but she couldn't remember why.

She closed her eyes and reached out with the Force to try and find the entrance, but Anakin put a hand on her shoulder and pointed up to a crystal that was at the very top of the ceiling. Now this place brought back memories. She remembered helping Padawans construct their lightsabers here. She smiled before reaching out with the Force to open the window. After that, she rotated the crystal to redirect the sunlight to the ice wall. It cracked before the whole ice wall began to melt, the water pooling around their feet.

"That certainly explains all the ice," Anakin said when Ahsoka remembered something.

"Master-" she said unconsciously, but then she noticed her, well, you couldn't really call it a mistake. More like a habit. She noticed her habit. A habit that she need to force herself out of. Yes. That was more accurate.

"No longer master Snips. Anakin," Anakin said kindly while putting a hand to his heart and bowing his head slightly. "And yes? What is it?"

"The crystals are just part of the battle. Are are we going to-"

"Get the parts?" Anakin finished. "The parts are actually simple. If you account the parts for three lightsabers, it is just under fifty credits in cost. The things that make a lightsaber expensive are the trouble it takes to get a Kyber crystal and the construction itself."

"Three? That means..."

"I did say I was learning more styles Pad- Ahsoka. But I am still primarily a one-handed saber technician. The second I'll keep under my sleeve for surprises," Anakin said before pinching the bridge of his nose. "Ughhhh. I just realized that's twice the meditation I have to do."

"Then we'll do it together. It'll be easier to deal with to know that I'm suffering with you," Ahsoka said in somewhat of a mock reassurance voice. Anakin shook his head and continued. When the reached a clearing with many directions to go, Anakin stopped.

"This is where we go our separate ways for now," Anakin said.

"Wait, you're not coming with me?" Ahsoka asked.

"Your trials are now your own. Finding the crystal is easy. Constructing the lightsaber is hard. Demons must be conquered for you to succeed in that particular field. But do not forget you are strong Ahsoka. You can overcome," Anakin told her in an assuring voice. The words bolstered Ahsoka's confidence, but she looked at the look on Anakin's face, and was slightly hesitant. He looked down the cave with a minor look of dread on his face.

"Anakin?" Ahsoka asked without thinking about it.

"I remember I faced a ghost of Maul when constructing mine. After he killed someone close to me," Anakin said, with a slightly hesitant, but sad look on his face. He didn't think he could bring up Qui-Gon to Ahsoka. Not yet.

He looked at the sad look on Anakin's face, and realized that there was a lot of things she didn't know about Anakin. The only thing she truly knew about him was that he was raised as a slave as a child. While not brooding on the fact considering they were in the middle of the war zone, she herself couldn't imagine what it was like growing up in a life of slavery. She knew that many Togrutas had been cursed to have a similar fate once upon a time, but she herself had no idea what it was like.

"You met Maul before?" Ahsoka asked, remembering the formidable Dathomirian.

"As a child, yes. Though... I can't say I liked him very much," Anakin said before shaking his head. "We need to finish here. Walk upon your own path. We'll talk about each of ours. If you want. I wish you luck Ahsoka."

"Possibly. We'll see what happens," Ahsoka said, walking down her part of the cave before turning back and looking at Anakin with a soft smile. "And I wish you luck too Ani." By the time Anakin's brain registered that she even called him that, she had already disappeared down her part of the cave. He could count on one hand the number of people he let call him Ani. One of them was dead, the other was Padme.

Then with a sudden jolt, he realized that he had forgotten her all this time. He couldn't even begin to process his ignorance at the moment. He knew he had to do that, but if they did figure out he left the council, if and only if, they'd track him back to people he knew. And the list had Padme at the top if Obi-Wan got involved. He alone knew of his personal ties to the woman, but he still didn't quite know that they were married. The man of course, had his suspicions, but he didn't now exactly what was happening between them. Therefore he had no proof, and Obi-Wan was not the type of person to act without proof. But as he looked back at the cave that Ahsoka disappeared behind, he figured he'd allow her to call him that just this once. It may be a permanent thing. He didn't rightfully know as he walked down his own cave.

Ahsoka gently bit her lip as she walked down the cave, unsure about the nickname she called Anakin. Like the start of their training, calling him Skyguy was a bit of a gamble on her part. She was very unsure about doing it. She didn't half understand why this one was different, but it felt different and she didn't rightfully know why. It was a nickname on his first name rather than his last. Why WAS it different? Why did it feel different?

Ahsoka put the thoughts out of her mind as she walked down the cave. She could feel the Force radiating off the walls. She assumed it was the presence of so many Kyber crystals. It was in perfect harmony with the place. As if this was a home for the Force. Actually, not as if. This was a home for the Force.

"Connected we all are, through the Force," the words of Master Yoda reminded her. Those words are what caused Ahsoka to sit on the ground in a meditative position and close her eyes to reach out with the Force. Though the general feeling was overwhelmed with the power of the Force, she could feel the push and pulls from the directions of which they came. Safe to say, it was almost everywhere. But there was a particularly strong feeling through the wall in front of her.

Standing up and tracing her hand on the wall, she felt around for some sort of weakness or switch. At one point, she felt a type of slice in the wall; almost as if the wall was cut into. Ahsoka took a few steps back before moving a section of the divide with her Force Grip. A door of some sorts was revealed beyond the hidden door, and she saw a dark hallway. While somewhat hesitant of the entryway without a lightsaber, she walked in nonetheless. Walking closer into the cave and opening the cave door that was at the end, there was a sight that amazed her.

An entire cave, with no other entrance, had crystals on the ceiling and on the ground. Not just of blue and green, but all kinds of colors that illuminated the room with a hybrid amount of glows. To the point where it looked like a strobe light show in the cave. But this was so much more beautiful. So much more natural. She could definitely wanted to show her mas-

"Man, I'm still not used to that. Even though Anakin sounds so much better," Ahsoka thought before backtracking and closing the door behind her. She started dashing to catch up with him. "Anakin! Anakin!"

She began running down the path that he went down, and she had spotted him as he was running back toward her direction, his lightsaber ignited and his face one of intense focus. Then he was surprised to find Ahsoka looking and feeling happy.

"You had me worried for a moment," Anakin said, deactivating his lightsaber and putting it back on his hilt. "What is it?"

"Come on. I want to show you something," Ahsoka said with a smile before she started excitedly jogging back towards where she found the cave. Anakin shook his head, but couldn't help but smile himself as he followed Ahsoka. He had not really seen her that giddy in a while. Very few things caused Ahsoka to act as giddy as if she was a simple schoolgirl. So his curiosity was definitely peaked.

Ahsoka went back to the spot she remembered she saw it and opened up the entrance. The sight definitely peaked Anakin's interest. The Jedi never mentioned anything about secret passageways. Even he wouldn't have missed that one.

Ahsoka lead him down the path she showed him, and the sight was breathtaking. The cave was lined from floor to ceiling with different colors of Kyber Crystals. The visual was truly amazing. The various colors and the natural dark lighting of the cave worked in harmony to create a beautiful visual. From what he saw, this path was hidden. There was a ghost of a sentence on his mouth, but his face definitely showed how stunned, yet mesmerized by the sight he was.

"Amazing, isn't it?" Ahsoka said.

"Very," Anakin said, sitting on the ground and taking everything in. Ahsoka laid back next to Anakin.

"To think this is where we end up, huh?" she said with a small smile.

"Talking about the secret passageway or where we are now concerning the Order?" Anakin asked.

"Both really, but more of the latter than the former," Ahsoka said.

"Yeah. I don't regret anything much of anything though," Anakin said.

"I don't either. It was for the best on both our accounts," Ahsoka said.

"I agree with that. And I'm never going back. Even after the war," Anakin said before rising to his feet and holding a hand out to Ahsoka. She grabbed it, and he helped her to her feet. "Time to pick a crystal."

"Suppose so," Ahsoka said before just holding her hand out and pulling two crystals into her grip. Anakin did the same with one separate crystal. As they walked out, Ahsoka couldn't help but say this.

"We're coming back here," she said almost in a demanding voice.

"Of course we are Snips. Just because I want to. Regardless whether you to come here or not," Anakin said, sealing the entrances behind him. Ahsoka rolled her eyes.

"Whatever you say... Ani," Ahsoka said, throwing the name out again to gauge his reaction. She could see him shift his shoulders. Not uncomfortably, but from some different reaction she couldn't quite place. Nervousness? Enjoyment? Or was he unsure about the whole thing?

"Then whatever you say... Soka," Anakin said, throwing that nickname at her to gauge her reaction.

Ahsoka didn't quite have anything to say to that, but she rubbed her lekku somewhat nervously with a small frown on her face. Not that many people called her that. It was normally limited to only Plo Koon, but why was it she was willing to allow someone else call her by that name? Even then, she didn't understand why she felt upset about it.

"Did I make things awkward?" Anakin asked.

"No, of course not. It's just... only Master Plo Koon really called me by that name. And we have our history," Ahsoka said, placing a hand on her arm.

"So did I cross the line?" Anakin asked.

"Of course not. Just caught me off guard. I mean, I'm not quite comfortable with someone else calling me the name quite yet," Ahsoka told him. She didn't want to press deep on the issue, possibly bringing up some things she wanted buried.

"Of course. I respect your privacy," Anakin said.

"Thank you. And want me to stop calling you Ani, I'll-"

"I'm not... quite as sensitive as you on the subject," Anakin said, sounding somewhat hesitant. But he decided to conclude it with a nod. "You can call me that."

"You're too nice Ani," Ahsoka cooed in a baby voice before she started pinching his cheek. Anakin gently moved her hand before walking past her without a word.

"My dear Ani." The words were a ghost on his lips, but left unsaid. Only existing in his mind. His mother used to say that to him every morning. They may have been slaves, but they had each other. Now she was gone.

"Hey, I was joking," Ahsoka said. Anakin blinked back the temporary lapse of tears he had before looking back at Ahsoka and doing his best to force his smile.

"Faked you out, didn't I?" he said. Ahsoka swatted him on the arm.

"You... You really get on my nerves, you know that Anakin?" Ahsoka asked.

"That's my job Snips. Now come on. You've got some lightsabers to put together," Anakin said, ushering Ahsoka forward. The two then walked out of the caves of Ilum, right before the ice wall behind them sealed completely. They went back towards their ship, their crystals in their pockets.

A/N: Playing around with a few ideas. I'm working more on getting Anakin and Ahsoka to get to know each other more personally. To the point where they'll start telling each other stuff that they wouldn't definitely wouldn't tell most people. With Ahsoka, I've got some secrets with her I don't quite want to reveal. But when it comes to Anakin, we all get the fact that he was born a slave, his mother died, and he's still dealing with pain of his own while juggling his marriage. It'll be slow, but it'll come when it comes. I can't wait to start writing about the lightsabers. Gonna be so fun.