Anakin Skywalker isn't a Force Ghost anymore. This fact disturbs him greatly. He remembers being pulled from the Force and waking up in the middle of a lush, vibrant forest. He is clad in the tunic, trousers and boots he had as a Jedi Knight.

The entity that summoned him has her back turned, thick long mane of hair fully on display. She gives off the same bright glow, but there are holes in her robes, her torso, her limbs. She is fading from the world, disappearing in patches.

"You brought me here. Why?"

The Daughter turns and faces Anakin. "You felt you weren't ready to become one with the Force."

"My story is over," he states bluntly.

"You say that, and yet you think otherwise."

Anakin squares his jaw, slipping his hands (one mechno, other not) inside the sleeves of his robes. "Is this my sentence?"

"It's not a sentence. It's an opportunity to begin a new chapter. You've seen what the light side and the dark side both have to offer." She begins circling Anakin, eyeing him up and down. "You've become wiser. And you're restless. You wouldn't be Anakin Skywalker if you weren't."

He opens his mouth to argue, but she carries on. "You wish to redeem yourself. You feel you haven't done enough."

His mouth snaps shut, and he fumes, knitting his eyebrows together. "You know I'm right," adds the Daughter. He tears his gaze away from those striking emerald orbs and that smooth visage which accentuates her elegance. Anakin considers.

"I have a choice?"

"You can stay and become the Fulcrum, or you can return to being one with the Force."

"How did you survive?" he says.

"I didn't. Not really. But a part of me lived on through your friend." Anakin nods. He recalls his first visit to Mortis. It did not go well.

"And when she died... well, the Force works in mysterious ways." He sags a bit. So his former Padawan was here too. He agrees to stay and the Daughter fades away, gone for good.

He finds the embodiments of light and dark locked in combat. He reminds them both of why he was the Chosen One. The fight broken up, they scamper away to their respective hideouts.

A glint of recognition flashed in Ahsoka's eyes, along with something else he could not place. But she doesn't stick around. He is left alone in the forest, and threads his way through the trees up to the monastery. It's too vast and too lonely for him, but it's his now. He communes with the Force. Sometimes he senses the struggles of his charges.

He doesn't intervene in every battle, but when he does it's more often than not when Ahsoka is receiving the worst of the injuries. She notices the trend, and soon tells him to back off. "I don't need your help. I can do it on my own, and I've been doing it on my own."

Anakin gives a shrug. "I'm the Fulcrum. It's kinda my job to make sure you stay alive."

She says nothing else to him, morphing into an intimidating beast instead, and she bolts. Her treatment of him is infuriating, but he releases his emotions inside his high tower, alone. One night he seeks counsel from one whom he believes to be wiser than him.

"Master," whispers Anakin reverently, seated on his throne at the top of a long flight of stairs.

"Anakin." Obi-Wan is the same blue image from the Rebel Alliance's celebration on Endor.

"Quite the job you've got, my friend," he tells Anakin.

"It's... cumbersome. But I didn't call you just so you could get an earful of my whining." He informs the spectre of his problem.

"Just talk to her."

"She doesn't wanna listen."

"Have you even actually tried?" Anakin gives Obi-Wan a look.

"Stubborn. Like Master, like Padawan." Obi-Wan's chuckles are like the rustles of leaves.

The former Jedi Knight runs a hand down his face. "I suppose she expects me to apologize."

"Then you know what to do."

He finds her in the crystal caverns. She looks anywhere but at him. "Ahsoka," he begins, and stumbles over his next words. What is there to say?

Sorry for breaking the galaxy.

Sorry for destroying the Jedi Order.

Sorry for trying to kill you.

He doesn't get any of that out. Shoulders slumping, Anakin admits, "I was a monumental idiot."

"You were. But I forgave you a while ago." They don't share a bond any longer and Anakin wishes, more sorely than ever, that they still did.

He's stumped for a reply. Then he gives a wobbling smile, and all at once it's sad and it's proud and it's relieved. Once he schools his features, he says, "You've been avoiding me."

"I know." Ahsoka wriggles her fingers. "I thought I was getting the hang of this Avatar of Light business, but ever since you showed up, I've come to truly realise just how trapped I am."

"You're not the only one trapped. But you're not alone anymore, Ahsoka. You don't have to deal with him on your own."

He rests easier that night, feeling lighter. Later, she tells him that he can't show blatant favouritism in front of embodiment of the Dark Side.

"Why not?"

"You're the maintainer of balance. It's not just about breaking up fights and hiding in your monastery."

So he pays a visit to Maul. He climbs down into the Well of the Dark Side. He knows Maul's respect for him grows with each encounter.

"I can see why you were chosen to represent the darkness. You don't fall prey to your emotions. You use them - effectively."

"All my life, I've been fueled by hate. I know nothing else."

"You feel unfulfilled."

"I feel wasted, Skywalker."

"I know what that's like."

They're not like their predecessors. None of them are. For a start, Ahsoka and Maul both use sabers, and Anakin isn't dying for whatever reason. "They don't kill us, but they sure give a sting like no other," Ahsoka explains. In this endless loop, pain is a method of coping and a reminder that they are not quite dead.

But then, none of them are really alive in the first place.

It's only a challenge for the keeper of balance if it's a two-on-one. One morning he invites the Avatars of Light and Dark to his arena to attack him.

Ahsoka says, "Anakin, you're crazy."

He smirks in a manner that is so Anakin Skywalker that she can't help but mirror his expression. "Furthermore, we're not meant to gang up on the Fulcrum."

"Since when have we ever followed the rules?"

She tilts her head slightly to one side and accepts his point. He feels a pang in his chest. He's missed this. Missed his Padawan. Missed the banter. Missed her company.

Turns out if Anakin's wounded too severely, then they experience the effects, too.

Occassionally they meditate together. "We can explore the limits of the Force."

Maul responds, "Sounds awfully boring."

He grins. "It doesn't have to be."

Mortis isn't a paradise, nor is it a hell. It's Anakin's chance to do good, and he's glad for it.