Chosen One: The Bespin Treaty

Prologue-Temple Life

For the first time in what seemed like hours, the world around him had fallen silent. There was no screaming, and the shrieking of molten-hot blaster fire had finally stopped ringing in his ears. The deafening explosions that shook the earth around him finally ceased, and all was finally calm.

Standing alone on the battlefield, Anakin Skywalker faced certain doom. His battered form leaned against one of the makeshift barricades that his troops had set up before the last firefight. Cool raindrops bounced harmlessly off his heaving torso, dispersing into the faintest puffs of mist as they made contact with him. He was tired. There would be no escape this time. He was surrounded by an army of battle droids, their emotionless robotic faces cutting through smoky residue that lingered on the battlefield.

Anakin's battle plan had been a resounding failure. He had made every wrong call he possibly could have. The enemy knew every move they were going to make, and his troops were completely and thoroughly outmaneuvered. He had lost. Rex and Ahsoka were dead. Their lifeless bodies, scorched by blaster wounds, lay unceremonious behind him. Jessie, Appo, Kix... there were no survivors. There wouldn't even be any time to bury them.

How could I have failed so miserably? They were all depending on me. They trusted me. I got them killed. I deserve every horrible thing that is about to happen to me. In the distance, the battle droids raised their weapons and began their final approach. The sound of their labored mechanical steps echoed through the night. Suddenly a voice softly floated by Anakin's ear. It rang out sadly, "Ani...?"

Anakin felt a shiver run down his spine as he heard her. It couldn't be. It's not possible. "Mom...?" He turned to face the voice. His mother stood next to him, her face appearing gaunt, her expression heartbroken.

"Why did you do this? You could have saved us all..."
"Mom... I'm so sorry. This is all my fault..."

"Why couldn't you save them?" She gestured to his dead friends beside them, "Why couldn't you save me...?" She was crying. The pain in her voice was too much for Anakin to bear. Please just kill me now. I deserve it! The droids were finally within range, and the last thing Anakin heard was the sound of blaster fire ringing out.

Anakin jolted awake in a cold sweat. He could feel his heartbeat in his chest and the world was spinning around him. He took in a deep breath and tried to regain composure. Another nightmare. Thankfully, he was safe in his quarters at the Jedi Temple. His room was a disaster, littered with machines that he was currently tinkering with, and a variety of knick-knacks and souvenirs that he had acquired over his many long years as a Jedi. Anakin looked at the chronometer next to his bed. 5 am.

Just a few hours ago, Anakin had been spending time with his new Padawan, Ahsoka Tano. They had gone to Anakin's favorite diner on planet Coruscant, and quietly enjoyed each other's company looking up at the stars in the Jedi Temple's Astral Observatory room. It had been a pleasant evening- nothing that should have inspired that nightmare.

Anakin pulled his covers off of himself and sat at the edge of his bed. He placed his head in his hands, deep in thought. He focused on his shaky breathing by taking in some relaxed breaths, hoping that would calm the residual terror that was still clouding his mind. He hadn't had a dream about his mother since before her death several months ago.

She had been kidnapped while out on a walk outside her homestead on Tatooine, her home world. The creatures that took her were heartless savages, the Tusken Raiders. They patrolled their territory in the deserts of the planet and pillaged and murdered with ruthless abandon. Once they captured her, they spent many long weeks torturing her. Anakin was away from her, travelling the galaxy studying to be a Jedi with his teacher, Obi-Wan Kenobi. By the time Anakin discovered her grim situation, he had arrived too late to save her. Shortly after tracking her down, she died in his arms, broken, scared, and brutalized.

There were times her death still didn't seem real to him. She had always been such a beacon of love and light in Anakin's life. When he left her ten years ago to begin his training, he never thought that he could lose her. In Anakin's darkest days as a young man in the Jedi Order, he would cling to memories of her love and support to keep him going. When she died. No. When she was murdered, Anakin changed forever. A part of him died with her on that awful night.

Revenge was not the Jedi way. A Jedi was to let go of their attachments and rejoice for those who had become one with the Force. Until the day he lost his mother, Anakin Skywalker tried his best to follow the Jedi Code to the letter. He vowed to always uphold it even in the most dire of circumstances. After she fell lifeless in his arms, Anakin immediately betrayed all his teachings and morals. The only thought on his mind was justice. Justice for him, and for his mom. The only way Anakin thought he could move forward from his pain was if the Tuskens paid for their crime. They did. Anakin took no prisoners, and he slaughtered them like the filthy beasts they were.

He carried severe guilt regarding his failure to save her, and to a lesser degree, his actions after she died. It had eaten at him nearly every day since it happened, but in the last few weeks, it seemed as though the it was finally beginning to dissipate. Anakin had sincerely been hoping he could begin to move past the tragedy and begin the healing process. Why is it now that the nightmares are coming back?

Once he had regained composure, Anakin laid back down and pulled the covers over himself. At the very least, he was hoping he could get just a little rest tonight. He closed his eyes and tried to relax his mind, hoping that the coming sleep would be dreamless.

CLANK CLANK CLANK. The next thing Anakin heard was a loud, banging noise on the door outside his room. For the second time that morning, Anakin was shocked into consciousness. "Master!" Ahsoka Tano's voice called out impatiently, "you in there? Wake up!"

Anakin groaned and looked at the time. Six am. "Go away." He croaked, rolling over and pulling his covers over him. The knocking continued, more emphatically. CLANK CLANK CLANK CLANK.

"You promised your Padawan that we would do some training today, remember?" She projected her voice even louder. Does she even care she'll wake up the entire hallway? She didn't.

"Go. Away." He brought his covers over his head, hoping to quiet her noise.

CLANK CLANK CLANK CLANK CLANK. "Nope. Not gonna happen. I'm coming in now, I hope that's okay!" The door to Anakin's quarters opened, and light shot into his bedroom. His thin covers couldn't protect his eyes from the stinging brightness that invaded from the hallway. He threw the covers off and turned to face his antagonizer. Did she really just barge into my quarters...?

Ahsoka was already dressed in her training outfit, her tiny form stood at the now open door frame leading into Anakin's quarters. The first thing that caught her eye was the inordinate amount of things Anakin had in his room. She was amazed at seeing all the gadgets and trinkets that Anakin had. Most Jedi were highly discouraged from keeping personal effects, so it was shocking for Ahsoka to see one who had so much stuff. Most of it looked interesting, she wanted to learn about it. She studied a small T-14 model ship that was on a shelf by his door, picking it up to get a closer look. "Wow! What is all this!? Where did it all come from?"

Anakin stared at his new Padawan incredulously as she perused through his things, opting to her ignore her question and respond with one he deemed to be much more discussion worthy "You're in my room," he declared, a hint of disdain in his voice. "What makes you think you can just barge in here?"

"You said yesterday that we were going to do some training this morning, remember?" She placed her hands on her hips, seeming to completely disregard his previous statement, "it's morning, so I'm here to train."

"No. What I said is that I would contact you when I was ready to do some training. Clearly you need to work on your comprehension skills, little Padawan." She couldn't have waited, like, two hours to let me rest? It had to be right now?

"Come on! I've been waiting my whole life to do some actual training with an actual Jedi Knight! You put off getting started yesterday so we could play hooky in downtown Coruscant."

"Playing hooky...? Are you kidding me...?" Anakin flashbacked to every time he had given Obi-Wan Kenobi as much attitude as he was receiving right now. He wanted to punch his past self in the throat. Somewhere, he imagined Kenobi was listening in on this conversation and having a good laugh at Anakin's expense.

Finally having had enough, Anakin buried his hands in his face. "Fine! Have it your way, Snips. We'll do some training. Will that get you to stop talking and get out of my room?"

"That'll do it, yup!" Her voice was songlike and cheery, her attention still fully on Anakin's knick-knacks. She appeared to be very content with having things her way.

Anakin tossed his covers off and stood up, making his way toward his Jedi robes on the other side of the room. He was fortunately wearing some sleeping robes, so he at least didn't need to be embarrassed about being indecent in front of his new Padawan. He felt Ahsoka's eyes drift to his standing form. What is she staring at me for? Anakin then noticed her eyes were glued to Anakin's right arm.

Oh. Anakin thought to himself, that makes sense. A few months ago, Anakin had lost most of his right arm in a lightsaber duel with the leader of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, Count Dooku. Anakin's arm had been replaced with cybernetics, a ghastly combination of wires, metal, and gold plating were fused together where his arm should have been. He almost always wore a black glove to conceal the abomination, so Ahsoka had probably never seen the full extent of Anakin's injury.

Anakin raised it and the mechanical fingers wiggled one by one. Eerie mechanized sounds accompanied the motion, and Anakin spoke somewhat bitterly, "it sure is pretty, isn't it?"

Ahsoka dropped her sassy demeanor and became more apologetic, "I'm sorry for staring, Master, I didn't..."

Anakin held his hand up to stop her, "Don't worry about it, Snips. You were bound to find out about it eventually." He reached into a drawer by his bed and pulled out his glove. He slipped the metallic hand into it, concealing his injury.

"Does it hurt?"

"No," Anakin sighed, not overly wanting to talk about it. Truthfully, it didn't. If anything, the mechanical appendage numbed any and all sensations that he used to be able to experience. The medical droid who did the procedure had done a decent job simulating the sensation of nerves, but metal could never replace flesh and blood. All that was left of his right hand was a hollow simulation of touch. It was rather frustrating.

"How did it happen?" She inquired, her tone still sincere. Anakin huffed in frustration. He knew she wasn't trying to annoy him, but she had also just woken him up and he didn't feel like playing 'how'd you lose that limb?' with her.

Anakin's eyes narrowed, "Dooku." Anakin recalled how effortlessly the Separatist Leader, Count Dooku had dismantled him during their first duel on Geonosis, where the Clone War had begun. The Sith Warrior could have killed him at any point, but he chose to toy with him instead. Anakin replayed the duel in his mind fairly often, and it still perplexed him as to why Dooku didn't just simply finish he and Obi-Wan off. It's like he kept me alive for a reason.

Anakin shook his thoughts away and finished putting on his usual brown and black training robes. He turned around to face his Padawan, "That's enough talk about the past for one morning. You wanted to train, right? Let's get going." He smirked at his Padawan and ushered her out of his quarters, "You'll find I'm not much of a morning person, Snips. Because I didn't get my beauty sleep, I think I'm going to make this training session extra informative, just for you."

Ahsoka sighed, suddenly kicking herself for her impatience, "I was afraid you were going to say that." She followed him down the hallway as they made their way to the training chambers, struggling to keep up with his powerful stride.