The Unchronicled Adventures of Ahsoka Tano, Book Eight

Chapter Four: A Jedi's Memories

ANAKIN SKYWALKER

Anakin Skywalker sat in his room, meditating. Before him was the small pyramid-shaped form of the Sith holocron that Ahsoka had stolen from the Jedi Temple over six years before.

He had been trying to get it to open again almost since Ahsoka’s wedding. But despite all his efforts, it stayed shut tight as a Mon Cala clam, and almost looked dead. Before, it had been glowing that sinister, faint red-yellow color, just like the eyes of a Sith Lord. But now, it was a dull rust color.

He needed answers. And he believed he would be able to find them inside this little box. He was sure that the empty look was just a cover, and that the malevolent spirit of Darth Maul hadn’t been the only thing hidden inside it. There could be untold secrets that the Emperor didn’t want found just beyond his reach…

He decided to try looking back on how he had opened it in the first place. It had nearly killed him, and it was something he would rather forget, but he couldn’t. And sometimes going through the fire, even though he would inevitably get burned, was the one true path to what he wanted.

And suddenly he was living that day, fifteen months before, again.

Anakin, cloaked in brown Jedi robes and shadows, walked through the New Jedi Temple, his feet making no sound on the smooth stone floor. Around him, the cacophony of the alarm system salvaged from an old Republic Star Cruiser called people to the power generators in the bowels of the building.

But he ignored it. After all, he was the one who had caused the disturbance.

He knew that he was breaking just about every rule in the book, and pursuing a course of action similar to the one that Barriss Offee had before her turn to the Dark Side. But unlike then, this time no one was in any real danger. The power generators were only temporarily knocked out by an electro-magnetic pulse, and would turn on again within a half-hour.

A few small and carefully rigged explosions would also do the trick.

Keeping to the wall, Anakin soon reached his destination. Ahsoka’s room, its door lying unopened since her fall into that coma two years before, loomed up ahead. He almost felt like he was about to pillage a temple, a sacred place. But it was what he had to do. No more, and no less.

Carefully, pulling his sleeve over his hand so that he wouldn’t leave fingerprints, he typed the override code into her keypad. She had given it to all of her closest friends, should anything happen to her. It turns out, in this case, that it was her mistake.

Taking a final look down the hall to make sure that no one had seen him, he walked inside. Shutting out the memories of the girl who had once been his sweet little padawan that came crashing over him, he walked over towards the back wall.

And there, right behind the low headboard, was the tiniest of changes in the wall. No one except a Jedi or a mechanic – or both – would have noticed it. It was a panel of about two by four meters squared, carefully matched to the wall color.

Anakin pushed the bed away from the wall by a few inches, and found another keypad. Using an educated guess, he entered a passcode. It was Lux’s name, but with a change. He had told less than five people alive the truth, but his full name was really Aluxso Prowyn Bonteri. He hated it, instead opting for the simpler ‘Lux Bonteri’.

A negative beep informed him that it was wrong. He was sure, however, that the name was at least a part of it. Taking another guess, this one completely wild, he added on the hyperspace coordinates for Shili, Ahsoka’s home world, and Lux’s, in that order. The whole password then came to aluxso-prowyn-bonteri-L8-O9.

The passcode was accepted. He watched as the panel slid open with the quiet whirr of an unseen mechanism. Inside was a design that he realized he had only seen three or four times in his life, made by the thirty or so Jedi holocrons and one Sith holcron. The symbol of yin and yang. Light and Dark.

With painstaking care, he lifted the yellow-orange intruder from its place near the center of the design. It suddenly glowed brighter, as if able to recognize that it was in the hands of someone who was unafraid of the Dark Side.

As Anakin replaced everything as it had been, tucking the holocron into his robes, he smiled. That was what he wanted. If he could fool the holocron into thinking that he was a Fallen Jedi, a Sith Lord or another sort of Darksider, then he would be able to plunder its secrets.

And maybe, just maybe, he would be able to save Ahsoka.

Anakin awoke with a start, the memory gone. It all made sense. Ahsoka had told him how Maul had cloaked his Force signature with the young Jedi’s, and had fooled her into thinking that it was he. If Anakin could do the reverse and cloak his own presence with Maul’s, then the holocron would open.

He concentrated on the Sith Lord’s aura and his own inner Dark Side, shutting his eyes. When they blinked open again, they were a haunting yellow rimmed with red. He raised a hand, and the holocron turned the same color. As the Force flowed from him and into the object, pieces of the design slowly began to move as it prepared to open.

Perfect, he thought, and with one last push, he was in.

*What could Anakin be looking for in the holocron? Is it just general information, or does he have another reason for doing something so dangerous for a Lightsider? And what will become of Ahsoka's baby? Will she choose to tell her closest friends, or will she cling to the lie to the very end? You'll find out in the next chapter of The Unchronicled Adventures Of Ahsoka Tano!

BWUHAHAHAHA ALUXSO HAHAHHAHAH OH MAN THAT'S FUNNY HAHAHHAHAHAHHAH

Lux: *crosses arms and frowns* Ahsoka why why WHY did you have to use that as a password?!

Ahsoka: Hey, up until now, no one knew what it was, okay? Only Anakin, Amni, me and, well... NONONO I can't say it!!! I mustn't spoil future chapters!!!

So NOW you understand the pull of the SPOILER SIDE!!! YOU KNOW ITS POWER!!!

Ahsoka: *stares* Anakin, is it just me, or is she going a little weird right now?

Anakin: It's not just you. Welllll... You were like this when you were her age.

Ahsoka: HEYYY!!!!

What is up with you dudes? No need to argue or anything. But saying that Soka was like me when she was my age... That's just too high a compliment... I can't... Can't compute...

Ahsoka: *puts on a pair of sunglasses* Just chilling with my adoring fan[s], guys 

Yes. You are indeed a BAWSS. Now I'm going to post the second chapter that I had ready, so I have to go...

And yes, Anakin, you're a BAWSS too.

Anakin: I'M HOT AND I KNOW IT

*whispers* Yes you are

Lux: Oh joy...

Find out that a Jedi Master wiped Kamino from the Jedi Archives and had a clone army created in his name and may the Force be with you,

Sharron