A Hero Lost: A Star Wars AU

~The Offer she Couldn't Refuse~

If Ahsoka wasn't already confused, now she certainly was.

And she wasn't just confused. She was angry, depressed, and felt unfathomable hatred towards herself, the Jedi, that droid, and whoever recorded that kriffing message.

The message.

Oh boy, who would she tell? Should she even tell anyone? Could she even tell anyone? That very well could have been the Sith Lord telling her his big master plan which the Jedi were still struggling to piece together! If she gave that information to the Jedi--directly or indirectly--this whole war would probably be over!

But did she really want to help the Jedi? The ones who tossed her out like trash the moment she was framed? What did they even do to deserve this?

And plus, if she let the news leak, then, if that truly was the Sith Lord, she stood no chance.

Then, an alarm went off outside.

Oh no. It wasn't that Separatist invasion, it couldn't be!

There were things being spoken on a loudspeaker but she could not hear them from inside.

She was just about to step outside when she heard the screams and pandemonium ensue.

She backed away from the door. Only invasion had the potential to drive people to that level of pandemonium. It had to be the invasion.

She checked her datapad, but nothing was working. The local servers had become so flooded that they had probably crashed.

"Ugh, millennia of development in the fields of data transmission and we still have system crashes!?" she yelled, as she threw the datapad onto her bed.

She sat there, feeling cold, for what felt like hours.

Once the activity outside started to sound like it had died down, she decided to look outside.

She couldn't see much of the sky because of how many levels down she was, but she could see enough: Burning Separatist and Republic ships high in the sky, firing at each other constantly.

She felt sick. She went back inside. How many lives were going to be lost this time?

Suddenly, she felt as if something broke, Like some sort of tether strung to her consciousness had just snapped.

She fell to the ground in what felt like recoil, and it was in that moment that she knew Dooku was dead.

She laid down on her bed. She had a choice to make. a very, very important choice. Was she really about to do exactly what she had constantly sworn not to do?

She laid down there, crying for what felt like hours.

She hated the Jedi. She hated the Sith. She hated the Separatists. And above all else, she hated herself, with every fiber of her being.

She knew the risks of denying the offer, but she almost wanted herself dead anyways.

Hours passed, maybe days.

Suddenly, another feeling washed over her. She didn't know what it was, but...

"Master..."

She knew what she had to do. She got up and ran out the door.

She hijacked a speeder, thankfully out of the eyes of local authorities. She sped on over towards her destination, the coordinates the droid had given her. Yet, as she approached, she realized she was headed straight towards a platform on the Senate Building.

She knew very well the consequences of trespassing. She'd probably be shot on sight. Yet, she continued.

As she got closer to the Senate building, she felt... odd. Perhaps it was a mix the absence of any security seeking to blow her speeder out of the sky, and the burning feeling that something grand was about to begin--or end.

She began to feel uneasy.

Suddenly, as she neared the coordinates, a flash of visions flashed through her mind.

"It's not the Jedi way!"

"Unlimited power!"

"Execute Order 66."

"Run, Caleb!"

"...If any cross your path, do not hesitate."

"Good soldiers follow Orders."

She screamed and came to on the platform.

It seems like she had passed out on the speeder and landed on the platform.

"What happened?" She asked herself.

"I was hoping you would be here." someone said from behind her.

She couldn't believe it. It was a horribly disfigured Chancellor Palpatine in a cloak, standing side-by-side with her former master and a few Clone troopers.

"So you actually managed to get her to come?" Anakin asked the Chancellor.

"We are all aware of the wrongs of the Jedi," said the Chancellor. "I have a feeling you will seek revenge. But I must know, what is your choice?"

There was no choice left. Palpatine had just ended the Jedi in a swift stroke, and she knew it.

It was an offer she couldn't refuse.

She got down on her knees and fell silent.

"Excellent," Palpatine replied.

She stood up.

Then, Anakin approached her, and then gave her a box.

"It seems we have a mutual agreement," Anakin said, almost monotonously. "The Jedi must go. You know what they did to you."

"I understand, maste- wait, uhm..."

"He will remain your master," Palpatine replied. "You will be the first of an army of Force-wielding Jedi hunters who bring peace to my new Empire, once I have set everything in place."

"Then what do I do now... my Lord?" She said.

"Open the box," Palpatine replied.

And she opened the box, and inside of it were none other than her lightsabers.

She turned them on, and let out a malicious grin, and so did Palpatine.

"Now prove your loyalty," Palpatine said. "Destroy what remains of the Jedi Order."

"After what they did to me?" She replied. "Gladly."

And it was then that Ahsoka Tano was all but dead.