This is an Ahsoka fanfiction. It kicks off before the show, will extend through the end of season one, and hopefully conclude with post-show content before season two of the real thing airs. Let me know how I’m doing in the comments!
I’ve started loading chapters into Archive of Our Own. Let me know if you follow over there!
Rating: General, Spice Level: None
Characters/Tags: Original Character, Master and Apprentice Relationships, Original Female Character, Original Jedi Character, Ahsoka Tano, Huyang
Read Chapter 10 – The Dark Side of People
Chapter 11 – Echoes in the Temple
The display on the ship clock read 0352 local when Kendra followed Ahsoka back onto the ship. She couldn’t decide if she wanted to sleep or shower first after their extended trip into the underbelly of Coruscant.
Huyang emerged from the cockpit. “You have returned. Were you successful?”
“Very.” Ahsoka held up the data stick. “See what you can find on here.”
“I expect it is encrypted?” the droid asked.
“I assume,” Ahsoka said. “Remember, we’re looking for a planet but note anything else of interest we can send to Hera.”
“Of course,” Huyang said. “It will take some time. The ship is ready to depart. Would you like to leave or rest here?”
“Neither,” Ahsoka said. “We’re going to the Temple.”
“Very good,” Huyang said. “I will begin scanning the data immediately.”
“The Jedi Temple?” Kendra asked. “Now?”
“Yes and yes,” Ahsoka said. “You should see it while you’re here. I also told Luke I’d check to see if anyone has been in there recently.”
“Is it closed?” Kendra’s stomach growled in protest.
“Yes,” Ahsoka said. “The New Republic doesn’t have the resources to reopen it, and there are no Jedi who need it. They have it locked down, only letting their security service and some historians inside.”
“Oh.” Kendra took a deep breath. “Can we use your credentials to get inside?”
“No. We’ll have to break in.”
~~~~
Another short train ride and an elevator brought the two Jedi back to beneath the surface of Coruscant. Now they walked slowly in an otherwise empty and pitch-black steel tunnel, illuminated by a small light Ahsoka carried. Water dripped somewhere in the distance, but there were no other nearby sounds. Unlike their earlier trip’s warm, stale air, a cold breeze whipped through the tunnel.
“I’ve heard there was a recent break-in attempt,” Ahsoka said. “Thieves attempted to dig into one of the access tunnels to avoid New Republic security on the surface.”
“Did it work?”
“Partly. We should be able to use their break-in to gain access.”
“Won’t the New Republic be guarding it?” Kendra’s question was snippy because she felt snippy. It had been too long since she’d slept or eaten.
“No,” Ahsoka said. She didn’t change her tone in response to the padawan’s annoyance. “I don’t think they know.”
“How do you know?”
Ahsoka didn’t respond. She directed her light forward and up, revealing a T-intersection and the number “302.”
“You keep not answering that.”
“Contacts.”
“Right.”
“Huyang said if we turn left…” Ahsoka led the way around the corner.
The tunnel continued, but someone had cut into the steel tunnel on the right side near the intersection. A pile of dirt and pieces of steel stood opposite the three-foot uneven hole. Ahsoka and Kendra peered inside. The space had been dug out, and maybe eight feet inside, connected to another tunnel.
“That’s inside the Temple,” Ahsoka said. She lifted herself into the hole and crawled forward.
“Is this a good idea?” Kendra asked. She rubbed her arms to try to stay warm. “It doesn’t seem legal.”
“It is the Jedi Temple. And you are a Jedi.”
“We could use the front door if that was true.” Kendra sighed and hoisted herself into the smaller tunnel, following Ahsoka.
Ahsoka cleared the end and stuck her head and light into the corridor before sliding all the way out. “Looks clear.”
As the light moved, Kendra found herself in near darkness. “I have a bad feeling about this,” she muttered.
Ahsoka asked, “I wonder what they were after.”
Kendra dropped into the rectangular corridor with Ahsoka. Built out of a synthetic gray stone material, it was at least eight feet wide and ten feet tall. Unpowered lights lined both sides of the ceiling, and small vents appeared at intervals along the floor. It followed a shallow circular path away from their entry point, with the floor sloping down to the left and up to the right. While there was no breeze, it still felt colder than outside.
“They must have figured out this was the easiest place to get in,” Kendra said. “They must have had the plans.”
The two turned left and walked until they found a door. Blaster, laser cutter marks, and large dents covered the heavy, metal door and frame. The control panel to the right of the door lay broken open, also unpowered.
Ahsoka said, “Apparently, their plans didn’t account for a blast door.”
They returned along the corridor past the entrance tunnel and up the other side, only to find another door damaged by attempts to gain access.
“Why do the access tunnels have blast doors?” Kendra asked.
“They added security during the Clone Wars. They wanted to be able to lock down the building in the event of an intruder.” Ahsoka ran her hand over the door, eyes lost in some memory. “Also made it harder for the younglings to sneak around.”
“Was it easy before?”
“Oh, no, not at all. There were all the Jedi themselves, of course, though I suspect many of them simply ignored any youngling or padawan wandering around unless they were getting into trouble. The Temple Guards were less amused but only guarded areas of importance from the unauthorized Jedi. Droids could be avoided in many cases. It was actually hardest to sneak around the staff.”
“Really?” Kendra thought it should be easier to avoid non-Jedi.
“Yes. They used these access corridors to move around in their duties, which meant they might pop up at any place unexpectedly. Several of them were also Force-sensitive, though they could not be Jedi, which gave them some idea if something was amiss.”
Why would they be Force-sensitive? Kendra would research that later. “What did they do if they found you?”
“Usually told us to go away. Up until the Clone Wars, there wasn’t much reason to suspect anything very dangerous was going on in the Temple. Even then, no one suspected a Jedi would be a danger.” Her voice darkened somewhat. “But sneaking around meant we were not training, which became a more important issue during the war.”
“Where were you sneaking to?”
“Food.” She smiled. “Not that we lacked for it, of course. But it seemed very rebellious at the time.”
Kendra thought of Evan on Celestoria, running around with his friends and hiding in the woods or sneaking places. The adults had ignored that, too, at least until the nexu got closer to town.
“I don’t remember sneaking around anywhere,” Kendra said.
“Probably why you’re so bad at it.” Ahsoka unclipped and ignited one of her lightsabers, plunging it into the center of the door.
“Wha—what are you doing?” Kendra asked, shocked. She shielded her eyes from the light.
“Breaking in,” Ahsoka said. “Don’t look at it directly, it is too bright. I’m also using the Force to push any residual heat back toward the door instead of me.”
“Why?” Kendra sputtered as bits of the door dripped down from where the lightsaber made entry.
“Our lightsabers’ generated magnetic field helps direct heat away, but not all of it. You’ll also want to be careful what kind of material you do this to. We can study that more on the ship.” Ahsoka pushed the lightsaber down along the door’s seam.
Kendra shook her head and tried to ignore the thick smell, which reminded her of the taste of blood. At least it was slightly warmer. “No, I mean… what if we get caught?”
“Running away is always an option.”
After another minute, molten metal fell in clumps at Ahsoka’s feet. The material sizzled on contact, and the Jedi moved her feet away from the slag.
Ahsoka deactivated her lightsaber. “Your turn.”
Kendra blinked at her. “You want me to damage the Jedi Temple?”
“It’s a blast door, not a Temple. And we need to make sure you can control the heat.”
“Do Jedi spend a lot of time melting blast doors?”
“You know,” Ahsoka said, voice finally showing annoyance, “the longer this takes, the more likely we get caught.”
Kendra coughed and wiped her nose, but pulled her lightsaber free. The red-hot remnants of the center of the door cast some light through the small hole into the hallway beyond. She directed her lightsaber’s bright blue blade into the growing gap and pushed down.
She stepped immediately as the heat flashed out, only to find one of Ahsoka’s hands on her shoulder and the other thrust forward, pushing the heat back. Kendra stepped forward again, this time holding her free hand up with Ahsoka’s and using the Force to shield both of them from the searing heat.
“Good,” Ahsoka said. “You can stop now. We just needed to destroy the center lock.”
Kendra deactivated her lightsaber.
“You pull the left side and I’ll get the right,” Ahsoka said. She used the Force to push the right side of the door along the track. “We don’t need to fully open it, just enough to get through.”
Kendra attempted to do the same on the left side, but it moved only an inch or two. Frustrated, she paused and tried again, but it didn’t budge.
“Try again,” Ahsoka prompted.
“It’s stuck,” Kendra said.
“Your frustration with me won’t help you connect to the Force.”
“There’s enough space now anyway, we can slide through.” Kendra stepped forward toward the gap.
Ahsoka held her back, eyebrow raised. “Might want to wait until it cools more if we’re going to squeeze between.”
Kendra stood aside, closed her eyes, and took another deep breath. She opened her eyes again when she heard the left side of the door scraping against the frame.
The older Jedi dropped her hand after opening it for the padawan. “After you.”
More synthetic stone met them on the other side of the door, but this was a true hall in use by the Temple. Larger lights dominated the ceiling. Doors opened on either side.
“The access corridor connects the floors,” Ahsoka said. “I think I know where we are. Near the detention levels.”
“How long has it been?”
Ahsoka thought for a moment and started walking. “Twenty-eight years.”
Each doorway they passed opened into an empty room, though a few held bare shelves. There was no sign of security or recent use. Light dust accumulated on the floors, undisturbed. Ahsoka fell silent as they continued.
Eventually, they came to a spiral ramp leading up and down. For the first time, small, red emergency lights lit the sides of the ramp. Ahsoka led the pair upward, passing several stories before turning off.
“The floors are cleaner,” Kendra noted. They were in a wide hallway, dimly lit by more emergency lights. Cobwebs hung near the ceiling. “At least in the center.”
“We’re headed to the archives,” Ahsoka said. “The New Republic has been there, and the Empire before that.”
Kendra shuddered at the thought. “And the Sith.”
“The Sith,” Ahsoka confirmed. “There’s probably nothing left of value here anywhere, other than in the archive, if there at all. Luke requested a search at least, and they found nothing.”
“Master Edith said the Temple housed all the Jedi knowledge.”
“It can be found elsewhere, but much of it was here. And knowledge of the dark side. Lost to the Sith.”
“What are we looking for, then?”
“If someone else has come looking recently. If that datastick has information about the planet I seek, it means the Empire loyalists may know what we know. And part of what we know came from this archive.”
“How did it come from?” Kendra asked. “Wait, never mind. Contacts.”
“Contacts,” Ahsoka smiled. “Due to my activity in the Rebellion, I do have a lot of contacts within the New Republic. And most aren’t good at rule following.”
They turned left and found a massive entrance to a cavernous room with many floors and even more shelves. All of the overhead lights were powered and gave off a dim, warm amber glow. The shelves were empty, but banks of computers sat in tidy rows.
Ahsoka sat at one of the terminals. “Almost all of the information from the Jedi was purged at some point. My information about the planet Arcana came from Imperial records.”
Kendra had proven adept at basic ship maintenance, but had little computer experience. She didn’t attempt to investigate, but instead set out to look around the empty space. The Empire had destroyed the Jedi’s records, and the New Republic had emptied the Empire’s records.
For the first time since entering the Temple, she was struck by the wrongness of the situation. Not their break-in, though that still seemed like a bad idea. But the fact that the ancient enemy of the Jedi had desecrated their most sacred space. And all the New Republic could do was catalog it.
How did the Order fall? Master Edith could never answer that question, other than something to do with the clones and the Republic’s leadership. Her master held that the Jedi were defeated from outside the Order, but how did that happen? This entire space had been filled with millennia of knowledge, but the Order couldn’t use it to defend itself.
She paused her stroll and looked back at Ahsoka. “How did the Order fall?”
Ahsoka stopped her study of the screen and leaned back, but did not look toward Kendra. “That is a difficult question. I think we’ll hang on to that for another time.”
“Like your contacts?”
The machines’ hum stretched across the seconds as Ahsoka stared past them. “No,” Ahsoka said softly, eyes returning to the screen. “Not like my contacts.”
Kendra could tell Ahsoka had thoughts on how the Jedi fell, and they weren’t pleasant. She considered pushing her for the information, but thought better of it as Ahsoka stood.
“Someone,” Ahsoka said, “other than the New Republic, has accessed these records.”
“The thieves who cut into the tunnel?”
“No, I assume someone with more skill. Or contacts.”
“What does it mean?” Kendra asked.
“That we’re losing the race.”
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