Chapter Text
In no uncertain terms, the past year had been the best of Anakin Skywalker’s life. Yes, there had been the whole briefly-Falling-and-then-trying-to-kill-his-friends incident, but he had started going to therapy for that (and for a whole host of other things), and since that was the event that led to him killing Sidious, Anakin counted even that as a win. Then there had been the end of the Clone Wars, the birth of his children, and permission from the Jedi Council to go and live with his wife. He’d even gotten to resign from the Jedi civilly, and Padmé had recently stepped down from the Senate, meaning that they both could spend most of their time with their kids. So, yeah. A good year. An unparalleled year.
Meaning that really, Anakin figured he was overdue for some fucked-up shit to happen. He just didn’t expect… this.
He had watched Ahsoka’s other-timeline counterpart walk through the portal in the wall to what he assumed must be her universe, and then he had tried to walk out of the temple, only to find that he was standing in a circular room, where all of the doors looked the same. To make matters worse, the Force was projecting warning, warning at him so hard he was surprised he couldn’t hear it out loud. Kriff, he should have brought his lightsaber.
The portal that Ahsoka had walked through was closed now, Anakin could see that much, but the other doors were beckoning him forward. Anakin didn’t know where they would lead, or what they would do, so he did what any sensible person would do: he closed his eyes and spun in a circle until it felt right, then opened his eyes and stared at the door he was in front of.
It didn’t look any different from the other doors, but it felt right somehow, like the Force was nudging him to go through it. Anakin was pretty sure he wasn’t going to like what he was about to find, but he knew one thing: if you can’t trust in anything, trust in the Force. So, he stepped through it confidently.
Almost immediately, he knew this was a bad, bad idea. For starters, the door he had just come through was gone. And second, and probably the more pressing concern right now? He could hear the sound of a lot of blasters going off in the near vicinity.
He ducked instinctively, his battle reflexes kicking in for the first time in nearly a year. He was in the remains of a building that looked to have been recently vacated; there were tables with chairs knocked over and drinks spilled on the ground. He swallowed as he noticed the semi-crushed remains of a Rodian, and amended his earlier assessment: recently mostly vacated. Muttering an apology to the dead Rodian, Anakin darted over and patted him down to find a blaster and holster, which he unhooked from the corpse and buckled around his own waist. There was a little blood on it, but it would have to make do. Anakin pulled out the blaster and edged over to the door to see what was going on.
Outside, there was a small, motley group of people holding a rough perimeter against - Anakin blinked. Clone troopers? No, the armor wasn’t right for clones, and although it was in a quasi-Mandalorian style, no self-respecting Mandalorian would wear what appeared to be plastoid armor.
The motley group was trying to finish loading supplies into a few battered ships, several of which Anakin didn’t recognize. That, more than the not-clones, was worrying. Anakin might not know about all of the different kinds of soldiers and armor that there was to be had, but he knew ships. And it just wasn’t possible for ships as battered as those to come from a line that Anakin had never heard of.
One of the motley group, a young woman with dark hair braided around her head like a crown, signaled, and the group fell back to the ships, evidently having gotten enough supplies onboard to make it worthwhile to take off. Anakin edged out a little more, then ducked as a blaster bolt shot through the space where his head had just occupied.
“Hey, you!” the woman called suddenly, looking right at Anakin. “Are you coming?”
Anakin looked at the woman and her (clearly inferior, at least resources-wise) group and then back at the not-clones. One of them stepped up to a young man who couldn’t be more than sixteen who had fallen down from a blaster wound and kicked him in the head. Anakin decided those were the bad guys. “Coming,” he shouted, running over. He used his stolen blaster to knock a few of the not-clones off, darting onto the last ship behind the woman just in time for it to take off.
“Everybody in?” the pilot asked.
“Yes,” the woman said. “And we’ve picked up a local.”
“Okay,” the pilot said. “Well, local, whoever you are, if we can get out of this blockade in one piece, we’ll formally introduce ourselves, how does that sound?”
“Sounds good,” Anakin said, deciding it was better to go along with everything until he had a little more information. His head was spinning. Already, the thought had crossed his mind that he had somehow wandered into the alternate timeline Ahsoka spoke about, and he was desperately hoping that he was mistaken on that front.
The pilot expertly maneuvered, but whoever was blockading was doing a good job, and even though the woman was on the tailgun, it was clear they weren’t going to make it out without a lot of luck.
Luckily, these people had just invited one of the best starfighters in the galaxy onboard. “Is there another gun?” Anakin asked.
“Yes, thanks. Nosegun. Up top,” the pilot responded.
Anakin climbed up the ladder and strapped himself in. The controls weren’t anything he’d seen before, but fortunately they followed a standard design. Pretty soon, he was getting the hang of it. The pilot was good, Anakin noted. Better than most of the people he’d flown with in the Clone Wars, and that was saying something. He swerved out of the way of one of the seemingly endless flimsy little ships that kept going after them, spinning expertly until they were clear.
“Clear to jump!” the pilot’s voice floated through the comm, and Anakin let out a breath. The stars stretched out around him, and he clambered down the ladder.
“Nice shooting,” the woman said to him.
“Thanks,” Anakin said. “Now, do we get to introduce ourselves?”
A look passed between the pilot and the woman. “You first,” the woman said.
Smart, though there was nothing stopping Anakin from lying. He decided that it was better not to give his full name (after all, who knew when and where he was?). “Ani,” he said.
“Do you have a last name, Ani?” the woman asked, looking at him like she didn’t quite believe he was telling the truth.
“Ah, Naberrie.” He paused. “And you are?”
The woman gave him another hard look, like she didn’t believe Anakin didn’t know who she was.
“Sorry?” Anakin said. “I grew up under a rock.”
“Don’t worry, so did I,” the pilot said. “But now that we’ve rescued you - and yeah, that was some great shooting out there - I think there’s enough time for introductions.” He stuck out his hand. “That’s Princess Leia Organa, and I’m Luke Skywalker. It’s nice to meet you.”
Anakin’s jaw dropped. “Luke - did you say…” he began, looking between the pilot and the woman with more scrutiny.
Luke removed his hand, and Anakin realized in his shock he’d forgotten to take it. “Yeah,” he said, his face turning red.
“It’s - it’s great to meet you, Luke. And you too, L-your Highness,” Anakin said, the honorific tasting weird in his mouth.
Luke smiled, and Anakin felt like his heart was going to beat out of his chest. It was a good thing he was shielding, or his children would no doubt have sensed his shock already. Ironically, it was because of the twins that Anakin had finally bothered to really learn in the first place - they couldn’t get a good night’s sleep unless he was well and truly hidden from the Force. It had become a habit, one that Obi-Wan had professed his amazement over a truly insulting number of times.
“Good to meet you, Ani,” Leia said.
“Well,” Luke said, cutting through what was quickly becoming an awkward silence, “Ani, I hate to break it to you, but the Empire isn’t going to take kindly to you shooting down a bunch of their ships. We could use a gunner like you.”
“We?”
“The Alliance to Restore the Republic,” Leia clarified. Oh, Anakin thought. That must be the Rebellion Ahsoka was always talking about.
“I - sure, why not?” Anakin said. “I hate the Empire.”
“Great!” Luke said, smiling widely at him. For someone who was fighting a war, Anakin thought, Luke trusted too easily. His heart ached.
Leia smiled. “Welcome to the Alliance,” she said, her tone warmer.
Anakin couldn’t believe this was happening.