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English
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Published:
2024-09-06
Completed:
2024-09-06
Words:
22,004
Chapters:
11/11
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63
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Finding the Light

Chapter 11: Epilogue

Summary:

In which there is change.

Chapter Text

When Anakin is fourteen years old he is granted his freedom. The Jedi make a public ceremony out of it on the Temple steps — proving their strides to make amends for overlooked injustices in the Inner Rim. Master Che places the little deactivated chip in Anakin’s palm, all shiny and corrupted and mired with his pain, and they give him a new robe to commemorate his new path. Padme is there, wearing a blue and yellow hairpiece that’s going to rip through the fashion tabloids by sunset. Even the Chancellor is present, oily tides of a serpent’s grace dousing the gentle light streaming up the Temple steps. It’s all noisy and agonizing and dreadful, and it’s everything Anakin can do to steel himself and not stumble back into Ahsoka’s steady stance.

 

“You will not be sent away,” Master Windu tells him. They’ve reassured him of this multiple times in the last few months, but they say it publicly to make a point. He is now a free being, allowed to choose his own path, and he will not be rejected simply because he is too old to be chosen a fourth time. “There are several Jedi Masters who are willing to train you. It is your choice whom you will accept.”

 

There is hope in Master Windu’s spirit. He wants to be the one. There’s kinship and patience and understanding. But he will always be there when Anakin needs him, and he knows that in the years to come he can trust the sternest face on the Council to break down his consternation with a question and a wise retort.

 

There is acceptance with Master Mundi, that he will listen this time, and accept what will not be. He once allowed fear to speak his path, but he will still walk beside this shattered youngling and teach him the way of light.

 

There is sadness with Master Tiplee. She stands by to support him, but she is still hollow inside. She will accept him, but it will always be the question of obligation or free will. They can never weave together like stars in the brightness of the Force.

 

There is anticipation with Obi-Wan, although the Jedi has squashed it as a fool’s hope. His spirit sings and Anakin wants to join with it, to dance with him like winter meeting the first spring thaw. But Anakin will not be his first Padawan, and he cannot live up to Ahsoka’s brightness. Maybe in another life they could have shared this moment. For now, Obi-Wan’s expertise as a Grandmaster will have to be enough.

 

“I have already made my choice, Masters,” Anakin says.

 

Ahsoka gleams behind him, inexperienced and unsure and determined to do her best, and he knows he is safe with her. Ever since the chip was discovered she has scarcely left his side, smuggling him sweets and tugging his clawed fingers out of his hair and humming a lullaby he used to sing to himself when the stars were bright and cold and he missed his mother’s voice. Ahsoka is young, and they ought to be friends and not Master and Padawan, but she knows him better than he knows himself and they can still grow and learn together. With her at his side….

 

He feels like he could shine.