Fanfic / Padawan's Return

Padawan's Return is a Star Wars fanfic written by AhsokaTheBrave.

The story begins many years after the end of the Clone Wars and the rise of the Empire, with Ahsoka finally reuniting with Obi-Wan after managing to find him on Tatooine. After failing to convince Obi-Wan to come with her and join the rebellion, Ahsoka leaves and heads back to her ship. However, on the way to the spaceport, she's caught by a sudden sandstorm, which knocks her out.

When she wakes up, she sees a Nubian ship landing next to her, and from said ship emerge a much younger Obi-Wan alongside his deceased master Qui-Gon Jinn. Ahsoka realizes that the sandstorm has somehow sent her back to the past, more specifically to the time of the Naboo crisis, and she has the chance to stop the fall of the Jedi and the rise of the Empire before they can happen.

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This fanfic provides examples of:

• Adaptational Early Appearance: The story takes place so far during and immediately after the events of The Phantom Menace, but features characters that wouldn't be introduced until Attack of the Clones or Star Wars: The Clone Wars:
  • Count Dooku, still a Jedi, shows up shortly after the Battle of Naboo.
  • Among the bounty hunters Darth Sidious hires to kill Darth Maul are Cad Bane, Embo and Sugi.
  • Chapter 15 introduces the Nightsisters of Dathomir. The end of said chapter would see the introduction of Hondo Ohnaka as well. The next chapter would also see the debut of Maul and Savage's brother, Feral Oppress.
  • Chapter 18 would introduce Asajj Ventress, still a Jedi Padawan.
  • Chapter 20 would see the debut of Pong Krell.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Yoda and Feral Oppress never met in canon. Here, the former takes the latter as his Padawan.
• An Arm and a Leg: Ahsoka defeats Maul on Naboo by slicing both his hands.
• Beware the Nice Ones: When Ahsoka reveals to young Padme that Palpatine is the Sith Lord responsible for the invasion of Naboo, she requires the aid of Padme's handmaidens to stop the young Queen basically charging off to try and kill Palpatine with her bare hands.
• Broken Pedestal: Maul becomes disillusioned with Sidious when he finds that rather than rescuing him from the Jedi, Palpatine sent bounty hunters to kill him instead.
• Call-Forward: To Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi:
  • In order to enforce One-Steve Limit, Ahsoka decides to call her younger self "Ashla", which is the same fake name she used when she was on the run from the Empire.
  • When Dooku sees Ahsoka sucessfully deflecting every shot from a multitude of pirates that have her surrounded in a semicircle, he notes that no current Jedi alive could be able to do that. This is the fruit of Anakin's training, who had her train by deflecting shots while completely surrounded by Clone Troopers until it became second nature to her.
• The Cameo: Merrin briefly appears as a toddler when Ahsoka and her companions visit Dathomir.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Few things would make Ahsoka happier than letting Maul die, too bad she needs him to unmask Sidious.
• Consummate Liar: Ahsoka is very good at lying, both as coming up with believable lies (Anakin himself taught her the best way to come up with them) as well as lying on the spot (a skill she developed by sheer necessity if she wanted to survive under the Empire).
• Dark Is Not Evil: The Nightsisters might use the Dark Side of the Force, but since unlike the Sith or other darksider sects, they simply minded their own business in their planet without bothering others, the Jedi never saw any reason to antagonize them.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation:
  • Nute Gunray dies shortly after the Battle of Naboo, killed by an angry mob who had been riled up through the Dark Side by Darth Sidious as opposed to being killed off by Anakin on orders of Sidious.
  • Cad Bane is killed by Ahsoka when he was trying to kill the captive Darth Maul instead of in a duel with Boba.
  • Mother Talzin's death happened at the end of the Clone Wars by Grievous' hands. Here, she dies shortly after the Battle of Naboo.
• Dramatic Irony: Thanks to Obi-Wan twisting the truth, Ahsoka believes that Anakin never turned to the Dark Side despite Palpatine's best efforts, and that Vader was Anakin's replacement. As a result, once in the past Ahsoka dedicates herself to trying to find this Vader and kill him before he can be a threat, unaware that it's the very same child she's just begun to train.
• The Dreaded:
  • Ahsoka considers Darth Vader this, not just because of his power, ruthlessness and complete lack of information on him, but mostly because she believes Vader killed Anakin, her master and one of the most powerful Jedi who ever lived. In fact, when Darth Maul used Nightsister magic to create a vision of Ahsoka's worst fear, said vision was Darth Vader.
  • Ahsoka becomes this for many people, but Nute Gunray stands out: he's aboslutely terrified of her after seeing her tearing through dozens of droidekas (where two of them were enough to drive two Jedi back) during the Battle of Naboo.
• Entertainingly Wrong: Ahsoka is immediately concerned at anything that might lead to Palpatine become interested in Anakin's potential in the Force even before events lead to her becoming Anakin's new Master. However, this is because she believes that Palpatine killed Anakin in her future, as she was sent back before becoming aware that Anakin survived to become Darth Vader.
• Freudian Slip: Ahsoka unconsciously refers to Pong Krell as General Krell when refusing to talk about her animosity towards him to Plo Koon, making the latter realize that a war is in the horizon.
• Innocently Insensitive: Qui-Gon genuinely believed that Obi-Wan was ready for knighthood when he proposed it, and had been wondering for weeks over how to announce it. However, the timing and context made him sound like he just wanted to get rid of Obi-Wan so he could train Anakin.
• Irony: When Plo learns that Anakin was Ahsoka's Jedi Master in her future, he is clearly amused at how the learner has literally become the master.
• Metaphorically True:
  • Just like with Luke, Obi-Wan tells Ahsoka that Darth Vader killed Anakin.
  • The main reason for the Jedi Council believing that Ahsoka is a time traveler (albeit one from the past rather than the future) is because many of the things she claims are true: her current lightsaber has purified Kyber crystals that had been corrupted by a Sith, and her fighting style is that of somebody used to fight other lightsaber wielders in life-or-death situations.
• Mundane Object Amazement: Given that both Shmi and Anakin lived their whole lives on Tatooine, they're completely stunned the first time they see rain. Shmi claims she has to fight the urge to collect all the rainwater, and finds the idea of an extremely scarce and valuable resource like water simply falling from the sky a fairytale made real.
• My God, What Have I Done?: One of Ahsoka's first major changes is to try and prevent Qui-Gon Jinn's death and stop Anakin taking part in the Battle of Naboo, but although Yoda, Mace Windu and Plo Koon accompany them to Naboo, Maul's determination to face her prevents Ahsoka from taking part in the battle against the Droid Control Ship herself, resulting in the Trade Federation ordering a mass bombardment of Naboo before Ahsoka is able to defeat Maul and force Nute Gunray to order the control ship to turn off their shields. Naturally Ahsoka is devastated at all this excess death that resulted because of her attempts to save just one life, but Plo assures her that she cannot blame herself for the unintended consequences of her actions.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Apparently, there's a rumor among younger Jedi that Yoda eats live frogs, clearly a nod to Grogu, who did exactly that many times, much to Din's chagrin.
  • Ahsoka defeats Maul on Naboo the same way her master would defeat Count Dooku at the beginning of Revenge of the Sith.
  • When Ahsoka was surrounded by bounty hunters who try to use their numbers to surrender, Ahsoka replies with “all I'm surrounded by is fear and dead bounty hunters”.
• Named After Somebody Famous: When asked why is there another Togruta youngling also named Ahsoka Tano in the Temple, Ahsoka simply claims that the youngling is named after her, since not only is it common to reuse names for Togruta children, but names of people who went on to become Jedi are an especially popular choice. It helps that this is actually true, as confirmed by Shaak Ti.
• Never the Selves Shall Meet: Averted and defied; Plo Koon introduces Ahsoka to her much younger current self, with nothing bad happening when the two meet.
• O.C. Stand-in: Yenna, a clay golem animated by Nightsister magic who is also Force senstive, it's an extremely obscure character that never really appeared in any media and was only mentioned in a Clone Wars short story. Here, she plays a major role in the Dathomir arc, and is set to become Obi-Wan's Padawan once he's promoted to Knight.
• One-Man Army:
  • A pair of Droidekas were able to force Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan into retreating. Ahsoka completely trashed dozens of them.
  • Darth Sidious single-handedly wipes out most of Dathomir's Nightsisters. The few who survive did so because they were sent into hiding.
• One-Steve Limit: When Plo introduces the two Ahsokas to each other, the older Ahsoka quickly explains that her younger self can consider her a big sister to avoid the more complex details of their history. To avoid confusion, the older Ahsoka states that she will call her younger self "Ashla", a name meaning 'Light Side of the Force'. This was initially intended to just be a nickname for the two of them, but young Ashla swiftly starts asking everyone else at the Temple to call her that as she likes the way the name feels in the Force.
• Pragmatic Hero: Ahsoka's main defence when questioned on her decision to try and capture Maul rather than just kill him; while she doesn't believe he can be redeemed, she's certain that he hates Sidious enough to help them kill his former master if they can find the right way to persuade him.
• Precrime Arrest:
  • While Ahsoka immediately recognises that she can't go after Palpatine as she has no evidence of his existing crimes, she finds herself frustrated that she knows what Dooku will do in the future but has no legitimate reason to go after him in the present when he's still a Jedi who is merely curious about the Dark Side but hasn't actually turned yet. Mace Windu sums up the problem in particular;
  "Thinking about the Dark Side is not a crime. If it was, we would have to immediately arrest several hundred of the Order’s archivists. Along with every Padawan who’s ever wondered if there was an easier, stronger way."
  • Invoked in an interesting example when Ahsoka faces Pongo Krell in a duel, deliberately provoking his anger now so that he'll be made aware of the issues that made him a bad general in the future and work to overcome them while he's still "just" a Jedi.
• Rebuilt Pedestal: Very downplayed; while Ahsoka still carries her disillusionment with the Jedi Council, the fact that they're willing to listen to her and begin to enact some change makes Ahsoka wonder that they might not be as hopeless as she believed, and chalked the war taking a toll on them for their worst decisions they will make in the future.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Plo Koon correctly guesses that Anakin is part of the reason for the Sith victory in the future when even Ahsoka doesn't know that's the case yet, as she still believes Anakin was killed by Darth Vader rather than that he became Vader.
• Roaring Rampage of Rescue: Ahsoka goes on an absolutely brutal one on Naboo (where she demolishes a dozen droidekas as if they were nothing) not just to save Padme from Nute Gunray, but in order to force Gunray to stop his Orbital Bombardment on Naboo.
• Role Swap AU: While not the focus of this fic, Ahsoka ends up being Anakin's Jedi Master. On a less positive example, Ahsoka's role in the defeat and capture of Darth Maul results in Maul becoming fixated on her in particular, prompting Ahsoka to privately muse that she's basically become to Maul what Obi-Wan Kenobi was in the original timeline.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: One of Ahsoka's life mottos. Unsurprisingly, given Ahsoka's past bad experiences with the Jedi Council combined with her determination to make sure Palpatine doesn't turn the Republic into the Empire.
  Obi-Wan: I wonder what the Council will think of this.
  Ahsoka: They’ll deal with it.
  Obi-Wan: (Snorts) I never thought anyone could match Qui-Gon's ability to inflame the Council, but you're getting up there.
  Ahsoka: Good.
• Secret-Keeper:
  • While Ahsoka told people that she's from the distant past (since she believed it would be easier to accept than being from the future) and that the “current” Ahsoka was named after her, she did tell R2-D2 that she comes from the future. Later, Plo Koon reveals that he didn't buy her lie for a second and knows that she's the very same Ahsoka he recently brought to the Temple.
  • Padme and her handmaidens are the only ones besides Ahsoka who know that Chancellor Palpatine is Darth Sidious.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Naturally, the focus of the plot. Now that Ahsoka is in the past with knowledge of the future, her main goal is to prevent the rise of the Empire. There are, however, other smaller examples:
  • Ahsoka makes sure to also liberate Shmi on top of Anakin. She even takes Shmi alongside Anakin as her second apprentice once they find out she's also Force-sensitive.
  • Ahsoka makes sure to properly capture Maul during the Battle of Naboo so they can use his information to unmask Darth Sidious.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Naturally, being a veteran of the Clone Wars and then spending more than a decade as a fugitive under the Empire left Ahsoka rather jaded, paranoid and jumpy. Plo Koon mentions that she moves like a cornered animal even inside the Jedi Temple, one of the safest places in the entire galaxy, and any Jedi who see her fight are taken aback by the sheer brutality of her fighting style.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Qui-Gon Jinn survives the Battle of Naboo, something Ahsoka makes sure of.
• Stating the Simple Solution: Since the Nightsisters of Dathomir won't accept a society where they even might be ruled by a male at some future date, Ahsoka suggests that most of them be sent to Alderaan, which has a matrilinear leadership.
• Took a Level in Badass: A retroactive example: Ahsoka notes that the battle droids used by the Trade Federation during the Naboo Crisis are of a much lower quality than those used by the CIS, and that the Republic would have won the Clone Wars in a few months if they never improved them.
• We Have Become Complacent: Forcing the Jedi Council to avert this is one of Ahsoka's goals. They do agree that they have fell victim to complacency once they realize how far the Sith's influence reach.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Played straight, later subverted. No mention is made of C-3PO in the story until chapter 12, where it's revealed that Padme went back to get it and sent it back to Anakin. The author admitted on a note that they completely forgot about him.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Ahsoka has a silent one towards Qui-Gon when she witnesses the canonical scene where he claim that Obi-Wan is ready for knighthood after he volunteers to train Anakin. She notes that he sounds very insincere, looking less like he thinks his Padawan is ready and more like he wants to get rid of Obi-Wan so he can train Anakin. And while Obi-Wan tries to mask it, it's obvious that Obi-Wan thinks the same. It was later revealed to be a case of Qui-Gon being Innocently Insensitive due the timing and the context of the situation.
  • Later on, Ahsoka has a confrontation with the still-Jedi Dooku where he admits his plans to explore the power of the Dark Side and asks Ahsoka to join him, believing that she would sympathise with his goal. Ahsoka makes it clear to the still-Jedi Dooku that his belief that he could use the Dark Side like a tool is foolish at best and stupid at worst, mentioning her own experience with his future self (while not naming any names) to make it clear that if he attempted something like that he would just get himself killed while accomplishing nothing.
• You Have Failed Me: While a captive Maul is convinced that Sidious will bust him out of Jedi custody any moment now, Ahsoka tells him that Sidious is much more likely to have him killed. To no one's surprise but Maul's, she's right.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Inverted; when the Jedi Council makes sure to check every one of Ahsoka's claims, Ahsoka is actually pleased that they don't trust her so easily and don't take everything she says at face value, even if it makes things harder for her.

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