How did she get here? When did she get here? Why was she here?

Ahsoka Tano stood and observed her surroundings.

A dark forest, will tall billowing trees clearly blowing in the ominous wind. Dark shadows covered everything, in every direction.

A sense of fear. Mystery.

Ahsoka took a step forward.

The air was thick, a pungent aroma filled her nostrils. Her montrals could pick up even the slightest movement in the trees.

But that was it. Just the movement of the trees, and her own. Nothing else moved in this dark forest that Ahsoka found herself in.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" Ahsoka called out. She didn't expect an answer, but it was worth a try.

She continued forward, trying to determine where she was. Around her it appeared the shadows moved. Some to consume her, others to let her pass.

And then one stopped in front of her, and spoke.

"Why did you leave me?"

Ahsoka halted at the voice. It was familiar to here, like she had heard the words before from that specific voice.

The shadowy figure disappeared, only to be replaced by another, this one taller and bulkier.

"You killed me! After everything I did for you, you killed me!"

The voice was more mechanical this time, attempting to intimidate her.

Ahsoka backed off slowly, hoping that whatever spirit like entity this was would not pursue her.

That was until another appeared behind her. She had bumped into a shadow, not walked through it.

They were solid?

Ahsoka turned quickly, and this time she recognized the shadow. It was shorter than her, clearly different from the first two. The figure possessed long brown hair, wearing a regal dress, a sense of authority about her.

"You did this to him. It was your fault he fell!"

Ahsoka backed off again, mumbling under her breath, "No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry Padme."

The Padme shadow disappeared, much like the previous ones.

In Ahsoka's peripheral vision, another shadow materialised, this was also recognizable to Ahsoka.

"You failed to save me. You never liked me. And now my brother pays the price for your failure!"

The shadow that Ahsoka identified as Steela Gerrera taunted her failure on Onderon, one of Ahsoka's greatest regrets.

It was as if Ahsoka's past had come back to haunt her, in a dark forest of some kind.

"No." Ahsoka whispered again, a wave of anger spiking inside of her.

Another shadow appeared before her. A tall figure, wrapped in a dark cloak, face disfigured, either by age or injury Ahsoka couldn't tell. The figure cackled menacingly, evil intent obvious.

Ahsoka recognized the figure, her hands going to her legs to equip her lightsabers. She would need them against…

There were there! Her lightsabers were missing!

Ahsoka looked up in horror, as the shadow stood there, gold eyes watching her.

"No. You are not real." Ahsoka shouted at the shadow. In response, the shadow cackled again.

"Oh but I am Ahsoka Tano, and soon you will be mine."

Ahsoka awoke in an instant, a chill covering most of her body, sweat pouring off of her like a waterfall.

'Another nightmare.' Ahsoka thought. They had been coming thick and fast since the events at Malachor. Since she had killed Darth Vader and recovered the Sith holocron.

Ahsoka sat up, eyes blurring from her sleep. She was used to the nightmares by now. One didn't fight in a war since age fourteen and not be accustomed to such things.

However, whereas before she would have the constant support of her master to talk them over with, now she was alone.

Sure, she had friends in the crew of the Ghost, and Rex was still around, but she wasn't exactly close to them. Not like they were with each other.

And she was fine with that. Ahsoka had survived sixteen years on her own, before meeting them. Running the rebellion from behind the scenes with Bail Organa.

But moreover, she didn't want to impart her problems on someone else. That was not who she was.

When she had returned from Malachor, and subsequently left Atollon to report to Senator Organa, she had fully intended to return to her duties immediately.

But Bail has stopped her, ordered her to take some time off for herself to recover, both physically and mentally. He knew about the connection between Ahsoka and Vader, and thus knew that she was badly wounded inside.

So here she was, at her small hidden retreat on a moon in the Alderaan system. Out of the way. Bail had built the place for her as a home for her to relax in, equipped with everything a former Jedi would need. Ahsoka had refused the offer at first, stating that she had a job to do.

But Bail had been quite insistent, ensuring that his best agent was not dropping dead from overworking.

By now it had been six months since Malachor, and Ahsoka was going stir crazy. As a Togruta, isolation was often a bad thing. But after years she had grown accustomed to it. That was not what concerned her.

Guilt was the concern, she was not helping out the rebellion, rather relaxing in her own retreat. She could be out there dealing with the empire.

Instead, she was mulling over her past failures.

The time away did give her time to train however. She had mediated daily, seeking answers, trying to find anymore Jedi. She had no such luck.

She had also trained daily, trying to keep herself at the top of her game. She may have defeated Vader, but Sidious was another thing altogether.

Ahsoka stood from her bed, now awake. She assumed her normal morning routine, taking a brief but refreshing shower, followed by making herself a cup of caf. Afterwards, she sat down at her personal terminal to check on the news, as well as her personal messages.

Not much had changed in regards to the news. The empire had continued to oppress people. Several articles were present about the upcoming empire day celebrations.

Strangely though, six months later and still no official confirmation about Vader's death. It was as if Sidious was trying to keep it a secret.

Ahsoka turned her attention to her personal messages. Aside from the usual junk mail she seemed to collect, there was an update from Rex about Atollon, as well as a message from Hera hoping she was well.

Below those were two messages from the Organa family. First, a message from the Organa Princess Leia, with an attachment. Ahsoka opened the link to find a dissertation written by the young princess.

The two had struck up a friendship from the second they had met, with Leia freely admitting that she saw Ahsoka as a mentor of some kind. In response, the two kept in contact, Leia often asking Ahsoka to look over her school work. This dissertation was just one in a long line of past pieces of work that Leia had sent her. Ahsoka smiled. That girl would make an excellent Senator for Alderaan one day.

She closed Leia's message and opened the next, this time from Bail.

It contained only five words.

"URGENT. HELP REQUIRED. FULCRUM NEEDED!"

Concern filled Ahsoka as she sprang into action, grabbing the various pieces of armour that made up her outfit, before setting off for her personal A-wing fighter.

Bail clearly needed her for something. Something important judging by his message.

She arrived aboard the Tantive in quick time. The ship had already been in the Alderaan system, clearly awaiting her arrival. Jumping out of her fighter, Ahsoka made a beeline for Senator Organa's office, not even stopping to knock on the door, she strode in.

Bail sat behind his desk, a confused expression on his weathered face. Something had baffled the Senator. He looked up at Ahsoka, his eyes meeting hers, and spoke.

"Thank you for coming so quickly Ahsoka, we have a bit of a situation."

"I'm listening." Ahsoka responded, taking the seat on the other side of Bail's desk.

Bail keyed up a holographic interface before them. A series of boxes appeared before the two, each with what looked like a recording in them.

"What you see before you are a series of transmissions recently made to various rebel cell leaders from a secure channel." Bail began, gesturing to the recordings. "Each transmission offer vital intelligence about imperial actions, and allowed us to achieve a tactical advantage over them."

Ahsoka nodded in understanding. These transmission had proved to be beneficial to the rebellion. But clearly there was more to this, Bail would not have called her otherwise.

"So what's the problem?" Ahsoka inquired.

Bail's face turned grim, and selected one of the recordings. A distorted voice began to play.

"This is Fulcrum with an important message."

Ahsoka narrowed her eyes. That was not her speaking.

Bail stopped the recording, before pressing play on another.

"This is Fulcrum. I have important intel that could benefit the rebellion."

Bail stopped the recording, looking directly at Ahsoka.

"Recently, several major rebel cells were contacted by a mysterious individual using your codename. Commander Sato, General Dodonna and Admiral Raddus were all contacted by this person. At first I thought it was one of your agents."

Ahsoka knew immediately what was wrong. This figure was not her agent.

Bail confirmed it moments later.

"However, I asked around, and none of you current agents sent these messages. Cassian Andor himself believes that these messages were sent from an outside party, using your codename as a way of legitimizing their intel."

Ahsoka snorted and smiled, "So someone is trying to be me."

Bail smiled back at her, despite the situation. "Precisely, we have an unknown Fulcrum agent producing information about the empire. Clearly not one of your agents."

"A self-appointed Fulcrum then." Ahsoka finished for Bail. She could see what the major issue was. This was a major breach in security for the rebellion. It could also be a trap, meant to lure her out. She wouldn't put it past Sidious.

"I sent two of my best agents out to gather more intel about the source of these Fulcrum transmissions, and they reported that they found something. I would like you to meet with them in person, and ascertain whether or not this new Fulcrum can be trusted." Bail spoke, authority in his voice. He and Ahsoka worked in parallel to one another. Bail played the political game, while Ahsoka dealt with intelligence and military aspects. Their rebellion was beginning to take shape.

"Ok, I'll do it. Give me the coordinates of the meeting point." Ahsoka stood from her seat, Bail rising to join her.

"Excellent. I knew I could count on you Ahsoka. Let me know what you find." Bail said.

Ahsoka stopped, something just coming to mind. She would need a bigger ship if she was undertaking an assignment this large. And one came to mind immediately.

"Senator, you said that Commander Sato was contacted by this Fulcrum agent. Would I be right to assume that the crew of the Ghost were involved in some manner?"

A smirk came to Bail's face. He was fond of the Ghost crew, much like Ahsoka was.

"They were. If you wish to abduct them for this investigation, I'm sure they will not mind."

Ahsoka laughed in response. It would be good to be among friends again. And she knew that they would be equally interested in the mission once they heard the details.

Ahsoka departed from Bail's office, making her way back to the hanger bay where her A-wing was. Hopping into the pilot seat, she set course for Atollon.

She had a mission to complete.

And she wanted her friends by her side.

Author's thoughts

So the sequel begins.

Welcome back to those that read 'The Former Apprentices'. And welcome to those that have joined us here.

This is part 2 of my four part AU. 'The Tale of Two Fulcrums' can be read as a standalone story, however it has plot links to the first, in particular how it ended.

This takes place after the evens of 'The Antilles Extraction', but before the the events of 'Hera's Heroes'. Also, due to Maul having no interest in Ezra in this AU, 'The Holocrons of Fate' did not happen. Everything else up to this point happened the way it happened in rebels season three.

I hope you enjoy this story. It is slower paced than the previous one, but has a larger cast of characters to compensate.

As usual, feel free to comment/speculate on this story. I always read them, and will always reply to you in my roundups at the end of chapters. Feel free to ask questions also, and I will answer what I can without spoiling too much.

Since I have no comments on this story yet, (this is the first chapter after all), I will mop up some outstanding comments from my previous story.

FossilQueen1984: Happy Birthday. I'm glad you enjoyed the first story, and I hope you enjoy the second one too.

Mysterious Guest that commented on chapter 12: Glad you liked the first part, hope you enjoy the second part. As to your question, I will answer it as to not get your hopes up for a certain type of story. With Vader dead, Luke and Leia have become less important in this AU. They still need protecting from the empire, and thus their presences will still be important. But they will not be a focus. Luke's sole purpose in the OT is to redeem Vader, but with Vader dead, he no longer needs to play that role. Also, without Vader around, the prophecy of the 'Chosen One' killing Sidious is now ruined, further altering how the story will go. So while I have no intention of going into the OT with this story, elements of it will be used later on.

Darth Cody: Since Maul has no interest in Ezra, Sabine will not be acquiring the Darksaber anytime soon. The Mandalorian centric episodes will still occur offscreen, and go the way they do in canon, just without the Darksaber. To be honest with you, I did forget that Sabine gets the Darksaber from Maul, so thank you for reminding me. It may not be a perfect solution, but it is what I have come up with.
As for Obi-Wan, Maul is still hunting him, and it will be a plotline that comes about at a later date.