When Anakin opened his eyes, he was in the same spot he had been minutes ago. All was still and quiet, except for Anakin's mind.

After a moment, his mouth finally began to move again. "Ahsoka?"

Almost immediately, the same wind from earlier blew around him, light and warm as always. Anakin laughed in joy, facepalming as he threw his head back. "It was you! It's been you this whole time!"

Ahsoka's wind blew in his face, teasing him. About time you figured that out, she seemed to say. There was no way to know, of course, but Anakin could almost tell just from the shape of the draft.

Mentally adding the past ten or so minutes to the list of his strangest visions, he smiled, with no idea how else to respond. Becoming a Jedi Master was a lot less eventful than he had imagined it twenty years ago, but here he was. It was kind of ironic, honestly. It was after, long after, he had abandoned the notion of achieving such a rank that it was granted to him.

"Thanks for stopping by," he told her, "even if it was just for a minute. It's good to have you back."

Just a small gust of acknowledgment that time. More might have been said, but the temple began to tremble. Anakin dropped low and kept his balance, looking around for Kanan and Ezra. They needed to get out of here.

One more time, he felt the warm wind flow, but in a different direction this time. Anakin looked in the direction it was going, and he saw a hallway that had materialized. He sprinted down it, but this time, he refused to believe the guidance was a coincidence. Instead, he whispered to the shadows, "Thanks, Snips."

Sure enough, when he came out of the hall, Ezra and Kanan were running out of their own rooms. Ezra looked out of breath. "Kanan, Master Skywalker, you won't believe what I-"

"Tell us later!" Kanan told him. "Come on!" He ran out towards the light, with Ezra behind him and Anakin on his heels.

~

The Fifth Brother and the Seventh Sister smiled as the temple opened to them. "The secrets of this temple will be ours," the Sister declared eagerly, and they drew their weapons as they entered in. They held them out in front as they descended down the stairs, but even the glow of the sabers couldn't fully light the hall. The sound reverberated throughout the room, chilling their blood.

After several paranoia-filled seconds, another lightsaber turned on behind them. They turned to meet their new adversary, but they didn't expect to see a familiar face donning the armor of the temple Sentinels.

"Grand Inquisitor?" The Brother asked, but there came no response. A second Sentinel appeared, and then a third, and more kept materializing. They were soon surrounded by eight of them, but a ninth guest joined them. They held no yellow lightsaber, though, but a red one—a double-bladed, spinning, red lightsaber, exactly like theirs.

"He may be the Grand Inquisitor," the wielder snarled, her voice as sharp as the blade she carried, "but he was not the first."

The Fifth Brother and Seventh Sister looked at the speaker and saw a red and black Togruta, donning grey armor and a smile to kill. She spun her saber and lunged towards them, as did the temple Sentinels. The living Inquisitors were overpowered and fell.

~

The path the Jedi were taking was not the same one they had taken on the way in, but they weren't being stopped, which was encouraging. Light began shining through, and Kanan called out to the other two, "Up ahead, the way out!" While Ezra made to follow him, though, Anakin paused and stopped. Someone was behind him.

It was the last person he expected to see: his mother. Anakin didn't know how it was possible, but he was grateful. Her kind face smiled, and Anakin knew without words that she was proud. She raised a hand to wave at him, and he nodded. He couldn't stay to talk, but they didn't need words. He began to run again, and this time he didn't look back.

He caught up to the younger men, and they signaled Chopper as he flew by with the Phantom. "Chopper!" Kanan called, and the astromech grunted at them as he landed.

"He says Imperial forces are on their way," Ezra translated, neglecting to include the body part he told them to move. They boarded, and Chopper flew off, giving the Jedi a chance to catch their breath. They weren't going to get caught, not this time.

"I saw Master Yoda," Ezra announced as soon as he relaxed.

Anakin stood up, but he wasn't surprised. Qui-Gon's prediction had been right.

Kanan was a little more confused. "You saw him? What did he say?"

"He said to find Malachor," he reported, pausing for a second. "Who's Malachor?" he asked.

Anakin glanced at Kanan, who returned the look. He decided he would spare Kanan from answering. "Malachor isn't a person. It's a place." The newly promoted Jedi Master had the feeling his face was giving away his personal opinion about the mentioned place.

It was clear they had plenty to talk about. "Chopper, get us back to the Ghost," Kanan instructed, taking a seat. Anakin and Ezra did likewise, and the new Jedi Master turned to the Padawan first.

"Can you explain more about what you saw?" he requested.

"I went to the same place I went the first time we came here," Ezra began, thinking back to that day. "It was black but full of stars, and kind of... empty. But this time, Master Yoda was there. He said that I was growing stronger but that there was more danger too."

Nodding, Anakin caught Kanan's glance and reassured him. "That tends to happen. Strength attracts strength, and it probably won't change anytime soon. We don't need to panic, but a bit of caution won't hurt either."

That was enough for Kanan. He turned back to his apprentice, who kept talking. "I asked Yoda if he knew about a way to defeat Jadis and the Inquisitors, but he told me about the Jedi during the Clone Wars, how they were consumed by the Dark Side." Ezra looked at Anakin. "You must remember something about that, right?"

"More than I wish I did," he confessed. "For a long time, a Sith Lord was corrupting the Jedi Order without anyone realizing. If he hadn't been killed, he might have destroyed us years before Order 66 happened." Anakin thought for a moment, then asked, "What did he tell you?"

"Not much, other than what I said earlier. We kept talking, but then the Inquisitors came, and everything started shaking," Ezra remembered. "He told me to find Malachor right before he disappeared, and I had to leave. He never said why."

Anakin heard Qui-Gon's warning repeat in his head: Whatever Ezra reports back from their conversation, I would take with a grain of salt. Yoda's mind is no longer as clear as it once was. He had told Ezra to find Malachor, but why? What was waiting for them there?

He trusted Ezra more than he trusted Yoda. Despite whatever misgivings he had about the ex-Grandmaster, if Ezra had his heart set on going to Malachor, Anakin wanted to be there when it happened. If he tried to stop the Padawan, he would probably find a way to go anyway, and going alone would be worse than going together.

"That will take time," he warned both him and Kanan. "I don't know when we'll get an opportunity to leave, but when we do, we'll go, all three of us. I'll keep in touch, and we'll find a day we can go."

Ezra nodded, grateful that he had been taken seriously. He turned to his master next, as did Anakin. "What did you see?"

Kanan scratched the back of his head. "Well, it wasn't really what I saw, but what happened. I-" he hesitated, then looked at Anakin. "There's no good way to say this, but... the Grand Inquisitor, the one who used to be a Jedi Sentinal? He knighted me."

Grinning, Anakin resisted the urge to laugh. One of the first things Anakin would have done was make Kanan a Knight, but it seemed that the Grand Inquisitor had beaten him to it. Ezra's mouth gaped open. "Seriously? For real?"

"I think so," he told him, looking down at his lightsaber. "I mean, I think it counts, right?"

"I'd say so," Anakin decided, unable to keep a smile off his face. "Congratulations, Kanan. That is no small accomplishment."

"What happened?" asked Ezra, on the edge of his seat. "Did you just... walk in, and they said 'hey, guess what? You got promoted!'"

Laughing, Kanan shook his head. "Not even close. I had to fight three temple guards as a test."

"Did you beat them?"

"No, I don't think it was about beating them," he confessed. "It was more about coming to terms with my limits."

"The Trials of Knighthood were never straightforward," Anakin remembered. "It makes sense that this wouldn't be either. Whatever battle you were facing in that duel, it doesn't end today. You'll have to win that mental fight over and over again. What you proved today is that you can win that fight, and as long as you choose to, you will continue to do so."

He nodded, letting the words sit in his mind for a moment. Anakin didn't rush him. The Trials of Knighthood prodded and tested the most vulnerable parts of a Jedi. Doubts and fears always rose to the surface, even in speedy Trials like Kanan's. He would likely spend the next few days thinking about it, as well as the rest of his life.

Still, Kanan set it aside for the time being. "What about you?"

Anakin didn't mean to one-up the newly promoted Jedi Knight, but that was the situation he was in. "I received a vision from the Council of the old Jedi Order."

Silence hung in the air for a moment. Kanan broke it first. "Did you see Master Depa?"

"She's very proud of you," he told him, smiling kindly. "She's glad that you've come so far, even if she wasn't able to be there for it. You're safe, to some degree, and that's what matters to her."

He looked down at his lightsaber again, not speaking. Anakin wished Kanan could have talked to Depa personally, but he was happy to pass along the message. A small smile broke out over his face. Ezra didn't really understand it, but Anakin did.

After a moment, Kanan looked up again. "What did the Council tell you?"

"That the old Order is gone," he summarized, speaking softly. "It's time to start over. The Council says that they can never interfere with the Living Force again."

"But there aren't any Jedi Masters," Ezra objected. "Aren't we the only three left? Well, except for Yoda, but I don't know where he is, and O-Mer, but he's helping Senator Organa."

Anakin folded his hands together. "That's the other thing they did. They decided to make me a Master."

Ezra and Kanan stared at him. "And here I was celebrating Knighthood," Kanan mused, almost laughing at himself.

"As you should," Anakin assured him. "I guess it's a promotional day for both of us."

"That's awesome!" Ezra cheered. "I thought you said they would never do that."

"Well, if they had more options, maybe they wouldn't, but Jedi aren't exactly in abundant supply right now. We have to start somewhere," he reasoned.

Kanan thought for a moment. "What does this mean for us?"

"Nothing, really," Anakin pointed out. "It doesn't change our position in the Rebellion, but who knows? Maybe someday this will grow into something more."

He smiled, considering the possibility. "That doesn't sound so bad."