Chapter 168: Mo****F*ckin Time Travel
AN: Ok, time travel talk will be weird. Also, what's about to happen is technically canon but it is Disney canon. Still, it is rumored to be a solution to the whole sequel trilogy and it actually helps ... .. %%% *** ***.
AN2: It isn't like MCU time travel but there is still a multiverse.
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After hearing the voice, Tony looked behind.There, he saw a mature Togrutan Woman staring at him. He didn't recognize her but somehow, he still felt that she looked familiar.
He wasn't sure why he felt this feeling but knew better than to ignore it in this universe. He went with his suspicions and tried to find out why she looked familiar.
He looked at the markings on her face and head tails as these the markings there were the easiest way to identify a Togrutant. He checked the markings and their colors and then he thought if anyone of the Togrutans that he knew had similar markings.
He had a match almost instantaneously but finding out who the woman was, did not give him any relief. Instead, he was disturbed by the implications of meeting the woman.
Before he made any conclusions, an idea started to form in his head. An idea that could possibly get rid of the current situation he was it.
He looked at the woman in front of him, searching for things that might prove that the woman wasn't the person he thought she was. He spotted something crucial in that there were two lightsabers on this woman's waist.
When he found the lightsabers, he felt more frustrated. He decided to give up trying to resist the situation and acknowledge the person in front of him.
There were some slight differences in the markings but as long as no clones or identical twins were involved, the woman in front of him should be Ahsoka Tano.
The two lightsabers didn't help as Ahsoka using two lightsabers was something likely to happen.
Just recently, Anakin consulted with him on how to help Ahsoka survive the Clone Wars. They thought about some possible solutions but the most practical solution they could think of was for Ahsoka to use two lightsabers.
She would have to get used to using the second lightsaber but using one lightsaber for her defense was easier to train in than their other solutions.
She also inherited Anakin's tendency to lose his lightsaber so having her get another lightsaber wasn't such a bad idea. At the very least, she would have a spare lightsaber to use in case he lost one.
After seeing the lightsaber and checking the woman out one last time, he finally admitted that the person in front of him is, indeed, Ahsoka Tano.
Tony: "Hey...Snips? Do you still want to be called Snips? Wait, first things first. What date and time is it supposed to be right now?"
Tony asked this as he wasn't sure how to talk with someone from the future. He wasn't sure what the mechanics of time travel in this universe is. He wanted to see if he could do something in the past to affect the present, or if this universe is also a causal multiverse.
He waited for Ahsoka to reply but then he noticed tears forming in her eyes.
Tony: "Ahsoka? Are you okay?"
He approached her and tried to stop her from crying. The moment he made contact with her, Ahsoka snapped back to reality and hugged Tony.
Ashoka: "You're real. You're alive. Thank the Force. I thought you were..."
Tony didn't know why Ahsoka thought he was dead. Anakin should have told her about him sometime after he left this universe. He tried to ask her but decided not to as he knew he couldn't get any information while she was like this.
He could try to ask her about his future but it could lead to a disaster as he still didn't have a full grasp of the time continuum in this universe.
He had to be careful and it was better if she calmed down before talking.
Instead of asking her and risking a time paradox happening, he decided to wait. Since Ahsoka was already hugging him, he hugged her back and rubbed her back, doing his best to console her. He continued this until she calmed down.
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While waiting for Ahsoka to calm down, Tony reminded her not to say too much. When she was stable, Tony first asked if she knew what was happening. She might know more about this space and could save them from the trouble of coordinating how to talk about things.
Ahsoka: "I don't know much. Ezra pulled me from one of those 'doors' and brought me here."
Tony: "Who?"
Ahsoka: "Ezra. He's Kanan's apprentice."
Tony tried to remember any Kanan or Ezra but he had no clue who these persons are. He tried to see different pronunciations to check if they sound familiar but he still got nothing.
Ahsoka noticed his confusion and said that Kanan was Depa Bilaba's apprentice (Windu's older apprentice)
Tony: "STOP. Depa still doesn't have an apprentice in my time."
He told her not to say more as he interacted with Depa frequently. Windu was her master before, and she still hanged around even though she was also a Jedi Master.
After telling her this, he directed their conversation back to this Ezra person. He asked what he looked like and why he wasn't with Ahsoka when they met. He needed to find him as that person should have some idea about the space they were in
Ahsoka started describing what Ezra looked like when Tony interrupted her.
Tony: "Hold up. Is this person wearing a Storm Trooper uniform?"
Ahsoka: "Uh…Yes."
Tony: "Oh good. One of my clones found him. Wait a minute."
He looked around them and noticed some of his clones. He started coordinating with his clones and then they waited
While waiting, Tony listed out Anakin as well as the other who were supposed to stay in this universe. He first confirmed that those people indeed stayed behind and then Tony started asking specific information based on his time traveler contact protocols.
He already prepared for scenarios where he would encounter time travelers. He just didn't expect for it to first be used here and not in MCU.
Tony and his clones thought up a lot of future scenarios and more possible scenarios that would come after those. He made sure to leave certain marks and events after those scenarios which would show if the possibility succeeded and how similar it is to the event.
With those marks set up, he didn't risk triggering any time anomalies as he would already be aware of the details. He was just be verifying which one of the multiple scenarios Ahsoka was from as he thought of a lot of it.
He learned from Ahsoka that Anakin spent a lot of time, fighting against Darth Vader. Based on how mechanical it moved, Tony figured that it was also Anakin trying to control an android body. Anakin already started building that other body after Tony told him his identity.
Tony tried to learn about the future some more but couldn't because the person they were waiting for was about to arrive.
Tony stopped Ahsoka and they looked at a certain direction
There, they saw a boy in Storm Trooper uniform flying, flung around, and passed around by Tony clones. The body eventually reached them. Ahsoka saw Ezra was knocked out so she went and checked on him.
Ahsoka: "Ezra!!! What happened?"
Tony: "Sorry that's my fault. Since he looks like a Storm Trooper, I decided to knock him out and bring him for questioning. Oh, you're aware of my clones, right?"
Ahsoka: "Yes… Wait, how do you know about Storm Troopers?"
Tony: "Didn't Anakin tell you? I thought he would eventually… Nevermind.
Let's just say that I know about a possible future. I just didn't get that information the same way you did.
It's complicated. I'll wake this kid up first. I still need to do something and I need some information from him.
"
Tony approached the boy and place his hand on the boy's head. A spark flew from Tony's hand, shocking the boy until he woke up.
Ezra was paralyzed for a bit but the moment he regained control over his body, he jumped up, back away from Tony, and then pulled a weird looking item from his waist. The item looked like a handle with a handguard, but Ezra's hold on it made it feel like a blaster.
Ezra aimed the blaster at Tony and told him not to move.
Tony saw the blaster but didn't feel threatened by it. He looked towards Ahsoka and asked if the boy in front of them is really a Jedi. Tony knew his actions would lead to changes but he didn't think that the Jedis would suddenly just rely on blasters.
Ahsoka understood what Tony felt and sighed because what Ezra did was useless. She told him to stand down but he refused. He didn't trust Tony because he was beaten up by him and told Ahsoka that she should also be on guard against him.
Ezra then pressed something and a lightsaber blade ignited from his blaster.
A noodle thin lightsaber blade presented itself.
He held the blade and put it on Tony's neck but the lightsaber's blade was too thin that it didn't threaten Tony.
Tony felt that the blade was real but the image of the noodle thin lightsaber blade made it look like the person in front of him was joking. Ezra didn't back off though so Tony made his response.
Tony and his clones melded their minds and focus their attention. He then 'held' the blade and used the Force to push the blade back until it turned off.
Ezra was shocked to see the blade of his lightsaber power off without his control but Ahsoka reminded him that Tony wasn't like those fake lightsaber wielders he fought against.
Ezra stopped trying to fight Tony and they started talking about this black space.
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Tony: "So you can't create alternate universes because of some random decision? That makes things easy. Wait a sec. I'm going to capture a Senate."
Tony created clones and went back to the 'door' that they were from.
Ahsoka and Ezra watched as Tony and his clones waved their hands and used the Force. They didn't know what Tony was doing at first but soon they noticed the runes around the 'door' moving.
Ezra was alarmed to see Tony controlling the runes. He tried to ask Tony what and how he was doing what he was doing, but Tony's reply didn't help them understand anything.
Tony: "This is magik, sort of. It's mostly the Force but there's was some problems with the control so I added a bit of mystic arts to it. Ahsoka, remember after we caught Dooku?..."
Tony kept moving the runes around and soon the image on the other side started to change. Instead of one where a Tony was waiting outside, the Tony outside was gone and the room was dark.
After seeing the changes, Tony sent one of his clones back to the other side. The clone was just about to pass through when Ahsoka stopped Tony.
Ahsoka: "Are you sure about this? What if you..."
Tony: "Relax. JARVIS has protocols in place in case I accidentally time traveledl. I'm just not sure what is going to happen when my clones meet each other but it shouldn't be that dangerous."
While time-traveling people could meet their younger or older self back in the MCU, he wasn't sure if it was the same in this universe. It might be the case where the time traveler dies when he meets his younger self.
It is possible that going back to a time when there is another you present could trigger a lethal accident. It doesn't seem likely and these problems usually attack the time traveler and not the actual self.
Going back sometime where he was still around could be dangerous but it didn't matter as Tony was just sending shadow clones.
Unlike the others where dying means becoming dead, dying for his shadow clones was just returning to his main body and nothing else. There might be a problem where the clone goes to his present instead of his future self but things didn't appear to have happened based on his memories.
There is always the possibility that memories get locked until it was time but Tony believed that it wasn't the case. He didn't get any memories of the future so, at the very least, it should be his first-time time-traveling in this universe.
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The clone jumped back to the universe and contacted JARVIS to check what the time was. After knowing that Tony was 10 months too early, he jumped back to the 'door' and reported his findings.
After seeing the results, Tony moved the runes back to their original position and then changed the runes again. He sent another clone but his next clone reported that it was 4 months early.
Tony moved the runes a couple more times until he got a setting where he was just 1 hour early. He sent a clone squad out along with the lightsabers and other tools needed to capture Palpatine. He then returned the 'door' back to its original settings and then walked away from the area.
When they got to someplace where Tony's clones hadn't reached yet, they finally stopped and Tony dispersed all of his other clones in the area.
They kept quiet for a while but the new kid finally lost patience and decided to ask what was happening. Tony wanted to answer but he remembered that Ahsoka was more of a mentor to this Ezra so he let her do the talking.
Ahsoka: "Tony send his clones to capture Palpatine. He's now waiting for his clones to arrive with Palpatine."
Tony: "Not exactly, Snips. See, there is one Force ability that I rarely reveal to everyone. Sorry kid, I don't trust you so you have to close your eyes for this."
After he said this, Tony created two clones to deal with Ezra. He could reveal his Force Cloak(Invisibility) to Ahsoka but he still had some problems with Ezra. The boy obediently closed his eyes but Tony didn't want to risk Ezra taking a peek. He had to clones cover his eyes and then the other clone knocked Ezra out.
After making sure Ezra couldn't see anything, Tony pointed to a random direction and told Ahsoka to look over there.
Ahsoka: "What am I..."
Before Ahsoka could even finish, multiple figures started to appear from the seemingly empty space. It was burry for a while but the Cloak eventually lost effectiveness and revealed a squad of shadow clone which was carrying Palpatine.
Ahsoka: "How did it suddenly... time travel?"
Tony smiled as Ahsoka got more and more confused with time-travel. They just finished dropping off Tony's clone and then suddenly they already have Palpatine's clone captured. Tony then decided to show off a bit.
Tony: "Remember when you met me, I was actually running after and searching for a figure from the other side of the mirror. I thought it was Palpatine at first but as it turns out, I was actually running after me. Now we just have to wait for in case a new batch of clones appear. If it does, we wait here until it disperses and then go somewhere else. If it doesn't, then I still need to work on my time travel theories as there's probably something wrong with it.
In any case, now that I know some of the basics, you can finally tell me what happened. I'm not sure why you think I died when I usually send my clones to test things that I'm not sure of."
Ahsoka said that she thought she heard a voice complain about too many people surviving the Clone Wars. She didn't know where she heard that from but then she felt the Force guiding her. She hid in an abandoned temple and waited for the voice to stop.
When it was safe for her to go out, she suddenly found out that a lot of people she was close to were suddenly missing.
The first people she noticed disappeared were Anakin and Padme. She treated them like an older brother and older sister so their disappearance hit her hard. She lost track of reality after she lost everyone and then things changed after she got back.
Ahsoka told about what happened in the future but Tony didn't hear any of it. He was more focused and concerned about the voice that Ahsoka heard. It might be some god playing with this universe.
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