Act I

Chapter 2

They'd been caught - spotted on the way back to the shipyards, cornered in a small vacant lot between three warehouses. A trio of Stormtroopers slowly approached where Ahsoka stood defensively in front of her four year old charges, lightsabers at the ready. Hopefully, she'd be able to take them down and then continue fleeing with the twins, but if worst came to worst the Togruta was ready to lay down her life to let Luke and Leia run for it.

"Commander Tano?" One of the troopers asked.

Ahsoka froze.

Together, the men in white armor powered down their weapons, before removing their helmets. Three identical faces stared at her in shock and hope, their tattoos and hairstyles different enough from one another that she was able to come up with the proper nicknames.

"Dogma? Ridge?" She asked hesitantly. "Jesse?"

Instantly the trio of clones broke out into delighted smiles. "Commander, it is you! We thought you'd died after the Purges!" Jesse was the first to reach out and grasp her hand in greeting.

"I- I don't-"

"Yeah, you don't get why we aren't shooting at you right now." Ridge smirked. "You left before the whole biochip mess with Tup and Fives, but the basic explanation is that Captain Rex and a few of us from the 501st got rid of the thing in our heads that forced us to follow Order 66."

Ahsoka let out a strangled laugh. "Glad to hear it."

"What are you doing out here anyway, Commander? And with kids, for that matter?" Dogma asked in concern, tilting his head slightly to get a better look at the wide-eyed twins.

"Running." Ahsoka said simply. "Nowhere is safe any more, not for me and especially not for Skyguy's children."

The clones blinked at her, looking like someone had just walloped all three of them over the head with a durasteel pipe.

"In that case," Jesse finally managed to get out. "How about we help you three clear out?"

"I'd appreciate it, guys. Are any other members of the old outfit here? Preferably ones who won't shoot me on sight?" Their group started to walk out of the lot, the troopers donning their helmets again as they gathered protectively around the Jedi.

"Nah, just us. The higher ups have been working hard the last few years to break up the old Clone Trooper legions, sending our brothers out as cannon fodder to make way for recruited members." Dogma explained, his grimace evident even hidden by the helmet.

"Every year there's fewer and fewer of us." Jesse put in.

"But, it's not all the Empire's doing." Ridge's voice dropped into a mutter. "Rex and others have started a defection campaign. They're saying the clones were made to fight for the Republic, which meant battling Seppies in the War - and now means we're honor bound to join the Rebel Alliance that's begun sabotaging everything Imperial."

Ahsoka felt her heart start to beat faster. "Are you guys planning on doing that too? Defecting, I mean?"

"At some point, yeah. We don't want to be sent down the flusher like our brothers."

"Then why not make it today?"

By the time they'd reached the shipyards, Ahsoka had convinced the trio to leave right then and there with her oddball little family. So, all six of them headed up the ramp of her dingy spacecraft, the sight of the troopers nearly sending Artoo and Threepio into fits. It took a few minutes for the woman to calm the droids down, while her young charges watched the clones start to remove their outer armor.

"Hey, Commander, these kids do talk, don't they?" Ridge joked at one point.

"'Course they do. They're just a little over-awed at seeing Stormtroopers we don't have to be afraid of." The trio all winced at that, an action that seemed to satisfy the twins' cautionary instincts. As soon as Dogma took a seat, the little girl immediately clambered up into his lap.

"Um..." He tried not to move or freak out as the child's soft hands passed over his face, tracing the inked markings there. "Commander? Help?"

"Careful Leia, you're making the big bad trooper feel uncomfortable." The Togruta woman teased, heading for the cockpit.

Jesse and Ridge snickered as they took their own seats, but that was quickly silenced as Leia's brother placed himself on the bench between them.

"Hi there, little one." Jesse was, once again, the first to recover his wits. "What's your name?"

"Luke," came the quiet answer. "Who're you?"

"CT-5597, but you can call me Jesse. That's Ridge, and the one your sister's sitting on is Dogma. We used to fight alongside Commander Tano and General Skywalker."

"You knew Daddy?" Leia asked, settling herself cross-legged in Dogma's lap and facing the others across the aisle.

"Sure. You know about him, don't you?"

"Auntie 'Soka says she'll tell us more when we're older." Luke's nose wrinkled in dismay. "But we don't wanna wait that long!"

"Well then, what age-appropriate stories can we come up with, lads?"

Taking the pilot's seat and starting up the ship's engines, Ahsoka listened with a smile as she heard the clones start to tell her young charges about the War and some of the mischief their dad managed to get himself into on a regular basis. She'd have to interrupt in a little while to get destination coordinates, but in the meantime was content to let the bonding commence.

-T&T-

It hadn't been her intention. Quite the opposite, in fact. But the little red-headed girl was clearly strong with the Force, and just as clearly on the run from approaching Stormtroopers. So, against her better judgement, Ahsoka offered the girl a hiding place aboard their small freighter.

The five year old, whose name was Mara Jade, acted extremely wary at first. Then the twins tumbled out of their shared room, and within minutes all three were chattering happily to one another. Ahsoka brought out some food, waited another half hour for the search outside to wind down, and then took them up through the atmosphere into space.

"Mara?" The girl looked up at her, much more at ease by this point. "How would like to go somewhere you'll be protected by an old friend of mine? He can keep you fed and warm, and pass on a few lessons for those same tricks you said got you into trouble in the first place."

She thought about it for a minute, before nodding. Ahsoka set a course for Dagobah.

Hopefully, Master Yoda wouldn't fuss at her too badly... After all, it had to be boring, spending his entire day just meditating and using the Force to send false visions to the Emperor. A youngling in need of training would be just the thing for the old troll, keep him active. And if hiding Mara on the swampy planet worked out well, then perhaps Ahsoka could start to find other Force sensitive children and repeat the procedure.

And if questioned as to why only using one hiding place, she would respond that the new Jedi Order had to start somewhere.

-T&T-

Six years.

Six years the Empire had been running things throughout the galaxy, and Lux Bonteri found himself thinking fondly of the War - which was of course ludicrous.

Even though it had introduced her to him. Whereas, by contrast, the Empire ensured that she was lost forever.

Lux had often thought of the incredible Jedi Padawan who'd turned his entire world upside down, and not just in terms of politics. Sometimes, stray thoughts would enter his mind of whether they could've been anything more than close friends, if he'd worked harder to try and find her after that miserable bombing attack and subsequent trial had driven her out of the Order.

But, whenever those thoughts and questions rose up, he inevitably had to drive them back, getting on with his work.

Not his senatorial work, of course - that job was slowly becoming a farce, a feeble reassurance from Palpatine that the people still ruled themselves. No, more and more often Lux was doing a different sort of job - one where he couriered certain documents, or slipped differing amounts of credits into bank accounts that all found their way back to the Rebel Alliance. And, occasionally, it was this work that brought him to out of the way planets and run-down refueling stations, which also offered diners and cheap hotels to intergalactic travellers.

It was in one such place, after he'd made a drop and was preparing to depart, that the young man very nearly walked straight into the female who'd been haunting his dreams for six years.

"Ahsoka?" Lux choked in shock. "How did- where-"

"Not here!" The Togruta hushed him desperately, checking for any who might have heard them. Not seeing any spies or eavesdroppers, she grabbed Lux's hand and led him back down the hall to her dingy hotel room.

"You're alive," he mumbled in awe. "I can't believe it- six years since the Purge, and all this time I've thought you were dead-"

"It's better if you keep that to yourself." Ahsoka warned him as she unlocked the door. "And not just for my sake."

"Of course, I wouldn't dream of-" His words cut off as they entered the room, and Lux caught sight of the two small forms curled up together on the bed. "A-ahsoka?"

"Shh. I need to explain before they wake up." She sighed, pulling the young man over to a pair of chairs by the wall.

"Who are the younglings?"

Ahsoka hesitated for a few moments until she gave in. "Luke and Leia Skywalker." Lux gaped at her, his jaw twitching slightly in a way that would've been hilarious had the circumstances been different. Much, much different.

"...General Skywalker's children?" He finally managed to get out.

"Yeah. Twins, birthed by Senator Padme Amidala. I was there when she died, Lux. When Anakin went over to the Dark Side and became Darth Vader."

Now he was looking at her with even greater alarm. "Vader?! You have Vader's children?!"

"And if he ever finds out that they're alive, we'll be hunted down like no other fugitive before us. I don't know if there's anything of a loving father left inside that monster, but I'm not going to sacrifice either of the twins' safety just to find out." Ahsoka stated firmly. Lux watched her in silence for a few minutes, his gaze flicking over to the children a couple of times.

"...What can I do to help?"

The dazzling smile she gave him instantly overwrote any lingering doubts the young man had about getting into even deeper trouble.