Part IV- Things Fall Apart

Lord Vader wasn't handling it well.

"L-l-lord Vader, please."

Ghes gasped for air as the Sith clenched his throat with the force.

"First, you rob me of my revenge. Second, you have the nerve to question me regarding the death of Senator Amidala. Explain this insolence, General, or you will die."

He managed to gasp out one word.

"Skywalker…"

Enraged, Vader tightened his grip.

"Never use that name!"

Moments from passing out, Ghes choked out a final attempt to get across his meaning.

"Yavin, pilot, Skywalker."

Vader dropped the general as it dawned on him what he was trying to say, Ghes quickly collapsed to the ground, desperately trying to catch his breath.

"Do you mean to tell me that the pilot I encountered was the spawn of Skywalker?"

He furiously nodded his head in response as he struggled to pull himself up to his feet.

"Yes, Lord Vader."

"How did you obtain this knowledge?"

"From one of the rebels we captured on Yavin, he arrived with Organa and the Death Star plans."

"Kenobi."

"What about General Kenobi, my Lord?"

"It is none of your concern. You're dismissed, General."

Vader stalked away, leaving Ghes bracing himself against the bulkhead, still trying to recover.

Ghes returned to his new quarters aboard the recently completed Executor to find Ahsoka waiting for him. He collapsed into a chair and tore open the collar of his uniform, still struggling to breathe through a bruised windpipe. Concerned, she rushed over to him.

"What happened?"

"Vader. He wasn't very happy with how I handled things in his absence."

"What do you mean?"

"Apparently, he wanted to lay waste to the rebels on Yavin himself, and he wasn't too happy when I asked him about Padme."

"Did you explain to him that he might have a son?"

"Yea, after he tried to strangle me with his mind."

"He tried to kill you? What's he thinking, you're one of the best officers he has, and among the few loyal to him rather than Palpatine."

"I don't think loyalty matters much when you remind someone of the family they almost had. Especially if that person had something to do with their death."

Ahsoka was visibly taken aback by this.

"Do you really think he killed her?"

"Maybe, it's obviously a very painful memory, and he wasn't exactly thinking straight that day."

"But then how could she have given birth without him knowing?"

"He said something about Kenobi."

"What does Obi Wan have to do with this?"

"I don't know, but he must have had something to do with the child remaining hidden for so long."

"Once, Obi Wan told me that Anakin grew up on Tatooine, and that he had family there."

"Family?"

"Yea, a step brother and his wife."

"Not Skywalkers then."

"No, but Obi Wan might have brought them the child."

They didn't speak for a while after that, both contemplating what this would mean for them and the galaxy. It was Ahsoka who broke the silence.

"This isn't going to end well for any of us."

"No."

"Vader's going to become obsessed and this rebellion is only going to get worse."

…

The smell of ozone lingered in the air from the recent firefight, though more obvious evidence of this were the bodies littering the floor of the corridor leading into rebel outpost. Ahsoka continued deeper into the base, passing more dead rebels along the way, until she found Ghes standing over a computer console in what appeared to be the command center.

"You started the party without me?"

"Sorry, the boys got antsy."

"Doesn't look like the fight was worth the time anyway."

"Not really."

"Did you at least get anything good?"

"Not so far, I have no idea why this place even exists."

"Ilum's isolated, and there's the temple."

"I guess that probably has something to do with it…

Something was distracting him, that was clear.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Really?"

"Nothing's wrong."

"Come on, tell me."

"Nothing's wrong, Ahsoka"

"Yes it is, I can tell."

"What are you, a mind reader?"

"No.., well technically yes, but I'm also your wife. Now tell me what's bothering you."

"It's these damn raids, we're not getting anywhere, gaining any ground. This is the third outpost this month and it's the same as the rest, minimal personnel, isolated location, no useful intel."

"So?"

"So I think they're leading us on, letting us raid these bases as a distraction while they plan something bigger."

"Come on, that's crazy, they'd never throw away lives like that."

"Maybe that's not it, but that's sure as hell what it feels like."

One of the commandos came up behind them holding a data pad.

"General, we found something, a backlog of communications that were never deleted."

"Anything useful?"

"Possibly, but it will take hours to sift through."

"Forward it to Executor then."

"Aye, General."

The commando saluted and left the room. Ahsoka nudged Ghes with her elbow, trying to get him to look up from the panel.

"Come on, at least you found something."

"Maybe, we maybe found something."

She threw up her hands and started walking away.

"I give up, there's no talking to you when you get like this."

That got Ghes's attention.

"When I get like what?"

"What do you think? Every other day it's something else, you're depressing yourself. You're not going to end this war by yourself, and certainly not as quickly as you seem to think."

"I don't want to get into this right now."

"This is what I'm talking about, you spend all this time going over intel, planning raids, all the while you refuse to talk to me about anything!"

"I've always told you everything!"

"You used to!"

"Now what's that supposed to mean?"

"You've been distant ever since Yavin."

"How? How have I been distant?"

"We haven't had an actual conversation in months, every time I see you, every time I try to talk to you, you have your nose in a datapad."

"I'm sorry if I've been a little wrapped up in my work. In case you haven't noticed, there's a war going on!"

"Don't give me that excuse, the war never ended for you, the enemy just changed."

"The enemy may have changed, but I sure as hell haven't."

"No, you're still the same stubborn man you were twenty years ago."

Ahsoka starting walking away again, but this time Ghes didn't stop her. She left the outpost and walked through the snow toward the shuttle that had brought her to the planet's surface, unsure what to do.

It's not like they hadn't fought before, they were married after all, and their lives were often stressful, but it had never been like this. Before, it had always been little things, various chores, differing opinions on a topic, and a million other things that had been forgotten just as quickly as they'd occurred. Ghes had never been distant, though, never refused to talk, never ignored her like he'd been doing recently, and it hurt on a level deeper than any physical wound. Was it her? Was she pushing him away somehow? She didn't know, didn't know any of it anymore, and that's what scared her most.

All the terrible things she'd done since Order 66, Ahsoka had no idea how'd she'd be able to deal with them without Ghes, he was her rock, and she was sure she was his.

She thought about going back inside, about going to apologize to him, or demand one from him, but decided against it. If she gave him time, maybe he'd realize how much of an asshole he was being and come apologize on his own. Ghes was stubborn though, so there was no guarantee that would ever happen. On the other hand, she was the only one he'd ever been willing to make concessions to before.

Ahsoka stood under the shuttle for another hour, going back and forth between wanting to go apologize and waiting for Ghes to come to her. She never made a decision, as Ghes and the commandos came out of the now abandoned outpost. They walked over to her, as their shuttle had put down several kilometers away and had since returned to the destroyer in orbit. Ghes brought up the rear of the group, saying nothing as he walked passed her up the ramp. She followed, taking a seat next to him as the shuttle lifted off. The commandos began removing their helmets and Ahsoka pulled down the hood of the heavy coat she'd been wearing, but Ghes left his helmet on. As they sat there in silence, Ahsoka worried that she may have gone too far, that maybe he'd been more depressed than she realized. Then he spoke.

"I'm sorry."

"What?"

"I'm sorry I've been so distant, I'm sorry I haven't been talking to you, and I'm sorry I snapped at you."

"You told me you weren't going to shut me out anymore."

"I wasn't trying to."

"But you did."

"I know. There's been so much pressure on me lately, every day it seems like they're gaining more and more ground and I can't do anything about it. I don't know what to do anymore."

"Then talk to me about it, I want to help you."

"I'm not sure if you want to anymore."

"What do you mean? Of course I am."

"I believe in the New Order, Ahsoka, I like working for the Empire."

"What? Since when?"

"I think I always have. When I was in the army back before the war, I always heard the Judicials talking about how they could've ended the Separatist movement before it had even started if it wasn't for the Senate's bureaucracy getting in the way. But now, we've been able to do whatever's necessary to keep the peace, without any petty bureaucrat to answer to."

Ahsoka had to admit it made sense, in its own sort of way.

"I understand, doesn't mean I agree, but I understand."

"I still hate Palpatine, I hate how he encourages plotting and backstabbing, I hate how everyone looks at you, I hate how they look at me for marrying you. But it doesn't have to be like that, the Empire can survive past him, it can be run by better men, men who care about justice and order."

"You know I don't think less of you for believing that. I know you're a good man."

"Part of me has always worried you'd leave me. You were so idealistic when we were younger, it wasn't hard to imagine you getting fed up with this."

She took his hand in hers and looked into his eyes through his helmet.

"Listen to me, no matter what, I'd never leave you like that. I go back and forth on whether or not we're doing the right thing, fighting for the Empire, but that's not going to stop me from loving you."

Ghes finally removed his helmet, placing it on the seat beside him, before putting his arm around her.

"I know, but sometimes I just need to hear it."

…

"General, I wasn't expecting an Inspection."

The Major's voice was muffled by the breathing mask required to breath in Kessel's thin artificial atmosphere, but that didn't hide his discomfort.

"That's because this isn't an inspection, Major, I'm here for Antilles."

"The rebel officer?"

"Yes, the rebel officer. Bring him out, I don't have all day."

The Major stared down at his boots as he answered.

"I'm afraid he is no longer at this facility."

"What?"

"He escaped while in transit, sir."

"In transit?"

"Yes, sir, he was scheduled for termination."

"Huh, interesting…"

Ghes put a bolt into the Major's chest, stepping over the corpse and stalking toward the base entrance with Ahsoka and a squad of Storm commandos at his heels. The shocked garrison troopers quickly recovered and followed them. Ghes removed his helmet and started barking orders as soon as they entered the facility.

"Captain, I'm in command now. Put the base on high alert, I want every trooper on this rock watching the sky."

The trooper saluted and left as they entered the command center. Ahsoka came up behind Ghes as he finished organizing the defenses.

"What's going on?"

"Antilles has enough knowledge of this base that they wouldn't pass up the opportunity to take it out."

"It's a slave labor camp, why the hell should we care?"

"Because of who's going to be leading the attack."

"Skywalker?"

"Skywalker."

They were interrupted by the sensor officer.

"Sir, multiple contacts approaching from orbit."

"Rebels?"

"Yes, sir, seven T-65 snubfighters, one Sentinel-class landing craft."

"Activate shields and bring the perimeter defenses online."

"Aye, sir."

"Deck officer, you have the con."

Ghes put his helmet on and waved for the commandos to follow him as he left the control center. Fighters scrambled and turbolaser batteries opened up as the X-wings began their attack. Within minutes, the shield generator had been destroyed and rebel commandos were storming the prison block.

"Trooper, situation report."

"Not good, General, they cut down twenty men on their way in, and I don't think we have enough man power to stop them on the way out."

"Then I'm going in after them. On me, boys, shoot to kill."

Ahsoka led the way, sabers lit, with Ghes behind her pointing his rifle over her shoulder, the commandos formed up behind them. They made their way through the, now, mostly empty passageways of the prison, Ahsoka trying hard to ignore how much it reminded her of the facility she'd been held in. Two rebels attempted to stop them as they neared the rear of the facility, but were quickly dispatched. The rebel ship had taken advantage of the base defenses' preoccupation with the fighter attack to relocate to an auxiliary landing pad at the rear of the prison block. Ghes, Ahsoka and their team reached the rebels while they were still loading the recently liberated prisoners. They opened fire, killing three more rebels and a half dozen prisoners before they managed to retaliate. The prisoners continued to rush into the landing craft, making the most of the limited covering fire provided by the rebel soldiers. Then, Ghes surprised everyone by breaking cover and advancing on his own towards the rebel ship, yelling at the top of his lungs.

"Madine! You traitorous son of a bitch, get out here and fight me like a man!"

Ahsoka, as well as the commandos, stopped and scanned the rebel lines. Towards the middle of the group stood the man who had provoked such anger in Ghes, Crix Madine, founder of the Storm commandos turned rebel general. She understood why his presence had angered Ghes, traitors where one thing he never tolerated, the result of mando'ade's emphasis on honor, as well as years of military service. Madine waved at his men to cease-fire before responding to Ghes.

"General Marczak! Still running Vader's errands, I see!"

"You still working for that bitch Mothma, and Organa's bastard daughter?!"

"We don't need to do this, Marczak, I know you don't like the shady shit we've done for Palpatine any more than I did."

"Don't you pull that moral high ground shit on me, Crix, you're a traitor, a terrorist, and in my book that's a hell of a lot worse than anything I've done."

"So you're going to kill me? Is that the only way this is going to end?"

"There's no other way it can end."

"You can come with us, Alliance needs all the manpower we can get, that goes for you to, boys!"

Several of the commandos thought the offer over for several seconds, but dismissed the idea quickly with only a little mental suggestion on Ahsoka's part. What the offer did accomplish, however, was further enraging Ghes, who immediately opened up with his rifle again as he advanced further toward the rebels. He was protected from their fire by his armor, but Ahsoka knew that the amount of bolts striking home would start to heat up the plates pretty fast, to the point that they'd either start melting or boil Ghes, so she leaped out in front of him and began beating back their fire. Her presence panicked the rebel soldiers, who began pulling back from their cover towards the Sentinel as Madine screamed something she couldn't hear into his comlink. It was likely a cry for help, as one of the X-wings broke of its engagement with the remaining base defenses and fighters, and headed right for them. As the rebel fighter drew nearer, Ahsoka felt a unique presence emanating from the pilot, familiar yet different, Skywalker.

"Ghes!"

"What!"

"He's in that fighter!"

"Who?"

"Skywalker!"

"Shit!"

He turned his attention away from the escaping rebel to fire at the approaching fighter. The X-wing's shielding prevented his rifle from doing any damage, and Skywalker opened up on them with his laser canons, causing Ghes to dive for cover and Ahsoka to leap away. He didn't make a second run on them, instead following the landing craft as it made its escape alongside the remaining fighters. Ghes sat up from where he'd landed on the platform, taking off his helmet and throwing it aside, not wanting to listen to the damage and casualty reports coming in from across the facility.

…

"I believe, Lord Vader, that this attack is evidence that Skywalker has an extremely exploitable weakness, one that we would be fools not to take advantage of it."

"And what is that, General?"

"He is willing to undertake operations of significant risk in order to rescue his friends or those he sees as innocent victims of the Empire, a trait no doubt inherited from his late father. Use those close to him as bait and he'll walk into whatever trap you set, no matter how obvious."

"Thank you for the observation, General, but this does not lessen your responsibility for the rebel's success on Kessel."

"I understand, my Lord."

"You are a valuable asset to the Empire, General, but not an irreplaceable one."

...

The shuttle kicked up a cloud of sand as it touched down near the center of a hastily constructed staging area in the vast deserts of Zaloriis. Upon exiting the craft, Ahsoka saw other craft landing all around the small compound, disgorging massive amounts of troops and equipment. It was impressive sight, especially since she hadn't seen the 501st deploy in full like this in over a decade. She didn't realize she'd stopped until one of the troopers behind her tapped her on the shoulder. As she started walking again, she saw Ghes had stopped to wait for her, and now had a very self-satisfied grin on his face, though she was the only one who could through his helmet.

"The boys finally do something to impress you?"

"It's the scale of it all. Since when did we have this much equipment?"

"Most of it's been in storage waiting for a real fight, this kind of hardware isn't something you roll out for parades or small ops."

"I thought you said this was a local rebellion?"

"It is."

"Then is the planet infested with rancors?"

"Don't think so, but they did manage to capture a research base run by some army Colonel named Veers. Emperor wants to make an example out of them."

"Ah."

Ahsoka didn't have much experience with the regular Imperial Army, they were mostly deployed as garrisons and armored units, not mixing well with the more highly trained Stormtroopers. Army officers did, however, make up most of the high echelons of the command structure, there were very few Stormtroopers who ranked above Colonel. They were the ones who caused Ghes the most trouble, especially now that his higher ranking subordinates were men he'd consider proper Stormtroopers. The Army was constantly butting heads with him over who had authority over what. Luckily, none of those blowhards where here, just Ghes. And Vader.

He stood over a holographic map of the region, surrounded by the few officers who had arrived before them, as well as the holograms of the various navy officers commanding the ships in orbit. As they approached, Vader acknowledged Ghes's presence.

"General."

"Lord Vader."

"If you gentlemen would turn your attention to Col. Veers."

Veers was a disheveled looking man of average height in a dirt-stained officer's uniform, clear signs of his recent captivity at the hands of the locals. Despite his appearance, he maintained an aura of confidence as he delivered the briefing.

"Thank you, Lord Vader. Our first objective is to retake the Camp Culroon research facility and the valuable prototype walker contained within. From there, we'll march on the capital and end this rebellion. Any questions? Good, prepare your men for battle."

The other officers departed, leaving Ghes, Ahsoka, Vader, and Veers standing around the map on which Veers had illustrated the battle plan.

"Yes, General?"

"What are we actually up against here, Veers?"

"Nothing our walkers can't handle; the locals have some light equipment, a few militarized speeders."

"How'd they manage to capture you then?"

"They surrounded our base in the night and forced our surrender, there was nothing we could've done."

Ghes smirked.

"Of course. Well, I'd better go get the boys ready. Lord Vader."

…

The troop bay of the AT-AT was cramped, but that was a given whenever you put forty men in an armored box, especially one perched atop four legs, surprisingly long for a machine of this size and weight. The troopers didn't seem to mind though, they considered this safer than flying a Sentinel into a fortified position, and a hell of a lot easier than walking through the desert. It didn't appear to be designed with anyone like Ahsoka in mind however, she couldn't stand up straight and she was the forty-first person, so Ghes had spent the ride pacing up and down the aisle. But other than that, the environmental controls kept the interior cool, the walker's motions were surprisingly smooth and the troop bench wasn't worse than any other transport she'd been in.

"Heads up, five minutes to drop point."

All around her troopers prepped for battle, power packs were inserted, blasters switched on, com channels checked. Ahsoka checked her sidearm and lightsabers before placing them back on her belt, Ghes retrieved his rifle from where he'd attached it to her chair, being too long and bulky for him to carry while pacing. The deck officers moved over to the doors, prepping the winches. At the go signal, the walker halted and the doors opened, blaster bolts whizzed by as the cables deployed. Ghes was out the door with the first wave, hitting the ground running and barking orders as always. Ahsoka waved off the deck officer trying to hook her up, instead leaping off the side and landing to where Ghes had taken cover in the ruble. He smiled at her.

"Show off."

"Look who's talking."

Their advance through the city was swift, fire support from the walkers annihilating any hardened pockets of resistance. The only real obstacle was a small Alliance force defending the militia headquarters, but they too were quickly annihilated. The battle ended within a few hours, and the computer core of the Alliance base was mined for data by Col. Veers. Zaloriis's poulaton was desolated, the Empire had sent a powerful message to those emboldened by Yavin, and they had a lead on the new rebel base, somewhere near Elroon.

…..

Ghes was pissed off again, and it probably had something to do with the latest in a long line of staff meetings that had been occurring in the aftermath of Vader creating the ominously named Death Squadron in the aftermath of Zaloriis. Ahsoka, for her part, never had and never wanted to attend any of these meetings, the looks she other officers gave her made her want to start stabbing people. But Ghes had no choice in his attendance, and from his demeanor as he entered the room, today had been particularly bad.

"What happened this time?"

"You remember Veers?"

"Yea."

"Vader promoted him, he's my boss now, along with every other troop element in the fleet."

"Seriously?"

"Apparently some admiral recommended him for promotion and Vader went with it. And, even though we're the same rank now, and I have more experience, he's apparently more qualified to be force commander."

"Did you argue?"

"Of course not, I've been on Vader's bad side since Yavin, and as he's made clear, I am replaceable."

"Maybe to him."

That particular comment made after the raid on Kessel had made Ahsoka particularly angry, so much that Ghes tried to avoid bringing it up.

"Calm down, nothing's going to happen to me."

"If he threatens you…"

"He won't follow through on it, not now, not in the middle of rebellion of this scale."

"And if your wrong?"

"Then I guess I won't live long enough to regret it."

She punched him in the arm, glaring angrily.

"Don't joke like that, ass."

….

If any planet could be colder than Ilum, Hoth was definitely it. The remote, frozen ice-ball was barely habitable even at the equator, and was so out of the way that it had been at the bottom of the list of planets to search. Luckily, a probe droid had been sent, and it had located the rebel base. Unfortunately, despite days of planning, Admiral Ozzel had 'screwed the bantha', as Ghes had put it, and come out of hyperspace to close, giving the rebels time to activate a small planetary class shield generator, protecting them from orbital bombardment. Veers had been prepared though, deploying a ground assault that was quickly overwhelming the defenses.

The 501st didn't have much of a part to play, the dedicated cold weather assault troops of Blizarrd Force handling most of the actual combat. Ghes and his men didn't sit out the battle though, accompanying Lord Vader into the tunnels of the rebel base as his personal escort.

"On your left."

Ghes tossed a detonator down the passageway as he passed.

"Dealt with. Where's Lord Vader?"

"They found Millennium Falcon in the east hanger."

"Ah."

He fired over Ahsoka's shoulder as she deflected fire from the rebel forces. The narrow passageways had made for slow going as they made their way to the main hanger, hoping to catch whatever evacuation vessels were left on the ground.

"Damn ice isn't doing my equipment any favors."

"At least you're in an environmentally sealed suit."

Technically, her bodysuit was sealed as well, but her head was still only covered by the hood of a coat rather than a sealed helmet like Ghes and the troopers.

"It's not my fault your head isn't amenable to the standard issue buckets."

"And what's that supposed to mean."

"Nothing, dear."

Ghes knew better than to joke about the Empire's strongly pro-human disposition in the middle of combat, especially when he was wearing standard issue cold weather gear rather than beskar. Ahsoka would never intentionally hurt him over a joke, of course, but, if he distracted her, a stray blaster bolt could get through and graze his arm. Accidentally, of course.

"Floor plan I lifted says the main hanger should be up here."

They turned the corner to find a vast, mostly empty room, the only inhabitants being a few rebel troopers fleeing out the far end. It looked as if the space, which had clearly been used as a hanger, had been emptied out prior to their infiltration of the base, the ships probably moved to a landing field outside the base in order to hasten the evacuation of the defenders. At the same time, a large explosion created a tremor which shook the entire complex, raining loose chunks of ice down on them from the ceiling.

"Report, what's going on out there?"

"Rebels blew the ion canon, General, and they took half a company with 'em."

"Damn! Inform Lord Vader the rebels have evacuated and likely set a self-destruct sequence on the base. Whatever's left of them is the fleet's problem now."

…

Ghes removed his helmet as they stepped out of the shuttle into Executor's main hanger. Again, Ahsoka noticed how much he'd changed since they'd met. His black hair was streaked with grey now, slowly turned by the stress of his position as well as the march of time, and he'd gained a number of new scars across his body. She'd changed to, she was taller, lekku longer and more ornate, sometimes it was hard to believe the woman staring back at her in the mirror was the same girl who'd stepped off the shuttle on Chrstophsis, nervous to meet her new mentor.

As they passed a stack of munitions crates, Ghes stopped and sat down, clearly still exhausted from the day's battle. Ahsoka sat down next to him, leaving the troopers that had accompanied them to wander back to the barracks.

"You ever think we're getting to old for this?"

"What's the matter, Ghes, you getting arthritis, chest pains?"

"No, I'm just tired a lot more than I used to be."

"You feel like an old man?"

"If you're just going to make fun of me…"

"Aw, clam down, Ghes. There's nothing wrong with getting older, you've got to start slowing down sometime."

"Oh yea? I don't see you missing any steps."

"It's the force, what you gonna do? Master Yoda was a few hundred years old and he could jump a dozen times his own height."

"Now that's just unfair, freakin jedi."

"Hey!"

"You're not a Jedi, hon."

"Then what am I?"

"Hell if I know, the only thing that matters to me is that you're you."

"That's sweet… I think."

Ghes stood up and stretched his arms before grabbing his rifle and starting off back to their suite. Ahsoka followed, putting her arm through his. As they passed by the barracks mess, they heard a commotion coming from inside.

"I wonder what's going on in there?"

"Want to check it out?"

She nodded and Ghes opened the door. Inside, the men of the 501st were celebrating the day's victory. One of the troopers saw them enter and walked over with two cups.

"General! Ma'am! You here for the party?"
Ghes took the drinks from him, sipping from one before handing the other to Ahsoka.

"What's the occasion, Corporal?"

"End of the rebellion, General. We won!"

That proclamation elicited a cheer from the crowded room.

"One more question, where'd you get the booze?"

"It didn't come from you, General?"

"Oh, yea, must have signed the forms and forgot about it."

As the trooper rejoined his comrades, Ghes looked at Ahsoka and shrugged.

"Boys must have forged my signature; I'll deal with it later. Hope I'm not paying for this though, tastes expensive."

"Is it really over?"

"Maybe, maybe not, but how often do we really get to have any fun?"

….

Ghes really regretted the past night's optimism, mostly because of the splitting headache it was causing him now. It wasn't helping that a steady stream of asteroids impacting on the shields were sending tremors through the hull. Ahsoka, for her part, was trying very hard not to laugh every time Ghes covered his head against the table.

"Ughhh, why are we in an asteroid field?!"

"How should I know?"

"I don't know, my head hurts too bad to think."

"This is why we don't drink, you always go overboard and regret it."

"Why didn't you stop me then?"

"I tried, but you're not exactly cooperative when you drink."

She slid a cup of caf across the table to him. It was there for a minute before he looked up, noticed it, and took a sip.

"Thanks."

"Drink up, you've got to go up there and figure out what's going on."

"Can't I just take a sick day?"

"Do you get sick days?"

"I don't know; they didn't exactly hand me a contract with my terms of employment."

"At least you're sounding better."

"My head is still killing me."

"Then maybe next time you'll listen, now come on, I laid out your uniform for you."

….

The troopers held their blasters on the black suited figure that had walked out of the forest without warning and surrendered to them that morning. When they'd called it in, rather than bringing him in, command had ordered them to hold where they were and wait for back up. After that order, no one had wanted to go near the rebel, so they'd been locked in a standoff while they waited. Three hours into the standoff, the ground shook, indicating the approach of an AT-AT. The walker wasn't able to approach their position because of the dense foliage, but the sound of troopers repelling down to the forest floor could be heard through the trees. A squad of Storm commandos came rushing into the clearing through the underbrush, at the head of their formation was the black armored figure of the 501st commanding officer and a Togruta in mandalorian armor whom the troopers did not recognize. The commandos moved in on the rebel, who provided no resistance as they restrain him, leading him away as the general moved over to the lieutenant commanding the platoon, returning his salute before addressing him.

"Congratulations, Lieutenant, we'll take him from here, continue your patrol."

"Yes, sir, but may I ask who he is?"

"You don't know? You just captured Lord Vader's prize. Commander Skywalker."

Onboard the walker, Ghes and Ahsoka found themselves face to face with the man the Empire had been hunting for four years, the man who destroyed the Death Star, the last of the Jedi, and the only part of Anakin Skywalker left after his fall to the dark side. The three sat there, Ghes and Ahsoka staring across the aisle of the mostly empty troop bay at the restrained Skywalker. Ghes had removed his helmet, wanting to look the Skywalker in the eye.

"Do you know who we are, Skywalker?"

"You're General Marczak, commanding officer of the 501st legion, Vader's personal army."

"I guess Alliance intelligence isn't complete garbage."

Ahsoka leaned forward, looking in the man's eyes as well, trying to see if how he reacted to her.

"What about me, do you know who I am?"

"General Madine says you're one of the Emperor's agents, a force-user."

"Well he's wrong, I don't work for the Emperor. My name is Ahsoka Tano, I was a Jedi once, during the Clone War. I was your father's apprentice."

His response wasn't what she was expecting, he was surprised, but not especially shocked.

"So you knew him, and you know what happened to him."

"Yes."

"Can you tell me?"

"I don't know much, not more than Obi-wan could have told you."

"He didn't tell me."

"Then I guess I will; at the end of the war, something happened to your mother, I don't know what, but he may have had something to do with it. What I do know is that it drove him over the edge and right under Palpatine's wing, and when the call went out to terminate the Jedi, he led the assault on the temple. He slaughtered all of them, masters, knights, younglings, it didn't matter, the rest of us were led to believe that the Jedi had betrayed the Republic, and the only way to achieve lasting peace was the formation of the Empire. Shortly after, your father was sent to Mustafar to end the Separatist threat once and for all. What came back wasn't him anymore, he was gone."

"How did you survive?"

"I left the Order over a year before the war ended. The Jedi weren't willing to stand up for me when I was wrongly accused, so I wasn't going to stand by them."

Ghes joined back back into the conversation, taking Ahsoka's hand in his."

"The day she left the Order, I asked her to marry me. Together, we kept fighting, first for the Republic, then for the Empire."

"Why fight for the Empire?"

"Peace, peace for the galaxy and peace for ourselves, if we'd left the Empire would have hunted us down relentlessly. On the inside, your father provides us with a measure of protection, we can live our lives and try to make a difference, but I wouldn't expect you to really understand."

The walker stopped, having pulled up to its docking station, and Skywalker spoke again.

"You're wrong, you know. There's still good left in him."

"I'm not sure how much good is left in anymore, kid."

Ghes stood, grabbing Skywalker and pulling him to the front of the vehicle. He called out to the vehicle's commander.

"Igar! Take him to Vader, I need to start organizing the search for his friends."

"I came here alone; you won't find anyone else."

"Sure I won't."

He handed Skywalker to two troopers waiting with Commander Igar by the door and waved to him as he left.

"Good talking to you, kid. Come see us again after this whole thing is over."

…..

It was over.

Ghes and Ahsoka sat, side by side, cuffed to a table in an interrogation room on board one of the remaining Alliance ships. The battle was over, the Death Star was once again destroyed, Vader and Palpatine were dead, the mighty Imperial Navy had fled the sector, and Ghes had surrendered what little remained of his command after a drawn out siege by Alliance and Native forces. He and Ahsoka had been quickly separated from the troopers and placed in high security lock up aboard this cruiser overnight, and this morning they'd been placed in this room. Their weapons and armor had been confiscated, with Ghes being given an officer's uniform seized from his quarters at the Endor base and Ahsoka being given an unmarked uniform of the same type.

"I don't see why they didn't bring any of your stuff, it was in the same locker."

"Who knows, maybe they're trying to let you maintain a semblance of dignity."

"I surrendered to a bunch of farmers and fur balls, where's the dignity in that?"

"You didn't have a choice."

"We could have kept fighting, taken as many of them with us as possible."

"It would have been a waste."

"Better to die fighting than to some Alliance firing squad."

"Calm down, they won't execute us."

"How can you be sure?"

"Because they haven't executed Madine, and he was just as bad as you before he turned traitor."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"That you both did equally bad things in the name of the Empire."

"Well, at least I'm not a filthy traitor."

"Yes, Ghes, and that makes you so much better."

"Doesn't it?"

Their conversation was ended by the entrance of two soldiers, quickly followed by Skywalker and Leia Organa, former senator from Alderaan and one of the Alliance's main political leaders. Organa spoke first.

"General and Mrs. Marczak, I trust you've found your accommodations satisfactory?"

Ahsoka winced, no one had ever actually referred to her using Ghes's surname before, and she'd never thought that the first time would be while she was imprisoned. Ghes responded in his typical manner.

"I'd actually like to complain, Princess, these restraints are too tight, and the slabs that pass for beds around here are hard on my back."

It was Organa's turn to wince at the use of her official title, heir to the throne of a dead world, before she continued

"Please try to understand the severity of your situation, General, you two are particularly dangerous and we can't afford to take the risk of you escaping."

"Us, escape? Never! You won, fair and square, so we promise to behave."

"Sure you do."

"What do you want from us anyway, is it really worth all this trouble?"

"Believe it or not, General, you're the highest ranking Imperial we captured on Endor, so that makes you valuable."

"Whatever it is you think you're going to get out of me, you can just forget it, I'm no traitor."

Before Organa could respond, Skywalker put his hand over hers and started speaking instead.

"The war is over for you, General, but you don't have to live the rest of your lives in a prison cell. Just tell us what we want to know and you can live a normal life."

"No can do, kid, I took an oath, and I can't go back on that as long as there still is an Empire to protect."

Ahsoka turned toward Ghes and took his cuffed hands in hers.

"Ghes, wait. Why don't you just tell them what they want to know? It doesn't matter anymore anyway."

The room was silent as he thought it over, after a minute he sighed and gave his response.

"Fine, if that's what you want me to do, then I'll try. I just have to know one thing first: who's running the Empire with Palpatine out of the picture?"

Organa answered.

"Our souces in Galactic City say that ISB has taken over, headed by Isard."

"How'd he ever get anyone to follow him?"

"If by 'he' you mean Armand Isard, he didn't, he's been dead for years, his daughter's the one in control."

Ghes smirked, depressed by the thought of a galaxy run by Ysanne Isard.

"You should have lead with that. Now I have to help you before she kills every sane person in the galaxy."

"Well then, I'm glad we could reach an agreement, and I'll see if we can't find you some more comfortable accommodations."

"You damn well better. So, what do you want to know first?"

Organa looked to Skywalker as if asking if he was okay with what she was about to say, he nodded and she proceeded.

"Intelligence will question you at a later date, General, but for now… Ahsoka, would you mind telling us about what our father was like?"

Ahsoka smiled, it wasn't often she'd gotten to talk about those years of her life, and she'd be happy to reminisce about the man who'd been like a father to her with, apparently, his two children.

"Of course; I first met Anakin Skywalker during the Battle of Cristophsis…."

The End

That's it folks, the final version of Marczak, the rewrite's done. This is the first thing I've ever put out there, I'm proud of it, and I thank you all for taking the time to read it. Special thanks to everyone who followed this story to the end, and everyone who's favorited it. Also, thanks to wolf730 for his assistance during the rewrite. Finally, in regards to what I'm going to be working on next, I've had two ideas in the works for a while that I'm going to start putting out chapters for this month(October), and the first short story in an anthology I'm writing with Wolf has been out for a while now (waiting for wolf to get off his ass and finish #2).

Anyway, hope you enjoyed, and feel free to share any feedback or opinions you may have.