Chapter 6: The Apprentice's Apprentice
IMPERIAL CENTER
After the birth of the Galactic Empire, many changes came upon the galaxy. People's alliances were all over the place. It was clear that what came to be the Imperial Senate was nothing more than a façade for the common people. There seemed to be nothing much to be done except to hope; Emperor Palpatine ruled, and Darth Vader ensured so, with an iron fist.
One of the saddest and most pitiful changes was —according to some old patriotic people— the Capital's fate.
Coruscant had been a landmark for the Old Republic, changing it to Imperial Center was a harsh blow—not that anyone would complain out loud. But for someone who had been mostly or practically dead for years, coming back to it would be just painful.
No sight was more sigh-worthy than the Jedi Temple.
The old building, a mark of hope and faith… The home of the Jedi, the keepers of peace… At first, Emperor Palpatine had considered burning the place down completely, but upon consideration, and believing that his Apprentice had eradicated every trace of the ancient religion, he went for something else.
Now eight years after Anakin Skywalker's betrayal and the Emperor's rise to power, the old Temple rose solitary in the middle of the hectic city. No more Padawan learners grew there. No more worthy teachings were taught there. The signs; the symbols; the iconic infrastructure; the guards; the respect; the masters! All but gone.
Night had come in the legendary city, though the many bright lights from the towering skyscrapers illuminated everything and everyone's step.
Inside the Temple, there were many laughs and happy moments of companionship.
The place had been turned into a home for survivors and Clone Wars veterans—aka, the Clones. Vomiting as it sounds, the very ones who helped Anakin Skywalker raid the Temple, all those years ago, killing everything that just so much as resembled a Jedi during Order Sixty-Six, even the innocent younglings.
Here they had retired—human stormtroopers were rapidly taking their place—with a few Force-sensitives that were allowed to not be killed (needing to be approved by Palpatine first, of course) so they could be trained as assassins to later become Hands of the Emperor. And who could train them if all Force-users were persecuted and killed by Darth Vader?
One of the Empire's finest assassin and former Jedi Padawan (she never got to be knighted) had such job.
She had been once almost killed by the Jedi themselves, wrongly and very unfairly accused of a horrible crime she never committed. Her alliance was blurry for some time after abandoning the Order. And so when her old master sought her in the hopes of saving her from the awful fate he assured her she would meet, she couldn't help but to turn her alliance to him.
Ahsoka Tano was no Sith apprentice, as there could only be two… Yet her once pure heart was constantly surrounded by the darkness.
Not at the moment, though. Not while she enjoyed dinner with her friends. These Clones all knew her since the previous war, as they had all been under her master's wing.
Once known as the 501st Legion, now Vader's Fist…
They were hanging in a private dining table at the top rooms, the affair quite exclusive as only a few Clones, a few human troopers, and a protocol droid accompanied Vader's favorite. Outside there was a large party, just a bunch of aristocrats Ahsoka had nothing to do with. Couldn't be helped of course, Palpatine's orders surpassed Vader's, which Ahsoka found outrageous but complied.
"Mistress Ahsoka," the protocol droid by her side, C-3PO said. "Will you be needing me all night or may I deactivate myself?"
She turned her blue eyes to the droid for a few moments, then went back to examine the cards game on the table. "I don't know, Threepio," she said. "If you really want to you may… Though I was enjoying you helping me."
"You were enjoying him allowing you to cheat," the mature voice of a Clone said.
"Shut up, Rex," Ahsoka grinned. "You're just angry 'cause you're losing."
"I am not too thrill about it… but I don't feel bad either. Granted, I could be winning just as easily if I got outside help!"
There were a few insults and fighting, then a sentence that made everyone tense.
One of the human stormtroopers suddenly said: "I wouldn't expect less from a former Jedi!"
He waited for everyone to laugh, but there only followed awkward silence. Perhaps he had thought that since former General Rex could tease Ahsoka then so could everyone. Little did he know, Ahsoka was very ashamed of her past as a Jedi. She hardly considered herself one since she was never even knighted.
"That comment is out of place, son," Rex said, knowing the trooper had bothered Ahsoka, but she broke in:
"No, no. By all means, speak Trooper. Say what's on your mind."
The trooper had clearly had too much Corellian wine already. "Well, honey…" his voice was slightly blurry, his helmet-less face stupid. "It's on your very blood! Not only were you raised here by the Jedi… you're not even human! I don't know what the Emperor thinks allowing you—"
She stood up with a swift movement, and before everyone's eyes could comprehend what was happening, she had jumped at the other side of the table, igniting a white blade, almost invisible, that slashed at the Trooper's head. With the Force, she lifted it and paraded it across the dining room. She walked next to the head, her previous outburst almost erased; her face cool, calm and collected.
The remaining humans looked appalled and disturbed beyond reason, the Clones almost smirked and continued drinking. C-3PO simply looked away.
"Let me be very clear," Ahsoka said smiling, her calm voice being menacing—she definitely learned that from Vader—, "just so there aren't any more unpleasant occasions just as this," she waved to the floating head. "I don't want any of you to fear me. I want freedom to always be present in this home. Please always speak freely! Except—"her voice went lower and harsher. "—with regard to my Jedi and Togruta heritage in a negative way. I know racism reigns the Empire, and human superiority is very much the norm. But keep in mind, if you ever allude to that: it is your fucking head that will pay!" she screamed, her words resonating through the walls. "So," she went on. "Any human here is feeling superior to me?" she asked.
Every stormtrooper shook his head and cried no.
"I didn't think so," Ahsoka's voice went back to being sweet and kind. The floating head dropped to the floor. "I think it's a wrap for tonight." She said. "You may all do as you please. Sleep, accompany the party downstairs. I don't give a damn."
Little by little the table cleared. Ahsoka retired to a drawing room next door with C-3PO and a few other Clones to just chill.
There was no doubt about the power she possessed nowadays as Vader's favorite.
Such knowledge couldn't have escaped a woman who had spent years of her life obsessing over killing the man known as Vader, Anakin Skywalker.
Padmé Amidala stood in front of the former Jedi Temple, she stared at the building for a long time, as if in disbelief, and finally entered. The lives within the place were of no concern to Palpatine, therefor security wasn't very tight. She soon mixed with the large party of rich aristocrats and snobs, till her eyes finally found a familiar face:
Rex, he was pacing outside a high balcony, Padmé observed. He had just closed a door from where within, Padmé managed to spot Ahsoka Tano.
Padmé had thought her eyes would immediately water when first sighting the traitors of the Republic, the ones who once swore to fight and die for it; but her unbridled fury was taking over. She had gone to Coruscant with one goal in mind: to discover Anakin's whereabouts. After learning so much about the state of the Capital, well, she had thought her heart couldn't possibly be more broken; alas, she had been a fierce politician and it destroyed her to see the fate of the galaxy.
She just had to confront her, and she couldn't be sorry for the outcome she was sure would end up happening.
Padmé's eyes kept following Rex, a man so loyal to Skywalker during the Clone Wars it was sickening to even stare at him. She smiled as she made her way to the crowd to greet him.
He spotted her from above, his tan face going madly white at once, as if he had seen a ghost. Well, wasn't that just the case? Padmé Amidala had once been dead to the world. But she had risen from the grave to make everyone who put her in such a place pay.
There was also the fact that she was like a vision. Rex had seen her like that before. Padmé was wearing an outfit the old General must've known for sure. All clad in white, like a bride, the fabric clung to her skin. The top which showed only a hint of cleavage was significantly larger now. The whiteness extended to her arms. Her flat belly was naked. Her pants skin-tight and seductive. Her hair was in a simple bun. She looked the very Senator Amidala from the Battle of Geonosis. One important difference, though: she carried more weapons that then, and not just a blaster. Rex swallowed hard: there was a lightsaber hanging from her waist.
Rex descended the long stairway till he was face to face to Padmé. Clearly lost for words he could only stare astonished at her. He tried putting a hand on her shoulder, was he trying to hug her? She'd never allow it.
Taking a step back, she said: "I want to speak to Ahsoka."
There was such coldness and resentment in her voice Rex paled again.
Still lost for words, Rex made move to leave.
"No. Stop." Padmé held the Clone back. "I want you by my side as I greet her."
"Yes, Senator," Rex finally found his voice.
She stopped dead again. "Don't. Call. Me. That." She threatened.
He looked confused as he walked to the center of the large hall next to her. Already suspecting? Padmé wondered. Good.
"How should I call you, then?" Rex muttered.
Padmé smiled wickedly. "The Bride." She said as the crowd opened. "That would do."
The music stopped, just like the dancing. The silence indicated Padmé it was now or never.
"Ahsoka Tano!" she screamed, all accumulated emotions from all those years in her voice. "You and I have unfinished business!" Padmé could almost swear she felt the tremor in the Force. Or was it that the hall had turned suddenly nervous?
The doors from the room above opened by a Clone, a small crowd exited it, one of them Ahsoka. She paced slowly as if every step hurt her feet, and finally stood, her hands holding the durasteel handle of the balcony. She stared down at Padmé as Rex moved to reveal her, too many feelings in her face to just name one. "Senator…" she muttered. "Padmé…"
Padmé's dark eyes were full of all hell's fire as she stared at Ahsoka's blues. Like with Rex, the word Senator seemed to awake something in her.
The movement was so unexpected: Padmé immediately took her lightsaber from her waist; the green blade shone after the usual hiss-snap; the blade passed Rex's blaster arm, mutilating it, as Padmé screamed, the small word a furious grunt: "Traitors!"
The Clones next to Ahsoka all took out their blasters. Ahsoka took a step back, as if unable to process what she had seen. The crowd of party-goers screamed afraid for their lives and ran out of the Temple shouting incomprehensible things. Rex was on the floor, screaming and grunting in pain as many feet passed him by and above him while they fled.
Padmé paid no attention to anything, except the young Togruta female she once had trusted her life to. She gave step after step, lightsaber still ignited, indifferent to the mayhem she had caused, slowly approaching the stairway more and more.
The place was almost deserted, you could only hear Padmé's steps and faintly now, Rex's yelps of pain.
"Threepio," Ahsoka said. "You may go now."
The droid looked confused, turning to his current mistress, he tried to say: "But what… My lady… isn't that…"
"Threepio, beat it!" Ahsoka shouted.
The droid descended the stairs, trembling with fear. He passed Padmé by without daring to offer his old mistress a single look.
Ahsoka turned to the Clone next to her: "Cody," she said. "Tear her down for what she did to Rex!" her voice shook with anger.
Cody, jumped from the balcony, he fired with his technologically enhanced precision, his legendary modified genes, and fired at Padmé. She curved the hand that held the lightsaber and deflected the fire, which rebounded on the Clone that attacked her. He fell down dead before her. The rest of the Clones who were accompanying Ahsoka did as Cody, firing at the former senator only to fall dead as well. Ahsoka was reminded of the days in which Jedi easily took down droids. But that was wrong. Clones were superior. And she loved them. Padmé had killed them!
"I was hoping we could talk," Padmé said, her voice slightly breathless. "I don't think we can."
"No, Senator. Not when you attack first!" Ahsoka said from above, holding back tears, tears for the dead Clones, for the revived old friend, for the whole situation.
"Maybe there's still a chance," Padmé said, her voice unable to conceal its bitterness and hatred. "Tell me where Anakin is."
"So you can kill him?" Ahsoka inquired with a mix of irony and rage.
"Where is he?" Padmé pressed.
Ahsoka finally seemed recovered from the shock of it all. "Over my dead body would I betray my master." She glared at Padmé.
Padmé smirked fiercely. "If that's how you want it. Snips." she pointed her green blade at Ahsoka.
Ahsoka looked like she was trying to hold back a chuckle.
She took her white blade again, but she made no move to get near Padmé. She slashed behind her, and the sound of loud, coordinated marching covered the Temple.
Padmé lost her smirk.
"Is that what I think it is?" she asked.
Ahsoka smiled a triumphal smile from above. "You didn't think it would be so easy, did you?"
Padmé almost smiled again. Rex looked troubled on the floor.
"Maybe for a second I did," Padmé said.
The loud, clattering marching sound was closer, it was just coming in. Padmé knew what it was. The remaining Clones. The legendary 501st that destroyed along Anakin Skywalker the Jedi Temple eight years ago.
Vader's Fist…
AN: Thanks to anyone who's reading this impossible AU. Special thanks to those who take the time to review and leave words of encouragement :)
So many parallels! Can you name them? Also… Yep, I went for Dark Ahsoka. Sorry, it was necessary. She's actually very grey, though.
Next part is my favorite!