Chapter 10 – Library of Hoth
D3/0 ABY
It had been quite an eventful one day ever since Hera had returned. Mon Mothma had excused her absence from the battle of Yavin and immediately put her on task of making Hoth fit for the rebellion. She wasn't happy to find out that members of the ghost crew had taken off again without due authorization.
Kanan had gone along with Rex to investigate a certain structure that their scans had picked up moments ago. This was quite some distance away from the base (Echo base). On reaching, they both saw it, a dome shaped building in black. It had one entrance through which they both entered. On entering, Kanan commented, "This looks like the Jedi library on Coruscant". Indeed the place did look like the library, it had computers on it and many racks, with shelves on which datapads were placed.
At the far end of the library, they both saw writing on the wall which said 'LIBRARY OF METATRON'. On closer examination of the shelves they saw that each datapad had a name on it. Few of these names included, Loki, Heimdall, Freya, Rayleigh, Kuzan and so on. Kanan had an uneasy feeling about this, but he couldn't exactly explain it. Both he and Rex had separated and suddenly he heard Rex yelling out calling him. Worried he ran to where Rex stood and exclaimed what he saw in his hand. It was a datapad with the name Thor on it. "I think this might be about the general's dad. We should call her here", Rex said. Kanan agreed and contacted Hera on his commlink. He told her to come alone and that she was in for a surprise.
D3/0 ABY
The Tarre Vizsla rescue group had gone to the coordinates from where Ahsoka had escaped and there they had found some sort of a portal. Ahsoka and Ezra both sensed their way was through that portal. They took the ship into the portal and when they exited they saw a planet, which looked like it had been used a garbage dump since the beginning of time.
On reaching the planet's atmosphere they were surrounded by couple of disc shaped fighters who told them that they were being escorted to the grandmaster's palace. It took a few minutes to reach the palace whish looked like the only sign of civilization on the planet. It was not grand but it had a lot of faces on one side of it (like the one in Thor Ragnarok).
Once they were inside the palace, they were escorted to the one called Grandmaster, who was wearing red, blue and gold robes, had vertical blue stripes on his lower jaw and was holding a staff. Next to him was Tarre Vizsla, strapped in a chair and he had some sort of disc attached on his neck. There was another person standing next to Tarre, he had short black hair, was as tall as Kanan and Tarre and had a full beard. "He is strong in the force", Ezra mentioned pointing to the third man. All three of them were talking to each other.
"So… you are the apprentice of the lord of thunder?", the grandmaster asked incredulously.
"God of Thunder", Tarre replied in an impatient tone.
"Hmmm… But like my friend here, you are a survivor of Paralyse right. Well we will see what kind of a fighter you are", the grandmaster said.
"Take this thing off of me and I'll show you how much of a fighter I am", Tarre replied. His tone was full of anger and aggression.
"Oh look at that, he is threatening me", the grandmaster said. He looked amused by Tarre's words. "Hey sparkles, listen if you want out then you must defeat my champion or else be my slave forever."
"Fine. Point me in the direction of whoever's arse I have to kick", Tarre replied.
"The direction would be this way, Apprentice Lord", the grandmaster replied and using his staff he sent the seat that Tarre was strapped onto in a chamber on the back.
"Welcome to Sakaar. I trust you have come here to watch the tournament.", the grandmaster said while addressing to the Tarre Vizsla rescue group.
"Play along", Ahsoka whispered to the rescue group.
"Yes. But before that, could I please meet with my husband?", Ahsoka said in an incredibly sweet voice. Sabine, Ezra and Tristan were shocked at hearing this but they wore poker faces and did as Ahsoka said. Meanwhile the other man was looking at them with shock and intrigue.
"Your husband?", the grandmaster asked confused.
"Yes. The man that was strapped in the chair. The one you sent away. I would like to wish him good luck", Ahsoka replied in the same sweet voice.
After some more convincing the grandmaster only allowed Ahsoka to go and speak with Tarre. He was being held in a ring like chamber. When she entered he said, "I thought I sensed your presence. Now I don't much time but I need a favour". Before he could say any further they were interrupted by a voice saying, "So when did you get married". Behind Ahsoka stood the strange man who had been standing alongside the grandmaster and Tarre just moments ago. Tarre chucked the first thing that came in his hand, a small piece of the ceiling. It went right through the man and hit the wall behind him. The man had an amused expression and said, "You didn't actually think I would come here. This place is disgusting".
"What do you want Fenrir?", Tarre asked hotly.
"Look, I am sorry that I couldn't help before but I think this grandmaster can help me find Loki", Fenrir replied. "Also I have heard a bit about his champion and none of it is good news. So keeping that in mind I have placed a large wager on your defeat. Don't disappoint", he said and then vanished before another broken piece of the ceiling was thrown at the place where he was standing. Then realization dawned at Tarre and he wondered aloud as to why Fenrir would ask him about marriage. Then Ahsoka explained as to how she had convinced the grandmaster to let her see him. Tarre had a very shocked expression on his face at the end of it.
"Wow", he said, "You couldn't think of anything else. I mean don't get me wrong, you are very beautiful but this is a bit weird. Moving on, we need that idiot's help to get me out of here. He has a master switch which can remove this thing from my neck", Tarre said while gesturing towards his neck. "But before that, I need to tell you that you have some of my blood in your bloodstream. Now I can't give a complete explanation right now, but my blood has a curse which I fear may have passed on to you. I am really sorry about that".
Ahsoka was shocked as she was remembering when she was injected with something onboard the emperor's ship. She stayed silent for a moment but then said, "We will deal with that later. Right now lets focus on getting you out. So what's the plan?", Ahsoka asked in an effort to divert her mind.
"Well I will fight the grandmaster's champion, while you convince Fenrir to help in our escape. Tell him that he owes me for saving his life in Purgatory. He will know what that means", Tarre said.
Ahsoka nodded and after he was finished, she thought about what had happened. How she had grown close to him as a friend and how she really liked him. Throwing restraint out the window, she bent forward and kissed him for a minute. After that she broke the kiss and saw that Tarre had a bewildered expression which instantly turned into a happy smile. "I don't know what to say. This is the first time something like this has happened to me. But I do promise one thing. After this is over, you and I will have a proper date", Tarre said. Hearing this made Ahsoka smile as well and she said, "I'll hold you to that".
Outside the chamber Fenrir was talking to Ezra, Sabine and Tristan. "Tarre and I are colleagues. How do you know him and what's this about him being married?", Fenrir asked all three of them. Then Ezra and Sabine explained everything as to how they had rescued Tarre and Thor (much to Fenrir's surprise), how Thor was Hera's father (again Fenrir was surprised) and how they all ended up here. "Well that is quite an adventure", Fenrir replied, "Tarre is a strong fighter. But the grandmaster will not let him win. So I will purchase him from the grandmaster and for the rest of this trip, you will pretend to be my accomplices. I know that sounds a bit odd, but if you are with me…. No one will attack you. Once we get Tarre, we will take mine and your ship and escape. Capice". Fenrir said.
Both Sabine and Tristan looked at Ezra who nodded and said, "He is speaking the truth".
"Of course I am. A friend of Tarre's is a friend of mine. Now as soon as your togruta friend joins us, we can head to the arena where the fight will be held", Fenrir replied.
On Hoth Hera was accessing the datapad which had her father's name on it. She, Kanan and Rex thought that this was a record of his past activities and they were right. The only problem was that Hera could read about certain events of his life, but they were only excerpts and not the complete thing.
The first excerpt that she accessed was an event that had taken place when Thor was 4,000 years old. She didn't exactly see and pictures or words in the datapad, but it was more like a memory that was being in her mind. In that she saw Thor being held by chains in a dark cave and in front of him was a being with four arms, two legs. He was dark in complexion, thin and extremely tall. Putting two and two together Hera understood that this creature was torturing Thor. Correction, this creature had been torturing Thor for what seemed like weeks or months. Every moment with this foul creature Thor was getting closer to his breaking point, he didn't know how much more he could take. All of this was too much for Hera, who then dropped the datapad, sank down and found herself in Kanan's arms who held her close. Hera started to openly cry for the first time in years and in between sobs, she told Kanan about what she saw.