Can't say that I'm not George Lucas any more, can I? I'm definitely not Mickey Mouse. I still don't own Star Wars. I only own Raoul Tano, Ardeth Vao, Mirana and Grace Skywalker.
Enjoy.
The hallways of the Mon Cal cruiser Intrepid were almost deserted as Rex made his way to the officer's lounge for a late night cup of caf. Maybe, he hoped, the lounge would be empty. He was half way through the door before he saw her sitting at a circular table in the corner. The one person he had hoped to avoid on this ship.
A white ceramic teapot and matching teacup sat in front of her, a cloud of white steam issuing from the spout, though none came from the cup. She had grown since the last time he had seen her, almost seventeen years now. Her montrails, which had brushed her shoulders then, now hung down to just past her hips. She was also several inches taller, when standing, she'd be able to look him squarely in the eyes.
The last time he had seen Ahsoka, she was leaving to return home- her homeworld, Shili-and she was still healing from a blaster wound to the shoulder and another to the back of her leg. Idly, Rex wondered if she still had the scars. He still had the one from when he had been shot in the chest on Saleucami. It was thanks to Kix and the Lawquanes that he survived.
Seeing her again gave Rex an odd tightness in his chest, a feeling he hadn't experienced since he had last seen Ahsoka. It had been worse, almost like an iron band constricting around his heart, when he had thought she was dead.
Quietly, he turned to leave. Her voice stopped him.
"Hi, Rex. It's been a long time."
Cursing silently, Rex turned back. She was now holding the teacup, swirling the dregs around into so that they lapped at the sides in a mini whirlpool. Deciding that leaving now would be rude, Rex stepped the rest of the way into the lounge.
Moving across the room, he programmed the caf machine to brew a cup, and taking a swig, grimaced at the bitter taste. He added a liberal amount of sweetener and creamer before sitting down across from her.
"It has been a long time," he agreed, watching her.
She smiled, a bit sadly, and Rex could see that the Ahsoka Tano sitting in front of him was a different person than the brash Commander Tano that he had served with in the war. She wasn't Jedi padawan Tano either. She was older, wiser. The years had left their mark on her, it would seem.
"I know we just got here," Ahsoka said, looking a little uncomfortable, "But Anakin, Obi-Wan and I are leaving for Imperial Center in the morning." She sighed and rubbed her forehead, pressing the heels of her hands into tired eyes. Then she looked up at him again. "Can you keep an eye on Raoul for me? I just need to know someone's watching him."
She wants him to watch over her son? Rex was the first person to admit that he didn't know anything about kids. He'd never had to deal with them before.
It had been the men under his command that had attempted to kill her. They had been shinies, the lot of them, on their first scouting mission. When the order had gone through, Rex had been too far away to stop the first shots, and by the time he had gotten to her, Ahsoka had been shot twice and was almost incapacitated. She'd been doing her damnedest to fight off the attacking troopers, though. Only Rex and Ahsoka had walked away from that fight. They had then spent the next two months playing a very high stakes game of hide-and-seek with Commander Cody's 212th.
Rex still, seventeen years later, marveled at the fact that Ahsoka, Anakin and Master Kenobi had forgiven him so easily. Now Ahsoka was asking him to look after her son. Odd, how some things worked out. "You know I don't know anything about kids, right?" Rex hedged, knowing, as she seemed to, that he would be doing it anyway.
Ahsoka cracked a smile. "As Raoul so often reminds me, he's not a child. He's older than I was when we met- he doesn't need someone hanging over his shoulder. Just someone to check on him."
"Why isn't he going with you?" Rex questioned, one black eyebrow raised.
Ahsoka gave Rex a small smile. "Anakin and Obi-Wan are-were war heroes. Almost everyone knew their faces, and mine as well. Raoul and Ardeth aren't coming to protect them. Despite whatever Raoul might tell you."
That was a reasonable enough explanation. Rex shrugged. What trouble could Raoul be? Although, if his mother was anything to go by, he could get into a lot of trouble fairly easily. If he was anything like Ahsoka, he was just as capable of getting into trouble as getting out of it.
Rex looked up and met Ahsoka's expectant blue eyes. "I'll do it," he said, nodding. He tried to ignore the flips his stomach made when she smiled at him.
"Thanks Rex,"
Of course, Ahsoka's thought on why Raoul should remain with the fleet did not go over with him as well as it had with Rex.
"So, what you're really saying is that you don't want me to come. You think I'm a liability that I'm going to get in your way." Raoul said, leaning his back and shoulders against the wall.
Ahsoka cringed at his accusatory tone. He was absolutely right, after all. It just sounded so much more reasonable coming from Obi-Wan.
"Raoul, we're going to Coruscant, the Empire's capital. Aliens are monitored there more aggressively than humans- one alien and two humans would be less noticeable than three aliens and two humans." She paused at the flash of indignant outrage that rippled out from Raoul through the Force, then after he had it under control, she pushed on. "Anakin and Obi-Wan are recognizable enough without anything else to draw attention to them." Ahsoka sighed and put a hand on Raoul's shoulder, he shook it off. "If you came along, the odds of us all getting out with Anakin's children would be astronomical-"
"It's Imperial Center. The odds of getting in and out are astronomical anyway." Raoul interjected sullenly, green eyes narrow.
"Undetected. Ahsoka clarified. "We want to get in and out as fast as we can. You- and Ardeth- don't have the experience you need to operate behind enemy lines."
Raoul's eyes narrowed even further and he cut right to the heart of the problem. "You just don't want me to come because you think I need to be protected and that I can't handle it." He stood up straight from his slouch against the wall. His white marked eyebrows drew together in a frown and his black and white montrails twitched in irritation as he spoke.
Right on point. Now Ahsoka understood her Master's frustration with her when he had to try to explain to his irate padawan why she couldn't go on a mission. Looking back, Ahsoka understood that it had been necessary for the success of the mission in question.
In retrospect, there were some missions that she probably wouldn't have gone on- and she knew that Raoul would feel that way twenty or so years down the line when he had greater knowledge of the Force. Now though, Ahsoka had to be the Master that wanted her padawan to survive to knighthood, not the mother that wanted to keep her son happy.
"Raoul, I know this isn't what you want, but right now, you need to stay here. Ardeth and Mara are staying here as well-" Ahsoka ignored Raoul's muttered comment that Mara wasn't a Jedi. "Maybe you and Ardeth could teach her more about the Force." She suggested, remembering what the boys had told the elder Jedi after Mara had excused herself from the mess hall earlier that day.
Raoul huffed and plunked down on one of the straight backed chairs. Knowing that arguing with his mother was a pointless endeavor, he lapsed into silence. Then, "I hope your mission goes as planned, Master."
His voice was flat, emotionless as it always was when he was upset, and Ahsoka inwardly cringed at her son's calling her 'master'. He was upset, but there was nothing she could do about that. Ahsoka wanted her son to be safe, and now he would be.
She just wished she didn't have to alienate him in the process.
Leia was screaming. Her face was twisted in pain and horror, her brown eyes, so like Padmé's, were wide with pain and fear. Then she changed and became Jinn.
Blood ran down the side of his face, and his eyes, so blue and expressive, so full of life and good humor, were dull, almost dead. They seemed to stare at him accusingly even as his face grew slightly more angular, the widow's peak receding, blond hair darkening slightly until he had morphed into Luke.
Like Leia, Luke was screaming, his face pinched in pain. Unlike Leia, words could be heard. "Father! Help!"
Luke's eyes were the first to change. They became yellow, red-rimmed, his face disfigured until Darth Sidious stared back, his face twisted into a feral grin. He laughed…
With a wordless cry, Anakin sat bolt upright. Cold sweat ran down his arms and heaving chest, raising his hands, which Anakin noticed were shaking badly, he ran them through his hair.
He hadn't had a dream like this since… before the twins were born. To have this one now, in all honesty, scared the hell out of him. The dreams Anakin had had in the past like this one had all been terrifying in their intensity- because all but the one about Padmé had come true. If this one did, the consequences would be worse. Not to mention the fact that, as a father, he hated seeing his children harmed, even if they were just dream versions of them.
Knowing that going back to sleep was not an option after that dream's disturbing attack, Anakin stood and dressed quickly before leaving the room that he, Padmé and Grace were sharing.
Those dreams were a curse.
"You're new here,"
Mara looked up from the datapad she had appropriated from a passing droid to see the female Twi'lek that Ardeth had called their attention to. Her skin was a dusky red, Lethan, Mara remembered. The coloring was the result of a genetic mutation, making red Twi'leks rare.
She was wearing a blue flight suit with the top half unzipped and pushed off her shoulders, the arms tied around her hips with casual familiarity, a white sleeveless shirt on underneath. Her lekku, long and shapely by Twi'lek standards, hung unadorned down her back.
She sat down in one of the old loungers across from Mara, uninvited. Leaning forward, brown eyes bright, she extended one red hand. "Miranaken'yon," she smiled at Mara as they shook hands. "Just call me Mirana, otherwise it's a bit of a mouthful. What's your name?"
Mirana's smile was infectious- it brightened her eyes and face and made her instantly likeable. Returning the smile, Mara answered. "Mara Jade."
Mirana tilted her head. "Your accent- are you from Coruscant?"
Having already gone through this routine several times before, Mara knew that Coruscant, as the rebels called Imperial Center, was a rather large enigma. Most people from the Empire's capital didn't join the Alliance- which was predominately from the Mid and Outer Rim systems- simply because security was too tight for sympathizers to leave undetected. Most were trapped in the planetary shield before they could escape.
At Mara's nod, Mirana grinned. "Glad you got out. Didn't you come in with the Tanos? I thought I saw with that Jedi- Vao, I think."
"Ardeth," Mara agreed. Did Mirana know that Ardeth liked her? If she did, she didn't show it. "How did you know I came in with the Tanos?"
The pilot grinned and leaned forward conspiratorially. "Techs. They know everything worth hearing about on the ship. If there's a tech anywhere near something, chances are the whole ship will know about it in an hour or so."
"That's… useful." Mara commented, inwardly cringing. The Rebels had their own shipwide spy network!
"It can be," Mirana agreed, nodding, seemingly oblivious to Mara's discomfort. "It can also get uncomfortable fairly quickly-" A sudden claxon rang out- the call that dictated when the pilots would fly.
"Gotta go!" Mirana, along with several other beings- the Zeltron and brunette woman among them, swarmed en masse out the door to the lounge, leaving Mara staring after them, wondering if Mirana had been giving her a veiled warning.
A small group gathered around the ramp of the freighter Star Franchise to bid the Jedi good bye.
Unshed tears pricked at Anakin's eyes as he hugged Padmé. "Be careful Ani," she whispered, her breath lightly brushing against his ear and tickling his neck.
Stepping back, Anakin nodded. "I will."
Padmé smiled tearfully. "Liar."
Returning the smile he didn't feel, Anakin shrugged. "Worth a shot."
Anakin knelt down in front of Grace, who was trying to hold back tears. For all her efforts, she was failing. She sniffed, then stepped forward to hug Anakin tightly, wrapping her arms around his neck. Anakin felt his airway constrict as Grace hugged him, a bit too tightly perhaps, but he didn't have the heart to tell her that.
"Be safe, Daddy. Bring them home." Her voice hitched at the end, and Anakin was forcibly reminded of her recent traumatic experience as she shuddered in his arms.
Gently disengaging himself from Grace, Anakin met her eyes. "Hey, Gracie. I'll be fine, sweetheart." Anakin paused and looked over her head at Padmé. If he gave Grace a 'job' she'd have something else to concentrate on, instead of the dreams. "Do you think you could keep your mother out of trouble?"
Grace frowned at him, clearly picking out his thoughts. Then smiled at Padmé. "That's a big job." She commented.
"Very," Anakin agreed, nodding. "I think you can do it."
"I know I can." Grace answered, stepping back to join her mother.
"We'll be back before you know it." Anakin hugged the both of them one more time before turning to walk up the ramp. He hesitated before he hit the switch to close it, hearing his mother's words echo across the decades.
"Don't look back, Ani."
