Chapter Nineteen: Recruit
"Before you say something condescending about it," Ahsoka said, knowing exactly what Vader was thinking about finding her here, "I wasn't captured. It was a girl that's probably some distant cousin to me and looks like I did a few years ago was. I'm rescuing her."
Ahsoka extinguished her stolen blade, stepped over the stormtroopers, and stopped in front of the warden's unconscious form, and said, "Look at you. Practicing restraint."
"Not restraint so much as if this situation gets back to the Empire, he will not suspect that a Jedi was here at all or that I helped them escape," Vader corrected.
"How kind of you?" Ahsoka said and then asked, "What are you doing here anyway? You're supposed to be on the other side of the galaxy."
"Well, when the name of such a renowned Jedi such as yourself comes across my desk, I make time to personally intervene," Vader replied, giving Ahsoka that weird cognitive dissonance about him where he sounded like the informal young man that had trained her and this much more jaded formal man that was the Emperor's enforcer. He continued, "I suspected this was a case of mistaken identity. But you surprise me. Taking on an apprentice? I don't remember that being part of our agreement."
They actually hadn't gotten as far as talking about her ever taking on a Jedi apprentice because they never agreed about what to do with the Jedi in the first place. She'd insisted that there might be surviving Jedi that would be willing to join her rebellion. Vader reminded her that his clemency toward the Jedi only extended as far as she was concerned. He had every intention of hunting those that remained down. Ahsoka had argued that the remaining Jedi were her concern, and her rebellion would provide them sanctuary. Neither had been willing to budge on the point and decided to table the matter to talk about more important issues.
"She's not my apprentice," Ahsoka replied shortly. "I just found out she was Force-sensitive today."
More bitterness than she intended must have slipped into her tone because Vader's head tilted sideways, and curiosity slipped past his shields to her. She sighed. He was going to find out about it eventually…
"Besides," she continued, "if there's going to be another generation of Jedi, I won't be the one teaching it. I've renounced the Jedi."
"Renounced?"
"Yes." Before he could ask her anymore on the matter, she added, "But that doesn't matter. I need to get out of here before anyone realizes I really am here."
She glanced at Vader, blocking her way back to the lift, and tilted her head in askance as she said, "I trust you'll smooth all this over just in case it gets back to the Emperor."
"Like always, left to clean up your messes," said Vader as he stepped to the side and out of her way.
Ahsoka decided not to even bother pointing out that he held part of the responsibility for helping bring and keep Palpatine in power, forcing them to work together to take him down, which meant she was effectively cleaning up his mess. This was not the time to instigate Vader's ire towards her, though.
Just as she was about to press the lift button, alarms started to blare in the facility. The unconscious warden's comm flared to life as a message came through, saying that the prison had been breech and that the captive detained there had been released.
"It was just too much to ask her not to attract any attention and just to leave without causing any trouble," Ahsoka said, jamming the lift button over and over impatiently.
When it finally arrived, Ahsoka couldn't get in quick enough and jammed the button to take her to the ground floor. Vader joined her, and as paranoid as she knew him to be, she was sure he'd already come up with a reason for being with her in case anyone recalled seeing them together. As it was, Ahsoka decided when they arrived at the ground floor, no one would see them amongst the utter chaos that had broken out into a full-on prison riot.
"I've gotta find Diya," Ahsoka said as both she and Vader took temporary cover in the lift to avoid the blaster fire coming from both directions.
"Do it quickly," Vader advised as he left the lift, lighting his lightsaber and choosing a direction to deflect blaster fire from with his lightsaber while the rest seemed to bounce harmlessly off his back as though hitting some kind of shield. No doubt, he was going to quell the insurrection, and in the time it took him to do so, Ahsoka needed to be off-planet with Diya.
Ahsoka left the lift and went in the opposite direction as Vader, deflecting blaster fire from both stormtroopers and togruta. Wherever Diya was, Ahsoka knew she was in the thick of the fight, so the more chaotic events got, the closer Ahsoka knew she was getting to Diya.
She found the girl in the mess hall, managing to have gotten high in the railings where the prison guards usually stood. A blaster was in her hand as she shot at Imperials and directed her fellow togruta, taking advantage of the fact that the Imperials knew nothing of the native tongue.
"Diya," Ahsoka shouted, but the girl either didn't hear her or outright ignored her.
She started to call the girl's name again, but the girl suddenly flew from the railings at the same time Ahsoka felt Vader enter the room.
Vader threw her to the ground, and Ahsoka took the paused to use the Force to pull Diya towards her. His mask turned very slightly in her and Diya's direction before he decided to ignore them to further put down the insurrection.
"No!" Diya said. "We can win this."
"We can't win against Darth Vader. No one can like this," Ahsoka said, flipping a table over to give them cover in the firefight.
"You're asking me to leave. You're no different than the so-called Republic, Separatists, and Empire that you claim to be so different from," Diya snapped.
"Stop for a minute and think, Diya," Ahsoka said. "This has nothing to do with politics. You're right. We have nothing to gain by leaving here. But you have everything to lose."
"How?"
"Can I explain it on the ship?"
"You explain it now."
Force, Ahsoka was going to have to apologize to Vader one day if she'd caused him this kind of headache when they were a teacher-student pair. Then again, she figured raising his children after he turned to the dark side and betrayed everyone made them even.
"If you manage to win today, you'll guarantee a loss in the future. Because all that's going to do is bring more of the Empire to Shili, and they won't be able to fight them off. They'll enslave the whole planet," Ahsoka explained over the increasing fire. "I'm not asking you to just leave. I'm asking you to live to fight another day because your people are going to need you. Lose the battle now to win the war later."
Diya groaned. "Fine. But I've got so many questions for you once we're out of here."
"Noted," Ahsoka said as she lit her stolen lightsaber and began to fight her way back through the chaos and toward an exit.
Both she and Diya ducked back into the building upon finding their exit as a rain of blaster fire spilled onto them.
"I'll cover us," Ahsoka said before opening the door again and deflecting the blaster fire that poured onto them. She ignored the bodies of those who'd tried to escape littering the exit and headed for a transport in the yard.
The transport was already occupied when they got there, with four togruta trying to start it up.
"She's a Jedi, and she's got a ship," Diya said before they could protest their presence as they climbed in.
For once, Ahsoka didn't protest the Jedi thing, while really hoping none of them had any kind of trackers. But if they did, hopefully, the Force would have alerted her to something like that.
"Into the woods," Ahsoka said once they'd sped out past the gates.
Not made for the type of terrain it was taking them through, the bulky transport knocked into branches and trees, tossing its passengers about as they made their escape. A particular rocky bump told Ahsoka that trees weren't the only thing they had to worry about.
"We're being shot at," Diya yelled.
"Keep driving," Ahsoka said as she took out her comm. "Artoo, have the ship ready to take off now."
She got an affirmative beep back as the transport rocked with more blaster fire.
"What's that smell?"
"Don't worry about it. We're almost there," Ahsoka said to the girl.
"Ahsoka, something's on fire."
"I know."
"Are all Jedi this insane?"
"No. That's why I'm not a Jedi," Ahsoka reminded the girl as they came into the clearing where she'd left her ship.
"Go, go, go," Ahsoka urged, opening the door and letting everyone out before climbing out behind them to face the troopers that followed them on transport bikes with her stolen lightsaber.
"Ahsoka, we need to get going," Diya said from halfway up the ramp.
"This won't take long," Ahsoka assured, lighting the red blade and flipping into the air. As she descended, she managed to take out a trooper on either transport bike before landing on her feet and whirling around to take out the other two.
"Show off," Diya said as Ahsoka ran past her and into the cockpit.
Ahsoka waited with bated breath as she guided them out of the atmosphere because during the war, getting to her ship was usually only half the battle. But this time, it seemed that Vader hadn't brought an entire fleet. With little trouble, Ahsoka made the first of what would be many jumps into hyperspace to make sure the Empire wasn't on their trail.
She turned back to see Diya and the other prisoners that had tagged along were no longer in the cockpit. Assuming they'd gone to rest, Ahsoka decided instead to contact Bail and let him know she was on her way back soon with added passengers.
Diya came into the cockpit as Bail was about to question her further, causing Ahsoka to cut the conversation short.
"Is everyone okay?" Ahsoka asked as the girl sat in the co-pilots chair.
"They're fine. Tired. But fine," Diya said shortly.
"And what about you, besides very pissed off at me?"
"I actually haven't decided on that."
"What are you waiting on, then?"
"To talk to you," Diya said, crossing her arms, her lekku twitching with her conflict.
"So talk."
"Darth Vader," the girl said. "You two know each other, don't you? And can you please just answer me truthfully without all the vague back and forth?"
"You know it can't be that easy," Ahsoka replied with a sigh. Somehow, in one day, this girl had managed to figure out that she was a Jedi and now suspected she was working with Darth Vader.
Diya sighed. "When he pulled me from the railing and threw me down, you pulled me to you. When he saw you, he let us go, even though we were right there. The only reason he would have done that is that you know him somehow, and he wanted you to get out. You also said that no one can beat Vader like he was back there. Yet somehow, you managed to get away from him without any injury after you sent me away?"
It was scary how shrewd this girl was. Ahsoka wasn't particularly even sure Diya noticed any more than anyone else. She just didn't dismiss things that looked like coincidences like most people did. Anyone else would have seen all that and thought Vader simply had something more pressing to deal with or that he thought she was just another detainee.
"I know him," Ahsoka decided to admit.
"You're working together destroy the Empire."
"No," Ahsoka said truthfully. "We're going to take it from the Emperor."
"And then what?"
That was certainly the million credit question. Ahsoka had never really gotten past working with Vader to kill the Emperor. Theoretically, the idea was that Vader would become Emperor. But really? Ahsoka knew Vader well enough to know that he was ill-suited to the politics and diplomacy required for Galactic rulership. She was hoping that Bail and some of his allies-if she could get them to see past her bringing another emperor to power-would help her to temper Vader's bullheaded determination for a decade or so. In the meantime, they could groom one of the twins to take the rulership seat. There were a lot of variables to figure out with that plan, but Ahsoka figured she'd gain more insight the closer they got to bringing Palpatine's demise to fruition.
Finally, Ahsoka replied, "I'm not sure."
"Ahsoka, if you'd said anything else, I would have told you to drop us off somewhere and wanted nothing to do with your rebellion. As it is, I've decided I want in," Diya declared.
"Hold on," Ahsoka said, raising her hand. "Less than a rotation ago, you wanted nothing to do with my rebellion. Now you want to help?"
"I thought about what you said. Back in the prison. Back at the refuge center," Diya added. "You're right. I don't really know what I'm doing. I never did. I just knew someone needed to do something, so I did what I could. But obviously, that's not enough. So I want in. And I can get what allies I do have in too."
"No."
"What? Why? You came to Shili looking for the leader of our planet's resistance. Now you have her, and you don't want my help."
"You're sixteen."
"You were fourteen fighting in the Clones Wars."
"Exactly. I shouldn't have been."
Ahsoka couldn't remember if she'd been so bright-eyed and eager to fight in the Clone Wars when she first became a padawan. Probably, though, the reality of war quickly tempered her enthusiasm. And now, looking back on it, she wondered what the Senate and the Jedi Order had been thinking to allow Jedi her age to become child soldiers.
"That's one mistake this rebellion isn't making. Children don't get to fight in a war."
"Well, too late for that. I'm already fighting it. I've been fighting it since our village was ravished by slavers when I was nine," Diya argued. "And now I'm probably a fugitive from my own planet. You don't get to tell me I don't get to fight in this."
"I do when you almost got yourself and a lot of innocent people killed because you used powers that you can barely comprehend how to use, and I had to save you," Ahsoka pointed out wryly.
"Then teach me. Teach me how to fight so we can win. Tell me what to do."
"I'm not a Jedi. I won't teach you how to be one if that's what you're asking."
"I'm not asking you to teach me to be a Jedi. I'm asking you to teach me to use my Force powers. I don't have to be a Jedi to learn how to use the Force."
Ahsoka supposed that was true. She was already teaching Luke and Leia how to control their powers without being aligned to the Jedi or the Sith.
"Why didn't you go to the temple?" Ahsoka asked. "You're old enough for the Jedi to have been able to find you. Why didn't our village tell the Jedi about you like they did me?"
"I didn't want to leave my mother," Diya said simply. "I told you. Our village talked about you. How you left to become a Jedi. But I also knew you didn't come back. So when I figured out I had power like a Jedi when I was three or four, I hid it. I wanted to learn to use my power, but I loved my home more. Still ended up losing it after all."
"Well, you would have been dead if the Jedi had found you. So it was for the best. I guess," Ahsoka added.
"But now you can teach me," Diya said with a smirk.
Ahsoka smiled a little back before saying, "Fine. I'll teach you. But if you want to help in the rebellion, we're going to find you something that doesn't have to do with you fighting battles."
"Maybe my darknet server can help."
Ahsoka frowned. "Your what?"
"My darknet server. It's the holonet, but it would be like… I don't know. A secret underground tunnel that only really good drivers could find?" Diya said, scrunching up her nose a little. "Does that make sense?"
"Perfect. Would it be possible to set up an encrypted communications system that way?" Ahsoka asked.
"Depends on how big the system needs to be. I had one for us. To contact the other cells on Shili. And I was in contact with a cell on Kashyyyk. The Wookiees have it even worse with the slave trade over there. There's even rumor that the Empire is going to declare them non-sentient," Diya said gravely.
The government-sponsored genocides and slave trades of the Empire was something they would have to do something about before they defeated Palpatine, Ahsoka decided. If they waited too long, entire nonhuman civilizations could be driven to extinction by then.
"I'm talking a system for hundreds, maybe thousands of worlds if we can get the right people on our side. One of the things I'm trying to establish is a reliable communication and intelligence system for the rebellion to try to start organizing pockets of resistance to disrupt the Empire. But it's slow going."
That and Ahsoka would like to continue to be a significant presence in her children's lives. If there was a way that she could securely get in contact with cells without always having to leave the planet and scope out operations, she'd like to do it.
"That's huge," Diya said, making a clicking noise to punctuate it. "But I can probably build a network for that within the year and start getting what contacts you have connected in the meantime." She sat up then, looking at Ahsoka with wide, imploring eyes. "So…"
Ahsoka rolled her eyes then, crossing her arms as she said, "Fine. Welcome to the rebellion, Diya."
The girl made a clicking whooping noise and spun around in her chair in excitement before getting up to run back to the communal area.
"Why do I get the feeling that she's going to be a handful?" Ahsoka asked herself before her gaze fell on the inquisitor lightsaber that she'd haphazardly discarded earlier.
She used the Force to summon the weapon to her, opening herself up to the Force so that she felt the pain radiating from the crystals inside. Then she took the two red crystals out, levitated them in her hand, closed her eyes, and reached out to them in the Force. They didn't call to her specifically, not the way the crystals in her old lightsabers did, but they did cry from the pain and hate that had been used to force them to bleed for a dark side user. In response, Ahsoka sent an apologetic impression towards them. For being Forced from their rightful owner. For being Forced to bleed. For ignoring their cries earlier when she'd taken the blade and used it. What she felt in return resonated with her. The feeling of having something taken away, of abandonment, of feeling lost with no purpose even after finding one. She sent an inquiry back in return. An offer of purpose, something to heal the abandonment.
It took Ahsoka a while to get a response back, a tentative question of her alliance. Light or dark?
"Neither," Ahsoka responded aloud. "Just… Just the Force."
It must have been a sufficient answer because she felt the pain and hate imbued in the crystal begin to dissipate until, finally, there was none. When Ahsoka opened her eyes, she was left with two glowing white crystals.
From a nearby compartment, she took out two empty hilts, both of which she'd made when she suddenly had the inspiration to do so on Alderaan. She'd found the old thick leather cloak and the soft senatorial gown with surprisingly durable material that she'd used in those first few weeks in space after the Empire rose to keep herself and her newborn twins warm and incorporated pieces of it into either hilt.
Using the Force to open the compartments on both, she inserted a white crystal into each before taking her new weapons into her hands and lighting the white blades.
"Welcome to the rebellion," she said to them, much like she said to Diya earlier but with a lot less apprehension and hesitation.
In her hands, the crystals vibrated in contentment with their new home and owner.
AN: Technically, these aren't the same crystals that Ahsoka gets in the canon to make her white lightsabers. But this also isn't really the same Ahsoka, not based on her experiences anyway. And I wanted her lightsabers to represent that. Taking on lost things that maybe weren't supposed to be hers, but find themselves in her care anyway. The crystals are like that. They don't "call" to her, but they still resonate with her.
And of course, Diya's eventually going to convince Ahsoka to put her in the field. She's not just relegated to desk work.
Hope you enjoyed. Review, please! I appreciate it.
