Chapter Thirty-Four: Reminisce
Vader tuned out Tarkin's briefing for how they were going to weed out the suspected bombers on Eriadu. He knew the plan. He mostly agreed with it except for a few oversights that someone unfamiliar with executing guerilla war tactics would overlook. But Vader wasn't going to argue about them. These oversights would give Ahsoka the perfect covers to get to her people and investigate for herself precisely what happened. If anyone was suspicious as to his lack of insight, the obvious excuse was that this was Tarkin's home planet, his personal vendetta, and the emperor had given the man jurisdiction over this matter, only sending Vader to make sure a rogue Force-sensitive was not involved.
He sensed the moment Ahsoka dropped out of hyperspace but continued to pretend to listen to Tarkin's supposedly inspirational tirade about stopping terrorists. Vader barely resisted the urge to groan. This was worse than the stang he'd had to sit through in the Senate during the Clone Wars. And at least back then, they'd had some righteous bearing to stand on. Though Vader couldn't say he agreed the civilian casualties were worth it, he also couldn't say he felt any significant dismay at the casualties suffered by Tarkin's family.
The man's family earned their fortune supposedly conquering the wilderness that was Eriadu a millennia ago. In actuality, his ancestors and a group of colonizers settled on the planet, wiped out the native sentients, and built their fortune on the backs of slave labor that they were forced to rebrand once they joined the Republic. It was little wonder Tarkin and his family had been so quick to support Palpatine's rise and his policies. It was even less a wonder that Tarkin had been so ready and willing to brand as a traitor a non-human girl who had done nothing but serve the Republic.
Vader pushed the thoughts aside. More and more lately, he was having trouble not dwelling on things that would take him down a path that caused him to lose his restraint. There would be time for revenge later. Right now, he could respect that he and Tarkin temporarily had the same goal and respect the man's military competence.
Once Tarkin was finished, Vader informed the man he'd arrive in Eriadu's orbit within half a rotation, disconnected the holo, and made his way to a hanger that he'd ordered cleared out hours ago. He then watched as Ahsoka's ship landed, and in short order, as she disembarked from her ship.
"You're late," Vader pointed out.
"I know," Ahsoka said with a sigh as she fell into step next to him. "But Luke and Leia held me up. They guilt-tripped me so hard because I'm going to miss their birthday. And I expect that from Leia, but even Luke—you know how sweet and forgiving he is—wouldn't let up." Ahsoka huffed. "Manipulative brats. They made it clear I owe them big time. And the only way to repay it is to take them to that popular planet-wide amusement park in the Mid-Rim. Do you know how long the waiting list to that place is?"
"Join the club," Vader muttered. He'd only ever been present for the twins' second birthday.
"They're a lot more understanding with you, though. You're never with them on their birthday, to begin with. I miss one, and they decide to make me feel like the worst mother in the galaxy," Ahsoka bemoaned.
Vader took a few breathing cycles to talk himself out of the defensive comment to Ahsoka's tactless statement. This was a battle he did not have to pick with her. Especially since she had not meant it to be cruel, only to state an accepted truth. Besides, it wasn't her he was angry at. It was himself. Either he kept them safe or spent time with them. Vader would prioritize the twins' safety every time, and in his presence, the twins were in the most danger. If anything, he was jealous that Ahsoka didn't have to make that choice. And it often made her a convenient target for him to take his anger out on.
Ahsoka suddenly paused in step next to him before turning to look at Vader.
"I wasn't trying to be mean by pointing that out, by the way. I was just making a point."
Her expression gave away her guilt and sincerity, helping to quell Vader's anger.
He turned to her, smiling just a little behind the mask as he said, "I know."
She smiled just slightly, something warm managing to bloom across their mostly mutually ignored bond, penetrating the darkness he habitually submerged it in to keep her from his master's detection.
She fell back into step with him again and said, "Okay. Brief me about what's happening on Eriadu."
They spent the next hour getting her caught up her about the attack and Tarkin's plan, Ahsoka's frown only sharpened the more she learned before. Finally, she said, "I hate to say this before I actually make contact with them, but I really think the Eriadu rebel cell did this."
"What makes you so certain?"
"They told me about this plan. It wasn't really a plan then but an idea. Though the Tarkins rule that planet with their money, the people there hate the Tarkins and the Empire. They've suffered from poverty for a long time while his family continues to get rich off of them and the business grants they get from being in Palpatine's favor. They told me they wanted to remind the Empire, the Tarkins in particular, that they're still here and that they won't be silenced. I sympathized with them. But I told them it was a stand I couldn't support. Not just because we're still building the weapons and manpower to do it, but also because their ideas risked too many innocent lives. I'm all for any means necessary, but taking a stand isn't worth taking the lives of those who haven't volunteered to actively fight in this conflict. Especially when many of them will be on our side," Ahsoka explained. "I thought I mostly succeeded in talking them out of it. To give me two or three more years to strengthen the rebellion to a point where we could wage a war that we might be able to win. I even left a Fulcrum agent behind just in case. Apparently, they weren't so placated."
"So can we skip the part where you let them explain themselves and jump right to the part where you help me find them and apprehend them?" Vader asked.
Ahsoka gave him an unimpressed look. "No. Everything looks like it points to my guys being responsible for this, but it's just as likely this is a false flag operation by the emperor to instill fear for the rebellion in key systems and hinder our progress. That and sow distrust between me and the people who help me."
"But for anyone to know that plan that would mean—"
"The rebellion might have been compromised. At least on Eriadu," Ahsoka admitted.
"At worst, everywhere."
Ahsoka shook her head. "No. Standard protocol is that no one cell knows just how far the rebellion network spreads. They're given one contact. To one of my Fulcrum agents. And all of them report to Diya, who reports directly to me. That way, if one gets caught, it's chalked up to a local rebellion, and the larger one is safe."
"Then why the insistence on coming here at all? If this is the emperor's doing, he may just be trying to weed you out."
"That's the point. It's only a maybe. One day the rebellion won't always be in the shadows. And when it does come out, I'd like for people to know we're different from Palpatine's Empire. That we're fair and just, even if it means having to come down on our own. They're more likely to believe the rebellion will stand up for them in the public if they also know I did it when there was no one to see. I know it's risky. But it's the right thing to do," Ahsoka declared.
"That was probably a more rousing speech than the collective of the speeches made in the senate since the Empire's rise," Vader commented.
She gave him that look again. "Stop being an ass."
"I wasn't."
He'd been present during enough Senate sessions to know that most of the senators that remained only remained because of the power and access that it gave them. Accordingly, the many speeches he'd painstakingly sat through reflected that, especially on Empire day. A bunch of empty platitudes, pledging loyalty to the Empire and swearing to help put down rebellions that threatened the peace the emperor had so graciously ushered the galaxy into after the destruction wrought by the Clone War. Frequently bored out of his mind during these speeches, Vader amused himself by predicting what the theme of the speeches for the year would be. This year would probably be courage in the face of those who inspired terror. The senators with rebellion ties would probably use the occasion to cleverly implicate Vader and the emperor in that terror. He'd have to check later.
He hadn't seen Ahsaka's passionate determination, though subdued, to do the right thing for the sake of it despite the risk since one of Padmé's last speeches. Vader supposed it shouldn't be surprising. Ahsoka always had a strong sense of what was right and wrong, and it seldom failed to clash with his unforgiving and merciless brand of justice. Once she figured out something was the right thing to do, there was little he could do to deter her. Hence why he'd decided it would be easier to just take her to Eriadu than refuse. As strongly as he sensed she felt, she would have gone anyway, and he would have ended up having to rescue her.
Some things, Vader mused, would never change.
For some reason, his response caught her off guard because the chevrons of her lekku brightened in what was clearly surprise.
"What?" he demanded.
"Nothing," Ahsoka replied dismissively as she returned to her regular coloring. "So am I confined to your quarters for the trip?"
"No. You have free reign of the ship except for the bridge."
"Why not the bridge?"
"Because Palpatine's spy is one of the techs currently on duty there, but he's contained for now. And I have one of my own spies on him. Other than that, everyone else is loyal and knows not to ask who you are."
"Why not just kill the spy?"
"Because then, Palpatine will know for sure I'm up to something and will send someone to watch me that's even more of an inconvenience." Like sending one of his adepts to "assist" him in tracking down Jedi and rebels or whatever justification he came up with.
Sure that Ahsoka would find something to do, Vader left her to her own devices while he tended to matters that needed to be solidified before they arrived in the Eriadu system. What he hadn't expected but probably should have was to find her hours later arm wrestling with the clone troopers who had downtime before they dropped out of hyperspace. When Vader found her, she was going against three troopers at a time, looking like she was hardly even trying to keep them from slamming her arm down. The troopers not participating in the current match were gathered around cheering the group on.
"Come on, boys," she said with a grin. "You guys can do better than that."
"You're cheating."
"Nope, Stealth. You're just a weakling," Ahsoka shot back before finally she slammed all three arms going against her down.
There were a mixture of groans and cheers as her opponents grudgingly but good-naturedly shook her hand.
"Alright. Who wants next round?" she asked.
"You've made your point, Lady. You're strong. Let's do something where you can't show off your supernatural strength."
Vader decided then to make his presence known. All the troopers snapped to attention, while Ahsoka turned around.
"At ease," he directed to the troops before turning to Ahsoka. "We'll be dropping out of hyperspace shortly."
"Already?" she asked before turning back to the troopers. "Guess we'll have to put an end to this competition."
There were a few groans amongst the troopers before Stealth asked with a smirk, "Finish up later?"
"Maybe. I don't know if I'm coming back any time soon. But definitely if I do," Ahsoka assured before turning to leave with Vader. Once they were in the hall, she asked, "I didn't get them into any trouble, did I?"
"What kind of commander do you think I am?"
"A ruthless and cruel one if the rumors are to be believed."
The rumors about him lacked any nuance. But that's how Vader wanted it to be. That's what he wanted the emperor to hear about him. That he was impulsive and quick to anger with little interests or caring for anyone's life. He thought Ahsoka knew that to some extent, though, Vader couldn't particularly blame her if she didn't. He could admit that sometimes he could be downright cruel to her when she made herself a convenient target for his anger.
"The remaining clone troopers do their job better than the ill-equipped and poorly trained men that come out of Palpatine's stormtrooper program. Not to mention the clones are in short supply. I wouldn't just go around killing them for what they decide to do in their downtime. Besides, the clones are loyal. We'll need them to fight off the moffs that I can't persuade to my side."
Vader sensed her hesitating about something, arms crossed and eye-markings furrowed as she debated with herself.
"Do you know what happened to Rex?" she finally asked.
The subject of her inquiry informed him that her hesitance hadn't been because she feared his reaction but because she wasn't sure she wanted to hear the answer. Both hoping and dreading that he was alive, but also hoping and dreading that he was dead. It might have been a perplexing contradiction of emotions if Vader hadn't experienced it himself. After she disappeared when the Empire rose, he'd waited for but hadn't particularly looked forward to his inevitable confrontation with his former student. He'd both wished to find out she was dead and that she was alive, but dreaded the consequences of either revelation.
He and Ahsoka likely knew the same things about when they last saw the commander. At some point, Ahsoka had been assigned the mission to take back Mandalore and capture Maul after coming across a tip during an intelligence-gathering mission and running into Bo-Katan along the way. With his former self spying for the Council on Coruscant, a company of the 501st had been sent ahead in preparation to retake the planet. Before the mission could officially get underway, Vader pledged himself to Sidious, the Order had fallen, and Rex had gotten lost in the chaos. Officially, Rex was listed as MIA and presumed dead. Vader, however, had a feeling the clone was far from dead. If he put just a modicum of energy into the task, he was even sure he knew where to find the trooper.
He wouldn't get Ahsoka's hopes up about it.
Finally, Vader replied, "No. I do not."
Ahsoka didn't say anything to that, and Vader determinedly ignored the grief she was trying and failing to hide from him. Another of the few friends she had likely lost in the chaos of the aftermath of the Clone Wars. Another thing for her to hold him responsible for.
He took her to an empty room in his quarters where a disguise lay; heavy black trousers, tunics, and wraps to go around her head lay.
"I'm assuming that's my disguise," Ahsoka said. "What am I supposed to be?"
"An inquisitor, accompanying me on the suspicion that there may have been a Jedi or other Force-sensitive individual involved." It helped that the emperor wanted him to rule out that possibility, to begin with. "There's a lightsaber over there for you to finish the look."
As she inspected the disguise, she asked absently, "How long has it been since we were on a mission together? On the same side? Since right after I was knighted?"
"Likely."
The Council had sought to split them up in the hopes that his former self wouldn't encourage Ahsoka's simmering fury and increasing rebellion. To them, her behavior had been little more than the result of an attachment that was getting out of hand. They hadn't comprehended until much later that the girl's behavior had nothing to do with his former self's influence and everything to do with the dismissive way they had treated her. When the apparent attempts to keep them apart had done nothing but made Ahsoka's reckless behavior worse, so much so that even he started to worry, the Council gave up and implored him to try to talk some sense into her. He imagined if he hadn't destroyed them, the Council would have happily let him tag along on the Mandalore mission just to be assured that their mutual protectiveness of each other would keep both their recklessness in check.
"We were probably both on our way to being kicked out the Order, huh? As overtly problematic as we'd both become?" Ahsoka asked with a smirk.
As specific as her question had been, Vader wondered if she'd somehow picked up on his recollection.
Before he could answer her or decide whether to ask if she'd picked up on his thoughts, she grinned and said, "This will be just like old times then."
Vader both sincerely hoped it would not and anticipated that it would be.
AN: The next chapter as promised before going back to our regular update schedule. Hopefully, the last episode of the Clone Wars doesn't kill me.
Wanna know my favorite part of this? Writing Vader's annoyance with all the rousing, inspirational talk and speeches. I sympathize with how unmoved, unimpressed, and bored he is when it comes to that stuff. I am exactly the same way in real life. Vader's and Ahsoka's interactions were fun too, but that's a given.
Hope you enjoyed! Review Please!