Chapter Forty-Two: Geonosis
Compared to all her other missions, a quick recon to verify the existence of a planet-destroying battle station was a simple task. Either it was there, or it wasn't. Ahsoka hadn't figured out exactly what to do about the battle station if it actually existed.
Despite knowing that he wouldn't answer, Ahsoka tried to comm Vader anyway. Like she expected, he didn't pick up when she found a private moment to call him hours before they left. But even if he had, then what? Either he denied the existence of this super battle station, and she still took a scouting team to look for the object in case it was another thing Palpatine was hiding from him. Or he confirmed its existence, and then they'd have to have a long conversation about why he'd never told her about it. A conversation Ahsoka wasn't prepared to have if Vader proved to have plans for a planet-killing machine other than completely destroying it.
"I know Satine gave you a hard time for it," Bo Katan said, snapping Ahsoka out her thoughts, "But I think you're exactly what this galaxy needs right now. And though my sister doesn't want to admit it, she does too."
Ahsoka didn't look away from the little window where she was staring out into the blue-white streaks of hyperspace. Bo-Katan was the first who dared to approach her since the trip had begun while everyone else gave her wide breadth as a result of her unpleasant mood. She was sure they mistakenly thought she was bothered by her conflict with Satine.
"Good to know you think so, but I don't need you to apologize for your sister. Worse things have been said to me," Ahsoka finally replied.
"I'm not apologizing for her. And she wouldn't want me to. She meant what she said, but that doesn't mean that over the years she hasn't come to understand that the galaxy needs people willing to pick a fight with the right people like you and I. And I've come to realize that we also need people like her," Bo-Katan said. "It just seems like we've been fighting for a long time for nothing. She's weary of it. We both are. We're ready for actual peace and freedom for our people."
"I think we all are," Ahsoka replied. At least she hoped. Because a planet-killing machine wasn't peace and freedom. That was terror. And she wondered if Vader was aware of that.
"You need to get that?"
Ahsoka finally looked away from the window, down at the comm she used to contact Vader on her utility belt. She'd put it on the silent setting, but it didn't stop the red indicator light from beeping to notify her that she had an incoming call.
"No," Ahsoka said, moving the device into one of the zippers on her belt instead of on the clip.
There were too many people around to answer a call from Vader right now. And even if there weren't, what he said wouldn't matter. They were less than a couple of hours out from Geonosis.
If Bo Katan thought the action was strange, she didn't comment on it and instead left Ahsoka once again. Obi-wan approached her next. An expert at dealing with Anakin when he'd gotten into one of his moods after a mission gone wrong or a reprimanding from the Council, justified or not, Ahsoka was unsurprised that her sour mood didn't deter him.
"Credit for your thoughts?" he asked.
"I'm not upset with Satine if that's what you're asking."
"If that's what I thought, I would have asked," Obi-wan said. "Something else is bothering you."
Ahsoka smiled. Even after all this time apart, he still knew her.
"Don't worry. I think I'm a lot more mindful of my emotions now than when I was a Jedi," Ahsoka said, managing a teasing tone.
Obi-wan, however, winced at the comment. Ahsoka frowned, turning from the window to look at him.
"I…" he trailed off before gaining his composure and saying, "I actually owe you an apology."
"An apology?" Ahsoka asked, cutting him off. "If anyone owes the apology between you and me, it's me. I was too hard on you. I had a lot of anger in me back then, justified as it was. But I shouldn't have taken it out on you. You did the best you could. We al—"
"True as that may be," Obi-wan said, holding up his hand to cut her off, "I could have done a better job of listening to you. I understand now that you just wanted me to acknowledge that your feelings were valid. Instead, I dismissed them. And in doing so, I failed you."
The remorse and guilt Ahsoka sensed from Obi-wan didn't seem to just have to do with her, and it didn't take much thought to figure out who else he was thinking about. Vader. Well, Anakin to him. He was thinking about how he might have failed Anakin, how he never got a chance to go back and fix that. And now he didn't want to make the same mistake with her.
"It wasn't all your fault. You tried to make the best out of an awful situation in the middle of a Galactic and personal crisis," Ahsoka finally replied. Both with her and Vader. "I've had a lot of time to think about it over the years."
"Seems we have a lot to talk about."
"Yeah. Over some tea. Maybe," Ahsoka suggested with a shrug. "As long as you make it."
"Hopefully I can procure a stash to last us catching each other up on the last five years. And when I say that, I mean you catching me up on what trouble you've managed to get yourself into."
"Yeah…" Ahsoka said slowly, reaching across her chest with her right arm to hold on to the top of her left arm. She could practically feel Rex's glare on her. "I've got a lot to tell you. Hopefully, you won't hate me or think I'm crazy afterward."
Obi-wan closed his eyes, sighed, and shook his head. "Well, this mission will give you plenty of time to rethink if you actually want to."
"I kinda have to," Ahsoka said, avoiding his gaze. "It's only fair. I should have told you years ago."
Obi-wan raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. She was taller than him now. But somehow he made her feel like the padawan she'd been when both she and Anakin got into trouble during the Clone Wars, and they had to explain themselves. Earlier in the war anyway. Later, they'd stopped caring and were more prone to rolling their eyes than humble shame.
They dropped out of hyperspace over Geonosis before she lost all composure and blurted out all her secrets to him, the skeleton of a massive half-built battle station on an Imperial construction module in the planet's orbit coming into view.
"Well," Obi-wan said, looking out the window with her, "looks like it's real."
"The real question is, will it have the power to destroy planets?" Ahsoka said as she looked at the planet, her earlier sheepishness forgotten. She'd tell Obi-wan about the twins—and maybe Vader—later. She turned away from the window and went to the cockpit.
"Can you get us down to the surface? As close to that manufacturing facility as possible?" Ahsoka asked Greez.
"Definitely. For a battle station that can supposedly destroy a planet, it's remarkably unguarded," Greez replied.
"Because if it really does destroy planets, they didn't want to draw our attention to it," Obi-wan pointed out.
"Especially not mine, but I wouldn't take lack of huge star destroyers and outposts as a sign that it's unguarded," Ahsoka said as she went back to the communal area. "Okay. We're going in this place blind, and there's no telling what we'll run into. We'll split into teams to see what we can find. Anything to confirm what the Empire intends for that thing to be capable of once it's completed and fully operational. Preferably some kind of plans. Cere, go with Obi-wan. Rex, you're with Bo. Cal and Beedee, you're with me. Greez, Artoo, and Merrin. Stay with the ship."
Artoo beeped in protest at being left being.
"I know, buddy. But if all hell breaks loose, I'm going to comm you for immediate evac, and you'll be more help to Greez," Ahsoka replied.
Artoo replied in resigned agreement.
"I don't want this to take too long. If this project is as secret as it is, as soon as we step foot inside, we may sound a thousand silent alarms. If things get too hot, we get out. No questions asked."
"How will we know if things are too hot?" Bo-Katan asked.
"I'll let you know," Ahsoka assured.
They staggered the time each group left for the large factory, with Rex insisting he and Bo go first. That way, Rex argued, he could gauge if anything looked too dangerous for them to handle. Ahsoka thought she could have done that just as well, but her threshold for danger was likely a lot more than Rex's was. And Vader would no doubt keep his word to kill Rex if anything happened to her before it happened to Rex.
Once Rex gave her the clear, she sent Obi-wan and Cere ahead. A short time later, Ahsoka and Cal followed with Beedee riding faithfully on Cal's back. The two groups that came before them had already paved their way ahead, the security already stunned or knocked out to make Cal and Ahsoka's entry easy.
"Where to?" Cal asked as Ahsoka bent down to check one of the guards.
"I'm not really sure," Ahsoka admitted as she stood. "But the lift seems like a good place to start."
After a few minutes of wrong turns later, they found the lift.
"Looks like it needs a key card or something," Cal said.
"Good thing I've got this," Ahsoka said with a grin as she held up the identification data card she'd taken off the guard she checked earlier.
"Weren't you thinking ahead?"
Ahsoka shrugged as she held the identification chip against the data reader. The panel lit up blue, activating the lift and opening the doors.
"You learn to look for this kind of stuff when you've run and overseen as many missions as I have," Ahsoka finally replied. "Surely you've picked up quite a few tricks over the years. It's the only way we survive."
"Yeah."
Ahsoka frowned, pressing the highest floor number that the data card would give her access to. Something in Cal's tone was off. Not like he didn't believe her, but… Ahsoka wasn't sure what to call the feeling.
"What?" she asked.
"Nothing."
He was lying. Ahsoka didn't need to sense it in the Force to know that. But if he had something to say, Ahsoka was the safest person for him to say it to. She hadn't paired the younger adult with her for nothing.
They allowed the steam that temporarily obscured their vision when the lift opened to clear. Then Ahsoka and Cal stepped onto the metal railway, high above the manufacturing bowl where large metal parts were being put together. The two stopped at the end of their path to look over the railings and into an expansive bowl that went on in all directions for miles. Based on the size of the station in orbit, Ahsoka was sure there were many more construction bowls across the planet.
Ahsoka knew slave labor was the backbone of the Empire's military machine, but it was another thing to see the atrocity up close and personal. While there were a few humans, the majority of the workers were non-human. Many of them from species that Ahsoka knew to have been ravaged and pillaged by the Empire in the last few years. Especially the wookiees.
A shadow passed over them, and Ahsoka looked up to see a large space shuttle heading to the middle of the dome. It hovered over a large arched piece, and from beneath it, a giant metal claw dropped down. Magnetized, Ahsoka guessed when she watched the metal piece shift into place before the claw was all the way lowered. Then the shuttle lifted into the air, presumably to take the piece to the round skeletal structure hovering in Geonosis' Orbit.
"Even if that thing doesn't destroy planets, it's still going to be trouble," Cal stated as he watched the metal component rise higher into the atmosphere.
"I agree. Come on. There must be somewhere in the facility below that we can find plans or a description or some—" Ahsoka paused, taking her blasters off her hips and whirling around to shoot behind her.
Two guards fell, she dodged the blaster bolt of the one remaining and then shot him too.
"Things getting hot yet?" Cal asked.
"I didn't have to use my lightsabers. So not yet. Come on. Let's get back to the lift."
Ahsoka turned back to where they'd come from, only to see a group of stormtroopers led by electrostaff purge troopers headed their way off the lift.
"On second thought, just follow me," Ahsoka ordered, turning to shoot a guard shooting at them from a higher railing and then running in the opposite direction.
"Don't take this wrong," Cal said, running after her, "but I'm guessing the tales of your single-handedly taking out outposts are exaggerated."
"They're not," Ahsoka said.
"Then why not—"
"Because I'd have to use my lightsabers to do it."
"What do you have against using your lightsabers?"
"They'd make the Empire suspicious that I'm alive. Right now, my lieutenant has them thinking that any supposed sighting of me is just her impersonating me. But she doesn't use lightsabers. She likes her blasters. I only use my lightsabers on a mission if it's absolutely necessary. And if it becomes necessary, I leave no witnesses behind," Ahsoka explained, grabbing Cal and pulling him down a set of metal steps that would take them down into the dome. "But now is a good time for you to use yours."
The troopers shot at them from above. Cal unclipped his lightsaber and then detached it into two pieces so that what Ahsoka thought was only one blade became two. He stopped descending down the steps to deflect the bolts coming their way. One got past him, hitting the railings and causing the stairs to destabilize.
It gave the few heavy troopers amongst them ideas, and they used their powerful guns to destroy the stairs.
"Kriff," Ahsoka said, getting stable long enough to leap over the side of the railings and to the bottom of the dome amongst the group of surprised slaves. They moved quickly to get out the way of the commotion, and Cal landed behind her shortly after.
The troopers managed to follow down the opposite set of stairs. Now having them on even ground, Ahsoka began shooting them down while Cal deflected their return fire and, using his lightsaber as a single blade now, cut down the ones that got too close.
Once the last trooper had fallen, Ahsoka looked at Cal and said, "Not half bad for a Jedi Knight who finished his training without a master."
"Thanks… I guess," Cal muttered. "Wait. How did you know that?"
"I have my ways," Ahsoka said with a smile. "Come on. Let's get out of here."
"Finally too hot for you?"
"Nah. But we're not going to find anything down here. Hopefully, someone else found… something…" Ahsoka trailed off as they found another set of stairs to get back onto the high railway. The darkness of a familiar presence invaded her senses; a presence that simultaneously brought her comfort and dread.
"Kriff," Ahsoka muttered.
"What?"
Ahsoka didn't answer, speaking into her comm. "Rex. Obi-wan. Head to the ship. Now."
"We'd really like to," came Obi-wan's response over the sound of blaster fire, "But our exit is obscured right now."
"Rex," Ahsoka said.
"Give us a minute. We found something," Bo Katan replied.
"It better be a fast kriffing minute," Ahsoka said as she activated the lift. "Obi-wan, Cal and I are on the way to assist. Where are you?"
"I don't know. The guards weren't kind enough to provide us with a location before they started shooting at us. But I'm sure if you just follow the sound of yelling and blaster fire, you'll find us," Obi-wan quipped.
Ahsoka rolled her eyes as the lift took them back down to the main floor, where the power was now out and had a distinct chill. She took Obi-wan's advice and followed the sound of blaster fire through the halls only to stop just as they rounded a left corner. She peered behind her and into the dark hall.
"What's wrong?" Cal asked, looking at her and then following her gaze.
On cue, heavy footsteps echoed in the empty halls, and the distinct sound of mechanical breathing filled the room.
"Oh, no," Cal said.
Ahsoka's sentiments exactly, but for drastically different reasons.
"So we meet again," Vader stated.
Ahsoka sensed both his exasperation and amusement and resisted the urge to release a longsuffering sigh. Cal, she sensed, didn't share her sentiment.
"Lord Vader. So it seems we do," Ahsoka replied. Then she said to Cal, "Keep going. I'll hold him off."
"But that's—"
"I know who he is as well as you do," Ahsoka said, calling her lightsabers to her hand. "I got him. Keep going. And then run. Leave without me if you have to."
"But A—General," Cal began but was cut off by Vader lighting his lightsaber and moving forward to attack.
Ahsoka simultaneously raised her blade to block Vader's while using her free hand to push Cal back into the opposite hall.
"Go," she yelled and then focused on Vader, raising her other lightsaber to strike him only for him to parry the blow and force her back a few paces.
"I cannot allow you to interfere with this operation," he declared.
"Is it really a planet killer?" Ahsoka asked.
Vader didn't answer, his gaze shifting to something behind her.
"Cal. No," Ahsoka said as he made it past her to attack Vader.
Vader used the Force to stay Cal in place.
"Let him go," Ahsoka said, leaping past Cal with her lightsabers.
Vader dropped Cal to ground and tried to grab Ahsoka in the same Force grip. But she gathered the Force around her, exactly the way he'd once shown her when she asked if there was a way to counter the move, and resisted him.
"I told you to get out of here."
"I'm not leaving you with him," Cal said.
If she weren't working with Vader, Ahsoka would commend him for his bravery and loyalty. Right now, though, Cal was more of a hindrance than a help. Not to mention that while Vader agreed not to fight her on her quest to take the Jedi under her protection, she couldn't argue with him killing one in self-defense—sort of anyway.
"Cal," Ahsoka said, still resisting Vader's Force hold. "Trust me."
Cal looked at her in bemusement before some realization dawned in his eyes. A feeling told Ahsoka it had something to do with what his psychometry revealed to him days before, but she would deal with that later.
Cal nodded, getting to his feet and finally running in the opposite direction.
Vader gave up on his Force grip, and their blades met.
"Whoever you brought with you, they cannot be allowed to leave," Vader said.
He began a relentless assault against her, hardly giving her any time to defend herself, let alone ask him what was going through his head. Cal was right about one thing though, even the stories of her prowess were nothing compared to Vader. She could only deal with him because he had no intention of killing her. Eventually, he overwhelmed her.
She caught his blade in a cross between hers and twisted to the side, cutting into the wall and the support behind it next to them, causing the wall to crumble next to them. Not expecting the wall to give so quickly, Ahsoka lost her balance from the overcompensation. Vader took advantage to get his lightsaber out the cross of hers and then throw her into the crumbled wall with the Force. Ahsoka fell backward, landing awkwardly on her right shoulder. It was a wonder it hadn't been dislocated.
Vader approached her, and to anyone else, it would have been menacing. He stopped in front of her, and she felt a thought intrude her mind.
We'll discuss this at another time.
He started to wave his hand, and Ahsoka felt the beginnings of a Force-induced sleep, something that wouldn't have worked on her if Vader hadn't worn her down first. Still, she resisted him, if only so he knew she wouldn't give up without some semblance of a fight, before she finally decided to give way to it. He'd overpower her anyway.
Something stopped him from completely carrying it through, though. He turned around in time to deflect a blow from a blue lightsaber.
Kriffing kriff, Ahsoka thought to herself as even through the muddle of a half-done Force knock out, she sensed Vader's sadistic glee at Obi-wan's appearance. This mission couldn't get any more disastrous.
For a long time, the hum of lightsabers was the only sound in the dim, empty halls as the former teacher-student pair, one still a Jedi, the other now a Sith, stared each other down.
Finally, Vader rumbled, "Obi-wan Kenobi."
"Darth," Obi-wan said.
Vader bristled, and Ahsoka would have snickered if she weren't trying to think of a plan to get them all out of here through her brain fog. One thing she knew for sure, though, was that she was not going to let the two men force her to choose between them. Not again. She didn't want to make that choice. Not again. Not when she knew the choice she'd make if she had to. If everything went according to plan in a few years, she hopefully wouldn't. And the only way to do that was to stop this fight before it even started.
So she didn't think. She took advantage of her flexibility and Vader's distraction to maneuver to stand between the two men, her back turned to Obi-wan as she faced Vader down. The darkness wrapped around him as his temper flared at her sheer audacity to stand between him and his Jedi prey. Ahsoka also sensed a longsuffering exasperation with her.
"You wanna get to him, you'll have to go through me," she declared, hands on her hips as she glared at him defiantly.
"Ahsoka. Stand. Down," Vader warned
"No," Ahsoka said
"Then I will make you," he said, raising his lightsaber.
"Go ahead then," Ahsoka said. Sensing his confusion when she didn't summon her lightsabers in return, she said, "I'm not going to fight you. If you want to get to Obi-wan, though, you're going to have to put that lightsaber right through me."
Vader's anger worsened at that, and not all of it at her but probably most of it. She got a vivid impression of the thoughts running through his head. He was both pissed that she'd stand between him and use herself as a willing hostage and a little impressed at her audacity and cunning. Her willingness to use what she hoped would be his unwillingness to kill her against him. The willingness to exploit a weakness and vulnerability that he'd both reluctantly and necessarily revealed to her.
He slowly lowered his saber, and Ahsoka knew that not only did she not have a lot of time to figure out what her next step was but also that this tactic wouldn't work again. One thing she'd learned was that you didn't fool Vader the same way twice. Already, she could practically see the mental gears turning in his head to figure out a way to remove her. In the second or two it took for him to do that, she caught him off guard with a kick right into his chest and then Forced pushed him further down the hall. Then she reached into her utility belt and pulled out a detonator. Not a very powerful one, but one that would certainly collapse the hallway and give her and Obi-wan time to get away. Ahsoka tossed the detonator between her and Vader, the device exploding in the hallway as soon as it hit the floor. The building shook, and the hall between them caved in around them.
"Come on," Ahsoka said to Obi-wan before the dust even settled. "That's not going to hold him off for long."
"Ahsoka," Obi-wan said in that tone as they ran toward the exit.
"I'll explain it later," Ahsoka said as she spoke into her comm. "Please tell me everyone is on the ship."
"We are. You're not," came Rex's voice.
"We had to deal with Vader. Be at the entrance," Ahsoka ordered.
"Vader?" she heard Cere ask before Ahsoka cut off her comm.
They were almost at the exit anyway.
Ahsoka and Obi-wan didn't give the ship time to let down the ramp when it appeared in front of them. The two leaped into the air and into the ship as soon as its door opened.
"Go. Go now!" Ahsoka said, Vader's fury suffocating all her senses. He might be willing to spare her the wrath of his power, but that would not extend to everyone else on the ship.
"I'm going. Just give me a minute," Greez yelled.
"Darth Vader can stop ships with his bare hands like a tractor beam if they're close enough. You've got about five seconds," Ahsoka retorted, looking at the entrance for where Vader would walk out.
"How do you know that?" Cere asked.
"Not my first encounter with Vader," Ahsoka replied.
Vader walked out the facility.
Though they were much further from the facility than they'd started, they were still in range for Vader to pull them back to him. When he didn't even try, Ahsoka frowned. Vader didn't give up that easily. Not even when she took a stand against him. Not unless he'd already won.
"Rex. Bo," Ahsoka said, making her way over to the two as the ship door slid close once they got high enough into the atmosphere. "Where's that info?"
Bo-Katan held up a data chip that Ahsoka practically snatched out her hand and fed into Artoo. The little droid took a moment to try to pull up a holo of the information only to end up displaying nothing but static.
AN: 1) This chapter is on the long side for me. I try to keep them at 3k words. But this was the best cutoff point, so I just let it be almost 5k words.
2) I really enjoyed writing Ahsoka and Obi-wan interact a lot more than I thought I would. Also, I played off the line A New Hope where Obi-wan calls Vader "Darth" because clearly the reason for it is that Lucas hadn't fleshed out the Sith and Sith titles yet. But now it's clearly been retconned as a reminder of Obi-wan's sass from his youth. I couldn't resist including it here because Obi-wan would absolutely call Vader "Darth" to get under his skin.
3) Vader and Ahsoka are kinda at that point in their professional partnership where their encounters are definitely real fights, but also playful performance so those around them don't figure out that they know each other and are working together. Ahsoka clearly blows that with Obi-wan, but Obi-wan also knows who Vader is and she plans to fill him in. So it wasn't really blowing anything that she didn't intend for him to know anyway.
4) I know this archive and this story is a form of hopeful escapism for many of my readers and even for me. Some of you also may not like this. But I would be totally remiss if I didn't mention what's going on in the real world with the killing of George Floyd, the revolt against police brutality, fascism, and an oppressive police/military state when I'm writing a fanfic about a group of people in a galaxy that rose up to overthrow a police/military state, fascism, and fought for the rights of all beings, in particular, but not limited to a group of people hunted into either extinction or compliance for simply being born a certain way. I'd also be remiss as a black woman if I didn't mention it. If you don't understand what the big deal is or want to help and don't know how, I implore you to do research (cross-reference multiple sources) to expand your understanding and find ways in which you can best assist. Or you can pretend I didn't write this and continue on reading this for your hopeful escapism, and I won't be mad. #blacklivesmatter
Anywho. I hoped you enjoyed. Review please! I appreciate your comments and insights which help me tweak and finetune this story.