Chapter Forty-Seven: Contingency
Vader's patience always wore dangerously thin. But having to bid his time waiting while pretending to be a captive with a short-circuited respirator definitely depleted what little of it he had. After almost a day, he used what limited access to the Force he had to put himself in a semi-conscious meditative state to pass the time. Two days later, Gallius Rax finally arrived, radiating the smugness his rivals always did when they thought they'd one-upped him.
"When I was told an intruder had been captured, I would have never thought it was Lord Vader," the man said, coming into the room. He practically vibrated with glee despite his stern demeanor.
Vader rolled his eyes behind the mask. His sheer delusional audacity and arrogance were almost enough to bring Vader out of his bad mood from having to wait on the man. To think he could be taken down by three annoying children. Did his rivals really think so little of him? Or did they tell themselves he wasn't as strong as the galaxy thought him to be so they could sleep better at night? Vader didn't care. The Empire's underestimation of him was his advantage.
"What will the Emperor say when I report this to him?" said the dark-haired man.
"What will the Emperor say when he finds out you couldn't keep Contingency secret?" Vader asked carefully.
Rax paused at that. "How did you find out about that?"
"Your little child soldiers weren't quick enough," Vader taunted.
Rax's lips formed a thin line, but he wasn't any more forthcoming. Vader could demand the man tell him everything, but he'd learned from Sabé over the years that sometimes, to get people to reveal the entire story, you had to give them an outline and tempt them to fill in the details.
"I found out all about Palpatine's plan to destroy the Empire in case any rebellion succeeds against him and to take its remnants into hiding."
"It's not to destroy the Empire. It's to save it," Rax corrected, unexpectedly.
"Save it?"
"What? Did you think the Emperor would trust something as magnificent as the Empire to you only for you to ruin it?"
"And you think he's going to trust you?"
"More than he trusts you. And rightfully so since you're only his glorified attack dog. Without someone to hold onto your leash, the Emperor is well aware that you'd only destroy his legacy."
Vader wondered how old Rax was when Palpatine got to him. The whole idea that the man thought he'd be saving the Empire, whereas he thought Vader at the helm would destroy it, was insanity. The Emperor was clearly using him for his own petty revenge scheme in case someone gained the upper hand against him. The man cared only about his ambitions, and if Palpatine couldn't have the galaxy, he'd make sure no one could.
"What did he promise you?" Vader asked.
"What?"
"What did he promise you? Or what do you think you'll get out of this if you carry out this plan?" Vader asked. "Visions of grandeur? An equal place next to him? To save someone you care about?"
Rax was silent, but the Force pressed Vader on.
"Let me disabuse you of your delusion. It's all a lie. Whatever it is, once the Emperor gets what he wants, and you've lost your worth, he'll dispose of you and move on to the next pitiful pet that's willing to eat out the palm of his hand. I looked at that plan, and the Emperor doesn't need you to execute it. He doesn't trust or admire you any more than he trusts or admires me. Palpatine simply trusts that you will fall victim to his lie and carry out his instructions to his benefit. Then he'll only keep you around until you become a liability to his ambitions."
"Sounds like you know from experience," Rax observed.
"Exactly."
It wasn't much, but it was enough to shake the foundations of Rax's devotion. He hadn't expected Vader to admit that.
"But go ahead. Contact the Emperor. Let him comfort you with pretty little lies and try to convince us both that this is just a misunderstanding," Vader sneered.
Rax watched Vader in contemplative silence, doubt permeating the Force from him. Finally, the man said, "I suppose we'll both see what the Emperor has to say about this."
He turned on his heel and left the room, activating the ray shield with it. Vader had no intention of letting Rax get far enough to be able to contact the Emperor. Vader wasn't positive what he was going to do with the man or his little child soldiers, but he'd figure it out.
The cuffs only dampened his connection to the Force, not wholly eliminated it like he'd known these kinds of restraints to do in the past. Faulty mechanics, Vader assumed. He closed his eyes, having to put a little more effort into accessing his powers. But when he'd accessed enough, he quickly undid the release on the cuffs, ignoring the brief shock that went through him to try to deter him from using the Force.
The full breadth of the Force didn't return to him as he fell, and Vader assumed that the thin shield in the walls also had Force dampening properties. But he still had more access to the Force than he'd had before. He managed to catch himself and fall into a kneeling position, taking a moment to gain his bearings from the slight rush of having some of his powers back. Even with his powers only partially returned, he immediately sensed the carefully shielded light of Ahsoka's Force presence nearby.
Before he could wonder why that was, he heard a commotion in the hall, the heavy thud of a fallen body, and light footsteps coming toward his cell. The ray shield fell again, and Ahsoka walked into the room.
"Vader," she said, relief clear in her tone.
He finally stood to his feet. "What are you doing here?"
"Well, when your end of the Force bond dims, I get a little concerned," Ahsoka explained. "And I can see why. Goodness. It's a wonder I could sense you at all. This room is like a vacuum in the Force. I can't feel anything at all now."
"It's not that bad."
"Vader, I just have a bare impression of your Force signature right now. It is that bad." Before he could dismiss her again, she asked, "You got captured?"
"I didn't get captured." At Ahsoka's skeptical expression, Vader clarified, "I did but on purpose. I'm following a lead on some intel that Sabé couldn't follow herself."
"I'm sure getting captured wasn't part of the plan. Otherwise, Sabé would have told me."
"You talked to Sabé?"
"How else do you think I found out you were out here?" She paused. "You okay? That doesn't sound good."
It took Vader a minute to realize she was referring to his respirator.
"I'm fine," Vader replied. Then, because he wasn't sure what to do with her obvious concern over him, he added, "And you didn't need to come all the way out here. I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself. I don't require you worrying over me."
As he said this, he fiddled with trying to take off his mask because breathing with it was getting too inconvenient. Rather than making some snippy response, Ahsoka reached up, swatted his hands away, and disconnected the helmet and mask herself.
As she fiddled with it to hook it onto the right side of his utility belt, she said softly, "I know you don't. I'm going to anyway."
Not entirely sure what to do with that comment, though he certainly knew well enough where it stemmed from and what she was hinting at, Vader started to change the subject. Ahsoka beat him to it.
"Before we get out of here, though, I need to let you know that I didn't come by myself. And if I could have avoided it, I would have. But he insisted."
"Who insisted?" Vader demanded. There weren't many people in the galaxy who could insist on something and Ahsoka would care. She barely cared when he insisted on something. Most of the time, he just outmaneuvered her.
"A Jedi," Ahsoka said, and before Vader could respond to that, she turned her head and said, "You can come around the corner now, Obi-wan."
Vader had pushed Ahsoka aside and taken one menacing step forward before Obi-wan even managed to cross the threshold. Ahsoka stepped back in front of him, placing her hands on his chest.
"Vader. He's not here to fight you."
"He doesn't need to be."
"He's willing to hear us out."
"Last time someone told me something like that, he tried to kill me."
"Vader, I almost did kill you."
"Not on purpose. And that was after you stopped him from trying to kill me," Vader pointed out.
"He's willing to talk to you. He might even help us."
"Sure. Because his help was so great before."
"Vader," Ahsoka said, standing her ground in front of him and putting a hand on her hip while leaving the other on his chest. "I wouldn't have come here with him if I thought for a minute that he wouldn't give you a chance when I asked him. Now you have to give him one."
Vader silently stared at Ahsoka and then looked past her at Obi-wan, who was standing in the entry with his arms crossed and a considering expression. Vader hadn't gotten a good look at the man the last time he came across him. He'd aged, more than Vader would have expected in the last few years. And he didn't wear traditional Jedi robes anymore, but most Jedi didn't wear the Jedi robes of old nowadays. He was tense, apprehensive like he should be in the presence of a Sith Lord, hand strategically placed where he could quickly grab his lightsaber. Yet, he hadn't moved into a position indicating he was ready to or ready for an attack.
"You are lucky I have much more pressing matters to deal with right now," Vader said sharply.
Then he stepped around Ahsoka and forced himself to walk past Obi-wan and out the cell, only to have to duck out the way of the blade of the blonde-haired adept that he'd faced before.
"Perfect timing," Vader said, backing out the striking range of the blade and summoning his lightsaber, which the girl had arrogantly hung on her hip after taking it earlier.
"We beat you once. We can do it again," she declared as her two companions emerged from the shadows. Both held long shock blades pointed at him.
Behind him, not even Ahsoka could hold back a scoff at that.
All three children attacked him, and Vader effortlessly blocked their attacks. If he had time to toy with them, he would have. As it was, he had to fill Ahsoka in and try not to kill her Jedi companion. He cut off the hand of the boy holding a shock blade, stabbed the girl holding the shock blade in the shoulder, and finally disarmed the adept of her blade, intending to stab her straight through the heart after, but then she, along with the other children, flew backward and out his reach from a Force push.
"They are kids!" Ahsoka yelled.
"Thank you for pointing out the obvious."
"You can't kill innocent children."
"I'm missing the innocent part."
"As horrifyingly entertaining as all this is, we have a problem," Obi-wan cut in as soldiers in black robes with armor came their way, some holding shock blades, others holding blasters.
"Kriff," Ahsoka said, grabbing onto Vader's hand and pulling him in the opposite direction.
"Why are we running?"
"Because they're kids, Vader."
"Kids pointing deadly weapons at us."
Vader followed her down the hall anyway, covering her from the blaster fire that began to rain upon them with his bulk and inadvertently protecting Obi-wan also.
"You are more deadly than any of those weapons, and you know it," Ahsoka said, skidding to a stop in front of a door. She opened it, peeked inside, and then said, "This way."
It turned out to be a stairway, and before he could try to stop her, Ahsoka jumped over the railing to fall down the space in the middle and escape their pursuers. Pursuers that Vader could make quick work of if she didn't insist on stopping his every attempt. He could even kill them now since she'd so thoughtlessly left him to follow her down.
He ended up jumping over the rail to follow her. Force knew she had an aptitude for finding trouble at every corner.
He landed approximately seven stories down, using the Force and rolling into a crouch to break his fall. Already, Ahsoka had broken the lock on the door and was looking out the exit to the stairway.
Obi-wan landed next to him and asked, "Where are we?"
"I don't know," Ahsoka replied as she exited the stairway into a lit hall. "But something tells me we need to follow."
Vader agreed with her on that and followed. The hall was vast and at least twice as tall as Vader with multiple doors on each side, reminding Vader of a dormitory, like the quarters at the Jedi Temple. Ahsoka palmed one of the doors, revealing a sparse bedroom with four bunks, confirming Vader's suspicions. It was a dormitory.
"What do they need living quarters for?" Ahsoka asked.
Vader had a feeling he already knew. Diya found this place tracking a shipment of kidnapped children. Rather than answering, Vader followed his senses and made his way down the long hall until he came to a set of wide stairs that intersected the hallway. He climbed them until he came to another hall. Rather than following it, though, he walked right to the viewing port right across from the stairs.
Down in a big room were dozens of children. All different species of human and near-human and all training various levels of weaponry and combat.
"Vader. Why did you—?" Ahsoka cut herself off when she fell into step next to him. Something like surprise and curiosity emanated from her. "Vader. What is this?"
"Contingency."
"And what's that?" Obi-wan asked.
"Something that just made taking the Empire from Palpatine and killing him a lot more complicated is what," Vader answered, his irritation at Obi-wan's presence forgotten. "Operation Contingency. I don't know the details. I didn't get a chance to look before I had to… let my opponents underestimate me. But essentially, if we kill Palpatine, he's made it possible to destroy the Empire and anyone left that would have opposed it in one final and brutal war. His goal is to destabilize the galaxy in such a way that no movement would be able to pull the systems back together afterward. At least not for centuries."
"So… he's preparing a rebellion before there's even anything to rebel against, essentially," Ahsoka stated. "Even if you kill him?"
"I would like to think not. But Palpatine conveniently neglected to notify me of this. If Sabé hadn't come across one Gallius Rax and thought he was suspicious, I would have never discovered it."
"But that's… Isn't that against the way of the Sith? The apprentice betrays the master. Isn't that what he eventually wants?"
"Considering Sidious has been through one apprentice after the other, I doubt it. I'm not sure how he plans to manage it, but I've suspected for a long time that he just intends to have a perpetual chain of apprentices while never having to give up the title of master," Vader explained.
"But wouldn't that eventually just bring an end to the Sith? Sidious has to die sometime." Ahsoka hesitated. "Right?
Vader shrugged. "It wouldn't be the first time the traits and way of the Sith backfired and brought about the destruction of the Sith or near it. The reason the rule of two exists is to mitigate that. I suppose it was only a matter of time before a Sith came along that not even that rule could help mitigate," Vader said gravely. "But the why of it is irrelevant right now. What does matter is figuring out what we're going to do about this. They have been raised and groomed to serve this plan. Freeing them from this would do nothing but unleash them onto the galaxy to cause trouble. If they would actually go anywhere if we freed them."
Despite the vagueness of his intentions, Ahsoka picked up his line of thought.
"There has to be something we can do. We can't just…We can't kill them all, Vader. They don't know any better."
Vader sighed. "I don't have the energy to argue about this with you. We have to get back to that data room, copy the information, and figure out what to do with Rax."
"Rax. I meant to ask earlier, but who's that?" Ahsoka asked as he made his way down the curved hall. There had to be a lift somewhere.
"The one in charge of Contingency. I didn't get much out of him except confirmation of what I already knew. Maybe with a little more persuasion, I can get something else."
Vader found a lift that needed a code to use. He overrode the simple security with the Force and waited for the lift to come down, Ahsoka speaking again.
"Is he a guy with short dark hair, dark eyes, and pale skin?"
"You ran into him."
"I might have killed him."
Vader couldn't even be particularly upset about that. It was her protocol. She was seen by an Imperial somewhere she wasn't supposed to be, and they met an unfortunate end. It was the only way to preserve her anonymity.
Still, as he pressed the button for what he thought was the uppermost level of the underground facility, he said, "The one time I actually would have liked you to leave someone alive."
"Well, you know. I learned from the best."
"Yes. But now it means we have to figure out a way to keep this little escapade from the Emperor while dismantling it right under his nose," Vader snapped in irritation. Not at Ahsoka, but at the entire situation. Somehow, despite their meticulous planning, Palpatine still managed to anticipate them.
The elevator doors finally opened, and Vader started to lead them out only to immediately be met with blaster fire. He deflected the bolts effortlessly but ducked back into the elevator to avoid an electro ball from a shock blade. He probably could have deflected it with his lightsaber, but he didn't feel like risking that. The suit was damaged enough. Already Vader was feeling a sore sting in his chest that he could ignore for now but was undoubtedly going to get worse.
The electro ball crashed into the back of the lift, and another one fried the lift mechanisms, so the only way out was forward.
"Don't kill them. They're children," Vader mocked, making sure Ahsoka sensed his scorn. "Innocent."
She shoved her elbow into his stomach in response.
Another electro ball crashed into the lift and disturbed its foundation, and Vader made a decision. Ahsoka's reservations be damned.
"You can be furious at me after I save our lives," Vader decided and rushed out the lift again, this time caring where he deflected the blaster bolts. Many of them hit the person they'd initially come from.
He closed the distance between him and the group of child soldiers despite them trying to back away from him. He struck them down by twos and threes with one swipe of his lightsaber. Threw any that tried to attack from behind aside with the Force. They crashed into metal rails and walls, which broke necks and spines. Then, only the blonde Force adept was left. She looked at him with her red lightsaber gripped with both hands as he advanced on her. He didn't even toy with her this time. Just disarmed her in one motion, dragged her to him with the Force, and stabbed her through the chest. She fell to the floor with a dull thud.
He extinguished his blade and waited for Ahsoka to finish her approach and stand behind him.
She looked down at the body with her arms crossed and sighed, "Always two steps forward and one step back with you."
"You're welcome. I was so glad I could save you from getting shot." Before she could reply to that, he continued, "This is war. There was nothing we could have done with them. But I'm open to ideas on what to do with the child army many stories below us if you have any ideas."
Her begrudging resignation at the fact that he was right came across their bond.
"If this is how the two of you show your affection, I'd hate to know what your actual quarrels look like," Obi-wan said, reminding Vader that he was present. He'd been trying to ignore the man. "I can't believe you two are a couple."
Vader stared at him before turning to Ahsoka. That was news to him too. The last and only time they talked about it, they had decided not to call their growing tolerance of each other anything specific.
"Did you tell him that?"
"I didn't say that. I said we were figuring it out," Ahsoka stated and then looked back at Obi-wan. "It's more… We're kind of exclusively not dating anyone else." Ahsoka looked at Vader again and asked, "You're not dating anyone, right?"
Vader gave Ahsoka an incredulous look. "Dating who?"
"Sabé, maybe. She's nice."
Vader let out a sound that was something between a scoff and a laugh.
"Are you serious? If we didn't have a similar goal, Sabé would have tried to kill me ages ago." Then, because she'd opened the floodgate, he asked, "Are you? Seeing anyone."
Ahsoka outright laughed. "I haven't had the time for that in years."
"You seem to have a lot of time for Cal Kestis."
Ahsoka sputtered. "Cal? We're not—he's like a little brother. Wait. How do you even know about him?"
"It doesn't matter," Vader said dismissively. "What matters is that we need to copy the data about this plan and figure out how we're going to keep this fiasco from Palpatine."
His plan had been to kill Rax's little soldiers, get what he could out the man, and use a dark side technique to adjust his memories and buy them some time to figure out what to do. Now Rax was dead, and so were many of his child soldiers. Palpatine was going to notice. Even if Vader could cover up his involvement, the breech would make his master adjust his plans.
"If I might make a suggestion," Obi-wan said.
"What, Jedi?"
Ahsoka gave him a firm look.
"How about not trying to hide it from Palpatine?"
AN: So... like I said previously. I like the idea of Contingency. It seemed very Palpatine of Palpatine to formulate a plan that was, essentially, if he couldn't have the galaxy, no one would. The man didn't orchestrate creating an Empire out of the Republic without a bunch of contingency plans. The plans we see in the movies are the ones that work. And even Contingency didn't go quite like it was supposed to in canon. That said, I just hated the execution of it in canon. Namely that none of the interesting part about it was in the ST movies! So I'm used bits and pieces of it here. The idea of it anyway. Some of it just made absolutely no sense and mostly because they recycled and reused the same plot of RotJ for tRoS. But I digress. I will not get into a rant or debate about that.
The next chapter is going to be on the longer side. Mostly because I ended up combining two short chapters that flowed together.
Anywho, hoped you enjoyed. Review, please! I enjoy and appreciate your insights!