Chapter Seventy-Nine: Desperate
It was with some relief to Ahsoka that the lift closed, taking Vader up to the top of the middle spire. She allowed her posture to sag some and rubbed a soothing hand over the lingering soreness that the stem shot hadn't been able to quell. It was easy to forget how observant Vader could be when she hadn't had much to hide from him before. Now that she did, it seemed like he was picking up on every little thing out of the norm that she did.
She straightened her posture again, the soreness still not totally soothed, but a little better than before. Then, figuring she'd waited long enough, she started to press the button to bring one of the lifts down again, only to pause.
Ever since she'd stepped onto Imperial Center for the first time in over a decade, she'd felt the encroaching darkness that permeated the Force, stemming from the epicenter of the planet—Palpatine's Imperial Palace. Once she'd entered the Palace, the feeling of rot and restlessness in the Force almost overwhelmed her. Tainted with the culminating stench of death that had resulted from Palpatine building his residence, the symbol of his tyranny, atop the spoil of his unjust conquest of the galaxy. Though the rot had been present like a looming overcast since she entered the Palace, now it felt like a shadow. A dark beast eagerly wanting and waiting to consume her.
Of course.
"Emperor Palpatine," she said, her hand still on the lift button.
"General Tano," he said, tone sounding like a well-meaning older mentor's might. But even that couldn't disguise the hollow emptiness and underlying threat of a heartless and soulless being.
Ahsoka dropped her hand to her side and turned to face the old Sith. She'd been familiarized with pictures of the Emperor over the last decade, but it was much worse up close. Unnaturally wrinkled skin, sunken yellow eyes, and rotted teeth.
"I've been looking forward to your promised visit so we can have our discussion," he said.
Ahsoka carefully focused on her breathing as she looked at him, unable to stop the spike of fear at facing the man who had caused so much havoc in the galaxy. This was the person that even put a healthy amount of trepidation in Vader.
She set her fear aside, behind mental shields that she'd continuously reinforced over the years in preparation for this inevitable confrontation. Sidious would try to get into her head. He couldn't get into her head if she didn't give him anything to latch onto. As she did this, she noticed the three members of the Royal Guard around him. Distinguished by their red garb, they were some of the most elite soldiers in the Empire and were tasked with protecting the Emperor. They were also a lot more equipped to deal with a Force user than most. She was painfully outnumbered and, likely, outclassed in a fight right now. Not just because of the Emperor's skill and whatever tricks the Royal Guard may have up their sleeve, but also because she wasn't in her peak fighting condition.
But it seemed like the Emperor didn't want to fight. Not yet. So she relaxed and decided to do what she always advised Luke and Leia to do. Trust the Force.
"Well, I know you were looking forward to it, and I didn't want to break my promise. So here I am. I hope you don't mind that I turned down the transport you sent by Admiral Thrawn."
"Of course not, my dear. I'm just glad you were able to get here safely. Come. Why don't we have this conversation in my garden? It's such a beautiful day out, and it would be a shame not to enjoy it," the Emperor said.
Ahsoka hesitated. The Force gave her direction.
Walk with him.
Ahsoka made her way to Sidious, ever aware of the Royal Guards' eyes on her as she did so. But if this was a trap to catch her off guard, it was a bad one considering they could have caught her earlier when she was waiting for the lift.
"You, know, General, I do regret that we didn't get a chance to get more acquainted before all this," he said.
"You mean before you gave the order to kill me and all the other Jedi?" Ahsoka asked casually.
If Sidious was bothered by her accusation, he didn't show it. In fact, he smiled some and said, "A missed opportunity."
Whether he meant that he missed the opportunity to become acquainted with her before his order or whether he missed the opportunity to kill her with his order, Ahsoka wasn't sure. Ahsoka decided to go with the former.
"Well, you know. What would the head of state have wanted with a lowly Jedi padawan when he had more significant people to talk to? More significant matters to handle than giving an insignificant Jedi padawan his ear?"
Nothing was the answer. A Sith Lord masquerading as a Chancellor had nothing to gain from taking time out his day to speak to a Jedi padawan when she wasn't the one he wanted to groom to be his future apprentice.
Something in Sidious faltered just slightly. So quick Ahsoka might have missed it if she still weren't fairly sensitive to the nuances of the Force. She'd struck a nerve. Ahsoka didn't exactly know why.
"It's a mistake I don't plan to make again. Hence why I've been anticipating our meeting."
He said nothing else, and neither did she as they continued on to their destination. A bystander would even mistake them for pleasant companions. So focused Ahsoka was on not letting her guard down, keeping ever aware of Sidious and where the Royal Guard were in proximity to her, that she failed to notice where Sidious' garden was until they arrived. The old Room of a Thousand Fountains. It was heavily renovated, gutted of anything that would have indicated or pointed to obvious Jedi architecture—which essentially meant everything. And though it was beautiful at first glance, it too reminded Ahsoka that Sidious had earned all of this with senseless death and bloodshed. A grand sacred tree, stolen from the wookiees. Rare flowers from Ryloth. And certainly a recent addition, the sacred queen's flower from Alderaan that only grew at a specific peak on Aldera mountain and was used solely in the coronation of a new Alderaan queen. There was no telling how many other things had been stolen to satisfy Sidious' whims.
"You know," Sidious said as they walked through the garden. "You and I aren't so different, General."
"Oh?" Ahsoka asked, stopping to play with the petal of a blooming bush of red flowers.
"Unassuming. Often overlooked. Not seen as anyone worth looking at twice or that significant in the grand scheme of destiny. Yet, ambitious enough to use such a thing to our advantage to garner power and prestige."
Ahsoka got the feeling that Sidious both respected and hated her for the traits he thought made her like him. They were traits he'd used to rise to power, traits that even those who noticed what he was doing hadn't understood the ramifications of until it was much too late. Traits that she'd used to slip under his radar and build a force to oppose him.
Sidious continued, "Cunning enough to use our enemies toward the advent of our rise to power."
"I actually think that's where you and I differ," Ahsoka replied carefully. "I haven't used anyone. Certainly not my enemies."
"You don't consider Lord Vader an enemy?"
Because that was the crux of Ahsoka's conflict with the Emperor. Sure there was who was going to control the galaxy and whether good or evil would eventually reign. But the real fight was where Vader's loyalties lay. Loyalties they both knew could be fickle. Certainly not who his loyalties lay with. Vader's greatest strength was that he was loyal to those he cared for. But it was also his greatest weakness. Because that meant what side of a conflict he chose depended on who or what could best serve that interest. Never mind what side was right or wrong. It was the way she'd gotten him to listen when he first found her all those years ago. He'd had no choice but to when she was holding his thought-dead children in her lap, and they were calling her Mama.
So maybe Sidious' assessment had been fair. But the difference between him and her was that she never intended to eliminate Vader in the end like Sidious had the Jedi and the Republic. Even when she'd hated Vader most, that had never been her plan.
Still, Ahsoka wasn't exactly sure what Sidious was getting at. How much he already knew. What she might be telling him by answering.
"Don't you?" she finally asked.
Sidious smiled.
"No. Even despite his betrayal. In fact, while I was disappointed that Lord Vader wasn't forthcoming about the depths of his relationship with you, I've come to see it as a great boon. One we could both benefit from."
"Benefit?"
"I've watched you over the past year," Sidious revealed. "Listened to many audio clips, received hundreds of reports. And what I realized was that I saw much of myself in you, and I wondered just what I could do with someone like you assisting me."
"Is this a proposition to take Vader's place as your apprentice? Because if it is, he already tried to turn me to the dark side. Didn't work," Ahsoka said, stating the obvious and still unsure what game Sidious was playing. A probe to the Force also gave her no answer.
"To take Vader's place? No. You, my dear, have the potential to be much more valuable to me than just a beast on a leash."
"Is that what all Sith masters have considered their apprentices?"
"No. But I think we both can agree that it's what my apprentice is most suited for. He lacks a certain… finesse for the subtleties of ruling this Empire."
Ahsoka wasn't going to get into a debate with the man about that. She got the feeling… Ahsoka wasn't exactly sure what feeling she was getting. But what she did know was that there was nothing Sidious could offer her that she would buy into. He ultimately didn't want her anyway. Probably not even Vader anymore. What he wanted was the two impressionable children, ripe for grooming to the dark side.
"For someone who spent a decade grooming him into your apprentice, you underestimate Vader. You spent all that time getting to know his every whim, want, and tick only for him to learn to pretend to be exactly what you thought you had made him into while he bid his time. You wanted a slave to your whims. And a slave is what you got. A slave boy from Tatooine."
For a long time, Ahsoka carried an apprehension that Vader wouldn't be able to continue acting the part Sidious expected from him while helping her and having even the limited relationship he got to have with the twins. Apprehension was, frankly, putting it lightly. She'd been terrified, waking up from nightmares utterly convinced that Vader would inadvertently reveal everything to Palpatine and all hope would be lost. She'd created multiple plans for having to flee to the outer edges of the galaxy. Even, at one point, finding some place in the Unknown Regions to hide in the worst-case scenario. But during her short time on Tatooine, Ahsoka realized that her fears, while valid, were somewhat unfounded. Vader might deny that the people of Tatooine, the former slave inhabitants, in particular, were his people. But he maneuvered around and manipulated Sidious in the same way the trickster god in their stories maneuvered and manipulated slavers. The same way, Ahsoka had realized, that he maneuvered around and manipulated the Jedi Council when he had the incentive.
"Vader knows how to play that part well. So well, that he was able to hide me from you until now."
Ahsoka stopped walking and turned to Sidious.
"And that's why you're so unsettled, right? Vader acting like this was something you didn't account for," Ahsoka said. The Force told her there was more to it. She prodded, and it gave her the answer. "No. You're not just unsettled. You're desperate because you're not sure what to expect from me. You wrote me off as a non-threat, as someone who had no significant influence over your prize. So you didn't keep me close like you did everyone else who might compete with your influence. You didn't think it worth the effort to turn us against each other. To put me in a position to actually betray him. And you turned out to be wrong. You knew Vader would try to betray you one day. It's the way of the Sith, after all. But there was no way for you to see that I would be part of it. You don't have a frame of reference for who I am or what makes me tick."
Vader had told her on a few occasions that Sidious was no omniscient or omnipotent force. He could see the future, but they weren't true Force visions of the future. Sidious' visions highly depended on the things that the Sith Master already knew and understood about people. He used the things he knew about people to shift through the endless possibilities, slow down the future's motion, and pick out the most plausible futures. Then he got rid of all the possible obstacles in his way until only a few choices remained and made him appear to be omniscient or omnipotent. Ahsoka hadn't been totally convinced, always wondering whether Vader was sure of that or just trying to convince himself even if his words rang true in the Force. But now, Ahsoka was sure. She was a blind spot in Sidious' abilities, which was why he seemed so desperate. Why he was trying so hard to probe her and get something out of her. Something to make the Force give way to a possible future that he could subvert or manipulate to his benefit.
"You don't know what to do with me to get the outcome that you want," Ahsoka said.
More than that.
"No… You don't know what to do with me to change the outcome that you've seen. You were shown the outcome. You didn't like it," Ahsoka realized. The Force had given Sidious the same vision of the end that it had given her. But whereas she'd seen their victory, he'd seen his defeat.
Not that he would admit that to her.
He didn't answer her. He simply looked up, through the transparent glass looking out into the Coruscant sky in the area of the garden they had gotten to. "Ah. Looks like my reinforcements have arrived to take care of the rest of you and Vader's rebellion."
Ahsoka followed his gaze to see an Imperial star destroyer come into the atmosphere. It was a tilt in Palpatine's favor, but not a sign of his imminent victory.
"We don't need to defeat your fleet," Ahsoka said as she subtly shifted into a firm stance, aware of a shift in the demeanor of the Royal Guard. Forget waiting on Sidious to make a move. She didn't have time to play his mind games. "We just need to defeat you."
"Arrogant. Just like a Jedi," Sidious bit out.
The two Royal Guards behind him took this as their cue to step toward her with force pikes. Ahsoka was also not unaware of the two guards coming to flank her from behind. They initially didn't make a move to subdue her. The Force, much less loud than it been during her pregnancy but still a lot louder than it had been before she was pregnant, whispered at her to wait for just the right moment.
A few tense seconds and then…
Now.
Ahsoka pulled both her sabers to her hands, blocking the force pike that came her way from the guard at her front left and then ducking under the pike that came at her from behind. She saw an opening and took the opportunity to swiftly roll past the two on her right as to not be surrounded on all sides. She ignored the sharp sting of pain in her lower abdomen, ignored the fact that her balance was still a little off, and focused on the task at hand. The task not being the Royal Guard but to get to Palpatine. Palpatine, who always sent his lackeys ahead of him to wear out his opponents. In fact, that was what this whole siege was about. Wear them down in body and spirit so he could take advantage of it. It wasn't a trick Ahsoka planned to fall for.
Ignoring her ominous aches, ignoring Palpatine's glee and his cackling off to the side, she took a deep breath and focused on the Force. On instincts honed into her over two decades of training.
Seeing with a sight that wasn't physical, she lunged for the guards, making herself move faster, forcing the aches away until she didn't feel them at all. Her lightsabers clashing alternately against the four blades. They hadn't been ready for her speed and agility, barely keeping up with the whirling of her white blades. Two worked together to cross her blade in their pikes, a mistake on their part. She'd done this to Vader before, and every time, he'd managed to maneuver out the technique without being forced to drop his blade. It was slightly different when one person wasn't the one controlling the blade, but Ahsoka adjusted.
They hadn't expected her to maneuver her blade out their hold that fast. Ahsoka took the opening they left in their defense to disarm them and behead them right after.
Two down. Two to go.
She turned to face the other two guards. They were looking at her with a calculating tilt to their red helmets, now aware that they were dealing with an above-average Force user. Ahsoka used their indecision to her advantage. Or, she was going to. But the guards weren't as indecisive as she had thought. They pointed their pikes at her, and suddenly she was surrounded by an invisible force field that held her suspended tightly in place, forcing her to drop her lightsabers.
She was just using the Force to lift a heavy boulder in the garden to sweep them off their feet when the guards were suddenly seized. They dropped their pikes, and Ahsoka dropped to the ground. The guards probably would have fallen too if not for the power suspending them in the air.
Ahsoka didn't need to see Vader to know he'd found them. But she was surprised she hadn't sensed him before. Perhaps the dark rot of the Emperor's presence was so vast it could even mask Vader's dark presence. Or maybe she'd just been too focused on the task at hand. On ignoring everything that wasn't a threat to her.
"I didn't need you to save me," Ahsoka said, feigning annoyance. As she did so, she stood up and turned to Palpatine rather than looking to find Vader. Palpatine, who was ignoring her and instead frowning in a direction just off to her right.
"You really thought I would allow you to get all the excitement and glory?" Vader quipped.
His voice sounded odd. Like an echo of his natural voice mixed in with the deep harshness of his voice modulator. When he finally made his way through the thick trees to where they were, Ahsoka saw why. A big chunk of the upper right side of his mask was gone, revealing his yellow right eye and the old, angry scar over it that Ahsoka had never thought to ask where he'd got. The respirator was also quieter than normal. It lacked the odd whistling noise that was usually the obvious indicator that something was wrong, but the blinking indicator lights flashed red and fast, showing the suit was compromised.
Like Ahsoka, Vader turned to face the Emperor. Remembering perhaps as an afterthought the guards in his grip, the lifeless bodies fell to the ground.
"Lord Vader," Sidious said. "You disappoint me."
"I am in no mood for your mind games, my master. Today, your reign ends," Vader declared, red lightsaber coming to life.
Any other time, Ahsoka might have chided Vader for being too hasty. But she was in full agreement. It was time to end this. She summoned her blades back to her hands, making experimental swipes to right her balance.
Sidious' lightsaber appeared in his hand, though unlit.
If it were possible, the Force became even more consumed with the rot of Sidious' presence. But this time, Vader's Force signature pushed back against it, roaring in indignation at the Force trying to subdue it again. Ahsoka had sensed Vader's hate and rage to varying degrees over the years. But it was nothing like the all-consuming hate and rage radiating from him as he faced Sidious now. An odd codependent relationship built on lies, broken promises, and countless betrayals.
This fight had been a long time coming.
It was a wonder, Ahsoka thought, with the disdain between them that Sidious hadn't moved to kill Vader or replace him a long time ago. But she supposed Sidious was smart enough not to kill his chief weapon for a weaker one unnecessarily. Not without someone that could be that strong, the children he'd sought, in waiting. It was also no wonder Vader was always in such a terrible mood when he had to deal with the Emperor.
"And I grow tired of your defiance, my apprentice," Sidious snarled.
He lit his lightsaber and attacked.
AN: 1) Something I think is really interesting is the way that Sidious isn't lying when he notes how alike he and Ahsoka are. Part of Ahsoka's arc in the Clone Wars is that people constantly underestimate her, and she constantly surprises them by doing that by all odds she shouldn't be able to do. All the way until she escapes the initial purges in canon where she manages to get Rex's chip taken out and then goes head to head with the clones until she can escape without killing them. It's something I plan to play up when I rewrite my dark Ahsoka series in which she ends up Sidious' apprentice rather than Anakin (It's in line behind at least one other project, so not for a while). But I think it was inevitable that it came up here.
2) When I first started writing this, I knew one issue was the prevailing idea in the fandom and even interpreted that way by JJ Abrams in ST is that Palpatine is this all omniscient force who can see into the future like he was reading a newspaper. It was an issue because that meant I had to figure out how the heck Sidious would be practically blind to what Ahsoka was doing until it was too late. Then, upon exploring canon, I observed that it appeared that Sidious doesn't have "true" Force visions. If he did and were truly this omnipotent force, he would have seen that Vader was going to turn on him to save Luke, and he even would have seen in tRoS that Rey wasn't dead and would beat him. So I figure out there must be some limit to this "Force vision." A limit could also explain when he never saw Ahsoka coming and couldn't see her in his visions. I think his visions depend on him having a frame of reference for the future. Without that frame of reference, his "visions" are no better than guessing. So to make the future he wanted with Anakin becoming his apprentice, he had to get to know Anakin and create the circumstances that would inevitably lead to that outcome. Thus, he succeeds. But the times Sidious fails is the times he doesn't take something into account.
In RotJ, he doesn't know Luke. He knows Luke is similar to his father, though, so he threatens Luke with the people he loves and doesn't consider that Luke doesn't have the obsessive component about it that Anakin had. With Vader, he thinks he's so utterly got him under his thumb, so utterly destroyed Anakin Skywalker, that Sidious thinks Vader would value his place with Sidious over his son's life. So he never foresees Vader betraying him the way he does. With Ahsoka, he's never spent any time with her (or at the very least said more than two words to her). So he doesn't know enough about her to use her weaknesses against her, thus trying to see a vision of her is no more helpful than flipping a coin. In essence, Palpatine's visions are like an algebraic equation. To get the outcome he wants, he has to solve for X. But to solve for x, he needs the right formula. Hope you got that.
Anywho, hope you enjoyed. Review, follow, and favorite, please. I appreciate the support and insights.
