Chapter Eighty-Four: Proposal

"Vader. Remember—"

"Act like I don't know you, like we haven't raised two kids together the last ten years, and like the baby you're holding in your lap during this conference isn't reaching out to me in the Force because she wants me to hold her."

Predictably, Ahsoka scowled at him.

"That's not what I've been telling you the last few days. Or what Sabé has been telling you the last few days," Ahsoka reminded.

Vader shrugged. "It accurately sums it up. And you've reminded me every day for the past week, and I haven't slipped up once."

"Slipped up once? Vader, you've already threatened to kill someone at least half a dozen times."

"They were very thinly veiled threats of severe physical injury. Not death."

"Vader."

"You know I don't have the patience for pointless squabbling by people who just want to hear themselves talk over things that have an obvious solution. Besides, I have a reputation to uphold, especially now that the suit isn't constantly doing half the job for me. I'm still not sure I can trust some of these Moffs and Imperial loyalist senators. If they think I'm getting soft, they'll think about trying to challenge my hold on the Empire."

That was part of it anyway. The other part was tactics for getting what he really wanted out of all these peace talks. An opening to introduce his plan to make Ahsoka the empress. He and Sabé had extensively gone over what he should do and say to secure that ultimate end. The goal was to make them think that he was just barely holding any restraint. Barely keeping his powers under control. Make them afraid that one day, he'd lose his sanity again and lay ruin to the galaxy. However, he also showed just enough reason, just enough political savvy, just enough hinting that he actually cared about what happened to the galaxy beyond his own selfish purposes. Enough to show that he could be reasoned with. When he wanted to anyway. That maybe with something legally binding him and his word, they might be able to control him. Or maybe convince him he was ill-suited to the some of the duties of Emperor.

"Vader."

"I didn't agree not to threaten anyone. I agreed to act like I didn't know you for the sake of," Vader paused to roll his eyes, "easing the galaxy into our relationship."

"Which you've also failed at spectacularly," Ahsoka pointed out.

Vader didn't need to see the recollection of the memory between them to know when she was talking about. That first day of the peace talks when both sides came face to face outside the battlefield after a decade had been tense. People on both sides of the room having pointed blasters and arranged attacks on the opposite side during the war. Vader and Ahsoka, though she would never admit it, found it amusing. Then, because they needed an icebreaker, Vader commented that it had been a while. It took a tremendous amount of restraint to keep a straight face, and he'd been pleased to note that Ahsoka was having the same trouble. In response, she'd agreed and then suggested they catch up later.

"You know. Once we settle this whole civil war thing, and I'm officially not a fugitive that your government is supposed to hunt down."

"Right. Nothing personal, by the way."

They both knew that was a lie.

"It felt personal."

Vader crossed his arms and shrugged. "We'll talk it out later."

They lasted another five seconds before a smirk broke Vader's face, and Ahsoka covered her mouth with her hand to hide her smile and muffle her chuckle. Both ignored Sabé and Obi-wan pinching the bridge of their noses and Mon and Bail both looking like they wanted to sigh and roll their eyes.

"I seem to remember you failing spectacularly, too," Vader reminded. "And it's not as though the rumors and speculation haven't already spread amongst the Rebellion and the Empire yet."

"For once, we are in agreement," Ahsoka admitted. "But Bail and Mon are right. Let's let people get used to a more reasonable and beneficent version of you that actually wants to see to the wellbeing of the galaxy. Perhaps they'll make less fuss about the Rebellion's leader being involved with Palpatine's former chief enforcer during the war. Because for anyone else, this would have been treason."

"But it's not anyone else. It's you."

"Vader."

Vader rolled his eyes again, something he'd been doing a lot over the course of the week of peace meetings. But he didn't pretend not to understand the necessity of controlling how and when information got to the public. Goodness knew people were reeling about the fact that Anakin Skywalker was his former identity. And the reaction behind that had been mixed. From people feeling betrayed that their hero—the one Jedi the media had made them trust—turned on them; to coming up with fantastical theories that he only submitted to Palpatine's rule to be able to protect the people from the true terror of the former emperor's might; to wondering if he'd ever been their hero at all considering Palpatine had always held him in such great esteem. At least, that was the case to the people with access to the holonet.

Already Vader was starting to regret lifting some of Palpatine's harshest censorship laws on the media. He had a feeling he'd regret it even more in the future. But a free press and free access to information were the foundations of a free society and all that, so Bail, Mon, May, and Sabé had convinced Ahsoka. Then she bothered him about it until he relented.

"Fine," Vader grumbled, reaching out to run a hand over Mé's soft hair. She was happily gurgling while strapped to her mother's chest.

"Come on, little one. You'll get to spend time with your dad later," Ahsoka said as she headed to the elevator.

Vader waited a few moments and went to the elevator on the opposite end of the floor to go down to the level where their peace conference would be held. By the time he got to the room, flanked by troopers and maidens alike, Ahsoka was already in her place with Mé unstrapped from her chest and turned forward to give her more room to move about. There'd been a short debate on whether Ahsoka would be seen with Mé at all, given all the questions that would come about her existence. In the end, they agreed that Ahsoka would have had to explain it anyway if the war had gone as long as they'd planned. And no one would think twice about wanting to keep Mé close being that she was on a planet that just a month ago would have dubbed her a fugitive.

The room still went quiet as he entered, though he got less surprised and disbelieving looks than he had a week ago. When the room moved to stand, he waved a dismissive hand and said, "I'm in no mood for pointless pleasantries. The sooner we get started, the sooner we might be able to come to an agreement on a functioning government so I can get back to more important matters of ruling this Empire. If someone would like to brief us on where we left off yesterday."

He expected the pointed nudge he got from Ahsoka across the bond and resisted the urge to smirk in her direction.

Mon Mothma, who Vader singled out over the last few days as the staunchest of the Old Republic loyalist, didn't waste any time. And today, she finally addressed the subject the Rebellion had carefully danced around. His executive powers, which even with the concessions the Empire reluctantly conceded to dwarfed the powers he'd been willing to hand back over to the Senate. Of course, they did. He'd been very deliberate when he spoke with his analyst, intelligence, and Moffs about what powers they would be willing to concede to a democratic, legislative body. Enough for the powers to be meaningful, but not enough that they could ever make any significant moves to alter much Imperial structure. Nor enough power that his office could be superseded if Vader intervened and overrode the decisions they made.

Vader left them with the option to resort to the courts, of course. But not only were the judges on the highest court handpicked by the Emperor, they were also slow, tedious, and more inefficient than the Senate. A problem inherited from the Republic and that wasn't particularly the courts' fault. When there was a government as expansive as the Empire or Old Republic, it was hard for one judiciary panel to get through all the cases that needed to be heard. Especially when some issues were expedited to the front of the line. Vader had an idea how to fix that, but it wasn't a solution he was putting on the table to give the Republic loyalists any advantage against him.

After hours of going back and forth over the powers they wanted him to concede, Mon finally snapped in frustration, "We're not asking you for anything that's unreasonable, and you've stonewalled us at every turn."

"I don't know what you thought these peace conferences were, Senator. I invited you all here in good faith that we could come to an agreement that all of us could live with. Not to allow you to use big stick diplomacy to bully the Empire into reverting back to whatever conjecture of the Republic that you seem to think was the epitome of freedom, justice, and equity."

"As if the Empire was any of those things."

"Something that you won't find me arguing against. Otherwise, I wouldn't have secretly helped your little rebellion all but eradicate the influence of the Hutts and get on the path to eradicating slavery from this galaxy. Even with my proximity to my predecessor putting me at risk. Something that your gilded Republic ignored and failed at when all they had to do was enforce their own laws," Vader shot back. His irritation and stubbornness wasn't even an act now.

The irritation was mutual because Mon shot back, "A hollow accomplishment not even worthy of significant praise when the person spouting them was the one responsible for exacerbating the problem in the first place."

"You'd do well to—"

"I think, Lord Vader," Ahsoka said, cutting into the conversation while tugging at their bond to get Vader's attention, "that we could use a recess. We'll reconvene in a standard hour?"

Vader turned to meet Ahsoka's gaze, fighting the irritation at being cut off. A warning across the bond helped him to realize that as his temper got the best of him, so did his restraint on the dark side.

He loosened his tightly closed fist and turned back to Mon as he corrected petulantly, "Emperor Vader." Then he stood and waved a dismissive hand. "Hour recess," he said before storming out the room. He took the elevator up, not to the penthouse apartment, but to the apartment floor just beneath it. Not sure who would be loyal to him yet, Vader hadn't wanted to expose his family to the senators and moffs that he'd been forced to dine with over the last month (Sabé's idea). Thus, he'd made a residence of the apartment suite directly below the penthouse.

Ahsoka arrived not long afterward.

"How do you stand her?" he snapped, barely giving Ahsoka time to fully step past the greeting area. "Making all those accusations as if her and her merry band of senators weren't complicit in Palpatine's rise or the Clone War."

"Well, she did have a point. You were being pretty…" Ahsoka paused to contemplate her wording. "You were being pretty obstinate in there. Even for you."

"That's not the point," Vader said as he sat on the couch facing the window.

"It's not like we haven't had our share of disagreements this last week."

Ahsoka didn't need to remind him. It had been a while since they'd truly disagreed on anything substantial. They'd fallen into a rhythm in their plot to depose Palpatine after a while, sometimes disagreeing on how to do things but never what needed to be done. Over the last few weeks, they'd gotten into no less than one debate a day over one thing or another. What the purpose of the armies and fleets he controlled would be during peacetime ("How else am I supposed to enforce the rule of the Empire?" "I'm not saying that the Empire can't have enforcers, but not by military invasion and terrorizing systems into submission."). Taking power from the moffs and restoring local policing power to the individual systems ("Because that worked so well during the Republic." "And your moffs have done such a better job at it."). Criminal justice and prison reformation ("So you'd rather just allow us to leave criminals to do as they please. Sure. That's protecting the Imperial people." "People in the criminal and prison system are Imperial people too, and the only reason most of them are there is because of our failure.").

"It doesn't feel personal when it's you," Vader pointed out.

He'd fairly enjoyed going back and forth with her. The dark side rising in him with glee at the challenge of trying to one-up her arguments. Trying to hold back a smirk when he'd cornered her or trying to ignore that she was trying not to grin cheekily at him when she knew she'd won, even if he didn't want to admit it.

If he'd had any doubts about sitting her on the Imperial throne, they'd been erased over the week.

When he didn't recognize a few of the pleasant thoughts about their back and forth as his own, he knew she felt the same.

Ahsoka joined him on the couch and began to open her suit to feed Mé. When she was settled, she said wryly, "Vader. You have to give them something."

"Them? I thought you were on their side?"

"You know very well what I mean. The Republic loyalists. If they were willing to try to work from the inside with Palpatine—"

Vader scoffed and shook his head. Ahsoka noticed.

"—as insane as we both think that was, they might be willing to try to work with you. Compromise and doing things for the sake of helping the most people is what they're all about. After a few years of working together, they might even see you as a competent leader and not care so much. But you have to give a little."

Vader knew well enough this was the sign he needed to stop playing hardball and reveal his true intentions to the peace conference. He had the Republic loyalists right where he needed them to be if Ahsoka was trying to backdoor negotiate for them.

"I think I have an idea."

Ahsoka narrowed her eyes at him.

"What?" he asked.

"Is it a good one? I'm very familiar with your ideas. And usually, it means you're about to make my life harder at some point in the future."

"It's a good one," Vader assured, not even addressing the last part of her statement.

Ahsoka didn't look quelled but said nothing as she turned to tend to Mé. When she was done, she passed Mé to him to straighten out her suit, muttering about the inconvenience of the ten pounds or so that remained from her pregnancy.

"I'm not having any more of your kids," Ahsoka declared. "I think gaining weight was the worst part of this whole thing. After labor. That was the worst."

Vader was of the opinion that—given what he knew about the kind of clothes she liked to wear—she hadn't gained enough weight if not even those closest to her noticed she was pregnant. Even Padmé's closest colleagues had figured it out when she was pregnant, so Padmé had admitted to him when they discussed exposure. Vader had been able to tell after laying eyes on Ahsoka in person that something had been off. But Vader kept that opinion to himself. He and Ahsoka had gone back and forth about this already. Now was not the time to have that argument again.

Ahsoka reached to take Mé from him, but she hadn't gotten very far removing her from his arms before Mé began to fuss. It was normal for her to cry at being unsettled before she was resettled again, though. When she didn't settle in Ahsoka's arms again, though, continuing to fuss despite nothing obviously being wrong with her, Ahsoka handed her back to Vader. She almost immediately settled down again.

"Oh, no," Ahsoka said in dismay. "Mé, little one, you've got to stay with me right now."

Mé disagreed with that, because Vader felt the tapping across his bond with the girl signaling she wanted to play. Already, she was gaining more conscious control of the Force. Vader tapped back, innocent wonder and joy filtering in soft waves through the Force from Mé and a gummy smile lighting up her blue eyes as she stared up at him. He returned the smile, which just caused her to smile and coo more.

"Don't encourage her," Ahsoka chided half-heartedly. Then she sighed. "You know what? I don't even care. It's not like half my side doesn't know we have some kind of history anyway. I'm sure word has been getting around that the General used to be Darth Vader's student. The rumor mill is already trying to put together pieces about Luke and Leia. Will you be okay with her during the rest of the conference? It won't take away from your appearances?"

"Not at all. In fact, it'll give me great entertainment seeing the looks on everyone's faces when I walk into the room with her," Vader replied.

Ahsoka hit him on his free arm, but Vader sensed she was looking forward to that reaction too.

They entered the conference again together, not even bothering with appearances. While a hush didn't fall over the room, there were a few stares of bewilderment sent their way. Ahsoka ignored most and shrugged at Obi-wan's questioning look. Vader just ignored them all as he sat in his seat and continued to play back and forth in the Force with Mé.

This time, one of Vader's assistants called the meeting back into session. Vader made a vague gesture giving the floor to the Rebellion to humor what they had to say.

Mon, undeterred by the fact that Vader was periodically looking down at Mé when she cooed or made happy gurgles in his arms, began.

"We have a proposal for you."

"I certainly hope it's better than the ones you've proposed before," Vader said.

He probably did deserve Ahsoka's mental nudge given that he appeared not to be even giving Mon his full attention.

Mon didn't take the bait as she said, "Perhaps you're not willing to give more of your powers directly to the Senate. But maybe you'd be willing to divide some of your executive power with someone else and create a new office of executive power."

Vader resisted the urge to show his genuine curiosity. Because wasn't that an interesting turn of events that might be in his favor?

"Oh?" he asked.

"You'd get to keep most of your military power, of course, but this person would get to maybe set the tone for the Imperial agenda and help make laws with the Senate."

Vader wondered if the Republic loyalists didn't think he was capable of seeing what they were angling for. Someone to put in place to help make law in the Senate that would undermine his powers as Emperor. Maybe even try to dismantle the Empire completely. Something that the Imperials, both Palpatine and New Imperial era enthusiasts, would not have. They'd find a way to back another army, another rebellion with goals strictly aligned with the ideas of an Empire. And then they'd have a war totally out of anyone's control on their hands. Not that the Republic loyalists could see that through their blind championship of a government based solely on democratic processes. And they thought he was ill-suited for the role of emperor and politics.

Even still, the Republic loyalists were practically stringing themselves up in the trap he'd been laying all week to get to this point. They wouldn't even have an argument to stand on when they realized their terrible mistake.

Vader looked up from Mé and pretended to consider the proposal before asking, "And could I retain some level of veto power?"

To her credit, Ahsoka immediately recognized that something was up. She turned to look at Vader with her brow furrowed, confusion and suspicion coming across the bond in askance.

Mon paused before answering, "That depends on what you mean by some level of veto power. But perhaps you could."

"And I'm assuming you'd prefer someone from your alliance, correct? Someone to smooth out the playing field and the interests of both sides of our conflict?"

"Yes," Mon said tersely, clearly recognizing Vader was angling for something, that this might be some kind of trap. But she couldn't take it back now.

"Being that I'd obviously have to hand over part of my power and work closely with this… figure, it's reasonable that I'd have to approve of this person, even if grudgingly, right?"

He sensed the moment Ahsoka knew very concretely that this was some kind of trap. She just wasn't sure what yet. Ahsoka, for the most part, was not one that was slow on the uptake. But that Jedi humbleness she'd never managed to let go meant it never occurred to her that Vader had a lot more in store for her that just some kind of unofficial advisory position.

"Lord Vader," she spoke up.

Vader ignored her again. So did Mon. She wasn't empress yet. He still had the most control over these proceedings. That's what Ahsoka got for leaving most of the bargaining and negotiations to the rest of her High Command. For trusting their sound judgment because she felt she didn't have the experience.

"That's reasonable, we suppose. So long as we can both agree on the candidate."

Vader didn't bother keeping the dark side restrained as Mon fell for his trap. Hook, line, and sinker. He hadn't even had to push and argue her into it.

"Fine."

Shock filled the atmosphere. But from Ahsoka, who knew him all too well, was the feeling they'd been had. Yet she still hadn't figured out his intentions for her.

"It seems your loyalist party and I, on behalf of the Empire, were thinking along the same wavelength. I already know the person I'd like to approve for the role."

It was the smirk that he couldn't resist that probably gave him away to Ahsoka. Because that was the moment he sensed realization dawn on her.

"Vader!" she all but shouted, forgetting propriety and any remaining semblance that their relationship was strictly professional.

"I think General Tano would make a fine Empress."

The whole room erupted, but not even that was enough to completely drown out the vicious string of swearing from Ahsoka across the room. She stood to her feet with her hands on hips, fire in her eyes, lekku flushing vibrantly with anger.

"You planned this, you conniving, manipulative Sith," she accused.

"Now, now, Ahsoka," Vader said patronizingly. "Not so loud. You'll wake the baby."

Indeed, Mé had fallen asleep and was purring softly in his arms. Ahsoka didn't seem to care.

"I refuse."

"If your rebellion thinks I'm ill-suited to rule, that's fine with me. I'm not offended. Personally, I have no interest in certain aspects of ruling. But if I'm going to give over my power, you are the only one worth giving it to."

"The only one worth giving it to? You do realize I'm only a general. Not a politician. I can name a dozen people better."

"Only a general? Not a politician? I was under the impression that you were the leader of the Rebel Alliance… or have I been so misled?"

Ahsoka briefly averted her gaze. "No. You haven't. But—"

"This was your alliance's proposal," Vader said. A reminder that giving her passive approval to her High Command to negotiate with the Empire meant that they spoke for her. "Surely you don't mean to take back the Alliance's word so soon?"

"I…" Ahsoka made a growling noise as her fists clenched on her hips. Then she said, practically snarled, "No."

"Then it is settled."

"It is not settled! That was supposed to be a good-faith negotiation, but you planned this from the beginning."

Vader ignored her argument. "I'll give up part of my executive powers to a leader of the alliance. The only one I'll approve is General Tano."

"Anakin Skywalker!"

Vader resisted the urge to laugh. Ahsoka was furious if she was using that name. Her Force signature flared so vibrantly that Vader felt the need to shield Mé just in case it was too much for her.

"I think you all need time to go over the details of this proposition. Session adjourned for the day. We'll reconvene at a later date," Vader declared.

Ahsoka wasted no time practically stomping from the room. She didn't even hesitate at the fact that he still had Mé with him. Vader guessed he was on baby duty until she calmed down.


AN: Vader and Ahsoka can't help acting like themselves. And they are far from subtle. Likely worse than Anakin and Padmé.

Hope you enjoyed. Review, favorite, and follow please! I appreciate all the support and insights.