Legacy of Jarik Shan V5: Rebirth

by xxTheTruMan196

Ever since the horrific events on Malachor and the loss of Ahsoka, Jarik has been struggling to recover, and his adopted daugter Mara Jade has fared no better. But with the Empire still ruling the galaxy, and with new allies and enemies revealed, the Shan family must continue the fight to bring peace to the galaxy, and restore the Jedi Order as they should've been.

53. Ch 50 - Through Imperial Eyes

Author's Note: I don't know if you guys have heard, but Rosario Dawson has been reportedly cast as Ahsoka Tano in Season 2 of The Mandalorian! If that's true (which it seems to be the case) then that means we get to see Ahsoka live action, and with the proper actress to portray her! Woohoo! :D Thank goodness it wasn't flipping Brie Larson! xD Due to my plans for Ahsoka, it's likely that whatever she does in The Mandalorian won't happen in the Shaniverse, but in all honesty I don't really care. If this report is true, then that is good enough for me. Ahsoka in live action is long since due! And Rosario Dawson is the perfect casting choice!

Just... please Disney... no interference! Let Favreau, Filoni, and Lucas handle the Mandalorian! Season 1 was well received, so keep it that way! I'd seriously hate for Ahsoka's live action debut to be screwed over because of political agenda interference! O_o

---

Imperial Complex, Capital City - Lothal

3rd person POV...

The staff and workers of Lothal's Imperial shipyards have been on overtime in their work, struggling under relentless pressure to repair the several Star Destroyers currently held there.

After the failed assault of Clan Ordo, many of the warships sustained heavy damage from the Storm, even losing an entire Interdictor cruiser. The Chimaera and the Executor needed the most urgent care, due to the importance both command ships hold within the Imperial Navy. And with a good portion of the Seventh Fleet having sustained damage, Lothal was at risk for a possible attack by the rebels. The massive form of the Executor hovering in the sky while it was being repaired maintained a constant sense of fear and unease over Lothal's citizens, as the Super Star Destroyer could be seen from dozens of miles away.

The commanders of these ships however were not currently present in their vessels, rather they were stationed in the Imperial Complex of the Capital City, waiting for repairs to be completed. Darth Vader was especially frustrated due to the delay, as he was anxious to find Jarik Shan and destroy him once and for all. For now however, he had to answer to his master to account for what occurred on Dxun, along with the other leaders present.

Vader, Second Sister, Grand Admiral Thrawn, and Governor Pryce were all gathered in Thrawn's office, the lighting dim as most of the room was bathed in the blue glow of Emperor Palpatine himself. A deep frown covered the Emperor's face as he surveyed footage of the event being dubbed as 'The Storm,' watching intensely with analytical eyes as large bolts of purple lightning struck the Imperial fleet, causing major damage to the cruisers and disabling all of them while the Mandalorians made their escape; Pryce also looked on in disbelief and a hint of fear, having never witness such a thing before.

When the video footage of the Storm came to an end, it disappeared to leave just the hooded face of the Emperor, who was silent for some time.

"What was responsible for this?" he demands.

"It is unclear as to what exactly it was, my Emperor. I can only speculate of its origin," Thrawn says calmly, though he was also frowning, a sign that he was for once completely baffled. "As its properties seem to be more mystical, I would seek the council of those who carry a greater understanding of the Force than I do."

"Indeed," Darth Sidious replies, turning his gaze to his apprentice. "Lord Vader?"

Vader grimaces at being the center of attention, but starts to explain his view of the event.

"Whatever caused this 'Storm,' was very powerful. The Force seemed distorted... chaotic, in its origin," he says.

"Yes... it caused a great disturbance in the Force, one that rippled across the fabric of the universe itself," Sidious murmurs.

"What could have... possibly, caused such a freakish thing like that?!" Pryce asks incredulously.

"You would not understand the intricacies of such power, Governor Pryce," he replies dismissively, and she flinches in response. "Disregarding this, however, there are greater concerns that I have. Jarik Shan still lives."

Vader and Thrawn don't show any outward reaction, but the reminder stung a bit, more so in Vader, while Second Sister tilted her head downward to look at the floor with a scowl on her face.

"As it turns out, nothing of value came out of this effort. I find myself surprised... and disappointed," Sidious says coldly, his yellow eyes gleaming a bit brighter.

"Much of the fault can be placed on Konstantine, my Lord," Second Sister scoffs irritably.

"Oh?" the Emperor asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Admiral Konstantine made the mistake of believing that he could eliminate Jarik Shan singlehandedly," Thrawn explains calmly.

"I knew he was always a fool," Governor Pryce scoffs, shaking her head.

"A fool that has been dealt with. Permanently," Vader states coldly.

"Perhaps. Ambition and greed are useful tools, if used correctly," the Emperor remarks. "Despite Konstantine's foolishness, you still held the upper hand. And while I cannot fault the damage done to the fleet on Mitth'raw'nuruodo, I cannot say the same for the others. You failed to eliminate a simple girl and her primitive allies, Inquisitor. And you, Lord Vader... you allowed Jarik Shan to escape your grasp. This is most displeasing to me."

The Emperor's anger begins to make itself known more prominently in the hardening of his voice, and brighter glow of his eyes. Second Sister looks down at the floor, flinching with a bit of fear while Vader stares angrily at the table, his breaths still permeating the air. Governor Pryce allows herself to feel some small amusement at the plight of the Second Sister, the corners of her lips slightly upturned, but quashes it swiftly when both she and Thrawn look at her with narrowed eyes, the latter's gaze full of warning and disapproval.

"What have you to say for yourselves?" the Emperor demands, disregarding the Imperial Governor.

They remain silent, the Second Sister too fearful to respond while Vader is too frustrated and angry.

"If I may, Emperor Palpatine?" Thrawn speaks up, drawing away his attention for a moment. "I do feel there may be some explanation to Shan's continued success, as well as that of the rebels as a whole."

"Proceed, Mitth'raw'nuruodo," he acknowledges.

"During the battle, my crew picked up on an unidentified transmission between the Mandalorian Outpost, and one of our own ships," he reveals, gaining everyone's attention. "I believe this may be the result of a rebel spy in our midst."

"A rebel spy? In our ranks?!" Pryce demands incredulously.

"I have suspected it for some time, and this only provides further confirmation for me," Thrawn says.

"Then they must be found at once!" Pryce snaps angrily.

"Silence yourself, Governor," the Emperor growls irritably.

Pryce flinches in surprise and unease, her anger rapidly fading as she bows her head submissively to him, not wanting to risk his wrath.

"Of course, your majesty," she hastily replies.

"A rebel spy you say?" Sidious continues, returning his focus to Thrawn.

"It seems only logical. The rebels of Phoenix Squadron are good, but even they have limitations to what they could accomplish without inside knowledge," Thrawn states.

"And so does Jarik Shan. An insider is precisely what he would desire to confirm what intel he steals from us," Vader adds with a growl.

"Hmm... I sense you may be right, Grand Admiral. Do you believe you can root out this traitor?" Sidious questions.

"Given time, absolutely," he replies with a confident nod.

"Which is something I'm afraid we cannot afford as of late," he says, frowning. "I am sending Colonel Yularen to assist you in this endeavor. If this informant has connections to Jarik Shan himself, then having one familiar with his character will be better equipped to root out the traitor."

"I understand my Emperor. I shall await his arrival before I begin," Thrawn acknowledges respectfully.

"Now, there is a matter I wish to discuss with my apprentice. Alone," the Emperor states, looking down at Vader.

Pryce, Thrawn, and the Second Sister understand the implication all too clearly and waste no time in obeying the Emperor's wishes, exiting the office. Vader on the other hand remains standing in place, waiting for his master to begin.

---

Chopper Base - Atollon

3rd person POV...

"I can't believe you're still alive. I thought you were... well, you know," Cal starts off awkwardly.

"Killed?" Merrin offers.

"Yeah," he shrugs in confirmation.

"I could say the same about you," Kanan replies with a scoff. "I guess we're both survivors."

After realizing the identities of each other, Cal and Kanan were shocked and amazed at the realization of each other's survival. They went off to talk with each other without all the noise of the landing platform, and Ezra, Merrin, and BD-1 decided to join them.

"So, you guys both knew each other?" Ezra asks curiously.

"Knew each other? We were best friends back when we were younglings," Kanan tells him.

"We certainly were. I don't know what I'd have been doing if I wasn't messing around with Caleb," Cal says jokingly.

"Caleb?" Ezra notices, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, Caleb," he replies, slightly confused. "You don't call him that?"

"After the purge, I changed my name to Kanan Jarrus to hide my identity," Kanan says in explanation. "Everyone here knows me as Kanan."

"And yet your chosen name is a high level target for the Empire," Merrin points out, raising an eyebrow.

"No need to remind me," he sighs.

"Caleb, about that..." Cal asks, sounding a bit concerned. "Did you lose your eyes when it happened?"

Kanan shakes his head in response and Ezra glances away, unable to prevent himself from feeling that ever present guilt when it came to his eyes. Merrin notices his reaction but doesn't respond, opting to listen to Kanan's explanation instead.

"No, I lost my eyes much more recently to Maul, a former Sith apprentice," he explains.

"Maul?" Merrin says in recognition. "He's still around?"

"Yeah," Ezra says bitterly. "Do you know him?"

"I know of him. He's the son of Mother Talzin, who was taken by a Sith Lord at a young age to be trained as his apprentice. Mother didn't speak much of him though," Merrin remarks thoughtfully.

"Well he's been a thorn in our side for a while," he responds. "The most annoying thing is that he keeps trying to make me his 'apprentice.'"

"You're a Jedi too?" Merrin asks.

"Yup! Got the lightsaber to prove it," Ezra says proudly, holding up his saber hilt for emphasis.

"Caleb's your teacher huh?" Cal asks, crossing his arms with a teasing smile. "I'm surprised you've been able to learn anything from this guy."

"Oh don't even get started Cal, you never listened in class," Kanan scoffs.

"Neither did you," he retorts.

"At least I tried to focus," he shoots back just as easily.

BD-1 beeps in amusement from his position on Cal's shoulder while Merrin rolls her eyes in exasperation. Ezra however looks on with an amused grin on his face, smirking at the bickering friends with crossed arms.

"Well in Kanan's defense, I haven't been the best student," Ezra says.

Kanan turns towards him, his mouth set into a suspicious frown.

"Are you actually being modest for once?" he asks cautiously.

"Who, me? I'm always modest!" Ezra replies innocently. "Though it should also be noted that my training is kind of iffy, since Kanan doesn't have good teaching skills."

"That's the Ezra I know," Kanan groans irritably, while Cal snickers at him. "Just to be clear, I can teach just fine! It's that hard head of yours that needs fine-tuning!"

"Hey, I just roll with it. Not my fault," he says casually, raising his hands innocently.

"Goodness, you boys bicker with each other worse than this one and Greez," Merrin sighs in exasperation, gesturing to BD-1.

BD-1 beeps back in baffled surprise and protest, which she ignores.

"My sisters and I were never so silly," she continues.

"Come on Merrin, I thought you got used to it by now," Cal says teasingly.

"I'd rather go back to casting magick at you than trying to get used to your bickering," she retorts with narrowed eyes.

Cal waves a hand dismissively in response.

"So, you're a nightsister huh?" Ezra asks her.

"Yes," she nods, narrowing her eyes at him. "So what?"

"Nothing, nothing, just... you're a lot less scary in person than as a spirit," he says casually.

"Spirit? What do you mean?" she asks in surprise, growing suspicious. "When have you been to Dathomir? What did you do there?"

"Uhh..." Ezra says awkwardly, panicking a little bit.

"Maul took Ezra to Dathomir a few weeks ago. He needed Ezra for some sort of ritual to acquire knowledge about something," Kanan explains, tilting his head towards Ezra as a sign to drop the topic, knowing what he did.

"That was a foolish idea. An outside cannot use our magick without paying the price of a soul," Merrin says, frowning deeply. "How are you still here right now?"

"We... managed to escape the cave before they got us," Ezra offers as explanation.

Both he and Kanan wordlessly agree on the fact that Merrin doesn't need to know that Ezra destroyed the altar holding the spirits of the nightsisters. Given that she is a nightsister herself, she wouldn't be exactly pleased to hear something like that. Cal raises an eyebrow at them but decided to not comment, content with their answer. Merrin is still suspicious, but luckily she also relents.

"Anyways, how do you guys meet each other?" Kanan asks Cal.

"I tried to kill him several times," Merrin states bluntly.

Kanan and Ezra are slightly baffled by the answer while Cal rubs his neck with an awkward laugh.

"Yeah, there's that," he admits with a shrug. "About ten years ago I was on Dathomir looking for a key Cere and I needed to unlock a Jedi vault, and I ran into Merrin. Like she said, she tried to kill me a few times, but eventually we made up with each other and got what we were looking for, and... here we are."

Ezra cross his arms, nodding his head in acknowledgement.

"Huh, nice," he replies, glancing at Kanan. "Sabine never felt like killing me, right?"

Kanan lightly elbows him in the side with an exasperated sigh, and Ezra stumbles for a second with a quiet grunt.

---

While Kanan, Ezra, Cal, and Merrin were talking with each other, Cere Junda spent some time conversing with Shaak-Ti, holding back her excitement at the fact she's alive in favor of maintaining a formal attitude in the presence of someone formerly a part of the Jedi High Council. They had gone to a more quiet place in the base, Shaak's quarters, where they were sat on her two meditation cushions.

"I can't say enough how glad I am to know others survived the purge, master," Cere says.

"Then say nothing. We all share the same relief," Shaak replies with a smile. "The galaxy is a big place after all."

"But so few of us survived. For a long time I thought that Cal and I were the only ones left..." she responds quietly. "Did anyone else on the Council make it?"

"There were others," she confirms, sighing sadly. "But we made the mistake of trying to answer the Sith's power with our own."

Shaak looks to her hover chair with a hint of regret in her gaze, and Cere comes to realize the implication, looking down at the floor sadly.

"I'm sorry to hear that, master," she apologizes.

"Don't be. We all make our own choices, and we should expect consequences to follow," Shaak advises. "In any case, my days of fighting as a Jedi are over. My time is now better spent training new recruits for the Rebellion."

"Training, Master Ti?" Cere asks.

Shaak nods in reply.

"If you recall, during the Clone War I oversaw the training of many troopers," she points out.

"I noticed there are two clones here at the base," Cere says, an angry and confused frown on her face. "Why are they allowed here, master?"

"The clones were just as much victims as the Jedi were, Cere. Each one was embedded with am organic chip that forced them to carry out the order," Shaak explains. "In all honesty, I feel some responsibility for that. One clone was trying to uncover the conspiracy, but I did not believe him."

"It is hard to believe," she replies admittedly. "But those two, they still didn't turn?"

"They secretly had their chips removed beforehand. Boil actually helped Jarik and a youngling escape the temple that night," Shaak tells her with a smile. "He and Rex are as trustworthy as you'd remember your own commander to be."

"I suppose," Cere remarks, still a bit uncertain.

"If I might ask, Cere, what's your story? I'd be interested to hear it," she says curiously.

"Well, master, I don't think it's as special as yours, or Shan's from what I hear," she says dismissively.

"Are you sure? Eno's former apprentice teaming up with Jaro's young padawan, as well as a nightsister of Dathomir?" Shaak replies curiously, a brow raised in a bit of amusement. "I'm curious as to how you both ended up together."

"Well, it is a bit of a long story, master," Cere admits. "Our ship's captain, Greez, helped me rescue Cal from Bracca. He was working as a scrapper there before gaining the attention of Inquisitors. After that, I had hoped he could help me to restore the Jedi Order."

"Restore it?" Shaak questions.

"Yes. Master Cordova hid a holocron in a vault on Bogano which contained a list of all the Force sensitive children scattered across the galaxy," she explains, looking a bit uneasy. "We eventually found it, but..."

Cere couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence, feeling those old feelings of shame and regret resurfacing at the thought of saying this to a member of the Jedi Council. Surely she would be disappointed for what they decided to do, as that holocron would've been the key they needed to rebuild the Jedi. However, Shaak deduced what it was she was hesitant to reveal with a gentle look on her face.

"You destroyed it," she states softly.

"...we did," Cere nods in confirmation, looking at her nervously. "At the time we thought it was the best option, to keep the children out of the Empire's hands, but now... I still don't know if that was the right decision. I'm very sorry, master."

"Why are you sorry?" Shaak asks, much to Cere's surprise.

"You're... not upset?" she asks, confused.

"There's no reason to be. You did what you thought was right, and by doing so you saved the lives of all those children from what may have been a terrible fate," she explains with a smile.

"I... I guess you're right," Cere nods in reply, her guilt starting to ease up in favor of relief. "I would've thought you would want to use that holocron to rebuild the Order, back to what it was. You would've led us there better than I ever could."

"Maybe. But maybe not," Shaak remarks thoughtfully. "For all that we stood for, I feel that we hadn't lived up to it. Going back to the old ways would not have been the correct path."

"Not the correct path?" Cere says, confused. "What do you mean, master?"

"The Order made mistakes along the way, which consequentially led to our downfall. When the time comes, we cannot simply rebuild the Order, rather we must remake it," she explains. "I do not believe I would be the right one for that."

"Then who would?" she asks.

"Someone with a new set of ideals, who understood what went wrong before. Someone who can take the good from the past, and give it life with something new," Shaak tells her. "I doubt he would feel worthy of the role; he might not accept it... but I think Jarik is more than capable."

"What makes you think so? I've heard of his accomplishments, just like everyone else in the galaxy, but that's about it," Cere comments.

"Because no matter what any of us do, we are not perfect beings. We make mistakes. It's a part of who we are as people. Instead of disregarding our imperfections, we should embrace them allow them to help us realize how we can be better. That's something we Jedi failed to understood before," she explains, and Cere listens thoughtfully. "Jarik has come to understand this principle firsthand. In a way, that simple truth makes him wiser than perhaps the entirety of the Jedi Council itself."

Cere raises an eyebrow, a bit surprised at hearing such high praise from her about Jarik.

"I never would've thought of it that way. Seems counterintuitive to what we were taught," she admits warily.

"It's something I've come to think about much recently," Shaak remarks, understanding exactly what Cere meant. "He's broken many of the rules that are listed in the Jedi Code, and yet his ideals still remain pure."

"Hmph. I suppose I can keep that in mind," Cere nods in understanding.

---

"Query: So, you two are clones?" HK-47 asks.

"Yes, we're clones," Boil tells him with an irritated gaze.

"Commentary: How interesting. An army of clones bred just for the purpose of warfare against a bunch of idiotic droids. I imagine many of you died in this 'Clone War' of yours," HK says curiously, and Rex and Boil share an irritated look with each other. "I didn't realize the Jedi would've ever condoned the use of clones for war."

"Well, I'm not sure they did... but the Separatists had already prepared themselves for a war, and they sort of had to accept a clone army," Rex explains.

"What do you mean, 'accept?' Didn't the Republic have their own military?" the assassin droid questions, confused.

"Not really, no," Boil replies.

"The Ruusan Reformation around a thousand years ago changed a lot. The Republic was a democratic government, so they decided against having conquering armies, and the Jedi took the role of peacekeepers, not soldiers," Rex tells him.

HK-47 stares at the two clones for several long moments in complete bafflement, and then bursts into laughter, surprising and irritating them. Shaking his head, HK looks down at them with a gleam of amusement in his optics.

"Statement: How ridiculous! The Republic I'm familiar with would've never thought of such a silly idea. And the Jedi serving as 'peacekeepers?!' Oh please. As if!" HK scoffs mockingly. "Oh, if Revan could see what the Republic had become, he would for sure decided to launch another campaign against them! That is such nonsense. No wonder this Empire of yours decided to take over."

"It's not funny metal head. Palpatine was manipulating both sides the entire time so that he could take over," Boil snaps, pointing a finger at him. "Rex and I lost a lot of brothers in that war!"

"Astonished query: You're saying the entirety of the Jedi Order and the Galactic Republic was brought down by a single Sith Lord?" HK asks them.

Once again HK maintains his silence as he considers the thought before bursting into another fit of laughter. Boil scowls at him while Rex sighs irritably, crossing his arms with an annoyed expression on his face.

"Commentary: Your government was beaten by a single Sith Lord! HAH! In my day, legions of Jedi and Sith battled while entire armies of soldiers and starships clashed in epic battles for the fate of the galaxy. It took great strength and perilous times for one side to defeat the other!" HK-47 says, his tone filled with gleeful amusement and delight. "Yet now it's gotten to a point where a single Sith Lord can manipulate an entire galaxy like a game of dejarik!"

The droid pauses once more in an attempt to contain his laughter.

"Diagnosis: Valkorion must be rolling around in his grave right now. I'm sure he'd love to be around today so that taking the galaxy for himself would be much easier," HK remarks, snickering.

HK-47 continues to ramble on in hilarity at the ridiculousness of it all, while Boil and Rex share another look with each other, exasperated and annoyed.

"I can't believe Jarik decided to dump this pile of bolts on us," Rex grumbles.

"Oh I certainly can. No one in their right mind would like having him around," Boil scoffs irritably, shaking his head.

"Statement: Trust me when I say that I mean no disrespect to you personally..." HK says, getting their attention again. "But in all honesty I mean absolute disrespect to all the fools who were humiliated by one Sith Lord. I'm not yet sure whether or not you fall into that category."

Rex rolls his eyes in exasperation, and just then Hera shows up.

"Rex, Boil, do either of you know where Ezra is? I have an important mission for him," she questions.

Before either of them could answer, HK-47 suddenly whips his blaster out an aims it at her, charging it up in preparation to fire.

"Warning statement: Freeze twi'lek!" he orders.

Hera jumps back in a panic while Rex and Boil whip around in alarm, gripping onto his blaster and forcing it down.

"Hey! What the kriff is wrong with you?!" Boil yells angrily.

"Query: What's the issue now?" HK asks.

"How many times do we have to tell you, you're not killing anybody on this base, or any other rebels for that matter! Least of all our commanding officers!" Rex states fiercely, jabbing a finger at him. "Surely Jarik made sure to tell you that?"

"Statement: He may have," the droid sighs, putting his blaster away. "But I'm an assassin droid, I need to kill something!"

"Then save it for when you're fighting Imperials," Boil growls.

"Statement: Very well," HK sighs in disappointment. "I only wished to inform the twi'lek that Mission Vao was prettier than her anyways."

HK trudges off, grumbling to himself in disappointment while Hera watches him go cautiously, shaking her head.

"Why did Jarik leave a murderous droid with us again?" she asks in annoyance, glaring at HK's retreating form.

"I guess it's better to have him here, than on his planet," Rex theorizes.

"Honestly sir, I think you should give that droid a mission soon, or else I might be the one to end up shooting somebody!" Boil says anxiously.

"I'll talk to Commander Sato about it," Hera nods in full agreement. "Anyways, I have a new assignment for you, Kanan, and Ezra."

"What do you need us to do?" Rex asks.

"I'm concerned that Kallus's position may be in jeopardy. Rebel intelligence suggests that the Empire might have been monitoring his messages lately. If that's true, then we need to get him out of there," she explains.

---

Isle of Berk - Ahch-To

Jarik POV...

Needless to say, when we told Stoick about what had happened, he wasn't very happy at all.

After arriving back on Ahch-To, I flew us straight to Berk so that Hiccup, Astrid, and Toothless would be right at home without any delay. Zenna was overjoyed to see Mara again, pestering her relentlessly and refusing to leave her side, which left Mara both flattered and annoyed at the same time. The rest of Hiccup's gang tried asking as many questions as possible to learn what happened on our trip, but luckily we managed to get them to ease off, at least temporarily. Gobber was his usual self, always optimistic and drunkenly cheerful, whereas Stoick was just relieved at our safe return, although learning about the dangerous part of the trip ruined some of his good mood.

"So let me get this straight: somehow the Empire found you there?" he asks me, turning towards Hiccup and Astrid. "And you both nearly died?!"

"Well, we made it back, right?" Hiccup points out with a grin.

"Oh for Odin's sake Hiccup, why is it always you...?" Stoick groans, running a hand down his face in frustration.

"The lad does have a point Stoick. They made it back just fine!" Gobber says cheerfully.

"I know Gobber, it's just... I don't want to make this a regular occurrence," he replies, looking back at Hiccup. "Worrying about you lot getting into trouble with Alvin, and then Dagur was bad enough, but at least you were still on our planet. What would I have done if you were captured by the Empire?!"

"Well in that case, we wouldn't be able to do anything," Gobber remarks, faltering sheepishly at the glares he received. "I'll... stay quiet now."

"Wow. So helpful," Mara says sarcastically.

"Believe me Stoick, I understand your fear all too well," I tell him sincerely. "That's why I'm not longer considering having anyone else with us until the Empire falls, and even then I'd be hesitant to do so."

"Aye, I agree with that. The Empire is far beyond our ability to fight," he says with a firm nod. "No matter how much we'd like too."

---

Stepping outside the door of Stoick's house, I stop for a moment to look out at the surrounding landscape, the ocean and island bathed in orange light from the setting suns. Boisterous laughter and conversation amongst Vikings echoes around the village, as well as the calls of dragons every so often, a few of them taking flight in coming in for a landing amongst the houses. The peaceful setting offers me some comfort, but its plagued by the knowledge of what exists beyond Ahch-To.

"Hey Dad," Mara says, coming out beside me. "Were you gonna tell them that Vader knows about this place?"

"No real point to it. There's nothing Stoick or the Vikings could do anyways," I respond simply. "Hiccup or Astrid can tell them if they wish to."

"I guess you're right," she shrugs in agreement.

Zenna drops down around the corner and nudges Mara from behind, whining expectantly. She stumbles in response to the nudge before turning around to face her, sighing in exasperation.

"What'd I tell you about pushing me?" she says, raising an eyebrow.

Zenna whines at her again and Mara rolls her eyes, patting her snout.

"Yeah yeah, keep whining," she scoffs, turning back to me. "To be honest Dad... you look terrible."

"Really?" I ask, looking down at her.

"Yeah, really. It doesn't take two seconds to realize you took a beating," she points out, frowning worriedly at me. "Did Vader punch you in the face?!"

Mara reaches a hand up to touch the bruise from where Vader hit me, and I flinch before gently pushing her hand away.

"Yes, he did. We punched each other," I sigh in response.

"You're crazy," she scoffs, shaking her head. "Seriously Dad, you should actually take some time to rest before going out to play hero again. I feel like we never have any free time to just do nothing. We've got healing supplies on the ship right?"

"Of course," I reply.

"Then use it. Or we could send you to Gothi. She'd be more than happy to help," she suggests, walking off with Zenna. "Just take some time to rest Dad, seriously!"

"Yes Mara!" I say as she walks off, rolling my eyes.

She's certainly taken after Ahsoka in terms of bossiness, that's for sure. Always making a fuss if I get hurt... although she does have a point. I have been doing a lot lately, going back and forth between the rebels, Ahch-To, and other places in the galaxy. I guess I do also need to get my prosthetic arm looked at too... hopefully R5 will decide to be more careful for his 'mandatory inspections.'

Sighing tiredly, I head off in the direction of our little house on Berk, which the village had built several years ago for me, Mara, and Ahsoka to stay in whenever we visited them.

---

Imperial light cruiser - Lothal

3rd person POV...

The sound of blaring alarms rouses him from slumber, and he wearily blinks his eyes to see his room flashing with red light. Exhausted, he nevertheless gets up from his bed and stumbles over to the door, opening it to see what was going on. Outside, stormtroopers were running through the halls with urgency, the alarm sounding throughout the ship. One trooper notices him and stops briefly in front of his door.

"Battle stations sir!" he exclaims.

He nods his head to the trooper and watches as he resumes running down the hall, before closing his door once more. Walking over to the sink he activates it to allow warm water to flow out, the steam filtering up from it and into his face. Agent Kallus stares at his reflection in the mirror tiredly, sighing at the familiar routine before washing his face to rid the sleep from his eyes.

Having to play a double agent within the Imperial ranks as Fulcrum, especially in such close proximity to Grand Admiral Thrawn and Darth Vader much of the time has been among some of the most stressful times of his life. Every day he's plagued by the fear of one of them discovering his secret identity, knowing all too well what the punishment would be if he were caught. Still, if he didn't do this then he would be haunted by the injustices he's helped the Empire commit in his service for the rest of his life. And he's not sure he could live with that.

---

Stepping onto the bridge, Kallus makes his way up to stand beside Lieutenant Lyste, who was looking out of the viewport at a few ships heading in their direction. He comes to a stop just behind the lieutenant and holds his arms behind his back, falling effortlessly into the formalities.

"Lieutenant Lyste. Are we under attack?" he questions.

"No, and I intend to keep it that way," Lyste replies firmly. "This stolen shuttle reportedly blasted its way out of the Lothal spaceport; I'm moving to intercept. Prepare tractor beam."

Kallus looked out of the viewport as well, where he could now see the shuttle in question being chased by three TIE Fighters. The TIE's maintained steady fire, not for the purpose of destroying the shuttle but to herd it closer to the light cruiser so that they could capture it with the tractor beam. A warning shot however does slam into the back of one of the shuttle's wings, causing it to shutter and fly unsteadily through the vacuum of space. The two pilots at the helm of the cruiser then ensnare the shuttle in their tractor beam, and the TIE's break off in response.

"We have tractor lock," one of them reports.

"I'll head up the boarding party," Kallus informs Lyste, who nods in acknowledgement.

Heading down to the docking tubes, Kallus takes a pair of stormtroopers with him and approaches the door, where they get into battle ready positions in case the perpetrator decides to storm through the door looking for a fight. Luckily however, when the door opens the first two troopers sent to capture him walk through with a younger man in their grasp, his wrists bound behind his back. He struggled against the trooper restraining him, and Kallus frowns upon finding some familiarity in the person's voice.

"Let me go. You're making a mistake!" he snarls.

"Remove his helmet," Kallus orders.

The trooper behind him rips his helmet off to reveal the face of Ezra Bridger, who looks up at him with angry eyes.

"What are you looking at Imperial scum?!" he demands, adding a growl to his words to alter his voice.

Kallus widens his eyes briefly in surprise at the sight of Ezra before quickly retaining his attitude, responding to Ezra's glare with a hard look of his own.

"Bring him to the detention cells," he orders the stormtroopers.

The stormtrooper behind Ezra relinquishes him of his blaster, which he notices with a frown.

"Hey, be careful with that!" he scowls.

In response the stormtrooper merely gives him a shove forward, leading him along at gunpoint.

---

Down in the detention area, Kallus stops in front of a prison cell and presses a button on the console, opening the door. The stormtroopers shove Ezra inside, throwing his helmet in after him, and he goes rolling painfully down the steps and into the cell with a pained grunt.

"Leave us," Kallus orders. "I'll interrogate him myself."

The troopers nod, moving off while Kallus watches them go. Ensuring they weren't paying attention he discretely inserts his code cylinder into the cell's console and turns it, deactivating the security cameras and audio recorders inside of it. With that down, he steps into the cell and closes the door behind him, glaring down at Ezra in frustration.

"Don't you realize how dangerous it is for you to be here?!" Kallus angrily demands. "If anyone recognizes you-"

"They won't," Ezra replies casually. "You know how big the Empire is. Most troopers don't even know what I look like now."

"And what would you have done if, say, Darth Vader was here? What then?!" he points out.

"On this ship?" he asks rhetorically, scoffing in reply. "Yeah, I'm sure a Sith Lord loves hanging out on a cruiser dealing with every day occurrences."

"This isn't funny boy!" Kallus snaps in frustration. "If they discover you here I'll be executed for treason!"

"Heh. You might be anyways," Ezra retorts, and he frowns in confusion. "We think the Empire picked up on your transmission to Jarik when you were on Dxun."

"So, you got captured to warn me?!" he asks incredulously.

"Nope, to get you out of here," he corrects with a smile.

Kallus raises in eyebrow at him warily, looking away with a defeated scowl.

"Well I guess I have no choice now!" he growls.

"Look, I'm not happy about it either," Ezra admits, pacing around him warily. "For all I know, you're playing a long game to set us up."

"Is Shan's word not enough?" Kallus retorts, turning to face him. "Besides, I could say the same to you. I suppose for now we'll just have to trust each other."

He holds his hand out to Ezra to indicate that trust, and he observes it cautiously. Before he could respond however, a know is heard on the door, followed by Lieutenant Lyste's irritated voice.

"Open this door!" Lyste orders.

Thinking fast, Ezra grabs Kallus's hand, confusing him for a moment, and then uses it to punch himself in the face, falling onto the steps behind him just as the door opens to reveal Lieutenant Lyste and a pair of stormtroopers.

"Stop! I'll tell you anything!" Ezra pleads helplessly, staring at Kallus with pretend fear.

"A confession already? You are good," Lyste remarks, impressed. "But it will have to wait. Admiral Thrawn's command ship has just been cleared for active duty, and his fleet has just arrived. He has summoned us aboard his ship."

He then nods to the trooper beside him.

"Bring the prisoner," he orders.

"The prisoner?" Kallus asks, surprise and alarm filling him. Did Thrawn somehow know about him?

"To show the Grand Admiral how effective I am in dealing with a rebel threat!" Lyste states with a smile.

Kallus resists the urge to roll his eyes and groan in frustration, getting the feeling that Lyste is just like Konstantine, only younger and more inexperienced.

"He's a bounty hunter," he scoffs dismissively. "Not a rebel."

"He's from Lothal, that's enough," he replies firmly, a confident smile on his face.

The stormtroopers walk Ezra out of the prison cell and Lyste leads them through the corridor. After a moment's pause Kallus follows them, fear and uncertainty filling his mind at the unexpected detour. It's bad enough that Ezra is being taken to Thrawn's ship without the Grand Admiral's knowledge; if he figures out the prisoner is Ezra than Kallus is done for. But if Darth Vader is also aboard the Chimaera then he has great doubts the both of them will be able to escape alive. Even the Second Sister's presence is a huge risk; he's worked alongside Inquisitors long enough to know they can sense when Jedi are close.

As Kallus leaves the cell however, he completely forgets about the helmet left lying on the floor.

---

Lyste and Kallus take an Imperial shuttle from the light cruiser over to the Chimaera, which is hovering in orbit not too far away. From outside of the Star Destroyer he could see there was still some damage done to it, but it was mostly superficial, the essential systems having all been completely fixed. The rest of the damage was being repaired by teams of workers as the cruiser hovered in orbit, commanding the fleet of Star Destroyers once more.

"I haven't been summoned by ranking officers since that incident with the princess from Alderaan," Lyste remarks nervously, sighing in embarrassment at the memory. "That was not a pleasant memory. I shall endeavor to make a better impression this time!"

"I'm sure you will lieutenant," Kallus reassures him.

For the remainder of the short flight Kallus keeps quiet, his thoughts more focused on the issue at hand. Ezra was currently being held by the stormtroopers in the shuttle bay, his two droids also with him. Kallus recognized them easily, but the rest of the Imperials were fooled due to one being an Imperial model, while the astromech had a very convincing paint job.

---

Hyperspace - Lothal Sector

On board a stolen Imperial shuttle were Kanan, Rex, and Boil, all dressed up in stormtrooper outfits. Cal was also present in his own set of stormtrooper armor, having offered to come along and assist them on the retrieval mission. Kanan was more than happy to have him along; he wasn't happy now though at the news he was receiving.

"You're where?" he demands incredulously.

Chopper beeps back a reply.

"Grand Admiral Thrawn's Star Destroyer? What in blazes are you doing there?!" Rex asks in bewilderment.

"That's bad, I assume?" Cal questions.

"He gets one whiff of Ezra and the whole operation is done for," Boil replies, rolling his eyes.

"They transferred Ezra there after he was captured," Kanan sighs, listening to Chopper's explanation.

"Well that really changes the plan. Our clearance codes are for the light cruiser, not Thrawn's Star Destroyer," Rex says with a troubled frown.

"Chop, you've got to get us those clearance codes," Kanan states, and Chopper beeps back in affirmative.

"Only thing that could make this worse is if Vader is hanging out there too," Boil scoffs.

Kanan groans at the thought while Rex turns to look at him with a warning glare.

"Don't you dare jinx it Boil," he snaps.

"Wait, Vader? Why'd he be there?!" Cal asks in alarm.

"Oh yeah. He and Thrawn are teaming up to hunt down Commander Shan," Boil responds, making a face. "Of course, that means we have to worry about them too."

"Wow. I knew about the Empire's bounty on him, and that whole mess on Coruscant, but I never realized they're that set on getting him," Cal remarks, bewildered. "What did he do to them anyways?"

"Quite a bit..." Boil murmurs, frowning due to his knowledge of the topic. Particularly Vader.

"We just need to focus. From the sound of things so far, Vader isn't there. Otherwise Chopper would've warned us," Kanan says.

"Really?" Rex asks doubtfully.

"He's not that ignorant about these things," he replies, before frowning uneasily. "I hope."

"Huh. And I thought my crew had it bad," Cal scoffs sarcastically.

---

ISD Chimaera - Lothal

As Kallus and Lieutenant Lyste make their way through the hallways of the ship to Thrawn's office, they pass by three officers being escorted by a pair of stormtroopers: Captain Brunson, Commander Brom Titus, and Captain Slavin. They all share wary glances with each other as they pass by, and Lyste looks up at Kallus in bewilderment.

"Those were sector command staff. What are they doing here?" he asks, baffled.

Kallus frowns uneasily, getting the feeling that Ezra was right about the whole situation. Still, he has to maintain his facade in order to remain undetected, now more than ever.

"I can only guess," he replies simply.

Reaching the door to Thrawn's office, Lyste walks up expectantly to enter before the stormtrooper guarding it holds a hand up to stop him.

"Your code cylinders," he requests.

"Now see here I'm a lieutenant!" Lyste snaps indignantly, and Kallus almost sighs. The one thing he will always appreciate about Thrawn is that he's not boastful or attempting to show superiority like the rest of the officers in the Empire, only doing so when necessary.

"Understood sir. Your cylinders?" the stormtrooper requests, undeterred.

When Lyste still refuses to hand his over, Kallus simply walks forward and places his cylinder in the trooper's expectant hand.

"Thrawn is known for being thorough," he points out.

Reluctantly, Lyste takes his code cylinder out of his pocket and then hands it over to the stormtroopers. Both cylinders in hand, the trooper inserts them into the port underneath the door's console, allowing the system to scan both. Once they're confirmed as genuine the trooper hands the cylinders back to their respective owners, gesturing towards the office.

"You're clear to proceed, lieutenant," the stormtrooper states, his tone slightly mocking at the title as he opens the door.

Kallus and Lieutenant Lyste walk through the open door and into Thrawn's office, which closes behind them once they're inside. The pair are greeted by a dimly lit hallway, with various sculptures and artistic trophies displayed on podiums along it, their origins unknown to the two of them. The sounds of grunting and metal clanging has them both looking inside an open doorway, where they're both surprise to see Thrawn dressed in athletic attire, currently in the middle of fierce combat with two sentry droids.

Thrawn ducks away from a strike by one droid and then uses his staff to sweep it off of its feet, swinging his staff once more to strike it while it was down. The droid raises his arm to block his attack, but is unable to deflect the next blow that sends it slamming into the lit-up floor with a loud clang. Glancing behind him, Thrawn whirls around and strikes out at the second sentry with his staff, but it casts his blow aside from retaliating with a swift punch from its opposing arm. In response, Thrawn raises his wrist to block its strike using his armored gauntlets. He attempts to strike out with his staff once more but his attack is deflected, forcing him to raise his arm again in order to block the droid's punch from hitting him in the head.

Breathing heavily in exertion, Thrawn glares at the sentry droid with blazing red eyes, a fierce scowl on his face. Recently, he's been overcome with more frustration than he's used too, having been outmaneuvered or beaten back on his hunt for Jarik Shan far too much in recent events. The trail he's been following in the attempt to locate his planet has gone cold recently, and just when he seems to have the advantage over the Jedi Knight, something happens that completely throws him off. In this case, it was The Storm. Not only was Clan Ordo completely surrounded, but there was literally no possible way for Shan to escape... until that blasted lightning attack completely incapacitated his fleet, allowing all of their targets to escape unhindered.

The more Thrawn tries to find ways around these obstacles, the more they seem to screw him over. He can see now why the Emperor wishes Jarik dead so badly, but as much as he empathizes with that thought... he also knows that strategically it's more favorable for him to have Jarik Shan alive as an ally against the Yuuzhan Vong. Even so, the Force is Jarik Shan's greatest ally it would seem, and his inability to understand its power frustrates Thrawn to no end. The best relief he can get his working out his stress on these sentry droids.

Thrawn refocuses on the sentry droid when his staff is ripped from his hands, and kicks it in the chest to send it stumbling backward. Using his pent up frustrations over the last few days as a boost, Thrawn begins pummeling the droid barehanded, ignoring the aches and stinging in his hands from the hits. Thrawn finishes off by spinning around to deliver a fierce kick that knocks the sentry droid clean off its feet and onto the floor. He stands up straight to rest himself for a moment, noticing Lieutenant Lyste and Agent Kallus at the door.

"Override code, Rukh," Thrawn says.

Immediately the two sentry droids relinquish their hostile stances and stand up straight, powering down as the program instructed them to. Thrawn then glances back at his new guests before the door closes, leaving Kallus and Lyste surprised and a bit intimidated by the display. The door to the main office then opens and they look over to see the Second Sister standing before them, surprisingly without her helmet on. Kallus and Lyste are both a bit startled by her scarred appearance, although the former composes himself effortlessly and gives her a professional nod of greeting. Lyste however was noticeably more uneasy at being in the presence of an Inquisitor, doing his best to hide it. Second Sister regards them both for a moment, a hint of contempt on her face as she glances at Lyste before nodding her head.

"He is ready for you," she states simply, turning around and walking back inside the main office.

Kallus and Lyste glance at each other before following, quickly realizing that there is another individual inside as well. The older man, who's wearing a white uniform, turns around to face them with keen eyes. Kallus recognizes him instantly, for once feeling slightly positive in the presence of another Imperial officer.

"Colonel Yularen," he says.

Yularen smiles and walks forward to greet them.

"I don't know if you remember me from the Academy," Kallus continues to say.

"Of course, young Agent Kallus," Yularen replies, shaking his hand pleasantly. "I keep tabs on all my star pupils."

"What brings you to Lothal?" he questions, already knowing the answer.

"We're in need of his expertise," Thrawn states in reply, and they all turn to see him walking out in full uniform, straightening his cuffs. "There's a rebel spy in our midst, codename, 'Fulcrum.' And perhaps today we are going to discover their true identity."

Kallus hardens his gaze slightly, having expected but also dreading that answer. Thrawn gestures to the desk for them and moves around to hide side of the desk, looking at the sculpted pair of lizard-like creatures displayed on the wall behind it... ysalamirs. Lieutenant Lyste sits down in one of the chairs set up before the desk, and Kallus reluctantly sits in the chair beside him as well. Yularen remains standing vigilantly behind them, paying attention to Thrawn, while the Second Sister stood further behind them at the corner of the office, where it was darker.

"A traitor in our ranks is feeding the rebels information, possibly assigned by Jarik Shan himself," Thrawn states. "That is the only logical explanation for their success, and our failure, as an insider would be more capable of reporting accurate intel than Shan could acquire remotely."

"Unfortunately, Lord Vader cannot join us at this time, as the Emperor required his assistance for something else," Second Sister adds, staring with narrowed eyes. "As such, we are entrusted with the task of locating the Jedi's rat."

Kallus grimaces internally at the Inquisitor's harsh reference to him, but also feels some relief. Out of all the people who could've been assigned to seek out a traitor, the Sith Lord is the last person Kallus would want to try and avoid. He very much doubts that he could if that was Vader's focus.

"I will do everything in my power to find this spy, Grand Admiral!" Lyste declares, standing up to boost his appearance in Thrawn's gaze.

"Thank you for your enthusiasm lieutenant," Thrawn replies calmly, glancing back at them with a raised eyebrow. "However, few are above suspicion. ISB Colonel Yularen will question each of you."

"In the meantime, be vigilant," Yularen says, lightly directing Lyste back into his seat. "Watch your subordinates closely, and your peers even closer."

"Our spy must be unmasked quickly, as I'm on the verge of locating the rebel base in this sector," Thrawn states, approaching the holoprojector of his desk, which activates to display a map of several planets. "I've narrowed it down to these worlds."

A few of the planets blink red to emphasize which worlds he was referring to, and Kallus narrows his gaze thoughtfully.

"From among thousands..." he remarks. "What narrowed down your search so effectively, Admiral?"

"An analysis of rebel hyperspace routes, their attacks on Imperial ships and facilities, and rather importantly, proximity to Lothal," Thrawn explains, deactivating the map. "You're dismissed."

Standing up from their seats, Kallus and Lyste both give Thrawn a respectful nod and then head for the exit, Yularen going with them. As they do so however, Kallus doesn't miss the stare that Second Sister is giving them, her eyes narrowed suspiciously. Once they exit the main office the door closes, though Yularen stops Kallus for a moment.

"Agent Kallus, you've had multiple encounters with the rebels in this sector. Any thoughts on our traitor?" he questions.

"A high level intelligence leak suggests an officer," Kallus offers in reply.

"True, but in our technological system accessing information tends to be easier than having the means to transmit it without the Empire's knowledge," Yularen comments, frowning thoughtfully. "Though for one like Jarik Shan, he certainly would've developed his own means to bypass that."

"I suppose you're right," he nods in agreement. "Perhaps the communication division?"

"Too obvious. I am familiar with the way Jarik Shan operates on matters like this, and if he was responsible for assigning this spy among us he would have provided them with the means to communicate intel directly to him, or to the rebels he is affiliated with" he states thoughtfully, "Whoever this spy is, they have a method of transmitting that we are, as yet, unaware of. Further pointing toward his involvement with the spy."

"If I can do anything to help," Kallus offers.

"I'll let you know," Yularen replies, nodding to him. "Agent."

Turning around he walks back into the office while Kallus makes for the exit, meeting back up with Lieutenant Lyste outside in the hallway.

"It is said no traitor escapes the eye of Yularen for long," Lyste says with a smile.

"I guess we'll see," Kallus replies with a shrug.

The two are surprised by the sudden arrival of Governor Pryce from around the corner, who stops before them on her way to Thrawn's office.

"Kallus. I saw a report that a shuttle theft from Lothal was prevented," she remarks.

"Actually, Lieutenant Lyste was responsible for that," Kallus corrects her, pushing Lyste forward.

"Really?" Pryce asks, surprised. "Well that deserves commendation."

Lyste is overcome with sheepish pride at the praise, his face turning slightly red as she walks past them.

"Thank you, Governor," he says gratefully.

"Step carefully. ISB is watching her," Kallus tells Lyste once she's out of earshot, pushing him along by the shoulders. "You should too."

As he says that, Kallus secretly switches his code cylinder out with Lyste's, releases his hold on him directly after.

"What? Why?" Lyste asks him, quickly realizing his implication with a baffled look. "You don't mean that Pryce is the rebel spy!? That's why she wasn't in the meeting!"

"Thrawn has no proof yet, but I'm sure he'd be grateful if you kept an eye on her," he suggests quietly.

"He can count on me!" Lyste declares with a determined smile.

Kallus watches as the confident and eager Lyste marches off, allowing himself a satisfied smile at his foolishness. If everything works out correctly, then he may not have to worry about his secret identity being discovered for much longer.

---

Inside his office, Thrawn was analyzing the kalikori acquired from Ryloth while Yularen reviewed his notes on a datapad. Pryce enters the office and looks around, her gaze landing on the Grand Admiral.

"Any progress?" she asks.

"I'm certain the spy was present at our interviews. Now to see if they take our bait and warn the rebels," Thrawn replies.

"I may have something," Yularen offers, analyzing his datapad. "A coded message was beamed from the ship right after an offship prisoner was transferred to your detention block: B7."

"That is no common criminal," Second Sister interrupts. "I sense a familiar presence nearby."

Startled, Governor Pryce jumps at the sound of her voice, having not realized the Inquisitor was in the room as well. She composes herself with an irritated scowl while Thrawn turns around to face them all, a thoughtful smirk spreading across his face.

"Well then, shall we visit this mysterious prisoner?" he remarks.

---

Isle of Berk - Ahch-To

Jarik POV...

Most of the village had long since fallen asleep, including Mara, with Zenna curled up beside her bed up in the loft. However I will stay wide awake with a lot on my mind, which I couldn't really get rid of.

"Anakin... Anakin! NOOO!"

I open my eyes with a frustrated groan, a bit unsettled at hearing the cold breathing of Darth Vader again, as well as hearing Qui-Gon's desperate pleas. Seeing that vision when I was trying to fight Vader, of the slaughter of a Tusken Raider camp... it threw me off. Making sure Mara and Zenna were still sleeping, I quietly get out of bed and grab my cloak, wrapping it around myself as I step out the door to clear my head.

Under the light of two suns, the full moon was bright enough to ensure reasonable visibility during the night. Stepping outside the door I stood beside the house, withstanding the chilly air with my cloak as I mulled over my thoughts.

Now that I'm thinking about it, I knew a lot less about Anakin's past than I thought I did. I'm confident Ahsoka knew more about him than I did, but I can't be to sure of that either. All I know of his past is that he and his mother were sold to the Hutts as slaves when he was a child, which is what Obi-Wan told us both during the war. I know that Master Qui-Gon found Anakin and was responsible for bringing him to the Jedi Temple during the Naboo Crisis, kind of like how he found me, but beyond that I know very little. Anakin never liked to talk about his past, something he made very clear to Ahsoka on their first mission.

Based on what I saw in my vision, I think I can imagine why.

It's as if I was Anakin, watching through his eyes as his mother succumbed to the torture of the Tusken Raiders on Tatooine and died in his arms. I could feel his helplessness, and his anger as he went through the camp and killed every living thing he found, showing no mercy as he unleashed his rage. In a way I could empathize with him, since those feelings of anger weren't dissimilar to how I felt when Maul revealed that he killed my own parents. The only clear difference is that I was too young to understand things initially, and so had a better grasp on my emotions than Anakin did.

Thinking about this topic also draws my mind to Tatooine, where Obi-Wan is hiding... and where he's being hunted.

"Kenobi... Kennnoobbbiiiiii!"

I flinch upon hearing the vicious, wild scream in my mind through the Force, looking out at the sky with feelings of anxiety. Maul knows that Obi-Wan is hiding on Tatooine, and is determined to kill him once and for all. And while I'm confident that Obi-Wan is more than capable of handling himself, seeing as Maul has become nothing more than a rabid animal driven by rage... the possibility that their encounter will put Luke in jeopardy freaks me out. If their standoff gains the attention of the Sith, then that means Luke will also be discovered.

When I've rested up and recovered from the events of these last few days, I have to go to Tatooine. There's no way around that. Not for Maul, not even for Obi-Wan's sake, but for Luke Skywalker. I don't know what would be more important: keeping Ahch-To a secret, or keeping Luke a secret.

---

ISD Chimaera - Lothal

3rd person POV...

Having snuck inside Thrawn's office under the guise of Lieutenant Lyste, Ezra activated the holoprojector on the desk and observed the map of different planets displayed, finding Atollon as one of the marked star systems.

"You were right, Thrawn is close to finding our base," he tells Kallus.

"Droid, erase that planet and add another as a decoy," Kallus orders.

Chopper beeps in confirmation and removes Atollon from the map, adding a fake planet in a different spot nearby so as to not make the change too blatantly obvious.

"Unfortunate news," AP-5 reports through the comlink. "Grand Admiral Thrawn is headed for his office."

"What?!" Ezra exclaims in alarm. "Try to stall him!"

"Oh, wait, I can't. He's at the door," AP-5 replies.

"I'll handle it," Kallus tells him, turning around and rushing off.

"Chopper, shut off the holomap!" Ezra orders, Chopper beeps in acknowledgement as the hologram disappears. "Come on Kallus lets-"

Ezra turns around, only to find that Kallus has vanished entirely.

"Where'd he go?" he asks, panicking. "Hide!"

He and Chopper quickly rush over to the large stone containing some of Sabine's art, hiding behind it just as the door opens. Thrawn slowly enters his office with two stormtroopers, looking around suspiciously with narrowed eyes. SPotting no one initially, he approaches his desk and activates the holomap, bringing a hand to his chin as he inspects it. Nothing seems to be out of the ordinary, and the planets his had marked are all still accounted for, unless...

Frowning, he switches away from the galactic map to a smaller one, which is more empty in appearance, and a few bits of information also come up. Thrawn analyzes his map of the Unknown Regions with a sharp eye, inspecting everything there. Satisfied that his information on Jarik Shan or the rebels secret base doesn't seem to be tampered with he turns off the holomap, standing still for a moment with a furrowed brow.

"Is everything alright sir?" one of the troopers questions.

"Apparently so, yes..." Thrawn replies, a bit surprised at the fact.

Without warning, the silence in Thrawn's office is broken as the door opens, allowing his two sentry droids to come storming through. They swiftly take out the stormtroopers with swift blows to the head, likely delivering fatal injuries due to the power behind their punches. With the stormtroopers down they quickly focus on the Grand Admiral, who backs away with a scowl.

"Override code, Rukh," he says.

To his alarm however the override code doesn't work, and the sentry droids lunge at him. With swift grace, Thrawn flips over his desk to avoid their punches and whips out his blaster pistol, shooting at the sentry droids. They move to either side, evading his shots, and the first droid swings its fists at him. Thrawn ducks underneath an intense barrage of unrelenting strikes from the two droids, backing away from them while losing his pistol in the process. He catches one droid's arm with his hands, but the droid lifts his arm up, leaving Thrawn exposed to a blow from the second that throws him against the mural of Sabine's art.

Ezra grimaces anxiously as the mural threatens to topple over on top of him, carefully pushing it back to remain standing, whilst Thrawn scrambles to his feet to face the sentry droids, snarling in frustration. Peeking his head out, Ezra watches in surprise as Thrawn nimbly ducks and weaves around the sentry droids with ease, his focus completely on the droids.

"Come on, while he's distracted!" he whispers to Chopper.

The two leave their hiding place and sprint for the door, which does not go unnoticed by Thrawn as he catches a sentry droid's arm again, widening his eyes at the sight of the other individual.

"Lyste!" he exclaims angrily, shoving the droid away.

Being forced back behind his desk again, Thrawn leans back to avoid another punch and then flips over the desk once more, and the sentry droids quickly follow. He continuously evades their punches, redirecting their momentum away from him. Noticing one droid charging at him from behind he ducks his head down, allowing the droid's fist to strike the other one in the chest instead, knocking it down to the floor. Spotting a trooper's blaster on the floor nearby, Thrawn picks it up and whirls around to face the charging sentry droid. He fires several shots directly into its torso, swiftly killing it with a shot to the head as it falls.

Hearing the other droid get up, Thrawn turns to face it and calmly fires his blaster, blasting several large holes into the droid's chest to destroy it in an efficient manner. With both droids defeated he whips out his comlink, his red eyes glaring at the door that Lieutenant Lyste escaped through.

"Colonel, Inquisitor... listen to me carefully," he says quietly, a plan to catch the spy having already formed in his mind.

---

Hyperspace - Lothal

"Well... here goes nothing," Rex comments.

With the destination reached, Rex brings the shuttle out of hyperspace and into regular space, revealing Lothal blockaded by a trio of Imperial Star Destroyers.

"Woah..." he says, baffled.

"And these are just the ones not still getting fixed apparently," Boil adds, sharing the sentiment.

"Hey, you old geezers you wanna fill me in?" Kanan demands.

"Let's just say you should be glad you can't see anymore," Cal offers as a reply.

"Really? We've barely been together again for a day and you're already making jokes about my blindness?" he asks incredulously.

"Oh I'm sorry did I offend you?" he asks teasingly.

"Ugh," Kanan groans irritably, and Cal snickers at his expense.

"Geez, I can tell this'll be good," Boil remarks sarcastically to Rex.

"Yeah, I'll bet," Rex scoffs in agreement, looking over at them. "Hey, you two can chit chat and insult each other later, right now just transmit the codes."

Kanan shakes his head but opens the communication channel to the Chimaera, requesting clearance. Once the process is completed, and their codes cleared for landing, they head up into the hangar bay and land the shuttle. Getting up from their seats they make their way to the exit, putting their helmets on and ensuring their outfits are all correct.

"Comfortable?" Kanan asks teasingly, sensing Rex's discomfort.

"I thought I'd lost a little weight," he grumbles in reply.

"Once again Rexie, I offer you..." Boil starts off.

"Shut it Boil, I'm not going through your stupid training routine," Rex interrupts firmly.

The four step out of the shuttle in unison, only to be greeted by none other than Governor Pryce and her own stormtroopers.

"Troopers, stand down and remove your helmets," Pryce orders, glaring at them. "I'm placing you under arrest."

"There must be some kind of mistake sir. I'm sure we can..." Kanan starts to say, waving his hand for a Jedi mind trick.

"Shoot him," Pryce interrupts, noticing the gesture.

Without pause, one of her stormtroopers fires a stun blast at Kanan, catching him by surprise and knocking him out cold. The others look on in bewilderment before retaliating, shooting their own blasters. The initial stormtrooper is taken out, followed by the others, but not before one fires another stun blast that hits Rex, sending him down with a startled cry. Scowling, Pryce lunges forward and smacks Cal's blaster out of his hand before kicking him in the stomach, following up by swiftly kneeing him in the head.

"Agh!" Cal grunts in pain. "Not cool!"

He swiftly retaliates with his own punch, but Pryce grabs his arm mid-swing. Before she could follow up with her own attack Boil rams into her from behind, sending her stumbling away.

"Integrity be stuffed, don't make me beat the kriff outta you lady!" Boil snaps.

"Oh don't worry, you won't!" Pryce retorts smugly.

Rolling his eyes, Boil lunges forward to tackle her, but Pryce sidesteps him and kicks the back of his leg, sending him down to one knee. He grunts in pain before she punches him in the head, sending him to the floor. Cal jumps in with his own attack, throwing a punch that Pryce just narrowly avoids. She kicks her foot out at him, but he senses it in time to catch her leg and then yanks her down, throwing her off balance so he could slam her into the floor. Much to his surprise however she kicks her feet out once more to hit him fully in the face, his helmet almost coming off as a result. Boil gets up to attack her, but Pryce whirls to her feet and swiftly sends him back down with a kick to the head.

"You kidding me?!" he groans in pain, gritting his teeth.

Cal ducks out of the way of a punch from Pryce and then blocks her foot with his forearm, backing up. They exchange blows, both of them unable to hit anything more than air for a few seconds, before Pryce jumps forward with a sweeping kick. Cal stumbles back as it connects to his chest, looking up at Pryce in bewilderment.

"Honestly miss, this is just ridiculous," he scoffs.

"Is that so?" Pryce sneers.

She whirls around to kick him once more, but Cal responds by flipping forwards over her strike to land on the ground behind her, rolling to his feet in one swift move that catches her by surprise.

"Yep! So, might as well stop it!" Cal replies cheerfully.

He charges forwards and rams into her with his shoulder, hitting her in the gut so that she goes toppling to the ground in a heap, groaning in pain as the air is momentarily hit from her lungs. Before he could finish the fight however, she grabs a blaster from the floor and smacks Cal in the head with him, knocking his helmet off completely and sending him stumbling backwards in a daze. She aims her newly acquired blaster at Cal, but before Pryce could shoot him she was shot from behind by a stun blast, falling to the floor with a cry of pain.

From the catwalk above, Yularen widens his eyes upon seeing Lyste shooting down Governor Pryce before she could apprehend the disguised rebels, and he takes off to get a squad of stormtroopers.

"I've got her, seize the traitor!" Lyste orders the 'stormtroopers.'

However Cal, Boil, Rex and Kanan completely ignored his demands, helping each other up and into the shuttle. Ezra quickly joins up with them, AP-5 and Chopper rolling along behind them.

"Trooper, are you alright?" Lyste asks, confused. "Trooper!"

Ezra turns to Lyste and gives him a salute, grinning at him.

"Bad choice," he comments.

Lyste widens his eyes in recognition, scowling angrily at him.

"You! You're the shuttle thief of-" he starts to say.

Before he could continues, Kallus lunges forward and tackles Lyste to the floor, knocking him out cold. Taking the opportunity he switches out their code cylinders once more so that he has his own again, and Lyste's cylinder is back in the lieutenant's pocket.

"Come on, we've got to go!" Boil tells him, waving a hand.

"Kallus, come on!" Ezra adds for emphasis.

"There's been a change of plans, now that I've, captured, Fulcrum," he replies knowingly.

Ezra widens his eyes in understanding of his implication, but before they could say anything else a dark figure jumps off of the catwalk that Yularen was standing at only moments ago. The rebels notice the movement and look over, Cal widening his eyes in recognition of the Second Sister, who casually floats down through the air to land on the main floor gracefully, igniting her lightsaber.

"Going somewhere, rebels?" she calls out sinisterly, stalking forwards.

Without hesitation Kallus whips out his pistol and starts firing his blaster at Ezra and the others, though making sure not to hit them on purpose. Ezra ducks away from it and scrambles inside with the others as the shuttle starts lifting up from the floor, moving towards the hangar door. As the shuttle's ramp closes, Second Sister locks eyes with Cal, stopping in momentary surprise. They stare at each other for a moment before she narrows her eyes in newfound anger, her previous ploy to scare them off now being changed.

"We gotta go!" Cal exclaims to the others.

At that moment the blast doors into the hangar were blown open, allowing Yularen and a squad of stormtroopers to surge through. While Kallus continued firing his pistol at the fleeing shuttle, Second Sister sped up into a sprint, using the Force to enhance her speed as she charged at her prey. The ramp was now closed as the shuttle turned around to leave the hangar, but she wasn't willing to let them leave so quickly. Dashing forwards in a blur she jumps high into the air and raises her lightsaber, her blade directed straight for the engines.

Sitting in the pilots seat of the cockpit, Kanan could sense her oncoming attack with a flash of alarm. Thinking fast he pushes the throttle, blasting the shuttle out of the hangar at full speed. The exhaust from the shuttle blows Second Sister away, and she yells angrily in surprise before correcting herself midair with a backflip, managing to land of her feet. She stands back up and watches the shuttle fly away with a scowl, deactivating her lightsaber, and then turns her head to watch as Agent Kallus lifts Lieutenant Lyste up from the ground with an accusing glare.

"Traitor! You're the rebel spy!" Kallus snarls furiously. "Troopers, seize him!"

"What? What're you talking about?" Lyste asks incredulously.

Two stormtroopers grip his arms as Kallus relinquishes his hold on him, and Yularen looks on with a stern glare.

"Take him away," he orders firmly.

"No... wait! I'm not the spy, Governor Pryce is!" Lyste exclaims in protest, but the stormtroopers drag him away.

Yularen watches him go with narrowed eyes before approaching Kallus while another stormtrooper helps a dazed Governor Pryce to her feet. Second Sister observes the scene with narrowed eyes, scoffing at Lyste and then turning to look out the open hangar once more, her thoughts dwelling on the sudden appearance of her bitter rival... Cal Kestis. She hasn't seen him ever since her humiliation at Fortress Inquisitorius, just over ten years ago.

"It seems you stopped our spy from escaping, Agent Kallus," Yularen says in approval.

"Tell them Kallus, it's her!" Lyste pleads helplessly. "She's the one! Kallus!"

---

Hyperspace - Lothal Sector

"You sure Kallus is going to be okay back there?" Rex asks, concerned.

"He seems to think so," Ezra shrugs in reply. "He made it look like that 'Lyste' guy is the spy, so that should mean he's all clear."

"You never know," Boil adds skeptically. "But either way, at least we managed to get the heck out of there before the Second Sister recognized us."

"Yeah, no kidding," he replies with a scoff.

Kanan notices that Cal seems to be a little bit unsettled by something, sensing his unease, and so nudges his shoulder to get his attention.

"You seem a little bit off Cal. You alright?" he asks in concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I just... didn't expect to see that Inquisitor there," Cal replies.

"Well, she's been on our tail for a while now," Kanan explains casually. "But it hasn't been too big of an issue."

"I don't think she's ever had her helmet off before," Ezra chimes in thoughtfully. "She's a bit wacko, honestly."

"Those scars came from the Emperor himself," Cal explains, sighing.

"Seriously?" Boil asks, raising an eyebrow in realization. "Wait a second, you know her?"

"Yup. A while back she was hunting me and Cere," he informs them, glancing aside with a frown. "Her name is Trilla."

"Huh," Kanan remarks thoughtfully, trying to remember if he knows the name.

"Well, that's good to know, I guess," Ezra shrugs.

Cal nods his head but doesn't say anymore, staring forward at nothing in particular with a thoughtful gaze. Cere's just gonna love hearing about this, for sure.

---

ISD Chimaera, Thrawn's Office - Lothal

After the capture of Lieutenant Lyste as Fulcrum, Thrawn summoned all of them back to his office for a full report on the topic. Lyste's personal items were confiscated, including his code cylinder, which Yularen immediately had scanned to see what it was used for. Thrawn was seated at his desk for the meeting whereas Yularen and Governor Pryce sat on the opposite side of it while Kallus stood between them. Second Sister remained in the corner of the office much like before, preferring the shadows instead of being in the middle of the room amongst the others.

"I would've never thought Lieutenant Lyste to be the rebel spy. He never struck me as the type of man capable of something like that," Pryce scoffs, a look of disgust on her face.

"Perhaps he was only playing the part of a fool to trick us," Kallus suggests. "I guess his ruse worked."

"Indeed, Agent Kallus," a dark voice booms.

Everyone looks around in surprise to see Darth Vader marching into the office, his presence immediately felt around the entire space. The artificial breathing from his suit echoes around the office, still just as chilling and unsettling as ever. Kallus looks at him nervously, doing his best to compose himself and maintain his discipline in the face of the Sith Lord.

"Lord Vader," Second Sister acknowledges, inclining her head. "I did not expect your return so soon."

"My visit is only brief, Inquisitor, as I am keen to hear about the news of Shan's spy being unmasked," he replies, looking at Thrawn expectantly.

"Of course Lord Vader," Thrawn nods in acknowledgement. "Colonel Yularen, what evidence may you share?"

"According to all the evidence available, we can safely determine that our traitor is none other than Lieutenant Lyste," Yularen explains, placing Lyste's code cylinder on the desk. "This code cylinder confirms our suspicions. He used it to override security, release the prisoner, and contact the rebels."

"I have my own proof of Lyste's treachery," Pryce adds with a scowl, rubbing her aching shoulder. "Thank you for your brave actions, Agent Kallus."

"Indeed. Most impressive, agent," Second Sister adds, looking intently at him.

Kallus does his best to hide his unease at being the center of attention on this topic, least of all in the presence of not only an Inquisitor, but Lord Vader himself. Still, using his training from the Imperial academy he steels his nerves and resumes his facade.

"Unfortunately, not in time to stop him from an assassination attempt on the Admiral," Kallus says regretfully, inclining his head to him. "My apologies, sir."

"None required. He did not succeed. The Empire will make a note of your service, Agent Kallus," Thrawn responds, gesturing to him and Governor Pryce. "You may go."

"Thank you, Grand Admiral," Kallus says with a nod.

As he follows Governor Pryce to the exit, Kallus attempts to sneak a brief look at Vader to gauge his reaction, but the Sith Lord did not even spare him a glance, ignoring him completely. Once they leave, Second Sister turns her head to look at the door, a suspicious frown on her face. Thrawn and Yularen also stand up from their chairs, the former walking around his desk with his arms behind his back.

"Things have fallen into place a little too perfectly for my liking, and I don't think Lieutenant Lyste is capable of what you've accused him of," Yularen points out.

"He lacks the spine," Second Sister scoffs, crossing her arms.

"I agree," Thrawn says in reply. "You sensed it did you not, Lord Vader?"

"Indeed, Grand Admiral," Vader responds. "Jarik Shan would never entrust such an important task to someone as naive and inexperienced as Lyste."

The door to the office opens once more, and a stormtrooper captain walks carrying a helmet in his hands; the helmet Ezra first arrived in.

"Sir, the prisoner's effects have arrived as you requested," he reports, placing it on his desk.

As the trooper leaves, Thrawn stands beside his desk and places his hand on the helmet, gesturing to the markings on it.

"My good friends, what do you think of this design?" he questions.

"A beast of some kind," Yularen replies, a bit confused, but knowing Thrawn he figures he's on to something.

"A stylized expression of a loth-cat, a ubiquitous native of Lothal and rendered by a very familiar artist," Thrawn answers, turning towards the mosaic tile of art. "The use of this specific color, the angle of the line; this is the work of the rebel Sabine Wren. I believe this helmet belongs to her compatriot, the young Jedi and our escaped prisoner, Ezra Bridger."

"Bridger? If Bridger was the shuttle thief, than why didn't Kallus alert us?" Yularen questions, baffled.

"Because Agent Kallus is the one we seek. He is Jarik Shan's rebel spy, Fulcrum," Darth Vader states firmly.

Yularen pulls back slightly in unexpected surprise, and Thrawn nods his head in agreement with Vader's statement.

"Indeed Lord Vader. He used Lyste's cylinder to impersonate and implicated him, but more importantly he used the young Jedi's power to gain access to my office and reprogram my droids; very skillfully I might add," he explains with a knowing smile.

"I would never have suspected one of my best students, was capable of this betrayal," Yularen says, a deep frown on his face.

"And that is why you and so many others have been deceived," Thrawn replies simply.

"He has had a change in heart... he was a conflicted one," Second Sister remarks, narrowing her eyes. "I sense he's grown soft."

"With the lieutenant detained, you have made Kallus believe his secrecy is assured," Vader states, giving Thrawn a nod. "Most impressive in your deductions, Grand Admiral."

"My thanks, Lord Vader," Thrawn replies in acknowledgement, smiling in confident satisfaction. "I believe Agent Fulcrum will proof far more useful to the Empire than Kallus, ever was."

---

Author's Note: Oh boy... you can't fool the Grand Admiral for long, neither can you fool Darth Vader (unless you're Doctor Aphra apparently lol). Kallus is now operating on Thrawn's timetable, and he doesn't even realize it.

A few interesting points brought up in this chapter, as well as future conflicts that will have to be resolved in time... especially between two bitter rivals. Next up will be Mon Mothma's public denunciation of the Empire, and after that is the long awaited meeting on a certain desert planet. Guess where lol. To be honest I'm not too interested in writing out the episode "Double Agent Droid" because it feels like more of a filler, and there'd be nothing for me to change. I'd only make a joke about those Imperial technician geeks having some inspiration from Jarik's methods of slicing into computers and whatnot. So just assume everything went the same way in the Shaniverse as it did in canon.

Still, very happy to continue this story! Onward! :D