Author's note:
First and foremost, I am sorry for my long absence. I shall spare you the details, but a lot has happened in my personal life that I needed time to deal with.
I never forgot this story and I still aim to finish it, but for now I am without a beta. I have tried to find one without any luck, and you have already waited for far to long for an update so I will try to continue on without a beta for now.
English is my second language and I hope you will forgive the grammatical mistakes I don't catch. :)
yours sincerely
-Scamasax
Chapter 17 - 'I am no Jedi' - Ahsoka Tano
"This is not your fault." He said little above a whisper. He did not recognise the voice that crawled past his teeth and he could barely hear his own words over the deadening sound of the alarm.
Maybe it was because he didn't want to hear the words himself.
"I should have protected you better. Kept you safe." He said with a weak smile as his eyes burned and a lump formed in his throat. He squeezed the limp hand gently. "There are some fights you cannot win no matter how brave you are."
:::
"You have news?" Palpatine asked in an uncharacteristic show of impatience, but he could afford to wait no longer. He had to be the one to deal with Vader before the jedi found him and made him talk.
Before he unveiled what Palpatine really was.
"I have sent our best operatives to track him down."
"But found nothing" Sidious said as the answered was glaring back at him in the force before Grievous could speak it. He reined the irritation in with a monumental effort and restrained it like he rarely did his fury. Anger would not aid him in this. "With all due respect to your men, General. I need this matter to be solved in a speedy manner."
"I assure you, they are working as fast as they can, lord Sidious." The general said and Sidious noticed a hint of offence at the dismissal of his men. Sidious chose his words carefully now, he could not afford to alienate the general at this crucial moment, especially not now when Dooku was gone.
"I do not question the abilities of your men, but this city is vast and they are behind enemy lines. I am merely suggesting that you seek the aid of people more familiar with the territory… and the hunt."
"Bounty hunters?" Grievous obvious distaste was only rivalled by the undisguised loathing in the force.
"Dooku too, hired bounty hunters when he saw the need." Sidious reminded him diplomaticly and to his silent relief saw a significant measure of Grievous anger drain from him.
"I will find out who the count employed." Grievous finally said after a pause. "it will be fitting that Dooku's murderer is dealt with by Dooku's own men."
Sidious sours instantly at the sound of that. Griveous condition should have prevented him from feeling any sort of attachment to anyone, but it was too late to change that now. The damaged had apparently already been done.
"Lord Sidious?"
"I prefer him alive, General." Sidious reminded his general. He picks is words carefully. He weighs them in his mind, trying to find a way to make Grievous use more productive emotions than the regret that has such a tight hold of him. Palpatine almost smiles when his wandering thoughts suddenly pinpoint the cause of Grievous anger in the force.
"You want to avenge Count Dooku?" Sidious say and fakes a short pause as he draws fake wonder into his tone. "I did not know you had been so… close"
"It is only to boost the moral." The cyborg denies, but he was never a good liar before and the force is coloured black with the General's ill hidden deceit. "It has not recovered since the death of Count Dooku."
Sidious nod, but whether it is to Grievous words or some thought of his own, the general wouldn't know. He considers the odd attachment again, wondering for a moment how he had not seen it form, but then he dismisses it. For now, he would use Grievous ill-place loyalty in his favour.
"There is one question I need Vader to answer. Then you can do with him what you want" He pauses. "Is that agreeable to you General?" with that the transmission ended and Grievous was once again alone in front of the console
If Grievous body had not been mutilated to the point where only his eyes and lungs were his own he would have smiled.
It was only battle and violent retribution these days that created any calm within him
:::
'There is too much of his father in him' a voice that sounded too much like Owen whispered like he had stood just beside Luke. Luke ignored the fathom as he had ignored the memory of the words ever since he learned the truth. Since the day he had learned his father's legacy was not something he should be proud of.
Rather the opposite.
Luke had not really put much thought to Owen's words back then. When he lived on Tatooine, he had thought that Owen simply… Luke sighed
'….What did I think Owen meant back then?' he thought. It was hard to remember, not because it was uncomfortable, which it was, but that person he had been back then seemed very far away now. 'Or maybe I am just getting old.' He thought with another sigh.
He had most likely though that Owen's comment had just meant that Luke had been adventurous like his father, because Owen was, put simply, the exact opposite of an adventurer. Luke had always longed for something… new, and that often came in conflict with Owen, who was the uncrowned king of backwards thinking.
'You are too much like your father.' Luke thought and it sounded like Owen in his mind. Luke remembered that he had been secretly glad whenever he could get Owen to say that sentence. It had been own personal badge of honour. That changed a long time ago on a planet named Beispin when that old pride cracked and left something heavy and cold in its place.
Shame.
Because he had never heard what Owen said and what the words really meant.
Too much like his father
Too much like Vader
Luke pulled the cloak closer around him and craved their borrowed warmth. The new cloak Fives had given him was softer and newer than the one he had worn before and less torn with age and use.
Luke already hated it.
Because this robe was not his, not in the way the old he left back in the hideout was. That had been a gift. This one felt so much warmer heavier around his shoulders, but the shadow from the hood felt colder.
"A museum?" Luke asked standing in the shadow of the building he was leaning up against and addressed Fives who stood stubbornly out in the evening sun as if the heat didn't bother him at all. He was not fooling Luke. The sun was practically baking the street in a strangling heat. It was so warm that it bothered Luke, and he was raised in a desert.
"Seriously?" Luke asked and pulled the cloak further down over his face.
He didn't like being out in the open like this, it made his skin crawl and wearing this Jedi robe…
He felt like a fraud.
"Can you think of a better hiding place for a smuggler?" Fives asked and sounded exactly like someone who had repeated the words more than once. "Look, it already told you. we need those security passes and this is the way that we get them, trust me-" Fives stopped suddenly, like he caught himself saying something he shouldn't, and Luke agrees wordlessly. Because of course he doesn't trust Fives.
"What is this place anyway?" Luke asked and threw a look around. The large entrance room looked like it could fit the millennium falcon with ease.
There were statues lining the wall. Most of them look like Jedi. A small indoor spring was in the centre of the room. There was a sense of peace to the place had the opposite effect on him.
This entire place was so peaceful and so tranquil that it felt fake.
"The galactic library…." Fives said and sounded more uncomfortable with this than he had been describing his plan to get into the senate. "Only the biggest collection of knowledge in the galaxy." He said with dismissing wave and adds with a condescending edge. "But I suppose your master didn't think it important enough to teach you that."
Luke didn't care for the tone, but the anger he sent out was distracted and muted, like his heart wasn't really in it.
"They did not." He answered the not-question to get rid of the bile he suddenly felt. "I was only told what they needed me to know."
"Can't say that surprises me." Fives said with his normal perceptive straightforward manner. "And what was it they needed you to know?" Fives pried
"The name of a traitor." Luke said unable to keep the almost wistful expression of his face. "I was supposed to kill him." He said as they memories came rushing back. It had been so much easier back then when the world was carved so neatly into black and white. He smiled a crooked smile at the thought. He then shook his head and the default blank expression returned.
"And did you?"
"Why do you think I am here?"
Luke looked to his reluctant ally but he wasn't getting anything he could use from the mask that covered Fives face. It was impossible to gauge his expression under the strange armour Fives had said belonged to the underground security force on Coruscant. It covered Fives completely.
The blue uniform with the yellow markings on the shoulders was clearly created for close combat even if it was just made of leather and not something stronger.
"Palpatine is the traitor then?" Fives said, and even without the force Luke would recognize the ill-disguised disbelief creeping over the vocoder.
"No." Luke said and barely supressed a hopeless laugh when there was a sharp warning pain from the scars of his left arm.
Fives turn his head towards him. The mechanical eye coverings that shone back out at him made Fives eyes menacing red. Luke was secretly grateful it was red and not yellow, the uniform already reminded him too much of Darth Vader.
Maybe that was why he was so on edge right now.
"I don't think you chose the right disguise for this." Luke said honestly, more to change the subject than for any other reason. This place didn't seem like the spot where criminal contacts would hang around. It didn't look like a place that needed special security for that matter.
Fives had confidently said that the uniform belonged to the underground law enforcement. Luke himself still did not see how it would fit in here. Fives and he were clearly not underground and this looked like a peaceful part of town.
Unlike the slums he had crossed through when he just landed.
"Believe it or not, but the underground security department come to this library quite often. It has an extensive section about law." Fives said as is he could see the question in Luke's mind. Without slowing down as the crossed the giant entrance room. "Personally, I think it is because they want to keep themselves update on how much they can get away with."
He made a discreet turn as if to catch Luke's reaction to this. The revelation might have shocked him if he had not grown up on Tatooine. Lawmakers there usually did whatever they wanted regardless of the law itself. As far as he knew, no one usually bothered to know what was actually written in the law. Who was going to hold them accountable anyway?
If Fives had any reaction to Luke's indifference, it was a mere ripple in the force that died as soon as it rose into existence.
"And are we meeting one of them here?" He asked. He would not be surprised to find that officers of the underground security department were corrupt as well as ruthless. He had found that to be the rule rather than the exception in all the worlds he had visited.
"What? No we are -" Fives stop himself and straightens. "Wait… There he is. Finally!" Fives exclaim with relief rising in the force. "See that guy over there?"
The man Fives indicate stands alone in the open room, close to a big fountain. The water from the delicate spring is thrown meters into the air in a graceful arc. He cannot stop himself from thinking that back on Tatooine people fought and died to claim water resources that were smaller then the amount than was used for this… decoration
He is equally awed and sickened at the sight of so much water used so uncaringly. The sight of it is almost macabre.
Luke shook his head. 'Focus' he thought harshly and quickly located the man Fives spoke of. He was standing right beside the fountain.
The man was wearing bright colours that were just as painfully cheerful as that of the surroundings, but his signature was a different creature altogether. It was worn and flayed at the edges. A dull echo is all that comes from his mind. It is unnaturally muted and fragmented. It was difficult to see how something so broken could help them.
'But most broken things have their uses' He reminds himself and the memory of who said that sentence first is still as sharp and painful as it was when he heard it the first time. Even watching that horrible memory still feels like swallowed glass.
"Him?" Luke asked and pulled his senses away from the memory he could not forget. He tries instead to focus on the man by the fountain, their target.
He is a thin man with a thinner smile. The smile is a not-thing and there is no imprint of it in the force. "He does seem like the type." Luke added as an afterthought and ignore the memory that still feels like cold sharp nails down his back.
"What exactly have you promise him?" Luke asked and stretched his senses to gain some comfort from the force. It took much more effort than it should to connect to the force and that is despite the fact that the light side of force comes rushing to him willingly and envelop him in a gentle warmth. Luke is grateful for calm it gives him, and finally the last shreds of the memory passes. "Types like that don't do anything for free." He muttered as he tried to stay focused.
The force gathered tightly around him like it had sensed his distress, and its closeness felt uplifting and warm like sunlight. There was a constant gentle…presence, that was hard to explain since he has nothing to compare it to. This entire planet feels rich and plentiful and the force feels young and whole in a way he had never encountered before his journey back in time.
And in this place the force feels even more serene… sacred even.
He almost didn't want to touch the force here. He does not wish to taint it with the darkness from the doomed future that must have blended into his own signature. But it was too hard to resist when it was beaconing so sweetly for him.
It was like he imaged it would be to touch the heart of a supernova, so vibrant and alive did it feel.
In comparison, everything he had felt before was a poor imitation, like the force in his own time was only a shade of the real thing.
He did want to reflect on that and instead allowed himself, for a brief moment, to open his force connection completely to the force. Immediately he felt a rush of relief that bleed the pain from him and his mind was at peace. He basked in the intense warmth and comfort that sunk into his troubled mind.
After what happened last night he had felt diminished. When he had woken up he had felt like he couldn't fight his way out of a paper bag and hours later he still felt like he had been… hollowed out. It felt like there was a little less of him now than there had been yesterday, like a part of him had been gutted out.
"He owes me a favour." Fives explain with a low voice and steps a little closer to Luke to keep their conversation private with so many people about. "He has also a tendency to be more curious than is good for him."
"He is the one that will get us the security passes to the senate?" Luke asked
"He…. Is the one that will get us in contact with the guy who makes them."
"Great." Luke says and means the opposite. He barely suppressed a sigh. Suspicious criminals with their endless precautions were and had always been exhausting.
"Are you even sure these security passes will get us through the gate, after what happened yesterday?" Luke said.
"They will." Fives said and sounded very certain and that was good. Luke needed at least one of them to be certain about this. "This particular gang have a very impressive reputation."
"Answer me this." Luke asked as he fixed his connection in the force on the anonymous figure. "If you know about what he is doing and who he is working for, why is he still… in business?"
Why leave such an obvious danger wide open?
"You need proof before you can convict somebody." Fives says like it is a lecture. "That is how our democracy works."
Like that wasn't also the case where Luke came for. Or at least it had been…
In the beginning.
"Like they did with you?" Luke said, with a hard look. He felt a flicker of regret at the startled hurtful feeling in the force, but in the end, he did not care. He was tired and his patience had been worn thin by watching Fives' disgust and hate stare back at him in the force. The relief the light side of the force gave him could not drown that frustration out.
"How is that working out for you?" Luke asked nastily, leaned forward towards the trooper and stares at those two red spots where he knows Fives is staring back.
He had had it with Fives superior attitude!
"That is different. I know exactly how it looked like to the general, and with the poison I-" Fives starts and stops and in the force, the sentence doesn't finish either. There is a weak image of Luke in the force from Fives perspective when he woke up back in the alley after the ambush. Luke almost starts at how worn he looks in that memory. The memory blinks out in a second.
But the cold touch of it lingers like a nightmare in this mind. Did he already look that bad? In the force, there was suddenly not the now familiar anger from Fives, but a different feeling. It is frail and weak and it tries to devour itself. Luke turned his inner sight away from it in disgust and his head rip away from Fives as if pulled by a sharp tug.
The only sound between them is the slight noise of mumbled conversation around them and the gentle sound of the water from the fountain. Luke stands up straighter and narrow his eyes at the trooper. Luke needed to show strength, he could not let Fives see his own doubt.
He did not want to know what the trooper would do with it.
Despite Fives helping him yesterday, Luke still did not know if he could trust him. Especially not when Fives thoughts of betraying Luke had survived the night. But he could not forget either, how genuinely worried Fives had been when Luke had woken back up.
Fives was a difficult man to read.
"What do I need to do?" Luke ask, more to break the tense mood than anything else.
Fives stare at him, like there is something he wants to say, but the sentence never comes. Out of the corner of his eyes he sees Fives shoulder sag and shortly after his words breaks the tense silence between them.
"let me do the talking." He said strongly in a way that left little room for argument. "You just need to… make him do it." Fives say, and the hesitancy on the last words did not go unnoticed. Luke saw the hidden worry Fives shot his way in the force. It was a hidden worry that Luke could refuse that kind of mind violation.
Fives worried for nothing.
'You would have refused to do that once.' Luke reminds himself, but shakes the thought off him instantly. That was a long time ago, and he was no longer so soft. He had long since crossed that line, and many others like it, on the long way down in pursuit of an impossible victory.
He says nothing of this to Fives. He just nods and starts walking.
Then he stops hallway through a step. There I something moving in the force, many somethings. It does not register as a threat. They are all bright and small, but Luke's unease makes him stop all the same.
What was he sensing? This was not like sensing a jedi. It was… wilder, younger but just as bright. Then he spots something out of the corner of his eyes and he understands
"Is there something you want to tell me Fives?" his hand tightens around the hilt of the lightsabre. His unease colouring the force dark. "Why are there jedi here?"
"What?"
"The fountain."
"Wait!" Fives whisper and there is something that looks like horror in the force. Then he follows Luke's eyes "…a padawan!" He says agitated. "There should not be a padawan here."
'Padawan.' His mind registered as his eyes fell on the figure Fives indicated 'Jedi apprentice.'
Luke threw a look around and makes himself very small in the force. The force is now muted to him like this. It is like feeling something cold through a glove, but the trick hides him for now.
"If I use the force now, he will notice." Luke said like he knew this for a fact. The certainty of it lay thick and unavoidable in the force. "and maybe also the others."
"The other's?"
"We are not alone here." Luke felt this with certainty. A padawan would not wander here alone. where was the padawan's master? Luke knew what he was capable of doing but he had had less than a few months of training put together and Jedi in this day and age were trained almost from birth.
A jedi master no matter how little in power might prove more than he could manage simply because he or she had more experience.
"Are you trying to get rid of me, Fives?" Luke said, realizing the brilliant setup this would be. If he used force persuasion here then he would give himself away and slip a noose willing around his own neck. "…and here I thought we were getting on so well."
"No!" Fives was suddenly in front of him, catching Luke's eyes with a desperation that was sharp in the force. "I swear on my brothers! I did not know they would be here!" He lowers his voice to a whisper. "They should all be confined to the temple with a sith in the area."
He adds like an afterthought. "It is standard procedure."
And Luke feels both the desperate conviction of that sentence along with Fives' genuine confusion so sharp in the force that is has to be real.
"You cannot convince your friend without my help?" He asked slowly.
"Unlikely." Fives said and it sounded like an apology.
But that did not make the problem go away.
'Now what?' Luke thought and searched the surroundings with a steeled look but found nothing.
"Do you see his master?" Luke asked, because that was the real problem. He could deal with the padawan, his force signature was pathetically weak, but a Jedi master would complicate things significantly. He reopened his connection to the force carefully, keeping his presence low and hidden as he had practiced for so long.
There were little lights in the force, but they had moved further away deeper into the library from this open circular room that seemed to form the centre of the library. 'More padawans?' he thought. But in either case they were far enough away that a simple mindtrick should not alert them.
The one padawan near the fountain, on the other hand would notice. He seemed to have separated himself from the others and his force presences was heavy with shame for some reason.
Even from this distance Luke could tell the padawan was very young, hardly more than a child.
"I don't see any master." Fives said but sounded as doubtful as Luke himself felt. "But that does not mean there isn't one." Fives sounded like he spoke from experience and Luke could not help but be cautions himself.
'There had to be a master around' Luke thought 'Surely, the jedi did not permit them to be out like this on their own with things as they were?' He carefully stretched his sense a little further, for a hidden Jedi.
He found nothing
"I don't sense anyone strong in the force aside from a few back there." He told Fives and kept his focus solely on the Padawan. "If I am careful they might not notice anything at all." He hesitated for one moment. "but there is no getting around him." he said with appointed look at the Padawan at the fountain.
"We'll then get rid of him!"
"What!" Luke couldn't hide his shock. "What can I do about it!"
"You are a jedi master!" Fives said and pointed for good measure at the robe Luke was wearing. "He will listen to you!" When Luke just stared blankly back at him Fives looked away and scratched the back of his neck. "Just… be strict. Tell him to go back to his friends. He shouldn't be running around on his own anyway with everything that is happening."
"And how do you suggest that I do that? Fives, I already told you. I don't know anything about-." He bit the words back and let the sentence die. He didn't want to admit to that weakness a second time, but Fives must have understood anyway, because he suddenly looked... diminished.
"He is just a kid." Fives said slowly like that changed anything. "Just tell him to re-join the other kids. He won't suspect anything. "If Fives hadn't looked genuinely uncomfortable about asking it, then Luke wasn't sure he would have tried and even with it he is not sure he can do it regardless.
Fives confused him. The troopers hate and fear was genuine, he could feel the certainty of that in the force, but at the same time he could feel a more vulnerable feeling that felt… kind. How could one person feel such conflicting feeling at the same time?
"All right." He said, but secretly he would rather have fought Anakin again, Vader or the man in black he met the first time on Hoth, the same man who-. Luke gritted his teeth and banished the memory that tasted like frost. He started walking towards the innocent child that was lost in the lowliness inside his own head.
The look of the padawan was as genuine as it was heart-breaking. He didn't need this reminder of what his life might have been like if Palpatine's empire had been killed before it rose from the dark.
Luke's borrowed cloak dragged over the floor, as he closed the distance between them. He could not tell much from the padawan who sat with his back turned, but his presence in the force was relatively strong. His shoulders were hunched and his mood in the force equally so.
Luke stopped and took a long breath, steeling himself. What should he say? What would Yoda had said? He sighed 'pull yourself together!' he thought in self-disgust 'Yoda isn't here.'
"You should be with your brothers and sisters, Padawan." Luke said, making the tone strict as Fives had advised. The irony of taking instruction from a clone-trooper on how to act like a jedi was not lost on him.
Startled the boy looked up, his green eyes were wide there was a brief moment of panic in them before the Padawan gaze shifted to the robe. Then his force presence became wary in a different sense and Luke could already feel the apologies and excuses lining up when he continued. "You should return to the group."
"I…" the Padawan stuttered "I just needed somewhere to practice...alone" He tried to excuse himself.
"I see… but that does not change the fact that there is a sith running around. It is very irresponsible of your master to simply leave you here unprotected." Luke said and saw a glimpse of worry in the force that he instantly used to his benefit. "What is your master's name?"
"Please don't tell her, I already argued with her today! That why she sent me here with the others….and I was supposed to stay with them, I just-" The panic was almost endearing in comparison to the emotional roller-coaster Luke had been through in these last horrific days. He was careful not to show that though. "But I- I just needed to practice. There are- I needed to practice on my own, where no one sees it- no, I mean… distracts me"
"There will always be distractions. You need to focus through them."
"Don't you think I try! I always fail. Always. And then the others think it's so funny, they- " the padawan shuts his mouth like he had said too much. The frustration was real and weighed heavy on the Padawan's mind. Luke could see in the force that the child instantly regretted his outburst. "Sorry, I-"
Luke just waved the apology off. "fail?"
"I should be able to levitate things with the force by now, everyone else in my year can do it." the padawan sighed. "I do alright in the lightsabre forms, but I just can't make this work." He made a quick gesture with his hand that suddenly made him loose his grip on the little item he held in his hand.
Before Luke thought about it, he had already moved the force to catch the object before it landed on the floor. To Luke, the strange little item looked like a holocron, only smaller and more compact.
"…Rub it in my face, why don't you?" The Padawan muttered and plucked the item from the air with his right hand. "Everyone makes it look so easy."
"How are you trying to do it?" Luke said by some unknown urge and sat down beside the padawan on the edge of the fountain. Maybe if he solved the problem the padawan would go on his own accord and that would draw considerable less attention from the surroundings than an upset child would.
"I… I just think about how much I want to lift it." He said.
"That doesn't work." Luke said reminded of his own poor attempts in the beginning. "Don't demand it like the force is not already in your control."
"Huh?"
"Make it feel more… natural, like the force is just an extension of you."
The padawan's dark brown brows pulled together in a questioning expression. "Like a tool?" He said. "But that is not what master Yoda said. He said the force is an ally."
"And it is, in a way, but on a deeper level. The force is a part of you." He paused searching for the words to explain what he had been doing for years. "Would you call your body a tool? Your body is a part of you too, but it is not everything you are" Luke said "Think of the force as a part of you on the level that your body and your spirit is. You and the force are not separate entities. You are one."
"Like this." Luke said and once again lifted the tiny cube-like item ease before it floated back into the padawan's hand. "Now you try it."
There is hope in the padawan's eyes when he turns to the cube with an intense look of concentration on his face, but despite the fierce attempt the cube did not lift. "It doesn't work." The padawan said and his disappointment and misery is a crushing weight in the force.
"Are you sure? I think I saw it move a little." The lie passed easily past Luke's lips, because it serves an important purpose. The cube would never move because the boy did not believe he could move it. It was the first lesson Yoda taught him.
"You did?" The padawan's spin his head back around to the cube in his hands. Hope is once again there in the force, bright and fragile. The vulnerability of that young hope makes something painful clench in Luke's chest.
"Try again, but this time don't think that the force is something you reach for." He said, translating the things he had done for so long and never before put words to. "It is already with you. You just need to open the connection."
The boy turned back to the cube, agitation blasted from him in the force, but so did his determination. He breathed in heavily and reached forward with his right hand. Luke nudged the boy's force presence carefully in the right direction. He is careful, very careful, because he feared to accidentally hurt the boy whose force presence felt incredibly fragile.
The boy did not notice Luke's gentle help in the force, so intent was he on the cube in his hands. This time, with an invisible hand guiding the boy's force power, the cube moved a little.
The boy gasped and look up to him. In his surprise, the connection was broken and the cube fell lifeless. "Again." Luke said with a smile and pulled his own force power back to himself. He felt the boy's signature in the force when he reached out again. Where there before had been only dejection and doubt, there was now determination.
This time, by some miracle, the cube did not only move but hoovered gently over the boy's hands. Luke does not know who is more surprised, himself or the Padawan.
"It worked!" The boy cheered a little too loudly, and his bright smile is so wide it almost split his face in two. In the force, his presence is suddenly blazing. "It actually worked!" He turns to Luke and suddenly he is caught in an embrace. "Thank you!" The arms squeezed tighter. "Thank you so much!"
Luke just freezes at the unexpected contact until the boy let's go again. He is taken completely off guard and his mind is still grasping for straws when they both stand up, even if his heart feels weirdly lighter and he could still feel the tight hug around him.
Maybe it was because of the stress.
"My name is Caleb. Caleb Dume." The padawan says. Caleb makes a slight bow and look expectantly up and Luke knows he will have to give a name as well. Just not his own. It has to be one that no one knows.
"Solo." He said as the first name he can think of that no one would know. "Just call me Solo." He resists the urge to shift the weight on his feet because of the open admiring expression that looks back up at him. "And now you should re-join the others, just to be safe."
Eager to please, the boy is quick to do as he is told. "Thank you again Master Solo." The boy waves and rushes off in the direction of the other presences Luke can feel in the force. Calab's force presence is still buzzing with excitement.
'Master Solo' he didn't know to laugh at the absurdity of that or do the opposite. Han would have thought it was funny at least, 'Or he is rolling in his grave.' An unbidden thought added dryly. But at least now that problem is dealt with, without any incident-.
"That is not you real name, is it?"
Fives voice almost make him start. He had to force his body not to jump at the sudden presence of his unwilling ally.
"The problem is dealt with." Luke says and was inwardly angry that he had been caught off guard like that. "We should move before someone else comes around."
"Is it your real name?" The trooper persists.
"Of course not."
Somehow Luke knows Fives does not really believe that without listening to the secrets the force whispered around him. "Someone you knew then?" The perceptive trooper asked with his eyes fixed to catch Luke's reaction.
"Let's just get this done before your contact leaves." Luke snaps in reply and does exactly that when he sets off for their contact that is standing only a little distance away.
Their target smiles at them with his slimy not-smile as they stop in front of him. There is a wariness and a question behind the brown eyes as if the man could somehow sense the danger standing in front of him. The thought is silly of course, because there is not even a speck of force-sensitivity in him.
Still the weariness turns into all out terror when Luke lifts his hand.
The man does not even manage the warning yell that is almost at his lips when the force crushes down around him. Luke is not careful, there is no time for that.
The question in his mind disappears in the struggle that is surprisingly strong for someone blind to the force. The man's mind is resisting but Luke is old to this game and after a short struggle the mind cave under the pressure. There is the sound like breaking glass in the force and all struggle seize at once.
The man stiffens as if frozen in time. In the timespan of a heartbeat he does not blink and he does not breathe. Then he deflates and the man looks back up at Luke with an open gentle expression.
The smile feels weaker but at the same time it was more vibrant in the force than the other smile was before when the man was in control of his own body.
That fact is more unsettling than he wants to admit.
::::
The shadows had grown long again before they returned with to the temple. Windu had not spoken a word all the way here and Anakin did not feel like talking either right now, so that suited him just fine.
Obi-wan was waiting for them. Barely had he laid eyes on them before the hopeful expression fell. Their success… or lack thereof must have been practically written on their faces.
"Still nothing?" Obi-Wan asked and stood up from the chair and out of the blue light of the projected video in front of him. The recording from the warehouse's cameras kept playing silently until Obi-wan quickly froze it with a quickly typed command.
Anakin shook he head, and knew he looked more defeated than he really should so early in an investigation. "Rex is following a lead right now, but I doubt it anything." Anakin said, feeling the tiredness like a heavy weight on him after a long night searching for Vader and Fives. Despite this he would have been out there with Rex if he wasn't sure it was another dead end.
Because Vader being spotted hanging out at a library in the upper districts was laughable. What the in the world would a known sith do there? He couldn't remember when he last heard something so ridiculous!
"We will find him in time." Windu said, putting an intentional stress on the second word like he was trying to convince the Jedi beside him, and maybe he did.
Obi-Wan closed the distance to them. He wore the worried expression on his face that Anakin hated.
It is the same expression his old master seemed to wear constantly these days, and Anakin is well aware that he is part of the reason. He knows he is a bundle of nerves and his old master knows him well enough to see it the second he walked through the door.
"We searched every part of the area, within the blockade." Windu says with a tried look. He brushed a hand across his face and sighed. "Vader must have slipped past us somehow."
Obi-Wan glances at Anakin, who in turn looks at the paused recording for a long moment. It gives him an excuse to get a hold of himself. It had stopped right after Vader had made his entrance and taken out most of the clone troopers.
"He is more skilled than we first estimated." Windu just say and Anakin is silently grateful that Windu does not showcase the magnitude of Anakin's failure last night. It was bad enough that he knew he would have to go over that recording multiple times.
But it shouldn't have surprised him as much as it did. Despite their differences, he knew that Windu was never the type to stoop to mocking someone for their failures. He was bigger than that.
"He might well be an equal to Dooku, but his area of expertise is different." Mace says and watches with narrowed eyes the recording replay itself. He then straightens and turns to Obi-Wan."He relies heavily on pure strength of power and not as much on technique."
Mace looked thoughtful for a moment before he added. "We have widened the search, if Vader even pokes his nose out into the street we will have him." Mace Windu said and sounded certain. "I trust security is heightened both here and in the senate, have been improved as well?"
Obi-Wan nodded. "He will not get in here again. All he had the first time was the element of surprise and he has already spent that." As compelled by some unseen urging, Obi-wan added. "And I trust you will find him very soon." Obi-Wan says with a certainty that Anakin allows himself to bask in for a moment until he sees Obi-Wan give him a strange look. "Right, Anakin?"
Anakin tries to mask his uneasiness in the force, but the damage was already done and the worry remain in Obi-wan's eyes.
'Obi-Wan must think I am worried about Vader' Anakin thinks 'that is part of it but-' A memory springs to mind unbidden, as recent as it is beautiful. Padmé's belly is well hidden beneath the flowing dress and veils Anakin's greatest joy and greatest worry.
Anakin couldn't tell Obi-Wan the true reason. He wouldn't understand. Vader's words still haunted him. 'What will they say when they discover your secret…?' it was a terrible question, and it had been looping in his mind ever since the confrontation with Vader. What would they say?
Anakin was going to be a father.
But the Jedi could not be fathers.
That was simply not how the world worked. No one had ever broken this rule, as far as he knew, until now. And what would the order do if they found out? Exile him? What would-
"…Anakin?"
They were both looking at him expectantly.
What had they been saying?
"Sorry." Anakin said quickly, panic and embarrassed warred against each other at being caught like that. "What were you saying?"
"I have analysed the lightsabre you took from Vader." Obi-wan said and was polite enough not to sound like it was the second time he said it. "I wanted to identify the Jedi he had taken it from."
"And have you found out who it belongs to?" Mace cut in.
Obi-Wan nodded.
"Excellent, then we might return it to-"
"He is dead." Obi-Wan said and there is a rawness to the words that made Anakin pause.
"What?" Anakin said in shock. He had been so sure that Vader's reluctance to kill was a fact. 'He is a killer after all.' He thought and surprised at the bitter disappointed taste that gives him. 'He lied.'
"Who is dead?" Windu broke in, his frown is deeper than usual, twisted by concern. "I have heard no such news."
"It is because it isn't news. This Jedi have been dead for years." Obi-Wan answered cryptically and sighs like the words are hard for him to voice. Anakin cannot help but notice that Obi-wan avoids looking anyone in the eye. "I know that for a certainty because I was there when he was murdered." He pauses before he continues in a lower voice.
"This lightsabre belonged to my old master, Qui-Gon Jinn."
::::
Fives wasted little time and asked the necessary questions. Soon the man nods in agreement and his eyes smile brightly like he was greeting family or two old friends. It moves something uncomfortable within Luke and it takes all the control he has left to shut it out.
The man reaches into his pocket and draws out a small holocom. Luke finds himself reluctantly impressed by the technology. It is almost on the same level as the more advanced technology back in his own time.
"it is just a small favour." Fives says like it is indeed just that and Luke makes their contact agree and show this with a nod.
'This is for the greater good' He tells himself as Fives keeps up the chatter with their target who responds readily at Luke's command. The strings of his free will is in the palm of Luke's hand as the man tells whoever is on the other side of that holocom that he has to clients willing to buy.
The man in helpless to resist, not that he knows he should resist anymore because his mind is dormant now, gone, and all the while this happens there is that old disappointed voice whispering in Luke's head. It is the same words over and over.
'There is too much of his father in him.'
It makes Luke feel sick. but If any of these people, like the padawan, were to have any future he needed to go through with this.
Still…
In the heat of battle earlier, when there had been so many strings, so many faces, it had been easy to forget what he was doing. But now? In this quiet scene and with only one puppet caged in his power?
He was not as good at lying to himself as he used to be.
'This is for the greater good.' He repeats with more of the false strength that had pushed him this far and the ice in his eyes go even colder. Fives visibly notice, but he does not comment on it.
'There is too much like his father in him' The voice inside insists, louder than beforeand he straighten his spine in defiance.
So be it.
Luke suddenly feels the small presence of Caleb the padawan from before, and Luke is already repressing a frustrated reaction when he feels someone else with the Padawan. Someone stronger, a lot stronger. Someone that feels just lik-
'No!' he thinks in denial cursing his eyes. It is like being thrown into Ice cold water. 'Not him!' not the only one Luke knew for a fact he would have no chance against.
He rips his hand back and the man crumble to the ground. "We need to go!" He says and grasp Fives' arm in the same moment he makes a straight line for the door.
"Wait!" Fives protest. "We are not done!"
But Luke is and he has already pulled Fives with him through the door and halfway through the entrance hall. His heart is hammering in his chest and his feet move faster and faster.
"What is the big hurry!" Fives demand and pull back to reclaim his arm. In that same moment the game is up.
"Stop!" A voice comes from behind and the entire force shakes with the order. Luke's feet disobey him the moment the word register. He struggles against the order that rumbles through the very core of the force but before he rips the order off him, he has already been turned around.
In front of the Padawan known as Caleb Dune stands the person Luke never wanted to see in this time. There is no sight of the lightsabre yet but the pressure in the force is monstrous.
"M-master Yoda." Fives gasps beside him.
All around Luke the force is screaming back at him one single word.
Run!
Thank you for reading the story, let me know what you think :)
