Chapter 9 – Death Star

Author's Note: Enjoy the action/chaos! ;)

~ Amina Gila


"They'll see a coming from the planet," Obi-Wan points out, feeling as if he finally needs to be the voice of reason. It's all good and well to have ideas about how to sneak around inside the giant starship abomination – who thought the title Death Star was a good idea anyway? – but none of that even matters if they get shot out of space before they even arrive. They're no use to anyone if they're dead.

His words make everyone pause for a moment. "We'll take the shuttle that I used to come down to the planet," Vader replies from where he's curled into Custos' side. He might be an adult now, but he somehow makes it work, and like that, knees pulled up to his chest, he looks so much younger than he is. He's only twenty or thereabouts. Twenty. Force.

What does the galaxy have against the Skywalkers? Obi-Wan can't help but wonder that with a sudden surge of bitter resentment. Both Anakin and Vader were forced to see things no child should have when they were young. And then, somehow, both ended up partaking in military operations when they were still practically children. Anakin was nineteen. Vader was eighteen. And Obi-Wan hates it. He finds it extremely… infuriating that neither of them got to have a proper childhood. He did his best with Anakin, and they all helped Vader, but he doesn't think it was enough. For either of them. They deserved better.

Anakin elbows him, breaking him out of his train of thought. "I know you don't like this situation any more than I do," he says under his breath, just loud enough for Obi-Wan to hear him, "And we can discuss all of your many, many complaints about how insane and suicidal this plan is after we carry it out, deal?"

He only doesn't roll his eyes, because it's such a juvenile thing to do, and he's far too mature for that. "What are we waiting for?" he asks pointedly.

Custos catches Obi-Wan's gaze, raising an eyebrow ever so slightly, the tinge of amusement in his eyes letting Obi-Wan know that he knows – or at least strongly suspects – that he knows what Obi-Wan was thinking. He very, very badly wants to kick him. But he won't do that either because he's too mature for things like that.

Sometimes, Custos likes to be extremely annoying when it comes to how overprotective Obi-Wan acts towards both Anakin and Vader.

"Nothing," Vader answers, pushing himself upright. "Let's go."

The other three stand in sync, and together, the four of them exit the room and head towards the landing platform where Vader's shuttle is located. There are two stormtroopers there while the rest are inside searching the Palace, so it's relatively easy to slip past them via a mind trick while Vader gives them instructions while joining them inside.

"We can only hope that whoever is in command of the Death Star will let us pass," Custos says quietly, voice strained as they strap themselves in. Vader and Anakin are in the pilot and co-pilot seats, respectively, and all four of them are bracing themselves for whatever is about to come.

No one speaks as they fly through the atmosphere, up towards the monstrous abomination looming over Alderaan like a small moon. Vader hails the station, informing whoever is in charge of his imminent arrival, and he's told which hanger bay to land in.

"I feel like something isn't right," Anakin mutters under his breath as they fly into the hanger bay and land. "I don't know what Sidious is up to. What is this station even here for? What purpose does it have? What would he have to gain by destroying Alderaan?"

Obi-Wan can't help but tense as Anakin says what all of them have, no doubt, been wondering. None of them have wanted to voice the possibility that Alderaan might be the ultimate target of the Death Star. And their family is down there. They have to succeed, because if they don't, Padme, the twins, and the Lars will die. And that will devastate Anakin. He might never recover from losing them. Obi-Wan knows that he probably won't either. None of them will.

"The target isn't Alderaan," Custos realizes suddenly, his horror flaring strongly through their bond. "It's – it's us. What do you think will happen to Ahsoka if all of us die?"

His words hang in the air, a sudden tension and dread rapidly filling the cockpit as the truth sinks in. If Sidious wants a powerful apprentice who will never betray him, who better to choose than one of them? And how else to ensure complete obedience except by breaking them? And Ahsoka is powerful, but not so powerful that Sidious couldn't destroy her if she poses a threat to him. All of this, it was intentional. It was orchestrated. Because he undoubtedly knows that he can never hope to control a Skywalker. And Obi-Wan and Custos will never stop fighting him if they lost everyone in their family. They'll fight him to the end, and they'd Fall so fast and so far, that Sidious would never be able to control them.

But Ahsoka?

She loves Anakin and Vader as siblings. She isn't affected by the powerful, unyielding bonds between a parent and child like the rest of them. She adores Luke and Leia, true, but they aren't her children, and she doesn't treat them as such. Ahsoka is family, of course, and her bond with all of them runs deep, but there is nothing that can compete with the bond between a parent and child. Anakin isn't fully Ahsoka's father, and that makes a world of difference.

From the muted shock and unadulterated panic echoing through the Force around him, Obi-Wan knows that they've all reached the same conclusion.

"Oh Force," Anakin breathes. "We can't let that happen."

This is about more than Alderaan now. This is about Ahsoka's soul. With so much on the line, they cannot afford to fail.

**w**

They manage to avoid surveillance as they duck from the shuttle to a nearby office terminal from which they can access the plans for the Death Star. Anakin gave himself five seconds on the shuttle to have an internal meltdown and panic attack over the conniving and manipulativeness that went into Sidious' plan. It's a fight to survive, and not just for him, for them, but for every single person who is under the Empire's tyrannical rule. If they fail, if they can't defeat Sidious, then much of the galaxy's hope will be lost.

Vader hasn't told any of them what happened to Ahsoka, but Anakin knows it isn't good, and he can't quite manage to repress the fury burning within him. Sidious hurt Ahsoka, his former Padawan, his little sister, his child practically, and Anakin will make him pay for it. They'll all make Sidious pay for all the things he stole from them.

But he can't focus on that right now. He can't focus on anything other than splicing into the network to get ahold of the plans for the Death Star. This battle station is enormous, and they'll never be able to find the reactors in it without some sort of guidance aside from the Force. They'll undoubtedly never reach their destination before being overrun by stormtroopers.

"I should have brought Artoo here," Anakin mutters under his breath, tapping on the computer console as past as he can. His faithful astromech is down on the surface with Padme and the rest of his family. Threepio is there too. There wasn't time to bring him from their residence, hideout rather, when it's on the other side of the planet.

"We can do without," Vader asserts, his tone blank, devoid of emotions.

"Yes," Anakin concedes, "But it will be much harder."

"Focus and you will succeed," Custos interjects.

Anakin obediently falls silent, turning his focus fully onto the console and hacking into it instead of letting himself get distracted by 'what ifs'. But suddenly, he feels a strange tremor in the Force, one that puts his senses on alert, and he reaches out cautiously, probing lightly. He knows of nothing that could have resulted in such a thing, and he nearly gasps aloud at the wave of darkness and evil that slams into him. He knows, even without having to verify, that their worst nightmare has come to pass. Sidious is here. The Emperor is here. He has undoubtedly been hiding so they would not sense him before walking into his trap.

"Sidious," Vader realizes at the same time. He sounds afraid, and Custos moves towards him, touching his shoulder, "And Maul. They're here. We – they will find us. We have to split up, provide a distraction. I have no doubt that they know we're here."

"Of course, they do," Obi-Wan points out. "They allowed us to land on the Death Star. They allowed us to come here when they could have had us shot down. They must be waiting for something. Or planning something."

"He is planning something," Vader asserts. "He is always planning. He is the manipulator. He knows how to play people."

There's a strange surety to his words that makes something uncomfortable twist in Anakin's gut. He doesn't like knowing that Vader can be so certain about what Sidious has done, about what he's capable of. He doesn't like thinking about how he came to possess that knowledge, either.

Of course, that raises another question. "Ahsoka," he blurts out. "Where is she? Is she here too?"

His words hang heavily in the air, and they exchange looks. "It's possible," Vader admits, "Perhaps it's even likely."

"Let's check prisoner recordings," Obi-Wan suggests, moving towards a second computer console next to the one where Anakin is working. He starts tapping rapidly, and Anakin can feel his intent concentration. He finds what he's looking for before Anakin is even close to being done. "She's here," he reports, "Located in one of the cell blocks, the most secure one, in fact. If we're going to get her out, we should go now."

"I'll come with you," Custos volunteers, much to Anakin's surprise. "Let's go." He gives Vader a final, searching look, and the younger man nods slightly before Custos leads the way from the areas where they're currently hiding out, heading off for the interior of the Death Star.

"May the Force be with you," Anakin calls quietly after them. Obi-Wan pauses, glancing back once before he leaves.

With their departure, Anakin refocuses on the console, tapping into the schematics for the monstrosity on which they're currently located. They need to find the reactor, so that they can set explosives to destroy it. All this time, they'd been planning for the eventuality that they would have to go to Coruscant to free Ahsoka from there. And they probably still will have to go there, if they are to secure the capital of the Empire, but they can at least free Ahsoka now. Hopefully. Anakin has no idea what Sidious has planned for all of them, after all.

"Found it," he declares, relieved.

"Then we have no time to waste. We need to head for the reactor immediately, and place the explosives," Vader decides.

Anakin has no objections, of course, and together, they set off through the massive complex that is the Death Star. Running into opposition is evitable. So, they'll simply have to be quick and hasty. After the first two platoons of stormtroopers which they encounter – and destroy, of course – they opt to move to the ventilation shaft, though it does slow them down somewhat, since they can't move around as freely, but at the same time, it's safer since it's not as easy for them to be located.

It takes far longer than Anakin would like before they reach a vent that opens onto the main reactor. Unsurprisingly, the system is huge, which makes sense given that something as massive as this battle station would requite huge amounts of power to move around, much less travel through hyperspace. If not for what it's capable of, Anakin would love to spend time studying the design of it to see how it works.

But now is hardly the time for that.

"Pass me the explosives," he murmurs to Vader, using the Force to levitate his own from through the vent grates and towards the reactor itself. He attaches them, one by one, around the core of the reactor. When they detonate them, they should set off a chain reaction that will destroy the entire complex. Hopefully. They can't make any guarantees, so they can only hope that will be enough. The Force doesn't warn him of any danger or trouble in the future, though, so he is willing to trust in it.

"That's the last of them," Vader whispers, as Anakin takes one final explosive from his hands, levitating it into place. If they're fortunately, the explosives won't be discovered until after they've already made it to the hanger. If they're discovered earlier and someone attempts to remove them, all of them will immediately detonate. It's a failsafe, and while it's not one Anakin wants to use, he doesn't see a choice.

He would rather die than allow this monstrosity to endure and be used to terrorize and destroy the galaxy. All of them would, though Anakin hates the thought of his family perishing. They simply need to be fast, quick. They need to hurry.

"Come on." He nudges Vader, pushing him to turn back the way they came. "We need to get out of here. I hope that Obi-Wan and Custos have found Ahsoka."

There's a flicker of some unnamable emotion from Vader, one that Anakin doesn't know how to decipher. Guilt, perhaps. Or rage, even. Maybe both. It makes him wonder, once more, what happened to Ahsoka while she and Vader were prisoners. He almost doesn't even want to know, but he needs to. He needs to know what has been done to his little sister.

Their exit from the ventilation shaft isn't quite as easy as their entry. They aren't actually spotted, but it's a near thing several times. The number of passing patrols is much greater now than it was before which isn't surprising, given that everyone must be on high alert; there is no way that their presences are still a secret.

Taking a risky gamble, Anakin reaches out to Obi-Wan through their bond. "Master, have you found Ahsoka?" he sends, mindful of the fact that he has to be careful lest Sidious sense the thought, or just as bad, their locations.

"No," he replies, sounding distracted and feeling more than a little annoyed, "We were… delayed. You'll have to go for her yourselves."

Anakin glances at Vader as they press back against a durasteel wall, waiting for more patrols to pass by them. It's strange for him to be wearing Jedi robes, especially when he hardly feels like a Jedi anymore. He's forsaken their primary principle: he has a family of his own now, but then again, he supposes these are changing times.

"Obi-Wan says they've been delayed," he tells him. "We should go after her."

Vader nods, sharply, golden eyes glinting with a disturbing hardness. His unignited, purple lightsaber in clenched tightly in his right hand. "It's a trap."

"Of course, it is," Anakin answers, trying to feign nonchalance, though his heart is pounding rapidly, "But we have a policy on springing them."

"Follow me." Vader says nothing more, stalking off down the halls, his black cloak swirling behind him as he prowls through the halls Anakin following him. He has a bad feeling about this for some reason, a pit of unease growing in his gut. Something is wrong. Something happened to Vader, to Ahsoka when they were captured, and yes, obviously, because Sidious wanted information from them, but Anakin can't shake the feeling that he's missing something huge. Or that the "something" has to do with Ahsoka.

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