I do not own Star Wars. This Fanfiction is just how I wanted to express my love for the Empire, Anakin and Vader.

"This is taking too long…" Barriss complained through the earpiece in her helmet. "We should just flush her out."

There was a moment of silence before she got an answer.

"No. That would just be more problems for us in the long run." Aayla retorted, the device ever so slightly modifying her voice.

The young inquisitor then looked up and, across the street, saw her partner. Though it was too far for her to actually see, she knew that she was doing the same.

"I still think it's better to simply make her come out from wherever she´s hiding." She added, irritation clearly present in her voice.

For the last couple days, ever since they had been summoned by the Emperor, the inquisitors, as well as Lord Vader, had been scouting Coruscant in search of Ahsoka Tano. They often spent several hours in the streets, tailing any Togruta that might fit her description or any trace of Force manipulation, often with little success; after their search, they then returned to their base so that they could continue their training regime.

"The Emperor told us to find her, that doesn't mean that we can just do whatever we want. We´re not bounty hunters." Aayla again made her case.

"No. We're much better than that. We're…"

"Silence." The cold, dark voice of their Master commanded.

Though Lord Vader was a few streets away from them, neither of the inquisitors dared disobey an order, lest they risk angering him.

"She´ll appear soon enough. And then we´ll deal with her appropriately." He finished.

Barriss let out a small sigh of relief as soon as communication was cut off. She had known Vader ever since both were Jedi and back then, whenever he was angry, his presence became unsettling; now that he had fully embraced the dark side it was downright terrifying.

Surprisingly enough however, this assignment had made him show more emotion than usual. He seemed almost… eager to find his former Padawan and he was very much willing to get his hands dirty to do so, as his walking along the streets to find Ahsoka personally, showed.

"Focus." Aayla interrupted her thoughts. "Remember why we´re here."

Barriss groaned, but did her best to push aside her thoughts and turn her attention outwards, searching with her eyes, as well as the Force, to find who they were looking for.

It took a couple minutes, but eventually both inquisitors began moving.

What they had sensed was little more than a faint ripple in the Force, but it was familiar to them and, at the same time, not aligned to the dark side. After all their fruitless searching however, that was enough to get them to act.

Barriss immediately began moving from rooftop to rooftop, jumping, sliding and climbing as she moved closer to the source of the disturbance, more than happy to get things done.

Aayla at first was hesitant, she felt the same thing as her companion, but waited for a moment to see Vader´s reaction. He didn´t seem to move, or even care, about what they felt. She considered staying with him but, seeing Barriss moving on her own and her Master´s indifference, she decided to follow the ripple and deal with the Jedi herself.

Vader felt the small ripple away from him. The presence was familiar, but he wouldn´t just act out of impulse. He began searching deeper, farther than he already was, to find what he was looking for. He noticed the other two moving away from him, going after the distraction and he considered stopping them for a moment but, ultimately, he decided to ignore them. If they fell for that, it was their own incompetence to deal with.

He continued searching and, after a couple minutes, he found what he was looking for.

He turned his head and he found her. A single figure standing in an alley next to him, watching and waiting to see what he would do. As soon as they locked eyes, she began running and he followed.

Though Ahsoka managed to stay ahead of him, Vader soon enough began catching up to her. She began getting more creative, putting obstacles in his way either by alternating her path or placing them in his using the Force.

That wasn´t enough however, as he powered through them, catching up to Ahsoka while, at the same time, she began to slow down. He smirked with eagerness as he grew closer and closer to her until, finally, she stopped.

Vader then pulled the lightsaber from his belt and took the first step towards his former apprentice.

"About time you showed yourself."

Ahsoka waited for a second and then turned to face him.

Though she tried to appear calm, he could see in her eyes a mixture of pain, sadness and just a hint of disappointment.

"I was hoping that what I heard wasn´t true." She said, her hand moving closer to her side, though she was still hesitant to grab her lightsaber. "But not like this."

Vader again took a step towards her.

"We don´t have to do this, Ahsoka." He said, extending his hand. "We can still be allies."

For a moment, he almost looked like the Anakin she knew but, just as soon as it appeared, his façade faded away and his former apprentice recoiled, taken aback by his dark, looming presence, her hand trembling in fear.

"No… We can´t."

Vader then breathed in.

"Very well."

Immediately, he drew his cerulean blade and Ahsoka pulled out her single, blue one, bringing in blue and white shades of color to the half-built ships that surrounded them.

They stared at each other for a second, examining their opponent... And then they clashed.

Vader was the first one to strike, rushing forward with a strong, quick overhead slash that his former apprentice barely had time to block. Before she could think of a way to counter it, he stopped his movement and struck again, moving his blade upwards and forcing her to dodge by stepping back.

What little distance Ahsoka gained was soon made irrelevant however, as her former Master pressed his advantage, quickly swinging his blade towards the sides of her body, moving it diagonally across her chest area, even aiming at her legs at times.

She had sparred with Anakin before, but back then, although exhausting, she always knew that she wouldn´t come out of it with much harm. Now, Ahsoka´s mind was focused on Vader´s attacks, constantly being just a split-second away from receiving a lethal wound.

As they moved along the area, the speed at which they dueled increased with each passing second. When they started their duel, their lightsabers were moving still at a perceptible speed but by then, their blades had lost their straight shape, turning into curves of blue light that clashed several times a second with a brighter flash of light.

Eventually, Ahsoka found her back pressed against a large, unused engine and couldn´t dodge anymore, just as Vader attempted another downward slash. With no other option, she was forced to block it straight on, making her arms sting with pain.

The two again locked eyes properly for the first time since their duel started and Ahsoka gasped, partially due to a lack of breath, but mostly due to her feeling the pure, seething anger her former Master exuded through his bright, yellow eyes.

Vader then began pushing down, expecting to force her down to the floor to finish her off. And, for a second, it looked like it was going to work but, suddenly. She went along with his movement, deflecting his strike so that his blade sliced through the metal only a couple inches away from her leg. Slowing him down enough for her to push him away with a kick.

The former Master and Apprentice looked at each other for a moment to catch their breath and then began clashing again. They exchanged blows of debris when they could through the Force. The two were nearly equally matched. With Ahsoka tapping into her years of experience learning from him and being on the defensive.

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Elsewhere in the city, in Padme´s apartment, she was pacing around the place, her mind a buzzling mess as she wondered how things going forward would proceed, only every now and then turning her attention towards the crib where Luke-Jinn and Leia rested.

As the night sky began to rise up and exhaustion began to appear in her body, she heard a knocking on the entrance door.

Slowly, she grabbed the small blaster she had for protection. If it had been Anakin, he would have simply entered and if it was a member of her staff, they would have contacted her beforehand of anything that required her attention.

She headed towards the door and, when she had reached it, she pressed her ear against it, hoping to hear the clicking of weapons, or the whispers of an assassin. Instead, she again heard the knocking again.

Cautiously, she opened the door ever so slightly, placing her blaster in the opening and waited.

"Senator…?" A voice called out softly. "I… need to talk to you."

Though she had heard that voice several times in her travels, the inflexions, the way it spoke, immediately let her know who it was.

"Rex…?" She asked, slowly opening the door.

Sure enough, when she fully opened it, she found the clone trooper standing in front of her. Though he made an effort to hide it with a cloak, she could still notice bits and pieces of his armor underneath it, as well as his favored pistols.

"It´s… been a while." He apologized, gently making a gesture to ask to get in.

Padme took a step back, but didn´t let him in immediately. She needed to know what he was doing there and why he was acting so covertly and for that, she needed to gain his trust.

She put down her blaster and stepped aside, letting Rex inside.

Over the next few minutes, he explained what had happened to him and the rest of the clones, order 66, him helping Ahsoka escape, and what he wanted to do.

"I need to find Appo. He´ll understand and can help us." He explained. "But I need your help, senator."

"To get to him?"

Rex nodded.

"Me, and the rest of the men under my command, are… presumed missing and dead." He explained, his voice getting just a bit sadder. "But not the rest of the 501st. Considering your… connection to General Skywalker, I figure they´ll let you get in contact with him."

Padme thought about the implications for several minutes. What Rex had explained went against most of what Anakin had told her, and yet, both of them had explained it with what she thought was the truth. She wanted to believe her husband, but Rex had always been the more grounded of the two.

Ultimately, she decided to err on the side caution, helping Rex, but without telling Anakin of what they were planning, until she had no other choice.

A few hours later, the two were entering the medical wing of the 501st barracks, with Rex having knocked out the man that was supposed to escort Padme and using his armor to sneak in along her.

Much to their surprise, he was in intensive care due to a recently sustained wound, fading in and out of consciousness, unable to even move on his own while, at the same time, having to be hooked up to a life support system; something that the medical droid nonchalantly explained.

"I´m sorry Senator. CT- 1119 is currently undisposed due to a severe injury sustained during a recent deployment. Whatever message you wanted to deliver on General Skywalker´s part will have to wait."

"What… kind of deployment?" Padme asked, examining Appo´s injury closer, noticing that it looked extremely similar some lightsaber wounds she had seen before.

"I´m sorry. That information is classified. And I´m afraid you must leave n…"

Before it could finish its sentence, Rex shut down the droid, catching it before it could reach the floor.

"That´s enough of you." He muttered right before heading towards the console. "We´re lucky. We already have what we need right here."

"To do what?" Padme asked, taking point to make sure that no one saw what they were doing.

"Remove his inhibitor chip." Rex answered without turning away from the console. "What we did wasn´t our choice, we were forced to."

"What do you mean?"

"You´ll see." He simply said.

The process took a couple minutes, with Rex having some trouble locating the chip itself to remove it. Fortunately, Appo´s shifting vitals were just what he needed to make the chip stand out and make it so that he could start the surgery.

Appo stabilized as the surgery went on, but that did little to calm down Rex, who only relaxed once the process was done and he had the chip in his hands, waiting for his brother to wake up.

"Re… Rex?" Appo asked once he slowly, faintly, began to regain consciousness. "I was… the temple… the… Jedi…"

"I know." Rex comforted him. "But I´ll free the others."

He then proceeded to comfort his brother and explain his truth of what happened, with Padme listening closely to what he said, the three of them reaching an unspoken agreement of secrecy.