Coruscant:
Palpatine sat in his throne room as a Mirialan inquisitor was led into his throne room. He looked down upon her with a smile, there had been several of her kind that served
in the Jedi Order. She had been incarcerated for her role in the Jedi Temple bombing during the Clone Wars. This inquisitor was once known as Barriss Offee and now she was a
faithful Imperial agent who was filled with gratitude towards her Master who had freed her from prison at the time of Order 66. She knelt before Lord Sidious as the Sith Lord
stood up and spoke, "I am here at your request Master."
Sidious stood as he spoke, "The Sith Order has abided by the rule of two for a thousand years now. As you know there may only exist one Master and one Apprentice. A master
embodies and wields the power while an apprentice seeks and craves the power."
Sidious looked upon her as he spoke, "I do not only question Lord Vader's loyalty to me but I question his loyalty to the tradition. He is proving to be a liability to our survival so
an alternative option must be chosen. You will be christened as a Sith Lord. You will become my apprentice in preparation of replacing Lord Vader once time is right for
eliminating him."
Barriss looked up upon her Master with glowing yellow eyes as she spoke, "It is my desire to join my destiny forever with the order of Sith Lords."
"Good, hence forth you shall be known as Darth Craya."
"Thank you, my Master," Darth Craya said.
"Rise," Sidious said.
Palpatine smiled, he had his contingency apprentice for the event of Vader's betrayal. She was expendable in his eyes but she would be a tool that he could use for holding
power. He had to just ensure that his faithful followers continued to work towards developing a clone body that could allow him to return to life after death. He knew the ultimate
test of how the effort would work would not be until after his own death. He had no other way to test his potential for revival but he alone had little to no confidence in anyone
else ruling the Galaxy besides himself. Fortunately, he was confident that his death was at least two decades away. The Dark Side of the Force was a pathway to many things
that some considered to be unnatural and Palpatine knew that he could live indefinitely if he played his cards right. Other Sith had done it before him and he could do it and keep
himself from falling from power. He just had to take great care with the emerging threats.
"You won't win, she is not strong enough to defeat Vader. If Vader returns to the Jedi or if I confront the two of you, I will destroy the Sith. You do know that as long as I exist,
the Sith Order is doomed and you with it." Sidious heard the strange Jedi voice from his dreams in his mind. He turned as he looked around for the phantom realizing that she
had somehow connected with him so that she could continuously terrorize him.
8 months later : Star Destroyer: Chimaera:
Thrawn looked out at the large asteroid field that was not far from the black hole that had consumed a star system just fifteen years earlier. A young officer approached him as
he spoke, "The debris that we can find so far are only from Separatist and Old Republic cruisers. There was a ship that appears to be the severed nose end of an X-Wing Fighter
but there is no other trace of that X-Wing."
Thrawn's eyes widened as he spoke, "X-Wings were not present for this battle Commander. They hadn't even been designed yet. Is it possible there was another skirmish here?"
"Maybe a pirate skirmish of some sort sir but otherwise there is no explanation for why an X-Wing would be in the wreckage."
Thrawn looked back towards the asteroid field as the younger man spoke, "Most of what is out in that field is so heavily damaged that it is possible that the fighter is not even
part of an X-Wing."
Thrawn's eyes narrowed as another man approached the officer. He found himself wondering where the ship had come from? What was the cause of the emergence of this large
black hole that had just formed from nothing and nowhere in the aftermath of the destruction of a Separatist fleet at the end of the Clone Wars. No extraordinary weapons were
used in the war. He needed to dispatch scout ships to see if there were any computers with retrievable data in the debris field that was right before him. He looked back and
spoke, "I want all footage from the probe droids to be routed to the conference room."
"At once Sir."
Thrawn added another order, "Deploy more probes and have a boarding party on standby with zero gravity equipment."
"Yes, Grand Admiral as you wish."
"What do you expect to find out there?" Thrawn heard his faithful friend, Vanto ask. Thrawn looked at Vanto and shook his head, "I expect that we will be lucky to find anything
that will disclose the identity of the Force wielder. What I expect is that we will at least learn where their sophisticated armaments came from."
"How could a ship be sighted in a singularity and then vanish only to show up years later?"
Thrawn pointed to holoprojections of the singularity that had mysteriously appeared over a decade ago. He then spoke, "A large singularity appeared and then disappeared but it
left behind a destroyed star system and it consumed ships. From the reports that I have reviewed, there is no explanation for the destruction. Such a multidimensional explosion
that created the destruction here could theoretically create a portal that spans through time and space. That portal could also be a portal of destruction that impacted the
timeline."
"You mean a ship like that could be from the future?" Vanto asked.
"I haven't presented my theory to the Emperor because there is no evidence to indicate that these people are time travelers. However, the facts do affirm my theory even debris
from X-wings affirm that theory. Consider the sophistication of their weapons and their tie fighters. I examined the remains of one of their ties from our last engagements and I
have observed their fighters as they engaged with our own. It appears as though some aspects of my tie defender program were worked into their starfighters."
"You think that they may have been inspired by your program to design the tie fighters that they use? Sir that program is classified, no one on this ship besides you and I know
about it," Vanto uneasily said.
"That is the point Vanto, but I still see clearly that they have taken from my fighter."
"That would mean that they may know us better than we know ourselves," Vanto said
"You need to also consider their familiarity with our facilities and institutions. Such familiarity does not just come from cohesive espionage efforts. Based on the stormtroopers,
the weapons and vessels they are clearly connected to the Empire in some form."
Ghost:
Ahoska stared out of the viewport at the half of a vessel that was floating in the debris of the asteroid field. The cruiser appeared to resemble the nose end of a damaged Mon
Calamari vessel. There was hope that there would be information onboard the ship that would give them insight into who the Alliance's new enemy was. Whoever had piloted it
had clearly died in the ensuing battle or in attempting to ride the singularity fourteen years earlier. Hera Syndulla approached her and spoke, "Kanan, Ezra and Sabine have
boarded with Chopper."
"Anything else?" Ahsoka asked.
"There are Imperial ships that are not far from our position. It appears that they have a new vested interest in this debris field."
Ahsoka looked out towards the vessel as she spoke, "They have charges?"
"Yes," Hera replied.
"Monitor the Empire's efforts as best as you can. We have to complete this mission but we don't want him to gain any intel that can provide insight to the Emperor."
Phantom:
Kanan Jarrus lowered the landing claws in the remains of the hanger bay of the Mon Calamari vessel. He noticed a destroyed Y-Wing nearby and the wing of an X-Wing fighter.
"This is strange there were no X-Wing fighter's in the Clone Wars. And no Mon Calamari vessels were recorded at this battle. These Y-Wings are not Old Republic bombers."
"What could they be?" asked Ezra. Kanan shrugged as he picked up the helmet to his space suit. He secured their vessel to the floor of the old hanger bay with grappling hooks
before looking back at Ezra and Sabine. He smiled, "We are going to have to float our way to that bridge to see what we can find."
The Mandalorian and two Jedi slowly made their way through the dark empty hallways of the ship with Chopper behind them. Chopper activated his jet and Ezra and Kanan
glanced at one another as Sabine activated her jetpack, "We can move a little faster after all."
Ezra and Sabine embraced as Kanan wrapped his arms around Chopper.
Eventually, the group found themselves inside of an elevator shaft leading to the command bridge of the ship. The elevator appeared to be stopped at the bridge. Kanan looked
at the group and spoke, "I will use my lightsaber."
Within moments they had climbed through the floor of the elevator where they were greeted with the floating corpse of a human male. Kanan frowned, "This looks like an
Alliance uniform."
He reached forward and removed the data cylinder from the man's uniform jacket before cutting into the door. He cut wide as Ezra and Sabine emerged from the shaft with
Chopper. The group entered the bridge noticing that there were corpses floating throughout the bridge. Ezra looked at them and spoke, "We haven't seen any bodies in the
hallways."
"They probably got ripped out or incinerated when the ship split," Kanan said. As the group headed towards the computer terminal, Kanan removed the external power pack that
he had been carrying. Chopper approached the computer com as Ezra grabbed a floating ID Doc that belonged to a Mon Calamari crew member. His eyes widened when he
looked at the date of issue, "Impossible this document was issued over forty years from now according to the card." Sabine reached for the document and looked back at Ezra in
disbelief. "Kanan this cannot be possible."
Kanan took the document as he spoke, "Sabine you're up."
With the power pack in place Sabine was able to use an officer's cylinder to get into the computer database. "Facial scanner is activating. I am not sure if it will let us enter."
The computer scanned Sabine's face and accepted her request for access.
"Strange, it appears to recognize me."
"See if you can access the database, then we will know what we are dealing with," said Kanan.
"Kanan I am no genius but I think this ship is from the future."
"Given this ID doc there is really no other explanation," Kanan replied.
Kanan activated his comlink as he spoke, "Ahsoka can you hear me?"
"I can hear you Kanan. You will not believe what we have discovered."
"Have you accessed the computer?"
"Yes, as soon as we are off this ship has to be destroyed. I just fear the possibility of the Empire finding something like this."
"It would be better if we just destroy this computer which I can do," Sabine said.
"Then they won't know we are here," Ezra added.
Alliance Command Ship Home One:
Padmé sat inside of her quarters hidden from the eyes of most Alliance subordinates. She was heavily pregnant with Darth Vader's third child. She did not want anyone
besides high command to know of her status. She had led the Alliance from the conference table and through her colleagues and trusted children. Han Solo had recently been
promoted to Colonel and although the young man clearly wished he had not been elevated to such a high rank he had taken it with grace. He was her trusted right hand and her
trusted voice alongside Mon Mothma. She looked at her datapad as she thought of her husband. He had continued to uncover additional clues pertaining to their unseen enemy.
There had been no signs of the new threat and for the most part the months since the Death Star had been business as usual evading the Empire and conducting raids. Moff
Jade had survived Luke's attack and had provided descriptions of Luke, Han and Chewie and her Leia that were now key wanted posters. The sketches had led to the Empire
successfully identifying Han Solo and Chewbacca but they still had no visible clue as to who Luke and Leia were. The public had no clue but Padme knew that Emperor Palpatine
was no fool. She felt that it was only a matter of time before the Emperor discovered that she was in fact alive and that the twins were her children. The door opened as Mon
Mothma entered the room. She looked at Mon as her friend sat down at the bed, "We have finally heard from Ahsoka and the Spectres. Their mission was a success they were
on the run from a fleet of Star Destroyers for almost three days before they got distracted with an attack by their unseen target on an Imperial military instillation. She has the
data but is fearful of transmitting it to one of our ships. Such a signal could be detected by the ISB."
"I agree with her concerns," Padmé said.
"She is going to meet Solo and the twins at a key location."
Padme placed a hand on her stomach before looking back at her friend. She took in a deep breath and spoke, "I am going too."
"Padmé you are in no condition to travel."
Padmé shook her head as Mon spoke, "Ask Vader his opinion."
Padmé hated to contact her husband via transmission but when she did, she kept Mon close to her in order to establish accountability should word of their communications ever
reach the rest of the Council. Only Padme and Obi-Wan communicated with Vader. The twins had had no contact with their father since their meeting on the Death Star. She
pressed her holocom as she spoke, "Ok."
At that moment a life size image of an unhooded Darth Vader materialized before Padmé and Mon. Vader looked at the two women as he spoke, "How is the baby."
"She is coming any day Ani." Padmé replied with a smile. Vader smiled as Mon spoke, "Last time one of you thought you were having a boy the other thought it was a girl. This
time you both are keeping it a surprise but you both seem confident that it is a girl."
"That is true," Vader said. Mon looked at her friend as she spoke, "They have a rendezvous point with an agent to exchange the data. I have strong concerns about her traveling
in her condition but she is insisting on going."
Vader looked at Mon and back at Padmé.
He sighed as he spoke, "I am inclined to agree with her Padmé. I am willing to respect your wish to go if you allow me to meet you there as well. I will come myself as I can
make the excuse to my fleet that I am following up on intel relating to our Death Star Padawans which will justify my absence."
"Aka our son and daughter," Padmé said.
Vader smiled with pride, "I have yet to congratulate him for his victory face to face anyways."
Padmé looked back at Mon as she spoke, "I think with the stubbornness from both of you that is about as much of a compromise as you can make."
"Send me the coordinates and I will be there," Vader said.
"I love you Ani," Padmé said.
"I love you too Padmé," Vader said as his transmission ended.
Padme looked at Mon as she spoke, "I want you and Admiral Ackbar to keep the fleet here for now. I am taking Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie and Obi-Wan."
"Very well," Mon replied.
Millennium Falcon:
Han Solo sat down in the cockpit of his ship as Obi-Wan and Luke sat down behind him. Leia had sat down with her mother in the ship's lounge with the droids. He prepared the
ship for takeoff as he spoke into his comlink, "This is Colonel Solo, the Millennium Falcon is ready for takeoff."
"Colonel Solo this is deck command, you are clear for takeoff. You may depart when ready. Good luck on your mission sir!"
"Thank you, Lieutenant," Han replied.
"Luke is the ramp raised?"
"Yes," Luke replied.
"Girls are strapped in?" Han asked.
"And the droids," Luke said.
Han smiled as he started the takeoff sequence. He raised the landing gear as they lifted off. They flew out of the hanger as Han spoke "We are meeting them on Dantooine?"
"Apparently Vader has assurances that there are no Imperial presences in the system and Ahsoka separated from the spectres so that they could mislead the Imperials in case
they are onto them."
"How hot are the Imperials to get this data?" Han asked.
Luke sighed hating to mention that his father's intel had indicated that the Emperor was more than fascinated with the data that Ahsoka possessed. He looked at him wishing
that he didn't have to acknowledge the complicated relationship between his separated and expecting parents who were cooperating to find this unknown enemy.
"It may be able to tell us who our new enemy is," Ben said as he answered Han's question for Luke.
"We may have answers on who the guy is that raided the academy on Carida," Luke added.
"Ben you have known him since he was a child. Do you think we can really trust Vader?" Han skeptically asked. Chewbacca let out a growl with the same concerns that Han had shared.
Ben looked at Han and spoke, "It isn't about trusting him. Right now, Vader has to trust us. He needs you and I to keep his family safe and he needs us to help him to destroy this threat and the Emperor."
"Is there hope for him to come back to who he once was?" Han asked.
"In time I think so," Obi-Wan said as the ship made the jump into hyperspace.
"Why do you think there is hope after doubting it for so many years?" Luke asked.
"The way he acted when he discovered that his family was alive was inconsistent with the typical Sith Lord. He is showing me that he is conflicted about his priorities even more
now that he knows that he will soon have not two but three children whose lives he is missing out on."
"Do you think that it affects him that he has been absent for fifteen years?" asked Han.
"Yes," Obi-Wan replied as he turned to his apprentice.
"You and Leia are fundamentally important to that potential redemption of your father. If he has the reason to change, he is more likely to change. Give him the chance to change Luke."
"Mom doesn't trust him. I have heard her express to Mon and others that she is concerned about how much we may end up helping him in the same way that the Jedi helped Palpatine in the Clone Wars."
Obi-Wan frowned as he spoke, "Their concerns are valid but I think there may be hope for your father and Padmé believes there is she just is afraid to show it."
That is it for now. Please feel free to give your thoughts on the chapter. What do you think of Thrawn's conclusions? I will admit that it wasn't my plan when I started this fic to bring in Rebels characters but I recently finished mass watching the series and I personally think it was great. I am also enjoying the Mandalorian, Dave Filoni is such a blessing to the Star Wars Franchise in my opinion.
-Fallen Jedi 79