The Aftermath
A.N: Timeline setting: Directly after 'To Take Down an Emperor'
Bail Organa stood by the head of the table. He had so much he wanted to say, so many opinions he wanted to voice.
But instead, he stood silent, hoping that his closest friend would see his silence and understand exactly what it meant.
Leia was refusing to speak to him now, not that he blamed her. After all he had stood at this very table not long ago and said nothing whilst his allies and friends around him condemned his most prized agent to death because she shared a different opinion.
It was a betrayal he realized, on the scale of the one she had suffered as a mere teenager. Back then he hadn't known Ahsoka Tano too well, and thus he had that excuse to use.
But now, after over fifteen years of working together to build the rebellion from the ground up, he knew he well enough to know that she would never do the things she was accused of.
And still, despite that he had said nothing, simply because at the time he had been so dumbfounded by the decision Mon Mothma had taken. It was to be expected by General Draven, but Mothma ordering the death of one of their best?
Something was wrong. Draven could be a manipulative bastard on the best of days. What did he have against Ahsoka?
Suffice to say, Bail did not agree with the decision that had been made. An attempted assassination of their best agent was downright stupid. For starters, Bail had seen Ahsoka in action. There was no way any rebel agent had a chance against her.
Secondly was that Ahsoka's plan, whilst brash and overt, was a sound strategy. If the mission was a success, then the head of the empire would be crippled, and in theory the empire would begin to fall.
And if anyone could do it, Bail believed it was Ahsoka and her friends.
Shaking out of his internal strife, Bail scoured the rim of the holotable, taking in the faces of those present. Mon Mothma stood next to him, a grim look on her face. Beside her was Draven, his face full of rage and what appeared to be embarrassment.
Across from him was Dodonna, who like Bail had an emotionless look on his face. However, from his lifelong career as a politician, Bail could tell he was hiding something.
Beside Dodonna was a hologram of Commander Sato, who looked somewhat pleased with himself. It was rare that Sato ever showed anything other than steadfastness and professionalism, so his current expression clearly showed his role in what had happened.
But perhaps the most perplexing expression present was the one belonging to Admiral Raddus. The Mon Calamari had what could only be described as a smug expression on his face as he watched Draven fidget. Clearly whatever Raddus had done pleased himself to no end.
As Bail contemplated the faces, Mon Mothma spoke.
"Explain it to me again Admiral Raddus?"
The large blue Mon Calamari chuckled before answering.
"Draven attempted to use my ship to capture the Ghost with the intent on executing Commander Tano. I decided his plan was stupid and stunned him instead, allowing Tano and her team to escape."
The fact that Raddus had outright admitted to what he had done almost made Bail laugh. The admiral was nothing if not reckless, even with protocol.
Beside him he felt Mon Mothma bristle slightly, her head turning to look at Draven briefly, before turning back to Raddus.
"And how exactly did the Ghost escape the tractor beam that General Draven had locked on?"
A cough from the other side of the table drew the attention, as the hologram of Sato raised his hand.
"I ordered the members of Phoenix Squadron to destroy the emitter, allowing the Ghost to go free."
Mon Mothma sighed aloud, lowering her head briefly for a moment.
Then the former Senator spoke.
"Admiral Raddus you were under orders to eliminate Ahsoka Tano. Why did you disobey?"
Silence flooded the control room of the rebel base. No one dared speak, and all eyes were on Raddus, Draven's especially.
To Bail's surprise, Raddus did not hesitate.
"Because frankly Senator Mothma, that order was pure poodoo. Tano has been nothing but a loyal agent for years. Hell, she's been serving longer than I have, and time and time again she had brought us nothing but success. Without her our intelligence network would be non-existent, and our entire rebellion would be nothing but a few scattered cells working independently. You may not be able to see it, but this whole rebel base here on Yavin Four, all the people that have come together, all of that is because of people like Ahsoka Tano. You may be our figurehead, the one who voices and represents us, but people like Tano and Syndulla, even Gerrerra, they are the ones who are out there day to day, fighting the empire for us. Without them, we are nothing but a few politicians that disagree with Palpatine's regime. So no Senator Mothma, I will not be following your assassination orders. Find another puppet to do it for you."
No one replied. Silence flooded the room. Even the various technicians that worked the consoles on the periphery had turned in their seats to listen to Raddus' speech, one that he had clearly been thinking about for a long while.
And then Sato spoke.
"Here here."
And Dodonna too.
"Agreed."
All heads then began to turn to Mothma, who stood completely still, her eyes on Raddus'.
The two stared at each other, the Senator trying to read the Admiral, and the admiral merely staring beck in defiance.
And then Bail seized his moment and spoke, leaning down to speak gently to Mon Mothma.
"He's right old friend. Whether or not you think Ahsoka's plan is foolish you can't deny that she has been instrumental in our success. When everything is all said and done she will most likely outlive us all anyway thanks to her force sensitivity. Her past is her past, and I can promise you that she would never allow herself to become corrupted as her master was. We can trust her."
Mon turned slightly to Bail, looking her eyes with his before she replied.
"Padme once said the same about Anakin Skywalker. Why should I trust your opinion on this?"
Bail smiled gently, having already anticipated the line of questioning.
"Do you really think I would trust Ahsoka with Leia if I didn't believe it?"
Bail didn't miss the way Mon Mothma's eyes widened in understanding. Leia was a remnant of Padme, one of the people both her and Mon had trusted and valued. The memory of their oldest friend, as well as who was trusted to guard her was all the evidence that would ever be needed in a question of trust.
Sighing gently, Mon Mothma nodded before continuing.
"Perhaps the decision was a bit rash and made without properly understanding every outcome."
Smiles came to the faces of the other members of the rebel council present as they heard the response. They wouldn't hold grudges against one another. Everyone was prone the making mistakes. It took a bigger better person to admit to them.
Then a loud huff of anger was heard from the table.
Draven was not smiling, but rather looking angry. The human rolled his eyes dramatically before speaking, acid on his tongue.
"Then I guess we can only hope that Tano and her goons are slaughtered by the Emperor in this suicidal plan of hers."
Bail very rarely wanted to punch someone, but right now he was sorely considering marching across the room to deck the General.
That was until an unexpected yet familiar voice echoed across the room.
"Sorry to disappoint you General."
Every head at the table turned to look on in shock at the new arrivals. There were four of them, three easily recognizable ones.
"Captain Syndulla, Captain Rex, Knight Jarrus, what are you doing back so soon?" Sato spoke first, joy in his voice. Bail too was keeping his excitement contained. If they were back then surely that meant everything went well.
Hera Syndulla chose to speak first, coming to stand beside the hologram of Sato.
"We succeeded in destroying the Emperor's battle station, and have eliminated the Emperor in the process. Our mission was a success, but we had a few losses."
Heads bowed around the table in mourning before Sato enquired.
"Who?"
The question was simple, and Bail had to admit he dreaded the answer.
It was Kanan that responded this time, his tone simple yet clearly full of inner loss.
"Master Yoda gave his life on the mission, as did Commander Wolffe of the Wolfpack. Ryder Azadi also did not make it. And Saw Gerrerra sacrificed himself to save Ahsoka."
Heads turned to each other in surprise at the mention of Saw Gerrerra. The fact that a man that was pretty much universally despised by the rebel leaders present had not only fallen, but had fallen protecting one of their own was a shock. Perhaps, Bail thought, he had been too harsh on Gerrerra in the past.
But that brought up another point. Of the four people who had come, Ahsoka was no among them. The fourth person who Bail had yet to identify was draped in brown robes with a white beard covering much of his face. He was familiar, yet not.
Bail could have sworn he knew the man.
Pushing his line of thinking aside, Bail asked the question on the lips of everyone.
"And Commander Tano? Is she…"
Bail hoped not. He really did. He valued Ahsoka, and he knew how close Leia was to her. How the kriff would he explain it to her if…
Rex was the one to answer, his voice gruff and full of distrust.
"She's fine, though it should come as no surprise that she wants nothing to do with you lot after that attempt on her life! In fact I almost considered lying to you lot about where she was, but decided against it. After all, it appears she has at least a few friends here."
Rex's statement was backed up by a side glance and a sharp nod to Commander Sato, who nodded back.
It was quite clear that Rex had not yet forgiven the rebel council for their actions, not that Bail had forgiven himself yet either. That would take time. After all, he knew that Rex was on the verge of being fanatically loyal to Ahsoka by choice.
"We were wrong to make such a rash decision Captain, and I apologize for what happened. But right now we have bigger issues to discuss. Do you have anything else to report from your mission?" Mon Mothma spoke, her voice steady and back to being that of the leader they had all come to admire.
Hera took that opportunity to begin, mentioning something about a backup plan the Emperor had called Operation Cinder, and how it needed to be stopped immediately. The rebel council suddenly found themselves staring at what appeared to be schematics on the holotable of said project, with the only information of their origin point being from within the empire itself.
But try as he may, Bail could not focus. Instead, he found his eyes being drawn to the mysterious figure who had arrived with Captain Syndulla and the other rebels.
Glancing at the figure, Bail spotted blue eyes staring out from under a hood, before the figure lifted their hands up to gesture Bail to come to him.
Bail did, moving discreetly away from the holotable where the rebel leaders were discussing their next move, and joined the cloaked figure.
Once he was right before him, the figure removed his hood and spoke.
"Hello there my old friend."
Bail couldn't help the gasp that escaped him as he recognized the voice, even if it had aged in the years since he had last heard it.
"General Kenobi?"
Author's thoughts
And cue the annoying cliffhanger... :)
I know some of you will want me to continue Bail and Obi-Wan's discussion, but not much would really happen to be fair, so I left it up to your interpretation. That is of course unless someone wants to write it for me. If so, feel free. :)
Also, I'll admit that this one shot isn't the best, and I'm sorry for that. As it stands, this one shot only really serves the purpose of setting up the next few one shots, which, when I get round the writing them, will act as a mini story arc involving Operation Cinder, something that I know many of you are anticipating.
Oh, and to everyone who responded to my review of rebels, thank you. It was fun to read your thoughts and answers, even if you didn't agree with me.
As for my hand, it was healing quite well... then I hurt it again, and all progress was deleted. So... more time off it seems.
On the bright side I managed to write this one shot as well as a chapter for my super secret project before I re-hurt it... wait... I'm not supposed to say anything about that project. Karabast again!
As usual, comment and speculate at will. Speaking of which:
FossilQueen1984: Kanan may be down by 4, but he has improved. After all, that is what is most important. Without someone who is better than you, you cannot improve, and thus will stagnate.
SLE's fave guest: Wise words to live by. If only I could do that in real life.
Hey, it will take a lot more than disagreeing with me to become my least favourite person, believe me. I'll agree that rebels has it's problems, and perhaps I was too generous about it. There are some pointless boring episodes and at times the characters are a bit boring. I love both shows either way, both in different ways. And your opinion is not garbage. All opinions are useful, even if you don't agree with them.
As for the opening crawl, it's not that I don't like it, it's more of a case of I think they are a bit pointless and exist purely for nostalgia reasons. I don't need to be told a buch of plot stuff in yellow words. If your movie does it's job well, I will be able to figure it out by watching it.
And I'll also agree with one thing. How the hell did 'Iron Squadron' get greenlit for airing indeed? Now that is a filler episode!
Cranky Paws: Glad you enjoyed Kanan's development, both as a duelist and as a Jedi. Ahsoka is still leaps and bounds ahead of him, but he is becoming what he should be now.
Barriss is a great character, such a shame that we never got to see her again.
As for your answers to my questions, great selection. And what so you mean, I never siad anything about a super secret project that I am most certainly not planning and writing. You're just seeing things. ;)
Travis Middleton: Glad you liked the Kanan centric chapter. He is my favourite Jedi in canon by far. Awesome dude.
Glad you liked my review of the show, and I liked your opinions too. Nice choices with the questions as well. :)
Jayson-Master of Storm: Thanks, glad you liked the one shot. Kanan kept of trying, and he got there eventually. Doubt he'd be able to do that again though.
Hope you also like my opinion.
Chiara Polairix Edelstein: Glad you enjoyed my review of the series. It's a very different beast than other shows these days, but it works with what it has, and the characters are some of the best in canon. Hope you enjoyed this one shot, even if it was a bit 'meh'.
All Things Animated: Thanks, glad you enjoyed my summary. I did forget about the who shipping of Ezra and Sabine. I don't mind it personally, and could see it in the right situation. That being said I like that it didn't go to that in the show. I like their friendship more.
Kanan was my favourite in the show... then he died. :'(
SmolPotatoFry7: All excellent choices. Thank you. :)
Jaco2553alpha: Good to know. So did I. :)
TerminatorJedi1995: Thanks, glad you liked my review. Yes rebels has it's flaws, but it also has it's strengths, just as clone wars did. Both shows are awesome, but it is wrong to compare them, especially since they are joined together in a rather large way.
I think the new Thrawn novel is going to be Thrawn and Vader mostly. But it'd be awesome if it was actually split into two and did a surprise plot twist halfway through, switching to Thrawn and Ezra.
And no, it is not a coincidence that they all died on a Death Star. I imagine that was why that line of dialogue was there as foreshadowing.
Super secret project? What super secret project. You are imagining things. :)
As for your choices to my questions, a great selection.
Mysterious Guest that commented on chapter 11: Glad you enjoyed the one shot, as well as how Kanan changed his tactic each time till he found one that worked.
Mysterious Guest that commented on chapter 12: Thanks, glad you liked my review. It was a means of getting to see what everyones opinion was, without it resorting to the hate fuelled discussion/debate/petty arguements that so many other people get involved in.
I personally like the prequels, with the exception of the majority of Attack of the Clones. They are different style of films from the Originals, and the Sequels, and I think people forget about that, hence the hate they get. But for what they set out to do, they did it well.