Ahsoka sighed, gathered her courage, remembered everything Anakin had told her in the last hours and stepped forwards. "Hey!", she demanded the attention of the clones. "I'm a force user, answering the Emperor's call.", she explained.
"Are those lightsabers?", the stormtrooper wanted to know and pointed at Ahsoka's belt. "Obviously.", she replied. "I'm sure the Emperor wants an actual fighter, not a rat that spent its life in hiding."
Ahsoka hated talking this way about the countless poor innocents that had been chased by the empire, but Anakin had told her to be extremely arrogant and insulting, to show no compassion. This was her persona now.
"Very well. The transporters for you people are ready, go that way." Ahsoka didn't thank him, or bow. She only marched past him, towards the ship that was already surrounded by people.
Ahsoka immediately cramped. They were from all species and ages, most of them starved to the bone and covered in filth. Ahsoka knew what was going to happen to them if they stayed. Surely, SIdious would slaughter all that he found unworthy.
None of them were very powerful nor were they trained. But all of them were scared. They had spent their lives in denial of their natural talents, talents that would be wasted if the Emperor killed them.
Ahsoka wanted to tell them to run. To run as fast as possible and never look back. To continue like that until the threat of the sith was eradicated. But that would ruin her chances to get to him.
So she only stood there, trying her best to look disinterested. "Those are enough. Depart. Prepare the next ship.", the clone spoke into his comlink. The ship opened to let the crowd flood inside before the doors sled shut again.
Ahsoka spent the flight meditating to put every mental shielding she could build up in place. Anakin had warned her of Sidious' skills to see through minds and souls. If she wasn't careful, he would read her intentions like an open book.
Suddenly, she was ripped out her meditation, by a tiny hand that landed on the hilt of her shoto. She opened her eyes to see a little pair of sparkling blue rodian eyes. Ahsoka felt the gentle force presence pulsing through the little rodian.
It was so pure, so innocent. Ahsoka knew that this spirit would crack instantly, as soon as abandoned to Sidious trials. "Are you a jedi?", the rodian asked, the big blue eyes opened widely.
"Of course not.", Ahsoka spat, although what she really wanted to do was carrying the child as far away as possible herself. "The jedi will be dead soon.", she added for good measures.
"Anyway, it's so nice of the Emperor to forgive us.", the rodian smiled. Forgive what, Ahsoka asked herself silently. These people never did anything wrong, not even according to the laws of the empire.
Ahsoka spent a few moments, thinking how to formulate what she said without letting her mask fall. "You will die if you don't run away.", she told the rodian in an unfriendly voice. She wanted to warn him, masking it as an insult.
"Why would any of us die?", the rodian asked curiously. "The Emperor has relieved me from my crime, I won't run anymore." "Naive child.", Ahsoka snarled. "Only the strongest will survive, you could never kill anyone."
Ever so slowly the rodian backed off. "Kill?", he repeated, his voice merely a whiff. "Take my advice and run away as soon as you get a chance.", Ahsoka said while her hand made a movement that remained unnoticed.
"I will run away as soon as I can.", the rodian confirmed as Ahsoka bent his thoughts. She cloaked her relief and simply turned away. Her goal was protecting as many lives as possible, it was why she was here in the first place.
Soon she would face what no jedi trials could have prepared her for. She would look into the eye of pure evil, and somehow manage not to be twisted by it.
"I don't like this one bit.", Anakin mumbled as soon as he and Padmé were in private with the kids again. "Ahsoka doesn't know what she is about to do. Being a sith, even pretending to, will destroy one's spirit."
"The dark side hasn't destroyed you. Not completely.", Padmé reminded him. "It has.", Anakin insisted. "If you hadn't come back, I would have stayed with him. Sidious forgot about you, that was the only reason I was able to slip his grip."
"Ahsoka has us. She has no reason to stay with Sidious.", Padmé stated. "If he finds out why she came, he will know how to turn her, Padmé. If he had considered you, surely he would have found a way to keep me in the dark."
"You need to have faith in her, Anakin. She can do this, she had an excellent teacher." "Maybe, he'll dispose of her, Padmé.", Anakin called out. "She might not be worthy in his eyes." Padmé took his hands in hers.
"Calm down, Anakin. I know you respect Sidious as a threat, after all he has done to you, but even you were able to get out. And Ahsoka has nothing that will pull her away from the light like you had your visions."
"She doesn't deserve this, Padmé. Even if she succeeds, he will hurt her. Sidious knows how to inflict pain in every way thinkable, in every possible outcome she will have to endure hell.", Anakin concluded.
"Then she will. I know she is like a sister to you, but you have to let her do this now. You got through being Darth Vader in reality, so she will get through pretending to be a sith." Suddenly a loud smash caught their attention.
It was Sola, her hands still up to hold the plate that was now shattered at her feet. "What did you say?", she quivered while her voice broke. "Close the door, Sola!", Padmé rushed to say. "Come in and be quiet.", she added.
But Sola didn't budge, she seemed to have turned to a statue. Padmé gently pulled her inside and closed the door. "That's why I didn't want to tell you.", Padmé murmured. "You wouldn't understand."
"Explain, Padmé.", Sola demanded, slowly getting a hold of herself once again. "It's a long story.", Padmé sighed. "There's no point in making it sound better than it is.", Anakin said. "I'm Vader, Sola. Have been for the last two years."
"You?", Sola choked while she dropped onto a stool. "How could you?", she then challenged, her voice becoming louder. "It wasn't his fault!", Padmé rushed. "Sidious lied to him, like he lied to everyone."
"It's not an excuse.", Anakin remarked quietly. "You're bloody right it's not.", Sola called out. "Do you even know how many lives you took?", she asked while her knuckles turned white. "Me personally? 1732.", Anakin snapped.
"I know very well, what I have done, you needn't remind me of that.", he snarled. "But it was more than that.", Sola spat. "Whole races were enslaved and murdered by your precious empire." "Sola, please.", Padmé sobbed.
"Try to understand, I beg you." "Fine!", Sola cried. "Tell me why, although I doubt there could be anything justifying your crimes.", she addressed Anakin. He sighed and turned his head to look into Sola's eyes.
"I thought I was protecting your sister's life.", he stated. "Palpatine, who had spent thirteen years earning my trust, did a great job in persuading me of that. I thought she would die if I didn't pledge myself to Sidious."
Sola's eyes narrowed. "There's no relation. How would terrorizing billions of lifeforms help Padmé?", she snorted. "Sidious let me see visions of her death. More and more of them, until I was sure it would happen.", Anakin explained.
"Then he made me believe the key to saving her life were the arts of the dark side of the force, it seemed to be the only option to save her life." "That shameless animal.", Padmé pressed. "To use love for such cruelty..."
"I thought you thought Padmé was dead.", Sola said, the suspicion clear in her eyes. "I did. I thought she died before the twins were born.", Anakin muttered. "Then why did you continue?", Sola cried.
"Because I didn't have a choice. The dark side claimed me. Owned me. Sidious took my will from me." "You can't rid yourself of the guilt.", Sola hissed. "I know.", Anakin replied.
"I will always be a murderer.", he whispered, his glance wondering down to his hands. "And you can just forgive him?", Sola asked in disbelief, turning to her sister. Padmé answered with a nod.
"Will you tell our parents?", she asked carefully. Sola shook her head. "As long as you promise that he isn't dangerous, this is your issue. But I will stay with Darred for now." With that Sola stood up and went for the door.
"Sola?", Padmé whiffed, her voice so full of pain Anakin couldn't bear it. "I love you, Padmé. Very much.", Sola said without turning, then she marched out of the door. "This is my fault.", Anakin said quietly. "I'm so sorry."
When the ship finally landed on Coruscant, or imperial center how it was called now, Ahsoka was done constructing impenetrable walls around her mind. She couldn't imagine even Sidious would be able to break through.
Ahsoka knew this was going to be a great mental challenge. Being defeated with the lightsaber seemed to be impossible, considering that all around her were untrained and without experience.
The only problem would be resisting Sidious' mind probe. The doors of the ship opened again to let all its passengers flood into the hall it had landed in. For a moment Ahsoka was speechless.
There were countless ships like the one Ahsoka had been transported in, surely a few hundred. The hall was gigantic, most probably even bigger than the old republic senate. And then there were the people.
Ahsoka had rarely seen so many at one place. It must have been thousands. Her glance swung around the ceiling. She made out a balcony far above the ground, with long banners of the empire hanging down from it.
Then she saw him. A small, crooked figure, wrapped into a black cloak stepped onto the platform. In that moment, Ahsoka felt like she was drowning. Vader's force presence had been unbearable, but SIdious was not to be compared.
It was like a wave of thick materialised fury and hate that was breaking over Ahsoka to bury her beneath it. Immediately, she doubted she was able to do this.
Despite Anakin's warnings, she had underestimated the power the dark side gave Sidious. The next thing she realized were the many doors that dropped shut in a sudden movement.
"Welcome, my friends.", the Emperor began, his voice blasting out of speakers. "One of you, I require. One of you will replace Vader, who died before I wanted him to. Now, it will be decided which one of you it will be."
Slowly, Ahsoka lowered put her hands onto the hilts of her lightsaber, ready to activate them at any moment. "Fight, my friends. Prove your worth to me. The strongest of you will be victorious."
Nothing happened for a few moments. Some began screaming, some banged on the shut doors, and then Ahsoka saw it. A weak crimson glow appeared on the other side of the hall.
Only a second later Ahsoka felt the first death through the force. And the next. And the next. The screams got louder and louder while the glow of the bloodied lightsaber grew closer.
Whoever was slaughtering the people, surely was not untrained, and also not a jedi. That was impossible, no sith but Sidious was alive.
Even though Ahsoka had spent the last hours preparing herself, working out plans, she acted completely out of instinct at this point. She grabbed the arm of the little rodian from the ship and pulled him to her. "Play dead.", she hissed.
Sadly, he hadn't had the time to attempt an escape, but still she would try to protect his life. Obediently and shocked the rodian dropped to the floor and stopped moving, although his force presence only grew more intense.
Quickly, Ahsoka rushed to as many as possible, quietly urging them to play dead before whatever was approaching reached them. Then Ahsoka lit both of her sabers in preparation of the fight that was inevitable.
Every sudden death was like a push that was pressing Ahsoka closer to despair. She was struggling to feel so much pain and fear at once, but she summoned all of the jedi's teachings to focus her mind.
Then the murderer was so close Ahsoka could see the bodies drop. Finally, she could see his face. He was a zabrak of dathomir, his skin red with black marks. His eyes were widened in insane fury as he slashed down more and more.
His eyes narrowed, as he studied the unmoved bodies of the ones Ahsoka had told to pretend death. Without hesitation he impaled them through the back. Ahsoka tensed, ready to battle the direct threat.
Clearly, he was well trained and could feel that they were alive. His eyes burned in bright yellow as he spotted Ahsoka. He bolted towards her with a mad scream, so fast she barely managed to stop his attack.
His fighting style was aggressive and supported by raw strength. Bringing her whole concentration to her defence, Ahsoka blocked his vicious slashed, although the defence took her whole strength.
She was pushed back steadily, while the sabers hit each other. The zabrak had no problem cutting more of the others down in between his attacks. "Stop!", the Emperor instructed suddenly. "Maul and the jedi child, come.", he snarled.
A single one of the doors opened, revealing about ten royal guards. A girl began running for the exit, seeing a chance to escape.
As soon as she was close enough, one of the guards killed her with a one swift stroke. Reluctantly Maul deactivated his lightsaber, it was clear how badly he wanted to kill Ahsoka.
He simply turned his back to her and sprinted towards the exit. The guards let him pass without a word. Hesitantly, Ahsoka put her weapons back onto her belt and followed him.