Summary: Thrawn and Ezra continue to butt heads. Thrawn remembers his first meeting with Anakin Skywalker, during the Clone Wars.
Notes: I had no idea several of you would be interested in a story revolving around Thrawn and Ezra. I also have no idea where this story is going or how often it will be updated, but here goes.
New Alliances and Old
Thrawn found Ezra Bridger to be…annoying.
Two days into their journey, wherever they were going, with the bridge patched up and the pergil still directing their path, the former Imperial Grand Admiral decided that the Jedi in their midst was, in fact, very annoying.
"I still don't understand," the boy admitted ruefully, pacing back and forth before Thrawn's desk as the Grand Admiral, for the sixth time, explained to him the strategic assets of the Empire versus those of the previous Republic. "Why is the Empire both better and worse than the Republic?"
Thrawn sighed.
The Jedi came and fiddled with the Jedi Temple Guard mask Thrawn had on display upon the desk. "Kanan would be better at this," the boy admitted, frowning at the mask.
Thrawn had no doubt that this would be true. From what the Admiral had observed, Kanan Jarrus, as leader of the Ghost crew, had always shown an impressive grasp of tactics.
"Him and Rex were always going on about the Clone Wars and which Jedi was deployed where, and which fleet was stationed where, what ships could do this or that, the tactics used against this or that Separatist leader…" He looked up at Thrawn. "Why do you have this, anyway?" He held the mask up.
Thrawn reached over to pluck it from the Jedi's irresponsible hands. "Because your master chose to wear one," he said, placing the mask precisely back on its stand. "Clone Captain Rex? Of the 501st?" The battalion which was now called 'Vader's Fist.'
Bridger looked like he would stubbornly follow his own line of questioning but then he stiffly answered, "yes."
"General Anakin Skywalker's clone commander?" Thrawn asked, just to make sure.
The boy's frown deepened. "Yes. What of it?"
Thrawn wondered exactly how many people knew what had become of Skywalker, the Jedi's Chosen One, but doubted Bridger knew anything. He supposed this Captain Rex must have escaped the Jedi Purge at the same time Ahsoka Tano had. Undoubtedly, they had escaped together.
"I'm surprised Jarrus trusted a clone at all after their part in Order 66," he said, instead. A man who followed the tenants of a dead religion had always struck him as too loyal to trust those who had massacred and hunted down its members.
"It took him awhile," the young Jedi explained, now examining a holograph of Sabine Wren's artwork, "but Ahsoka trusted him, and learning about the control chip helped."
A piece of the puzzle Thrawn had always wondered about slid neatly into place. "What control chip?"
Bridged looked startled. "You mean you don't know? I would have thought you would know everything on how the Empire came to power."
Was that disapproval he was hearing? From a boy more than half his age, no less.
"I have been unable to find many records from that time," Thrawn admitted, "or to find a Jedi or clone trooper to ask," he added with a slight edge. "And Lord Vader refuses to speak of it besides to say the Jedi betrayed the Republic."
The Jedi snorted. "I'm not surprised, though you could have just asked Ahsoka. Fulcrum. She was all about information." The kid looked at nothing for a moment. "What a mess." He bit his lip in thought.
"Rex said the clones were all implanted with a chip in their brains by the cloners on Kamino. Towards the end of the war, the Jedi and the 501st were made aware of this after one of the chips malfunctioned, and they investigated. They were told that the chips were there to prevent the clones from murderous actions, like their gene donor committed, and to make them more docile to following orders."
Bridger began to pace back and forth, hands held loosely at his sides and back straight. Those years in the Rebellion had obviously imparted some military mannerisms upon him.
"Rex and Clone Commander Cody were suspicious of this explanation though, and they removed Rex's chip to see what would really happen." Bridger shrugged. "It ended up saving his life. And Ahsoka's."
Thrawn got up and moved to stand before a piece of artwork which had originated from former Jedi Master Mace Windu's homeworld. He clasped his hands behind his back. "And the Jedi? What did they know?"
"Ahsoka said the Jedi Council knew the chips had mostly likely been implanted by the unknown Sith Lord who was behind the Clone Wars. But the war had gone on too long to pull the clones back. The Republic was unstable. She said they hoped to end the war before the Sith had time to enact their own plan."
General Windu's idea, no doubt. That Jedi had always been bold and uncompromising.
"They gambled and lost," Thrawn summarized, disparagingly.
Bridger's voice held anger when he snapped back, "so did you."
Thrawn felt a flash of rage at his careful planning being labelled as a gamble, but he turned around and carefully assessed the Jedi. Instead of the burning righteousness he expected the boy to display, Bridger was calm and controlled once more. "Such loyalty to a group who were destroyed through complacency and stupidity," he commented dispassionately.
"That's Palpatine talking," Bridger shot back.
Thrawn walked back across the room and once more seated himself behind his desk. "The Jedi Order fell because they made mistakes. You know this to be true."
"We all make mistakes," the boy insisted. "They did the best they could."
"Did they?" Thrawn contemplated that. "I doubt it. Otherwise they wouldn't have been so completely eradicated."
"Like you were?" the boy challenged again. "One Jedi Padawan and a couple of pergil destroyed your entire fleet." He stared defiantly at Thrawn. "Not even you could predict the pergil because you would have had no way of knowing that I had run into them before. What mistake did you make?"
The Jedi's tone, his self-righteous insolence, rankled. "I should have aerial bombarded your base on Atollon until you, your master, and your entire Rebel cell was incinerated," Thrawn said coldly. "If I had done what needed to be done, I wouldn't be returning to Chiss space with just one ship, and you."
"'Do what needed to be done?'" the boy echoed. "Now you sound like Anakin Skywalker," he decided, smug, and in the next moment he looked chagrined. "And me," he admitted, "before I almost got all my friends killed, which would have happened if Kanan and Hera hadn't saved us. And when I led Maul right to Master Kenobi." Now he sounded deeply embarrassed.
The boy's eyes dropped to the desktop and he looked momentarily disheartened. "He would be better at this than me, too." He reached down and tightly gripped Kanan Jarrus' lightsaber.
Going over the past wasn't helping, Thrawn realized.
"Well, you are here. Not them," he said. "So, we must make do with what we have."
Later, much later, after they had exhausted themselves arguing, Bridger went off to do…something Jedi-related, and Thrawn spent a long time looking at that Temple Guard mask.
From his research, he knew that Temple Guards wielded double-bladed yellow lightsabers, that they were what the Jedi called Sentinels. Although during the last days of the Republic, they mainly guarded the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, they were known in Jedi History as protectors of the Jedi Order itself.
Thrawn had found it particularly…interesting, that Ahsoka Tano, one of the last of that Order, once wielded a yellow-bladed shoto in her off hand. And that after her disappearance, the recently-blinded Kanan Jarrus covered his sightless eyes with the top part of a Temple Guard's mask.
There were even whispers that the former Grand Inquisitor had once been a Temple Guard himself.
All academic of course. But Thrawn had found that patterns were particularly relevant where Force-users were concerned.
"Are you sure you're up for this?" the young human male, with the cocky grin, challenged him.
Thrawn, three days without food or sleep, had merely sent him a withering look.
The human pressed a button on the silver cylinder he carried and a humming, blue blade shot out. It was about the length of a sword and it vibrated in a way that was both compelling and alarming. The other man shrugged as if to say that Thrawn's business was no concern of his.
"These barves are gonna be in for a surprise." There was danger in those blue eyes, and exhilaration at the fight to come.
"We cannot get drawn into their trap," Thrawn cautioned, glancing around their makeshift shelter of tree roots to see their adversaries approaching rapidly.
The man's lopsided grin was most annoying. "Hey! What do you take me for, anyway?"
"A reckless fool," Thrawn said, repressively.
"Actually, my name's Anakin Skywalker." The young man held out a hand and told Thrawn he was supposed to shake it when the Chiss merely looked at him blankly. "I'm a Jedi Knight."
Thrawn studied his unexpected ally carefully. He had no idea what a Jedi Knight was. The traders from whom Thrawn had learned Sy Bisti – the language he used to communicate with this Jedi Knight from the Republic – had never spoken of them.
The blue eyes were reckless, but also compassionate. Those large hands were strong and calloused, signifying that he was used to arduous work, but he had clearly been well-educated and spoke several languages. The scar on his face spoke of success in combat, and his stance and bearing were military. There was defiance in the set of his mouth, but a deep-seated vulnerability in the way his eyes darted up to try and read Thrawn's expression. He was a study in contradictions.
"My name," said the Chiss, "is Mitth'raw'nuruodo. But if we survive this battle, Anakin Skywalker, you may call me Thrawn."
End Notes: Yeah, so Ezra and Thrawn are still not seeing eye to eye. It's to be expected. I didn't think I would make them argue about the Jedi Order, but looking back on the chapter (and the books/show) Thrawn does have serious reservations about Jedi and all Force-users so it makes sense, I think.
Did you like the Anakin flashback? I wish we could have seen Anakin and Thrawn interact in "The Clone Wars" show. That would have been amazing! I'm really looking forward to the Zahn novel "Alliances" about Vader and Thrawn, which is coming out this July! Anyone want a Darth Vader POV scene detailing his reaction to Thrawn's disappearance?