AN: Do any of you have one of those friends that you advise over and over and they still keep on making the same crazy mistakes and decisions? Or the one that always got some kind of drama attached to them because they're doing something you advised them against and uses the excuse that they mama don't say nothing so why should anyone else even though it's not that they mama approve but they mama done talking because this friend practically grown and don't listen anyway? I've got a friend like that who I just want to smack across the head a few times to get some sense into her. I just don't get it. I just… Whatever.

Anyway,I'm still very ticked with this website right now and I have half the mind to say forget it and wait until they fix this damn issue with the story properties features. I mean four whole days and it's still an issue! And what's worse is that we've got no updates about it! Are they working on it? Can they post the way to bypass it for updates on the bulletin and front page? Come on!

Hopefully it's working soon. This website is practically dead with that feature down and there's no traffic since there have been no updates which means no random traffic to my story. Ugh… I'm going to email the support again! Nothing to say about this chapter except you'll like it.

Read, enjoy, and review!

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Chapter Five

"Leia misses you," Ahsoka said to Vader a few days later.

"I expected as much," Vader replied.

"Now more lately," Ahsoka pointed out.

Vader paused to regard her before saying, "You had a disagreement with her?"

"Kind of," Ahsoka admitted slowly. Vader only crossed his arms and waited for her to elaborate and Ahsoka felt like she was fourteen again, her new master glaring at her for pulling some reckless stunt and waiting for an explanation.

"Mon heard her talking about you. She didn't say your name, but in any case Mon was curious and asked me about it."

"What did you tell her?"

Ahsoka shrugged. "An old boyfriend but I don't know if she really believed it. The only reason we got in the rebellion was on Bail's word. But I don't think Mon's ever trusted us."

"They have good reason not to," Vader said simply.

"You make me feel so much better," Ahsoka said dryly rolling her eyes. "Anyway, I told Leia not to talk about it and we exchanged a few harsh words."

"Did you exchange them or did Leia say some harsh words to you?" Vader asked knowingly.

Ahsoka looked away from the hologram giving Vader her answer.

"Remind me to have a talk with her about that later," he said obviously displeased.

"It wasn't her fault. I don't blame her for wanting to talk about her good times with you when all the rebels are dogging you," Ahsoka said quickly. "I know she almost blew our cover but-."

Vader cut Ahsoka off. "That's not what I'm concerned about."

Ahsoka blinked. "Then what-?"

"Is this the first time she's raised up at you?" Vader asked.

Ahsoka paused not knowing where this was going. "I guess."

"Tell me if she does it again."

Ahsoka blinked. "Why?"

"Don't look into this anymore than it already is. I may be a ruthless monster sometimes but I have enough honor and pride to repay my debts. This is a matter of honor and after everything you've done for her and put up with from her, she owes it to you to at least not take her anger out on you," Vader said. "It's a teaching lesson."

Ahsoka raised one of her facial marking with her arms crossed. "You're one to talk about who you take out your anger on people and being appreciative…"

Vader didn't answer and whether it was because he knew Ahsoka was right or he just didn't feel like answering, Ahsoka wasn't sure so Ahsoka continued.

"You know, if you asked her Leia would tell you exactly where we are without hesitating," she said.

Vader resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Don't you think I know that?"

Ahsoka looked at him in bemusement. "Then why…."

"I want you to tell me if I don't find you first," he said.

Ahsoka frowned. "I don't get it…"

"Face it Ahsoka, you chose your loyalties a long time ago, before Leia was even born and you're simply ignoring your destiny," Vader said smugly.

"I really have no idea what you're talking about," Ahsoka said to him.

"I mean that it's only a matter of time before you're forced to show your true colors," Vader said simply. "And I'm trying to help you do that."

"If you're saying that I'm meant to be a Sith you can forget it."

"That's not what I mean. I mean there's only so long you can act like you're not helping either side Ahsoka and I'm going to force you to choose," Vader declared.

Ahsoka rolled her eyes. "I told you what I care about. At this point, the galaxy can go to hell for all I care."

"You're a warrior and it's roaring to get out. You're playing the domestic role right now but you won't be able to ignore it forever and when you realize that, you're going to have to choose a side. In fact, I think you've already chosen," Vader said to her.

"You're taunting me so I'll tell you where we are," Ahsoka hissed.

"Quite the contrary. You can keep being stubborn about it for all I care. I'm going to find you regardless," Vader said and cut the connection.

Ahsoka groaned. Vader was the most infuriating arrogant and stubborn man she had ever met (if she were honest with herself those were some of the things she like about him but she was hardly going to admit it out loud). Who was he trying to kid? She wasn't his fourteen year old padawan that he could guilt and intimidate into telling him something.

Ahsoka pocketed the com and then made her way out to go find where the Leia was no doubt training with Luke. But then she stopped, as a feeling of being watched or monitored came over her… not so much that, but a feeling of dread and certain conflict.

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Ahsoka's edgy feelings only increased in the next few days and everyone, especially the ever observant Leia, could tell. But so far, Leia had done nothing to try to find out what it was. That concerned her friends. Leia was usually scheming her way to manipulate things like this, if only to make her guardian feel better.

"Who are you and what have you done with Leia Skywalker?" Abdul finally asked her.

"What are you talking about?"

"No schemes, no manipulative interrogations, no makeshift guessing games where you ask the same thing a million different times to get the answer you want. In fact, you haven't even mentioned anything about Ahsoka's behavior. Last time she was like this, you swore she was depressed and missing your dad," Abdul said.

"I'm beyond such childish games," Leia joked.

Lana and Abdul exchanged a look before laughing at her. If anything, Leia's skill in her games had only increased and matured.

Leia became serious. "The mark of a wise manipulator of fate is to know when something is beyond their capacity to handle," Leia said to them.

"Where did you get that from? Sounds like something out that movie Luke likes to watch," Lana said.

"It is," Leia said smiling. "I just always wanted to sound wise and say something like that."

"But seriously Leia. What's going on with Ahsoka?"

"For once, I have no idea," Leia said shaking her head. "Dad is involved, but it's not solely related to him. It seems like she's having an internal conflict."

"That's all you got?" Lana asked in shock.

Something Leia had always been known for was her empathy. Even before she developed her force power she had an uncanny ability to read people. It was the reason she could predict how people were going to act so well (on the other hand Luke was more sympathetic. He related to people better than Leia did). So for Leia not to know what was going on with her guardian was a shock indeed.

"You do know what this means?" Lana asked.

"That for once in her life, Leia's at a loss to what she can do?" Abdul joked.

"It's not funny," Lana snapped at him.

Abdul sighed. "I know. Okay? I know what it means."

"What does this mean?" Leia asked.

"We're all about to be in one hell of a ride soon," he said simply.

"It seems like you'd stop being so dramatic as we got older," Leia pointed out.

"I'm serious Leia. Whatever this is, we're about to be dealing with something that's way over our head. Don't tell us you're not worried," Abdul asked.

Leia sighed. "I have been feeling a little anxious. But…"

Leia paused and then said to Abdul, "Luke says Mon wants to see us."

Having long since got over the uneasiness he used to have over Luke and Leia's telepathic bond, Abdul simply said, "Again?"

Leia sighed. It was a wonder the rebellion functioned at all before she and Ahsoka got there. They were always calling her for one reason or another, mostly for technical assistance. She had learned all kinds of tech with her dad.

When she got to the control center with Abdul (Lana having decided to go practice her knife throwing), Mon, General Rieekan, and Akbar were all standing around the communications console.

"What's going on?" Leia asked.

"As you know, we track all the signals and links coming to and from the base using our satellites. But lately we've been picking up a strange signal, a secure untraceable, coded, signal and we think it may be a spy," Madine replied.

"Can't you trace whoever is making the call from here?" Abdul asked.

"The untraceable source works both ways once the two are connected," Mon pointed out.

"So you need us to try and trace the source and unencrypt it before finding out where the calls are coming from and going to?" Abdul asked.

Mon nodded.

"Already done," Abdul said getting right to work.

Leia almost laughed. Despite how afraid Abdul could be, he was a computer genius.

"What do you want me to do?" Leia asked knowing full well Abdul could handle this.

"Just help him if he needs it. Call us when you crack it," Mon said patting Abdul's shoulder before leaving them to work.

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Ahsoka sensed that something was amiss as soon as she got up that morning. Something just didn't feel right… Something was about to happen, and whatever it was would only be the beginning, she realized as the same uneasy feeling she had before came back. She started to get into contact with Vader deciding he may be able to tell her what to do. She realized that he had sent them to the rebellion to keep them away from the emperor's prying eyes, but to be honest, she would feel safer if she, Leia, and Shmi were with him. Just as she started to make the connection, she sensed someone coming to her door and slid the com under her pillow.

The door opened and Ahsoka started to ask if the person had ever heard of knocking until she realized it wasn't just one person at the door. It was part of the high council.

"To what do I owe the honor?" she asked in no mood to deal with them. Then she saw the apologetic look on Winter's face and knew it was something else.

"You're under arrest," Mon said simply to Ahsoka.

Ahsoka tilted her head in confusion. "I'm what?"

"Under arrest to be kept under the captivity of the alliance until further questioning can be done," Madine declared as a dozen or so officers filed into the room.

One of them tried to put cuffs on her. She pulled back her hands.

"Hold on. What for?" she asked.

"We've trace a series of untraceable calls from you to Vader's private com on the Executor," Mon said.

Ahsoka froze. She should have known Mon would have been looking for anything to prove that her distrust of Ahsoka was warranted or even unwarranted but to go as far as to unencrypt a few untraceable calls? Ahsoka frowned. Vader had made up that signal code himself. No one could crack it… except Leia and Abdul.

"Do you deny these accusations?"

"Would it really help if I did?" Ahsoka said glaring at Mon. "You were looking for a reason not to trust me anyway."

"Answer the question."

"I don't have to talk," Ahsoka said deciding to be as difficult as possible until she figured out some way out of this.

"If you're innocent, what's there to hide?"

Ahsoka had to admit she made a good point as she put out her hands and let them cuff her and the dozen or so officers flanked her. It was a good idea to have so many. If it were any less, she might try and make a break for it.

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"Show off," Mara snapped rolling her eyes as Luke used a trick of the force to entertain Shmi.

"I am not."

"You're a liar Luke Skywalker," the eighteen year old said. "You talk about Leia having a lot of pride when you've got an ego the size of the outer rim."

"Don't you know how to hurt a guy," he said and Mara began to respond until Han hurriedly came up to them, Chewie behind him looking around like they were afraid of being followed.

"What's going on?" Luke asked Han.

"You haven't heard yet?" Han asked.

"Heard what?" Luke asked.

"Ahsoka's been arrested," Han said and then looked at Shmi. "Come on squirt. We've got to hide you."

"Wait a minute," Luke said although he let Han take Shmi. "Ahsoka's been arrested. For what?"

"Making contact with the man in black himself," Han said not noticing Luke pale considerably. "I don't know if it's true or not but the rumors are going wild. Something about a beef between Mon and Ahsoka and Mon setting Ahsoka up. Don't know what the truth is kid, but what we do know is that Mon tricked Leia into helping unencrypt the signal and Leia's raising high hell over it. I ain't got no idea what Shmi has to do with this, but Winter told me to get her and hide her in the Falcon. I hope the kid's not afraid of the dark."

Luke nodded and then took off in a force induced run to find Leia. She was in the detention center where Mon and some of the members of High Council were gathered along with Lana, Abdul, Yoda, and Obi-wan who were trying to calm Leia down. Leia had lost all semblance of respect and the usual calm and refinement she had as she quite literally cursed the entire High Council to sith hell and back again for tricking her and locking Ahsoka up.

"You kriffing hypocrite! You encrypted Ahsoka's signal to trick me and Abdul into helping. You knew we wouldn't have done it otherwise," Leia shouted.

"It was necessary," Mon said calmly.

"Necessary my ass!" Leia shouted and briefly let out a string of obscenities that were unlike the twenty year old to say. To say that she was angry was an understatement. Leia was positively livid. "Let her out! You have no right to hold her. The means by which you got this information were not only unethical, but a direct violation of privacy, therefore on that technicality she should be set free."

"Leia, calm down," Obi-wan said to her.

"Calm down!" Leia said calmly in Obi-wan's direction. "I'll calm down after I turn this whole kirffing base upside down!"

"Leia," Luke said touching her arm.

Leia snatched her arm away. "I demand you let me see her or help me the force I'll-."

"Is it really that unreasonable to let her just talk to Ahsoka," Luke said cutting his sister off from saying something potentially treasonous. He had a lot of influence when it came to the council since he had practically grown up under them. They had even offered him a position on the council to which Luke declined on the grounds that politics wasn't his thing.

Mon sighed. "Fine. Go ahead."

An officer started to follow her until Luke sighed and said, "Privately."

The officer looked at Mon who gestured for him to leave them to their privacy.

The guard in front of Ahsoka's door opened it to let Leia in before closing the door behind her. Lei looked at her guardian who looked a little too passive about this to Leia's liking.

"Ahsoka," she muttered and wrapped her arms around the woman who was practically her mother.

"Hey princess," Ahsoka whispered as Leia pulled away. "What's happening?"

"Nothing except I'm about ready to kill the entire High Council," Leia said with a dark look in her eyes.

"Don't say that Leia," Ahsoka said sighing. "This isn't your fight."

"Yes it is," Leia said determined. "She tricked me. I swear if I had known it was you-."

"I know Leia. It's not your fault," Ahsoka said leaning her head against the wall. "I pretty much got myself into this."

"How?"

"Your dad's looking for us," Ahsoka explained. "If I had just told him in the first place…"

"You wouldn't have done that," Leia said shaking her head. "The rebellion's done too much for us for you to turn on them like that."

"You wouldn't have cared," Ahsoka pointed out.

Leia shrugged. "True. But it isn't betrayal when you weren't really with them to begin with."

"Leia," Ahsoka said but was trying not to smile.

"They won't get away with this. I'm going to do everything I can to get you out of this without having to kill someone," Leia replied.

"I know. I heard you shouting out there. Your father would have a heart attack if he heard all those words coming out your mouth. Where did you learn those from?"

"Dad," Leia said with a smirk.

"I told him you would pick that up from him if he didn't stop it," Ahsoka said remembering when she told Vader that eleven years ago… Had it really been that long? She had been so young then now that she looked back at it; twenty-six, raising a child and trying to sort out her feeling for the said Sith Lord father of child. It seemed like a lot to be dealing with at that age. It she had had Shmi back then… Shmi.

"You've got to get Shmi out of here," Ahsoka said suddenly sitting up.

"What for? They wouldn't do anything to a little girl," Leia said.

"I know that, but if they find out Vader's her father their going to ask what we were doing with him and then they'll no doubt find out that all three of you share the same father and that Vader was Anakin Skywalker," Ahsoka said to her and shook her head. "I won't let them taint his name."

"But how? I'm not leaving you here."

"Han," Ahsoka said to Leia. "Ask him to take her away from here, to keep her safe until we can sort this out."

"Han? Ahsoka are you sure?" Leia asked. "No offense. Han's nice but…"

"He's our only hope and no one would ever think we sent a little girl with him. Make Threepio go with them."

"We shouldn't have to run and hide," Leia said getting a distant look in her eye. "I've been hiding my whole life. I'm tired of hiding Ahsoka."

"Leia please," Ahsoka said to her and Leia rolled her eyes.

"Fine. I'll tell Han," Leia said sighing. "But I don't like this Ahsoka."

"You think I do," Ahsoka asked her pointedly and Leia's expression softened.

"Sorry," she said and then added. "And I'm sorry I went off on you a few days ago. I didn't mean any of it. I just… I wish we didn't have to hide anymore."

Ahsoka only gave a sad smile. She knew the feeling. Leia left the room intent on getting Shmi as far away from the rebellion as possible and Ahsoka could only hope she wouldn't do anything rash. They were going to go after Leia next, but Leia wasn't going to run away. She'd face the entire rebellion head on if she needed to. However, Ahsoka wasn't going to let her do that. She closed her eyes and opened her bond with Vader, the bond that had gotten increasingly stronger since she got pregnant with Shmi and was probably stronger now than it was when she was his padawan.

It wasn't technically betrayal, she told herself. She had told Vader if they gave her reason to, she'd turn on them and it was time. She had to protect Leia at all cost and if the rebellion was attacked, they'd be more concerned about evacuating than questioning Leia and then their forces would be scattered until they could find a new base. It was the only way.

Ahsoka, he said in response to her call.

Ahsoka didn't reply for a while, but her distress was certainly obvious to Vader.

What's wrong?

Ahsoka didn't say as she took a deep determined breath. This was it. And so she sent one word that would no doubt start the galaxy down the path toward an end for the good or the bad.

Hoth.

She closed the connection again. But it was done. The rebellion's days were numbered.

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AN: You know, originally, this was two chapters but then I took a removed roughly two thousand words and adjusted the next chapter because there was a part in her that just… I don't know, I kind of forgot to incorporate it in the rest of the story and it wasn't tying into to anything. So rather than try and fix the rest of the story to tie up that loose end, I took it out and combined the first part of this (which was part of the scrapped chapter) with the next chapter and then took off some of this chapter and put it with the next.

It worked out well I think. So it's all about to go down and her starts the real beginning to this story.

Anyway, Hope you enjoyed. Review Please!