Incentive Day Alert

AN: Okay. So a week and a half ago, I decided that I was going to come up with a challenge where I give you all a review quota that if you all meet, you'll get an extra chapter for that week (i.e. whereas I usually update three times a week, if you meet the incentive, you'll end up with four). It was going to fall on every second Friday and the quota would depend on the reviews gotten for the last few chapters (I thought it was fair as regardless I'm going to update on my regular days reviews or not). But I decided that doesn't quite work without a cliffhanger. So since this is a two part chapter, I decided to move the incentive to whenever there's a cliffhanger or feel it can be done. So from now on when you see that sign in bold up there, it's an incentive day. So today's quota is 15 reviews by six o'clock eastern time.

Got that? Okay. This is always fun.

Read, enjoy, and review!

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Chapter Twelve

The officers of the Executor had been skeptical about having a woman on board who Vader declared was his second. Not many women held high positions in the Empire as the general consensus was that they lacked the discipline, endurance, and were generally weaker than men. But she had certainly proved them wrong in the swift handling of the youth rebellion, of which she told Vader was easy compared to the battles of the Clone Wars where they sometimes were underequipped to deal with many of the crisis situations. Therefore, the crew quickly adjusted to having a woman on board and even more than respected her for her battle skills, they were grateful for her influence on their first commander's behavior and mood. Her presence mellowed Vader out considerably, probably because he was more conscious of the things he did when she was around. This woman (as no one was quite sure the relationship she had with Vader) was certainly more merciful and patient than their commander.

But it was different that day. Vader noticed her mood had been on the decline that month. It started with her not talking as much, then she started getting agitated and glaring, next her dry humor turned into outright sarcasm and frustration, and lastly that day, Vader was on the receiving end of her frustration and temper and the time couldn't have been more perfect…

The emperor had gotten reports that there were two Jedi hiding and causing trouble in a Mid-rim world and their job was to detain and deal with the two before they could regroup with other Jedi, particularly Yoda and Obi-wan. Well technically, Vader was just along to supervise. The emperor had made it clear that it was Ahsoka's job to cement her loyalty to him. It was one thing to quell a rebellion of youth, but another to officially turn her back on the Jedi and kill one. Vader hadn't thought her mood could get any worse by that time but it had. As if it weren't bad enough, she wasn't talking to him, and for the life of him, he couldn't figure out what was wrong with her. So instead of dwelling on it, he tried to focus on the mission. But that was hard to do when she wouldn't talk to him, not civilly anyway…

"The mission is simple," Vader was saying to the troops. "We invade the city for temporary occupation until the Jedi threat is eliminated. Your orders are to keep order in the city by any means necessary."

Ahsoka rolled her eyes muttering, "How do you expect order to be kept in a city being invaded and occupied?"

Vader ignored her comment. "Ahsoka," he said to her and though she didn't address him, he continued, "We'll sweep the city for clues and interrogate witnesses so that we can immediately eliminate the Jedi threat."

Ahsoka again didn't address him and this time Vader forgot that they were about to land for an invasion with the troops watching them.

"Is there a problem?" he asked now angry with her himself.

"Not at all," she said.

The sarcastic undertone didn't escape Vader's notice.

"Well whatever it is, it'll be best if you put it aside and deal with it later. This mission can't be endangered because one of its commanders is having mood swings," he said bluntly.

"It's always about the mission with you. Isn't it?" Ahsoka snapped as the ship landed.

Vader's helmet tilted to the side almost stunned at her boldness.

"Excuse me?" he asked in a warning tone.

"You heard me. But don't worry. I won't endanger your precious mission," she said bitterly.

"Actually, it's your mission and you'd do well to be grateful that I'm helping you with it despite your attitude," Vader shot back. Not to mention it was taking all his will power not to choke her where she stood…

"To be quite honest, I don't care whether I get your help or not. I don't want to be here. So let's just get this over with," Ahsoka snapped heading down the lowered ramp.

Vader clenched his fist in agitation at the woman before remembering the troops behind him who were staring at him in fascination that he had just let someone talk to him like that a walk away alive.

"Well you have your orders. Get a move on. I'm not feeling very beneficent today…" he snapped making his way out the ship himself.

Despite her earlier comment about not caring about the mission, she was obviously ready to get it over with and knew that couldn't be done until they found the two Jedi. Her intolerance for mistakes that day was worse than his usually was and that was saying something. However, the invasion and subsequent occupation took longer than they expected, namely because of the resistance they received from the city.

"What's going on?" Vader asked Ahsoka.

Ahsoka didn't answer and only continued to look at the layouts of the city that were lying on one of the tanks she was using as a table.

He sighed deeply. "I really don't care why you're angry at the world. I don't even care that right about now a nest a gundarks would be better company than you. But for the sake of this mission will you at least answer me?"

"The troops have surrounded the perimeter of the city effectively blockading it, but they can't get in," Ahsoka pointed out. "Apparently the mayor got whiff of the invasion and ordered local troops to guard the perimeter of the city, not to mention they've planted a mime field… If the troops try to invade we'll lose at least half of them, probably more."

"Then we'll have to make our way past it and deactivate the field somehow if we want this mission to be a success," Vader said.

Ahsoka shook her head and apparently forgetting that she was mad at the galaxy said, "We could try that, but their operatives have been commanded to activate the entire field if anyone tries to get past it. They're waiting for us to do that."

"Well at least now we know they're hiding the Jedi…" Vader said.

"Apparently," she said sighing.

"And since we know it's a trap," Vader said, "The best thing to do is to spring the trap."

Ahsoka rolled her eyes. "Reckless as ever… We're trying to get in contact with the mayor now."

On cue one of the officers called them both to the communications system where the holo of the young mayor was. Vader was immediately reminded of a young Padmé, fourteen years old trying to save her people's lives.

"Lord Vader and…" she looked over at Ahsoka and raised an eyebrow. "I don't think I've yet met your acquaintance."

"My name is irrelevant right now and so I'll get straight to the point. I have better things to do today than waste my time trying to figure out how to get past your mime field. Shut it down and I assure you we'll be in and out of your city within the day," Ahsoka said coolly. "Call off your army."

"With all due respect, we are a sovereign city, separate from the government of this planet and not under your jurisdiction, nor do we have ties to your rebellion. You have no right to invade without warning."

"Sovereign?" Ahsoka asked in surprise and then looked at Vader who was surprised as well.

"Yes," the girl said firmly.

"Fine then," Ahsoka said quickly. "We'll hold off the invasion if you allow me and Lord Vader to search your sovereignty for the two fugitive Jedi in your city."

The girl looked at them with a level stare before saying, "That's an acceptable agreement. We'll turn off the mime field in twenty minutes and you both can conduct your search, but only you two…"

"Agreed," Ahsoka said and the girl cut off the connection.

Vader looked at her. "I sincerely hope you're aware that they agreed with this way too quickly. It's a setup."

"I know that," Ahsoka said rolling her eyes. "I'm not dumb. I'm simply taking a page out of your book."

"And that is?"

"Spring the trap," she said grinning.

It was true that it was exactly what he would have done. But those things always miraculously worked out for him. As hypocritical as it was, he didn't see that happening with Ahsoka.

"This is nuts," he told her.

"Hypocrite," Ahsoka said to him.

"That's different. You're not me."

"Not trying to be," she said heading for the mime field.

Vader was at his wit's end. What the hell was wrong with her?

"That's it," he demanded of her grabbing her arm and turning her to him when they were on the edge of the field. "What's your problem?"

Ahsoka glared at him coldly and clenched her jaw. So seeing that she wasn't going to say anything, he tapped into their mostly ignored force bond to get a feel of what was going on. He almost reeled back at the swirl of emotions. Apparently, she wasn't completely angry. It was just the emotion that was manifesting itself the most. But underneath all that was silent agony about something and resentment toward him. He started to ask her about it until one of the officers looked at them and said, "Sir! The mime field is down."

"Let's go," she said abruptly and started to cross the field to go directly into the city.

For a place that was being threatened with invasion, it sure was busy. People went on about their business as though the empire hadn't surrounds the perimeter of the city, effectively blockading it. Vader in full armor, however, certainly got their attention and passersby moved out the way to give them room.

"Well we're here now," Ahsoka said sighing. "Where to start?"

Vader tried his hardest to ignore the sad undertone in her voice as he scanned the part of the city they were in.

"According to the reports, they're usually near the main part of the city. No doubt they'll be sure to cause a riot sometime today if we simply wait on them."

"Wait?" Ahsoka asked. "That's a new one coming from the guy who just runs into things."

"Even I know that it's better to wait when there's nothing to run into," Vader replied.

"Then while we're waiting," Ahsoka said in a bored tone, "how about we go in there?"

Vader followed her gaze to see a bustling farmer's market. Why she wanted to go in there, he had no clue. But if it would do anything to help her mood, he was all for it. Reluctantly he followed her to the place and she idly walked around, every now and then glancing at a person making candy or some other interesting thing like a man who had portable fish farm that he was letting customers fish in. However, as interesting as she might have found them, it was a simple piece of fruit that caught her attention.

It was white and looked like a snowball for all Vader knew. He watched in curiosity as Ahsoka picked it up.

"What's that?" he asked.

"Winter fruit," she replied staring at it.

"Highly original name," he commented.

Ahsoka gave him a small glare before turning her attention back to the fruit.

"It goes by a lot of names. Winter fruit, ice cream fruit, dairy fruit. People joke that it's probably the only thing that might grow on Hoth. But no one's brave enough to try it," Ahsoka said with a smile.

"Hoth?"

"It only grows in cold frigid places so it's a rare find. They used to grow on high peaks of the mountains of Alderaan. When I was pregnant, Bail had a batch brought into the palace to celebrate the winter festival. I gained an insatiable craving for them in the latter part of my pregnancy. I'd go through a case of these things in a week…" Ahsoka said sighing and then putting the fruit down before moving on.

Vader glanced at the fruit. His senses were telling him that this fruit was connected to whatever was bothering Ahsoka today but the pieces weren't quite fitting together.

He started to follow her before pausing and sensing something, something playful, and mischievous. He stretched out his senses to get a feel of what it was before the innocent tickle became a full blown warning.

"Ahsoka," he yelled.

She stopped when he called her and looked back at him before feeling the warning. She turned around in time to use the force to divert the course of a large run away cart that had broken off from the speeder truck guiding it. It instead careened into the portable farm of fish they had passed earlier.

Seeing that she was unharmed, Vader stretched out his senses to find the source. That hadn't been an accident and when he felt the disappointment that came with failure, he was certain of it. He started to tell that to Ahsoka but just as he was getting to her, she took off to no doubt follow where her senses were pointing her.

He had a hard time keeping up with her because her slender, petite form made it easier for her to maneuver through the crowds. Vader didn't have that advantage and his full armor naturally made it more difficult for him to do the same. When he caught up with her, she was out the market and in the square of the city with her lightsaber out cutting through random crates that kept flying her way.

"Well you were right," Ahsoka muttered. "We found whoever it was. But this isn't the style of the Jedi."

"I noticed…" Vader said grabbing Ahsoka's lightsaber hand to stay it. "Wait."

"What?" she asked.

"It's too quiet here…"

"Well we aren't in the market anymore," Ahsoka pointed out and then caught something in her peripheral vision. "There."

"Ahsoka wait," Vader said as she took off again and instantly felt like he was twenty years old and chasing after his fourteen year old padawan with a mind of her own.

He cursed as he went after her into an empty building with a for sale sign on it. He followed her up the stairs and found her in the dark empty halls looking around.

"Ahsoka, something's not right here," Vader said to her.

"What isn't?"

"You don't find it odd that the square was empty, like it had been recently evacuated or something?" Vader asked her.

"Like they were purposely leading us here…?" Ahsoka said as the realization dawned on her.

"Well we're here now," Vader said walking past her. "This way," he said ignoring the feeling that they should get out of there. He put his hand on a seemingly random door and lit his lightsaber.

Ahsoka came to stand next to him with her blade already lit as used to force to open the door and braced himself for what was inside.

At the sight, they both immediately paused. Safe to say, they were both utterly perplexed.

Two girls were there. One was obviously about twelve or thirteen years older than the other as she appeared to be around seventeen while the girl with her was at least four. It could have been said that the older girl was the little one's mother, but their bond felt more like the one between sisters…

"It was you two down there?" Ahsoka asked softly. "You're the two so-called Jedi wrecking havoc?"

"Do we look like Jedi?" the older girl asked them coldly.

Vader started to demand of them what they were doing and why they had purposely led them there when Ahsoka extinguished her blade, anger rolling off her presence in waves before she let out a predator growl.

"Kriffing bastard!" she yelled and started to storm out the room.

Vader grabbed her by the arm to pull her back.

"What are you talking about?"

"That bastard sent me here on purpose to kill them!" Ahsoka snapped pulling her arm away.

"Who?"

"The emperor! He knew! He knew…" she said trailing off and then she did the last thing Vader had been expecting her to do.

She let her head fall forward and failed miserably to hold back a sob as she put her hands over her face.

Vader had enough by this time.

"That's it," he said. "What the stang is wrong with-?"

He paused and turned around to find that the two children had escaped in his moment of distraction with Ahsoka.

"Where-?"

Vader paused when her heard the increasing beeping that only meant that a detonator was about to explode.

Ahsoka seemed to realize the same thing despite her distress and said, "We have to get out of here."

"No time," he said pulling her to him to shield her with his bulky form as the detonator exploded.

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AN: This chapter came out of nowhere. Originally it wasn't supposed to be like this. But as I wrote, I wasn't feeling that scouting mission and so I scrapped it as it wasn't exactly necessary to the theme and plot of the story and got this instead.

Hope you enjoyed. Review Please!