AN: Excuse me for any mistakes in this chapter. I've been working on a new story I'm posting and was in no mood to edit this properly, not that it needed it. And I'm tired. My b-day was over the weekend. I hate that's it's always around mother's day, but whatever… Oh and Happy Mother's day to all the mothers out there including mine.

Read, enjoy, and review!

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Chapter Twenty-seven

Palpatine sat in contemplation of his next move as he thought about his wayward apprentice and his lover, the former Jedi. He had to admit, Tano had indeed proved herself a valuable asset to the empire, but certainly not as valuable as she could be plotting with Vader. He and his apprentice were at a stalemate. Both lacked the necessary leverage to overcome the other. Vader would not do so until he was sure his family was secure and the rebellion crushed and Palpatine needed to insure himself a new apprentice. It was possible the second Skywalker child could be of help to him, but even better would his apprentices youngest child whom he had in his grasp but his hand had foolishly let get away. The former Jedi had killed her but Palpatine hadn't care. He could not tolerate Melody's failure. It had been too simple and she let the child get away.

Master, he heard in his head.

Yes my hand, Palpatine replied through the connect he had with his spy, the connection he had with them all.

Lord Vader has left to go on a personal mission to Dathomir.

I'm assuming he has taken the Executor.

No. He left it with Lady Pesinoé in command, the hand replied. Would you want me to follow him?

Palpatine started at this. So his apprentice had finally left the side of the jedi whore he kept for company. Palpatine was very aware that Vader was too afraid to leave her alone without his protection, though one could also say it was an obsession, an unhealthy possessiveness Vader had about anything he cared about. Whatever it was he had gone after must have been exceptionally important that he had left the Jedi's side. He smiled. This could work to his advantage.

Master…

I have a different mission for you my hand. Arrange for the alliance to perhaps slip upon the location and some information on my new Death Star.

Master?

Just do it. The Death Star is disposable in comparison to what I have to gain from this.

Yes master.

The connection between master and hand was cut and Palpatine set about meditating to see what the force had in store for him.

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"Leia. Leia."

The said woman poked her head around the corner to find her grandfather in his hover chair with a datapad in his lap. He hovered over to the couch in the den and gestured for her to sit near him. The last few weeks on Naboo had certainly been entertaining, especially for her mother's family who were overjoyed to have found one of the children Padmé had left behind before she died. Most happy and joyous of all was Ruwee, her grandfather. Just like Jobal had said, just Leia's presence amongst the family had made all the difference for him and to at least have some closure on what had happened to their daughter.

Not only had they taken Leia in though, they welcomed Lana and Abdul with just as much enthusiasm, eager to learn more about their granddaughter through her best friend's eyes. In some ways, they learned more about Leia through them than from Leia herself as they were willing to dish out all the dirt on her, edited of course as they knew nothing about Vader yet. Leia was going to tell them soon, just not yet. She didn't know how they would take it.

"Yes grandpa?" she asked coming to sit down with him.

"I found these old pictures of your mother. I know you're curious about her," he said.

"Really?" Leia asked and saw that the datapad was actually a holo-album.

He nodded and turned it on, showing her the pictures of Padmé when she was a young girl. Leia gasped.

"Ahsoka would love to see these," Leia said as they flipped through the pictures. "She looks just like me."

"Yes. You do look just like her," Ruwee commented. "But I think you must have most of your father's personality. She was very calm and restrained. Don't get me wrong. Your mother had an inner fire, but she controlled it well. "

"Are you saying I don't?"

"Judging by the last few weeks, no," Ruwee said with a laugh.

"Ahsoka tells me that all the time," Leia replied. "She says humility isn't my best trait but I have my mother's patience."

They came across the time when Padmé joined the legislative youth program and Leia tilted her head a little.

"Wow. Mom was in politics since she was a child."

"Yeah. There's a picture where she was the queen of Naboo. They wanted her to stay in office for more than her two terms but your mother was a firm believer in democracy and freedom. That was her first love and it always came before anything else. That's why we were so shocked when we found out she was pregnant when she died, or we thought she was," Ruwee said.

Leia paused at that. "You think… You think she loved it more than she loved my father?"

Ruwee looked at her in confusion before shrugging.

"I don't know," he said to her. "She had to have loved him quite I bit if she married him and had you and your brother I imagine."

"That's one thing. But I mean. If she had to choose between democracy and my dad, do you think she would have sided with him?" Leia asked softly as she looked at the only picture of Padmé and her father when he was a young man. He was less bulky and muscular than he was presently, and it would have been at least a year before he met Ahsoka.

"What do you mean?

"I mean if he decided to support the empire and she was against it, do you think she would have stayed with him anyway?" Leia asked offhandedly. "Despite their political views?"

Ruwee sighed. "If there was one thing I knew about your mother, she believed in democracy with all her heart, that people deserved a voice, and to be honest Leia, I don't know what she would have done. She believed that not giving people a voice gave way to cruelty and that too much power in the hands of one person was evil."

"That's a very black and white view to have," Leia muttered. She now realized that her sometimes extreme views weren't just from her dad, but her mother also… at least politically speaking.

"Maybe it is Leia. Why do you ask?"

Leia shrugged. "I've been dreaming about her lately… my mother that is. I just want to know why."

"Well you came to the right place," Ruwee said.

But Leia wasn't so sure. If anything she was even more confused than before and so found herself late that night looking out into the sky. She spotted Rumiyya looking nothing more than a small sparkling dot, almost outshined by the other stars.

"Leave it to you to be outside at one o'clock in the morning," Abdul said sitting next to her.

"What's on your mind?" Lana asked sitting on the other side of her. Leia shrugged.

"I don't know. I don't know much of anything anymore," Leia whispered.

"I know how you feel sometimes," Abdul said noticing the planet she was looking at. "It was all so much easier back on Rumiyya."

"Yeah," Lana said with a laugh. "The only thing we had to worry about was what troubling scheme you were going to come up with on any given day."

"We were still hiding though," Leia said to them.

"It didn't feel like hiding then. We didn't actually have to run like we do now," Lana said. "I liked it. I got to see my parents. I haven't seen them in almost three years."

"Me too," Abdul muttered.

"I haven't seen my dad since I was fourteen," Leia added. "Really seen him you know? I saw him on Hoth before we had to go but we couldn't sit down and take a speeder apart and put it back together. I miss it. Life was so simple back then and I wasn't worried about living up to my mother's legacy."

"Why would you care about that all of a sudden?" Abdula asked turning to look at her.

"That vision… I can't get it out. My mother sounds so sad. She's calling me wants me to understand something, like I'm doing the wrong thing, making the wrong choices and on the other side there's my dad and Ahsoka but their proud in some way I guess," Leia said. "It doesn't make sense."

"Why so much focus on your mother? Why does it matter? You never wondered so much before," Lana pointed out.

"I don't know. I guess because she's such a mystery to me. I only remember her face and even then I have nothing else to associate her with. I never knew her…" Leia said and then trailed off, but Abdul didn't notice.

"Well then of course you'd wonder," he said but Leia was suddenly groaning.

"That's it. I never knew her… But I know Ahsoka and my dad. That's it!" Leia said and abruptly stood up.

Lana and Abdul blinked, exchanged a glance, and then looked at each other.

"What are you talking about?"

"I've been going about this the wrong way," Leia said going back into the house. "I don't know my real mother and I never will. But I have known a mother, the only mother I ever knew and if I talk to her maybe I can figure out what this means, what the force was trying to tell me."

"Wait! Who?"

"Ahsoka," Leia yelled. "Come on and pack your things. We're leaving."

"Tonight!"

"No," Leia said. "I'm not stupid, but certainly first thing in the morning. We're going to find the Executor."

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Ahsoka sighed tiredly as she made sure everyone was working effectively and efficiently on the bridge of the Executor. This was usually what Vader did and it didn't look so tiresome when he did it. Then again, Vader rarely slept keeping his ship in order, so of course it seemed like he was never tired, and at one time he used make her stay awake too. That hadn't been hard initially as using the force usually helped with that. In fact, she had odd sleeping habits back on Rumiyya. But now, being pregnant she was forced to retire and on occasion Vader would come and lay next to her and when he thought she was sleep, he would stare at her stomach in wonder at what was going on inside. She'd never tell him that she had seen him as he would never do it while she was awake or again even at all.

She sighed, furiously talking to herself as she rubbed her eyes tiredly.

"I can't believe I'm going through this again," she said to herself. "I swore Shmi would be my first and last and now I'm pregnant again. If someone had told me this twenty years ago, I would have gotten angry and huffed in disgust at such a thing."

She smiled as the baby rolled over in her stomach in response.

"Hey that doesn't mean I don't want you. Relax. It's not your fault. It's your father's fault entirely," Ahsoka muttered as she held back a yawn. It wouldn't look good in front of the men.

"Lady Pesinoé," an officer said coming up to her. "The emperor wishes to speak to you."

Ahsoka tensed briefly. This was the perfect time for him to want something, when Vader wasn't on the Executor. She straightened herself to her full height and then pulled her cloak closer around her so as to hide her figure. When she was in the communications room she bowed before the com and bowed head.

"Your highness, what is thy bidding?" she forced out her mouth. She really did detest this man.

"Rise Lady Pesinoé," Palpatine said and Ahsoka stood up and slowly lifted her head to look in his face.

"Where is Lord Vader?" he asked.

"On a personal mission sir," Ahsoka said and it was honest, somewhat honest. She had no idea why he had gone to Dathomir.

"Then you will have to carry out the assignment I have for him until he returns," Palpatine said and then added offhandedly, "He hasn't suddenly taken off without informing me in years. Is everything alright?"

"He assured me nothing was wrong," Ahsoka replied tersely. She knew exactly what periods Palpatine was talking about and she knew exactly what he was trying to imply. She wasn't going to fall for it.

"Hm," he said. "I need you to report to the Endor moon immediately. My spies have reported that the Rebellion is trying to make their way to destroy the Death Star project once and for all."

"The Death Star?" Ahsoka replied. "But how would they have found out?"

It was certainly a good question as it was a hush hush project. Vader knew about it of course and the people working on it. Not even Palpatine's most trusted Grand Moffs knew about this. The more Ahsoka thought about it, the more she had a feeling that it wasn't a coincidence that this had come up when Vader was gone.

"Perhaps you and Lord Vader have doubted the resourcefulness of the alliance," Palpatine said and then added slowly, "Unless of course you have another theory about all this."

"No," Ahsoka muttered knowing that it wouldn't be wise for her to say that she thought he was setting her up. "Of course not. You'll send me the briefings for the mission?"

"Right away Lady Pesinoé."

The connection cut and Ahsoka rested a hand on her stomach as she turned from the com station. She could just get into contact with Vader and force him to come back, but there was no telling what spies were on the ship to intercept their conversation. She could also just open their bond, but it was possible that the emperor would be able to sense her intentions or a spy was watching. Ahsoka groaned. Vader had left specific instructions for her not to do anything, but the emperor had given her a direct order and if she didn't do it, one of his spies, of which she was sure there were a few on the Executor, would contact him and tell him.

Ahsoka bit her lip as the information was sent and she downloaded onto her datapad. What were the chances that the rebellion actually knew about this? It might another dead end like most of the other rebel sighting reports they had received.

"Lady Pesinoé?" an officer said waiting for her instruction.

"Set course for Endor."

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As Luke listened to the briefings, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong with all of this. The rebellion had been looking for information on the whereabouts for the second Death Star for months and then all of a sudden, one of their spies came up with the proper information for it and it was confirmed, all in a matter of days. Something was wrong with that, but he didn't say anything about it during the meeting with the High Council. He waited until the end and decided to take Mon, Mara, Winter, and the Jedi aside.

"Is something wrong Luke?" Obi-wan asked.

Luke sighed and looked down for a moment before saying, "I don't know how to say this but I don't like this. It doesn't make sense."

"What?" Mon said looking at him.

"This just doesn't feel right. Don't you all find it weird that all of this just seemed to fall into place? Like we're pawns in someone else's bigger game," Luke replied.

"Say that, what makes you?" Yoda asked Luke.

Luke shrugged. "I don't know. I just have the feeling that this isn't going to go the way we think it will."

Yoda closed his eyes, attempting to draw on the force for more clarity before sighing and saying, "In turmoil, the force is. About to happen, something is. Change the history of the galaxy it will."

"So is that a good thing or a bad thing for our mission to Endor?" Winter asked.

Mon replied, "This is too good an opportunity to pass up even if it is. We may be able to turn this into our favor even so."

Mara crossed her arms and shook her head. "I don't know. When Luke has these feelings, it's usually best to listen to him."

It was true. Luke's feelings and uncanny foresight had gotten the Alliance out of and kept them out of a fair amount of traps and trouble when he was younger. And even though he had declined the official position on the High Council, he was still treated like a member.

"But that's the thing," Luke replied. "It's not like my other feelings, neither good nor bad necessarily. I'm not sure what to make of it."

"Well I can't call this off because of a feeling you can't explain," Mon said sighing.

"I know that," Luke said. "But just be careful…"

Mon smiled. "I value your opinion greatly Luke. I've watched you grow up since you were a small child and I know you're concerned about your sister. But I just want you to know, the alliance couldn't have a better hope to rely on."

Luke glanced at the ground and Mon smiled at what she thought was Luke's natural shyness and bashfulness before she walked out the council room. He sighed when she left and looked out the window of the rebel cruiser.

"Conflicted you are. Tell us young Skywalker, on your mind, what is?"

Luke didn't immediately answer. He only glanced at Mara who nodded her head before looking at them and saying, "Do you all have any idea why my father turned to the dark side? And I mean besides the usual anger and fear stuff."

"Why do you ask?"

Luke knew the Jedi would be concerned if he told them. But ever since the alliance got whiff of the Ahsoka being christened by the Emperor as Lady Pesinoé on Empire Day, he couldn't help but wonder what it was about his father that despite all the atrocities he committed made Ahsoka stay with it. It had nagged him for months and then he finally opened that trunk that was some of Ahsoka's and Leia's belongings from Hoth and he learned that there was a human side to his father. A side that wasn't a fallen Jedi or Sith. He began to wonder if a person like that could be truly evil, especially since judging by the footage, he had never pushed Leia or Ahsoka in a direction they hadn't wanted to go in.

It made him start to really wonder…

"There has to be something that happened to send him that way that Ahsoka and Leia understand. I know for a fact Leia doesn't follow anyone blindly. So what was it?" Luke asked curiously.

"You've been around your sister too long," Obi-wan said with a smile.

"I'm serious," Luke said in a demeanor and tone that he rarely used as he crossed his arms in impatience and growing annoyance than was quickly turning into anger. "I want to know why he turned to the dark side. A person like Anakin Skywalker doesn't just decide to join the dark side one day. There has to be something you're not telling me. No more cryptic answers. No more telling me that in time I'll understand. Tell me what it is I'll understand one day. And for force's sake, no more truths from a certain point of view, no Jedi interpretations. I just want facts for once."

"Calm down Luke," Obi-wan said to her.

"I'll do that when you give me the answers I want," Luke demanded glowering at the Jedi and then sighing. "Please. I just need to know what was behind it."

Yoda sighed. "Only one person there is who claims to know the true story behind your father's turn. Briefly mentioned it to us she did before taking your sister and leaving the Jedi."

Luke uncrossed his arms. "You mean Ahsoka…"

Yoda nodded.

Luke paused as he looked at them and then abruptly turned and sprinted out the room.

"Luke!" Obi-wan and Mara shouted after him in surprise and took off after them.

He was in the hanger and already in his X-wing by the time they caught him.

"Farm boy! Where are you going?" Mara demanded.

"I need to know the real truth behind this. I'm going to go talk to Ahsoka. She's the only one that can tell me what happened," Luke declared.

"That may be true but you're forgetting that her feelings for your father may color the truth of what really happened," Obi-wan warned.

"Well then at least I'll have both sides of the story and maybe then I'll find the real story somewhere in between," Luke said starting his ship for takeoff.

"But what about the mission?" Mara asked.

"I'm setting off early," Luke decided.

"Luke-."

Luke leaned over his ship and planted a kiss on Mara, succeeding in silencing her.

"Tell them I'm going off early," Luke said to her. "I need to do this."

Luke then closed the door and shot out the hanger of the cruiser.

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AN: Okay. So the shit's about to hit the fan and this is the beginning of the climax technically. Not much to say about this because I'm too tired to care. That's what happens when you stay up until two a.m. and get up at five thirty and is bopping around all day two days in a row. I'm going back to bed.

Hope you enjoyed. Review Please!