AN: The response to this was so overwhelming I couldn't wait until Wednesday to update. So I said what the heck. I need to finish this in a week and a half anyway. Let's update.
I thank all you reviews for all the reviews and believe me when I say I couldn't have imagine that this series would become as popular as it is. I learned a lot from writing it and from reading your feedback, things I will definitely take into consideration in future stories.
Read, enjoy, and review!
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Chapter Thirty-one
Ahsoka cleared the com room and then cut on the com unit, Vader's image appearing on screen.
"What's going on?" he asked cutthroat and blunt as usual. "And don't try to lie. Me and Shmi just had the same vision. Spill."
Ahsoka sighed and started to tell until her brain registered her daughter's name.
"Shmi? She's with you?" she asked hopefully.
Vader nodded and started to ask her about what was happening again, but Ahsoka beat him to speaking.
"Where is she? I want to see her," she demanded. The entire empire could have been caving in on itself and she wouldn't have cared at that moment. Her daughter was safe and sound.
Vader's image turned around and then he turned his chair back around with Shmi sitting on his lap.
"Hi mama," she said shyly and Vader rolled his eyes at her, muttering that she certainly hadn't been shy before.
"Mimi…" Ahsoka whispered wishing she could touch her and make sure she was real. "Where have you been?"
"Dathomir..." Shmi said trailing off.
Ahsoka visibly frowned. "Dathomir?"
"With the Nightsisters..."
"And Ventress," Vader added for good measure.
Ahsoka gaped at him in disbelief. "Asajj Ventress? She's still alive?" she asked and then, realizing her daughter had been with one of her past worst enemies for who knew how long, scowled and started to drill Shmi on how she had been treated until Vader cut her off.
"It's a long story," Vader said and then added, "one I promise I'll explain later and I don't mean to sound insensitive like I'm sure you'll accuse me of being, but I really do need to know what's going on out there."
Ahsoka sensed the irritation in his tone, and true to his assumption, she did want to say that he was being insensitive. But he was right. There were more pressing matters.
"I'm in orbit around Endor. The alliance is trying to destroy the Death Star."
"How did the rebels find that out?" Vader asked in a deadly calm. Ahsoka only hoped he wouldn't explode with Shmi around when she told him.
"I don't know. But I'm trying to prevent too many casualties here. I've already sent ground forces and the pilots are working on the rebel fighters."
Vader shook his head. "This doesn't add up. No one knows about the second Death Star except the people working on it and the emperor himself. How would the rebellion have found out…?"
"You'll have to ask the emperor about that one. I didn't stay in contact long enough to ask him how," Ahsoka said dryly.
"It could have been a trap," Vader said. "But that's ridiculous. He would have informed me if that were the case and he wouldn't have set it up if I weren't there…"
"He didn't know you weren't here… at least I don't think he did," Ahsoka added.
"What do you mean?"
Ahsoka looked away and then back at Vader. "He seemed kind of eager-I guess-to make me go on this mission like it wasn't just the rebels he was after."
"And you went anyway?" Vader said, his anger apparent in his tone.
"What was I supposed to do? Defy him."
"Yes!" Vader said and Ahsoka looked at him stunned. He actually told her she should have defied the emperor.
"What?"
"I can't believe you," he muttered. "How could you have acted so stupid?"
Ahsoka crossed her arms and started to use the force to cut the connection. If Vader was just going to dog her, she wasn't going to talk to him. But then she stopped, taken back to a conversation with Leia that she had when she was nine. Vader only got angry with people he cared about when he was afraid for them. Then she remembered something about a vision.
"Vader what did you see?" she asked him and when he didn't answer she turned to Shmi. "What did you all see?"
Shmi started to answer when the lights flickered and then came back on.
"What's going on out there?" Vader asked when it stopped.
Ahsoka felt the warning as she said, "I'm not exactly sure…"
The electricity failed and the com went off with it. Ahsoka turned and ran out the room, using the force to open the electronic doors that were mostly stuck now that the power was out. She went to the bridge where the technicians were desperately trying to get the power back online.
"The alliance knocked out the main generator system," Leia said as soon as she saw her. "Abdul's trying to get it back on."
"I'm telling you it's a no go Leia," Abdul said. "It's been damaged extensively, at least beyond immediate repair."
"A backup generating system should have kicked in on a ship this big by now," Luke said to them. "Right?"
"It's not working," Abdul said. "I think someone's going to have to go down and turn it on manually. But there are two problems with that."
"What?"
"The backup generator's on a lower level of the ship and on the other end, and on 19 kilometer ship with no electricity, that's a long walk," Abdul said.
"I'll get one of the techs on that end to do it then," Ahsoka replied. "My personal com still works."
"That leads to the second problem. You can't just leave this to those techs. You need someone with an extensive knowledge of engineering and I don't just mean the by-the-book stuff," Abdul said.
"In other words," Ahsoka said to him. "We need Vader."
"No," Leia said shaking her head. "I can get it online."
Everyone looked at her and Ahsoka raised one of her face markings. "You sure about this?"
"Leia, this isn't like the power generator for you average ship. You're going to have to be able to instruct that tech team to do exactly what you need done. You can't do it alone or you'll never-."
"I can do it," Leia said confidently.
"Here," Ahsoka said handing her a datachip. "This will give you clearance and they'll listen to your every command less Vader pays them a visit later."
"If we're not dead," Leia pointed out taking the chip.
"I still don't know how you're going to get over there," Abdul replied.
Leia rolled her eyes. "That's where all that Jedi training is going to come in handy."
With that in mind, she made her way out the bridge and towards the back of the middle of the ship and the bottom floors where the generator system was located. Ahsoka received a call on her personal com then and the small image of a trooper down on Endor came up.
"Lady Pesinoé. I've been trying to make contact with you. The rebel forces are stronger than we anticipated. We've managed to stall them, but it'll only be a matter of time before they're able to release the shield," he said.
Ahsoka blinked in confusion. "General Veers was supposed to bring more ground troops to prevent that from happening."
"The rebels had unexpected help ma'am. They were able to garner the help of the native Ewoks and they had two Jedi-."
"Jedi," Ahsoka breathed cutting them off as she rubbed her abdomen to reassure herself more than try to be protective of the child nestled within.
"They've managed to overwhelm our forces," he said.
Ahsoka closed her eyes and in that moment made a decision, one that she knew Vader would kill her for later, but this was her chance to stop this entire battle if she needed to.
"I'm coming down there personally," she declared and cut the connection as she made her way to the main hanger.
Luke followed her. "You can't go down there like this!"
"Like what?" Ahsoka asked pretending not to know.
"You can't fight. It's not safe for you down there. As soon as the alliance sees you, they'll try to capture you. You're a traitor to them. You've committed treason. You know the penalty," Luke said to her.
"Technically the alliance is still an illegal government," Ahsoka pointed out dryly. "Besides, I'm not going to fight. Maybe I can convince the Jedi to stop the mission. We don't have to fight."
Luke groaned. Ahsoka was more stubborn than he had ever realized but it was different than the Skywalker brand of stubbornness. They tended to just not budge and whether others understood or bent to their way didn't matter. Ahsoka's brand of stubbornness, probably a reminisce from when she was a Jedi, was a matter of giving reason to act on the grounds of her actions not being as reckless as people were making them out to be, even though they would inevitably turn out that way.
"Ahsoka. They're not going to hear it. You may as well be the new Sith apprentice in their eyes. They know the reason you never talked about Shmi's father was because Vader's her father. They felt you use the dark side, saw you. They know what happened when you all went to Bespin. They know that you let Vader wipe out two entire armies in a civil war for war crimes without a trial," Luke said.
Ahsoka scoffed. "They deserved that. It was a blatant atrocity and it was in defense. They were perfectly armed."
Luke had to give her that one. He had read the full report. They had deserved what they got. But the alliance used whatever they could get to further their cause.
"They're not going to see that. In their eyes, you're not a Jedi anymore and you're helping a Sith. so what else could you be?" he asked.
Ahsoka climbed the ramp of a shuttle and then looked at Luke.
"Well then you'll just have to come and play mediator between us," she said dryly and went to start the shuttle.
Luke didn't hesitate to follow her though he had a bad feeling about this.
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Vader went at top speeds to get to the Executor. It was dark and simply floating in orbit around the Endor. Just like he had assumed when his connection with Ahsoka had cut, it seemed the power was out.
"I know you're a dark lord and all," Han said as they stepped down the ramp and onto the main hanger. "But this is a little extreme. Do you always keep it this dark or am I still blind?"
"It appears the power generators had been damaged," Vader said. "That's the only reason there could have been a massive blackout like this."
Vader led them all to the bridge where Abdul was with Admiral Piett trying in vain to get the power back on from the bridge with the limited reserve power they had.
"What happened here?" Vader demanded.
Admiral Piett looked at the man in surprise and Vader rolled his eyes.
"Would you please stop gawking at me and tell me what's going on, unless you'd prefer to try my patience further?" he asked.
"Lord Vader?" Piett asked in shock. Only one person could be as cutting and brusk as that.
Vader raised his hand, intent on giving the man one final warning before Abdul said, "No mask sir."
Vader stopped and groaned. He couldn't blame the Admiral for being shocked in that case. He lowered his hand and said once more, "What happened?"
"The rebellion is trying to disable the shield around the Death Star sir," Abdul said to him and Vader looked at him a little impressed. It seemed the boy had finally gotten over his fear of him. Good. He would make a valuable asset in the future.
Abdul's response snapped Piett out of his shock.
"But it appears they're having some trouble doing so sir. So they turned their efforts to the surrounding star destroyers. We've concentrated most of our shielding on the bridge to prevent them from completely disabling us, but they were able to knock out the main power generator system. It has sustained extensive damage and it appears we won't be able to get it on," Piett continued.
"Then why hasn't the backup generator system kicked in?" Vader asked.
"Whatever the rebels did knocked out the automatic switching for it. Leia's gone down there to manually turn it on," Abdul said.
Vader paused. "Leia," he said and then did a double take. "How did you all get here?"
"Leia and Luke wanted to talk to Ahsoka," Abdul replied.
Vader stretched out his senses and found Leia near the other end of the space station, but he found neither Ahsoka nor Luke on board.
"Where are they?" Vader demanded.
Piett cleared his throat nervously, but maintained his composure. He noticed how fond of Lady Pesinoé Vader was. This was not going to go over with Vader well.
"The ground troops were overwhelmed by the rebels who had the help of the Ewoks and two Jedi milord," he said. "Lady Pesinoé went down to assist them."
"Alone?" Vader raged.
"Luke is with her I think," Abdul added in a whisper.
Vader let out another string of curses and Han raised his eyebrows.
"What's the big deal? If she's second in command I'm sure she can take care of herself," he said.
Chewie growled a response to him and Han shook his head.
"It's more than just an unnatural obsession for a woman this time Chewie. I may not be force sensitive but I know these things," he said.
Vader gave him a glare before starting to head to the hanger. He stopped when Leia's voice came through Abdul's personal com.
"Abdul can you hear me?"
"Leia!"
"Is the power back on?" Leia asked him.
"No. We're still going on reserve and that's about to run out. If it does the Executor will be defenseless," Abdul said.
"Stupid settings," Leia said and then scoffed. "Who came up with the design for this thing? It's so flawed I'm surprised it can fly. No wonder it takes a working crew of fifty thousand to run it. And dad treats this thing like it's diamonds or the rarest lightsaber crystals. Probably needs more repairs than the Falcon…"
"I can't believe you compared my ship to that hunk of metal," Vader said taking the boy's com.
"Daddy?" Leia said. "You're back. We're really going to have to do some extensive modifications on this thing later. It looks like it was slapped together in an assembly line. No wonder the rebels were able to knock out the generators."
"No time," Vader said impatiently. They'd talk about the flaws in the design of his command ship later. "Hurry up. Ahsoka's gone down to the surface to help the ground forces."
"I'm trying. Just as soon as I rig this system" Leia replied giving one final order to a tech.
"You are aware that if you do that wrong you can cause-."
"Got it!" Leia said and they heard her shuffling back to the manual controls.
Soon after Leia's triumphant declaration, power returned to the Executor.
"Dad," Leia said through the com. "I'll meet you in the hanger."
"It'll take you too long. Just meet me on Endor," Vader said to her and began to head to the hanger.
Shmi began to follow him, but Vader stopped her saying, "Stay here with Han."
Shmi whined, "Daddy. That's not fair."
"A battlefield is no place for an eight year old," Vader said.
"Like a space battle on a barely function Super Star Destroyer is," she pointed out. Vader only gave her a cutting look.
Shmi continued, not fazed. "Besides mom said you destroyed the droid control center when you were nine. I can help," Shmi insisted.
"That was different," Vader said. "I wasn't supposed to and it was an accident more than anything."
"Daddy," Shmi said and crossed her arms.
"No and that's final," Vader replied heading to the hanger.
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Ahsoka and Luke made their way from the landing pad to the battle field at the shield station where the remaining ground troops were finding cover behind trees from the rebels and the Ewoks that were protecting the team who was trying to break into the shield station.
"Hold your fire," Ahsoka ordered.
"Ma'am," the commander said in confusion.
"Hold your fire and I'm not saying it again," Ahsoka declared.
The commander passed along the command and the Imperial forces ceased their fire. Ahsoka felt confusion and wariness amongst the rebels as they too ceased their fire but kept their weapons ready. Ahsoka carefully stepped out into the clearing and on instinct two or three blasters went off, despite Luke coming out with her and yelling, "Don't fire!"
She raised her hand to stop the bolts and redirect them harmlessly against random trees.
"That won't be necessary. I'm not here to fight you," Ahsoka said to them.
"How do we know that?" the commanding general of the operation said.
"Relax. She's here to negotiate," Luke said and the rebels noticed their comrade next to her.
"Luke," Mara said coming forward to hug him.
"Where's the Jedi?" Ahsoka asked the red-head who scowled and began to say that she was a Jedi until a voice cut her off.
"Right here."
Ahsoka looked forward and met the gaze of Obi-wan. Yoda was absent. She would have greeted them, but there were no pleasantries to exchange and so she took a page out of Vader's book and said, "I need you all to call off your attack on the Death Star."
And it had the same effect that Vader's bluntness usually had, outrage at her audacity.
"That's insane," Winter said coming from where she was. "So you can blow another planet to bits like Vader did Alderaan?"
"Vader had nothing to do with that," Ahsoka said honestly. "And this isn't about Vader. It's about you all and the people on the space station. I'm trying to save countless lives here. If you attack that station you're going to force my hand."
"The empire has forced ours by building this atrocious weapon again," Winter said and Ahsoka didn't miss the hostility in her tone at her. There was no longer any sympathy in her tone like there used to be. Ahsoka didn't blame her. She had essentially taken everything they had done for her and threw it right back in their face, but she hadn't had a choice.
"Yes the empire and Palpatine is the empire. He's doing this and me and Vader don't agree but I won't allow you to destroy it when millions lives are going to be lost. Just trust me. Hold out for a little longer," she tried.
"I can't believe you," Winter said and then turned to the troops. "Continue your operations."
"I'm warning you," Ahsoka said one last time, but this time irritation was apparent in her tone. "Call off your attack on the Death Star and all the surrounding star destroyers."
"Spoken like a true imperial."
"Has it ever occurred to you that this war isn't as black and white as it seems?" Ahsoka asked her.
Winter ignored her.
Ahsoka raised her hand and the troopers started to raise their weapons again.
"I will not allow you to disable that shield. Don't force me to attack," Ahsoka asked on more time.
"Ahsoka," Luke said to her and then turned to Winter. "Winter you have to believe her. I know more about this situation than you do. Just wait."
"Too late Luke," Ahsoka said as the force warned her to make a move. She finished her hand gesture and the troops fired. "Shoot to disable, not to kill!"
A series of 'yes ma'am' echoed amongst the troops, and Ahsoka pulled out both of her lightsabers, ready to enter the fray. Luke pulled her back.
"Ahsoka no," Luke yell from where he was deflecting random bolts but not really fighting for anyone himself.
"What?" she asked in apparent confusion.
Luke gave her a look that he could have only picked up from his father. It was that look that was a cross between incredibility and being completely dumbfounded and frustrated at some lack of forethought.
"You're pregnant!" Luke mouthed to her and Ahsoka's hand shot to her abdomen.
Ahsoka hadn't known how it was possible, but she had literally forgotten that she was pregnant. It hadn't even crossed her mind again when they finally landed on Endor. But she couldn't just leave now. Force protect me, she thought and resigned herself to jumping into the fray.
Luke meanwhile swore so badly, Mara was shocked. Vader was going to have a hissy if he found out about this, when he found out about this actually. But more than that, Ahsoka was putting herself in danger and no doubt everything was going to be concentrated on her as the bigger threat. Skilled as she was, Luke could sense her force ability wasn't as finely attuned as he remembered it being. He looked between both sides and now he had to wonder who the instigator was. Winter should have given Ahsoka the benefit of the doubt to begin with. She had left herself open for them to wipe out the remaining imperial forces. Then again, the empire had never been that trustworthy before and Ahsoka had betrayed them to Vader once.
However, none of them knew that this wasn't really about them; that the emperor wasn't concerned about the threat of the rebellion, and that he had played them on for the real goal which was getting Ahsoka. Of course, it was just speculation, but Luke had a feeling… He looked at his green blade and consequences be damned, he went to Ahsoka's side.
Shock from both sides rippled in the force.
"Luke what are you doing?" Mara snapped.
"I don't have time to explain it. You'll just have to trust me," Luke yelled as he deflected the stray bolts Ahsoka may have missed.
"Luke, no…" Ahsoka said to him.
"It's okay Ahsoka," Luke said to her and then said. "The greater good, remember."
"You know there's no turning back after this?" Ahsoka asked him.
"I know," Luke said to her with a sad undertone.
"Don't let them take down that shield," Ahsoka shouted. "Get over there."
Luke looked at Ahsoka as they ducked down from a current of blaster fire they couldn't block.
"Get out of here," he said to her.
"I can't leave in the middle of a battle," Ahsoka replied.
"Yes you can," Luke said. "It's one thing to risk your life, but you're risking the baby too. Besides, Leia's figured it out. This is just a ploy to-."
And explosion rocked the ground and Ahsoka and Luke fell over.
"They got the doors open!" one of the commanding troops yelled.
"Ahsoka go," Luke insisted.
Ahsoka sighed and extinguished her blades, putting them to rest on her hips before slipping away from the battle and going through the forest to her personal shuttle. But someone had beat her there. Ahsoka hadn't even sensed his presence For a green little gremlin who walked with a cane, he could sure be fast.
"Master Yoda," Ahsoka said warily.
"Young Tano or prefer do you Lady Pesinoé," he asked.
Ahsoka scowled. "Actually I don't. The emperor gave me that name. But Vader's certainly taken a liking to it," she added and it was certainly true that Vader had come to like calling her by that name if only because she despised it so much,
"Disillusioned, you have become. Clouds your perception, the dark side does," Yoda said.
"I think it's you that's disillusioned," Ahsoka said to him. "And so long as the Jedi are blinded by their truths this war and fighting between light and dark will never end."
"And serve the dark side, you believe is the solution?" Yoda asked her.
"No," Ahsoka said softly. "But standing by the force's chosen one is. I've come to realize that. It was our own fault that he fell to darkness and Palpatine just exploited it. We owe it to him not to have abandoned him. I can't blame him for hating the Jedi like he does."
"Twisted your perception, Vader has."
"Actually, Vader doesn't care to change my perceptions. I've simply observed both sides of the story and though he was wrong, so were the Jedi," Ahsoka said. "This war won't end without him and I pity whoever he eventually sides against."
"As do I," Yoda admitted. "As do I. Powerful he is. More powerful with you at his side. Allow you to leave this planet, I cannot."
"Is that a threat?" Ahsoka asked taking out both her lightsabers again.
Yoda simply shrugged.
"Get out my way?" Ahsoka hissed as her temper began to get the best of her, as well as her growing disdain for the Jedi. If she were honest with herself, she had hated the Jedi since right after Padmé had died and she put just as much blame on them for everything that had happened as she had initially on Vader. But there would be no reconciliation with them. The Jedi Order as it was in the past had to end and that meant eliminating those who thought in the old way and the best way to do that was to get rid of the oldest representative of that way.
"Do that, I cannot," Yoda said dropping his cane and igniting his own lightsaber.
In hindsight, Ahsoka would probably think it was stupid to take on the grand master of the Jedi Order while pregnant, but at that moment she had more drive and reason to win than Yoda did. This was much more personal.
She launched herself at him with both sabers in hand. Yoda parried and Ahsoka moved her other lightsaber to attack him, but Yoda skillfully maneuvered his blade to cross both of hers and force them back.
Ahsoka groaned. She was clearly outmatched, but there was one advantage she had over Yoda. Vader told her once that she lacked passion when she fought, not to be mistaken with aggression. The Jedi taught that a person fought as a last resort and while nothing was wrong with that (actually Vader's philosophy was fight first, diplomacy later), there was a problem with still being reluctant to fight afterwards. She had to want to fight. She had to think about what was at stake and give it everything in her and do everything needed to meet that outcome. So she drew on all her emotions from everything she had been through, her happiest moment on Rumiyya with Vader and Leia, giving birth to Shmi, fury at the emperor and finally her maybe sometimes misplaced loyalty to Vader. She summoned it all into a burning inferno that the dark side rippled with, yet she didn't let it overcome her because it was tempered with the desire to protect and love and to be honest, the Jedi were the very anti-thesis of it all.
"Today," she declared. "The old Jedi order dies."
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AN: This battle is going so fast there's no time for reactions. the key is staying alive and if someone comes and says, "I'm Darth Vader's daughter and I can tell you exactly what the rebels are going to do," it's a roll with it type thing. Besides, I think the crew all had an idea that Vader might have had a family as his attachment to Ahsoka is obviously commented on but it's not supposed to be their business anyway. But like I said, there's no time for reactions.
Originally Obi-wan came and helped Yoda fight Ahsoka, but I thought this was better. I tell you this was long and complicated. I know next to nothing about ships and Luke was tricky as I had to make sure he saw the big picture and wasn't necessarily choosing sides. I had to make it clear that he sees that either side winning wouldn't be a good thing for anyone. So tell me what you think.
Hope you enjoyed. Review Please!