Chapter XXVII
The Seventh Sister awaits outside the Grand Inquisitor's quarters on the Chimaera as ordered. The Grand Inquisitor leaves the lights off and places his holodisk in the center of the room. He kneels before it as a full scale hologram of his Master appears before him.
"What is it, Grand Inquisitor?" Darth Vader asks through his deep, menacing voice, "Have you captured the Jedi yet?"
"No, Lord Vader." the Grand Inquisitor says not daring to look up at the Sith Lord, "The Jedi escaped, however she is confirmed to be as you suspected: Ahsoka Tano. There is, another reason for this meeting."
The image of Lord Vader is still and all that can be heard is his breathing. The Grand Inquisitor can sense the anger building within the Sith.
"Explain." Vader says coldly.
"There is another, my Lord. He is very strong in the Force, skilled in the arts of Jar'Kai, and knows the ways of the Dark Side. He is in league with these Rebels, and I conclude is with Ahsoka Tano as well."
Vader clenches his hand in front of him, "You may dispense with the excuses of your failure to apprehend the Jedi and this apparent Dark Jedi. Perhaps you are not as qualified for this place as I and the Emperor thought."
The Grand Inquisitor hides the scowl across his face from Darth Vader.
"I will not fail to cease the Jedi again. They will be taken before you on their knees, or they will die."
Vader bows his head and gestures to the Inquisitor with his hand.
"For your sake, Grand Inquisitor, I hope you are right. The Emperor will not tolerate another failure. You are to report any further information on these Jedi directly to me, is that understood?"
The Grand Inquisitor looks up, "Yes, Lord Vader."
"Take note, this information is the only thing keeping you alive."
Grand Admiral Thrawn's Lambda-class shuttle slowly glides into the Chimaera's hangar bay. Lieutenant Dalmer awaits with two Stormtroopers as the reception party. The shuttle touches down gently and the boarding ramp drops with a hiss from the pistons pressure relief.
Thrawn walks down the ramp with his Death Trooper escort, he doesn't stop beside Dalmer. Lieutenant Dalmer hurries to catch up beside the Grand Admiral's left side, Thrawn shows a slight distraught to the series of events that just played out on his ship.
"Grand Admiral." Lieutenant Dalmer says, "You have a transmission awaiting you in your private quarters."
"The call sign?" Thrawn calmly asks.
"It's coming from the Executrix, Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin requests your presence immediately."
Thrawn's red eyes squint, "Then it is best not to keep the Grand Moff waiting."
Thrawn approaches his desk in his study. He immediately notices the flashing white light on the control panel that signifies a holding transmission. He pushes it and the feed comes through.
The hologram appears, sitting in his raised back chair behind the desk. The image is of an Imperial officer wearing a green uniform with the blue, yellow, and red bars on his left breast signifying the rank of Grand Moff. As for the man in uniform, his gray hair is combed neatly back, his blue eyes are sunken and tired with wrinkles at their corners, his complexion is fair and thin, and his near shriveled lips appear to frown.
Thrawn bows graciously with his hands clasped behind his back. "Grand Moff Tarkin, how may I be at your service?"
"I assure you, Grand Admiral Thrawn, this is not a social visit. The matter to which I have summoned you for, concerns your actions in handling this Rebellion in the Thakwaa System. The images captured by your camera droids have reached Coruscant - and the Emperor."
"Unfortunate the Rebels escaped, however, it is only a minor set back to the plan. I am working to pursue them as we speak. They will not be hidden for long."
Tarkin rests right leg over his opposite, with his aged hands in his lap. "You may consider yourself fortunate that it was only the Emperor and his staff who witnessed the footage, the galaxy on the other hand, has not. The film will be reviewed by the Emperor's selected top authority before being destroyed. If the galaxy sees the footage it will aspire hope and implore the idea that the Empire is weak, this must not happen."
"The end to the Rebellion will come no longer as when it began, and will show the consequence of such mutiny against the Empire."
"Due to your accomplished record in the Imperial ranks, the Emperor is granting you a chance to redeem yourself. I advise you do not fail a second time."
"And I will not allow it. I will submit my report to the Emperor on the Rebels and Imperial activity in the Thakwaa System."
"See to it you do." the image of Moff Tarkin disappears.
The scene is familiar, the sun setting over the vast metropolis known as Coruscant. She knows where she's at, she's been here many times before, only she knows this was the last time. She stops before the first of many descending steps of the Jedi Temple.
Behind her, she can hear a familiar voice. The voice of her Master.
"Why? Why are you doing this?"
Ahsoka can't turn around, no matter how much she tries to bring herself to.
"The Order didn't trust me. How could I trust myself?"
"I can understand wanting to walk away from the Order."
Ahsoka closes her eyes tightly, trying to hold back her tears.
Suddenly, the cold feeling feeling of darkness surrounds Ahsoka. The setting sun has disappeared, the sky is now a mix of black and blood red. The cold grows stronger behind her, and the Temple steps seem to fade into a dark abyss.
Ahsoka forces herself to free herself from her tracks she is frozen in as she turns around to face cold. As she already knew, the person behind her isn't her Master, but a hunched over figure cloaked in black, the only part of his face Ahsoka can make out is his pale white chin and nose, with only a glimmer in his eyes, and a sinister grin.
"It is time for the Jedi to fall." his voice old and raspy.
Ahsoka's jaw starts to drop as the old figure holds up his slender hands, and laughs as he hits Ahsoka with Force lightning that throws her off the top step and into the abyss bellow. She feels herself falling until she hits a hard surface.
Ahsoka gets back on her feet, surprisingly unharmed. She looks around and recognizes the scene being the Jedi temple on Panatha, in the Council Chamber, where she was reunited with Titus.
Anakin's words come back to her from that day she left the Order.
"I believed in you, I stood by you."
Suddenly his voice is halted by the sound of a lightsaber opening up. Ahsoka quickly turns around to see a double ended lightsaber with red blades bearing down on her. Her instincts take control as she grabs her weapons and counters the blow. She crosses her white blades into an X and holds her attackers blade in the crevasse of the X's upper half.
Through the red and white glow of the blades, she can vaguely make out the outline of her attackers face.
"Titus!"
Ahsoka struggles to keep her footing and hold up her blades as Titus puts the weight of his blade down on her. Ahsoka can't turn her head, but she senses someone behind her, it's familiar and it's one she hasn't felt in a long time.
Titus break his silence through his voice dilator.
"It has already begun."
Titus rears back and takes a jab at Ahsoka's middle.
Ahsoka snaps awake in shock as she did not long ago when she and Shila were on route to Jedha. She instantly grabs her lightsaber from off the nightstand, jumps out of bed, and activates the blade in a defensive stance. The dark room is lit up bright white by the lightsaber blade, she uses the light to scan the room fearing she is not alone. But no one is in the room beside herself.
Ahsoka sheaths her blade and sits down on the bed to rub the sleep out of her eyes. She can feel the trickles of cold sweat running down her back. There have been plenty of nightmares in the past she has endured. She's had dreams concerning her Master in her final days in the Order. Once, the Force even revealed heart wrenching glimpses of her dear friend, Master Plo Koon, killed in the Clones betrayal.
The intercom overhead crackles to life with Callan's voice. "We're coming up on Panatha now, not even a parsec further."
Ahsoka stands up and stretches. She needed the rest, as did Shila. Once they were out of Thrawn's grasp, the fleet made a stop orbiting Koda Station in the Wazda Sector to make an assessment of fuel supply and plan the next course of action. Titus dismissed the cruisers, told them to separate in order to make it harder for the Empire to find them.
While they were stopped, Ahsoka boarded the freighter since her A-wing's fuel is nearly depleted and so she can get some rest. She hopes that Cassian, Ondar, and Zallar are doing the same on Saw's U-wing. As for Saw, he ordered the rest of his ships to return to Jedha while he dropped Titus's Rebels off on Panatha.
Titus protested exposing his hideout to Saw, however there was simply no way for the U-wing to dock with the freighter, especially since Ahsoka's A-wing took up the loading elevator. Saw could have dropped Titus and the bunch off at Koda Station and Callan cold easily pick them up from there. However, the rundown Koda Station is full suspicious figures, smugglers, bounty hunters, criminals, and pirates. If Thrawn came asking around the spaceport, no one would hesitate to point him in their direction for a small profit.
Ahsoka hooks her lightsabers to her side, puts her cloak on, but leaves the hood down. She covers the blades with the fabric, she managed not to reveal herself during the battle, she's still going to try and keep her secret as long as she can.
Ahsoka opens the door to her bedroom and proceeds to the command deck with the nightmare still in the back of her mind. The dream is far too significant to set aside, she is confident Force revealed Titus's true nature that he has managed to hide away from her in the beginning. If Titus is truly as Ahsoka feared, she will have to approach him cautiously with the matter.