A/N:
I'm going to be honest, this fic basically exists because I wanted to write something for wolfren but I find the sheer immensity of the star wars universe and lore really difficult to keep track of so I decided to downscale it all. Originally, this was only supposed to be an 8-12k word oneshot but the draft so far is 60k so. . . Just like every time I try to write a oneshot, it didn't work out.
Even though this is set on Earth and there's no force I've tried to carry across as much of the original universe as I can and insert similar enough replacements for things that couldn't be carried across exactly. So, whilst it's an alternate universe, a fair chunk of canon remains. The Jedi and Sith still exist (but they're a little different because of the lack of force), aliens are still present, the war still happened between the Empire and Republic (it just involved countries not planets), and droids are also still here. The biggest new element I've introduced are robots called synthetics (synths). They (and this fic) are heavily inspired by the tv series Humans (which if you haven't watch it, I really recommend)
Sabine is not having a good week.
First she gets stabbed-
Actually, no. First she gets a surprise visit from her estranged master asking for her help - a master who, surprise surprise, has as little faith in her as ever - then she gets stabbed. By a bottle blonde with a hard-on for eyeliner and the most dated fashion sense Sabine has ever seen, no less.
And now, here she is, having the life choked out of her by that same bottle blond whilst trying not to focus on just how green her eyes are. Like, really green - in case anyone was wondering. Really, really green. Also really close.
No seriously, Sabine could kiss her right now if she wanted to.
Not that she does. Or will. Because that would be an insane reaction to have when being choked to within an inch of your life. And she's not. Insane.
(no matter what Huyang might say to the contrary)
Still. . . she's very close.
And Sabine tries to remember if she cleaned her teeth this morning. Or had garlic for dinner. You know, the normal things you worry about when someone is trying to kill you and their nose is within close proximity to your mouth. . .
Suffice it to say, she is not having a good week.
Earlier that week
Ahsoka shows up one fine Summer's morning, heart set on tearing Sabine's life apart at the seams. Or, at least giving it a good tug and pull.
"Oh my God, you brought me a sphere!" Sabine gushes the moment the object is dropped into her hand. "You know, I always wanted a sphere."
Ahsoka's mouth twitches in that way she does when she's amused by something Sabine has said but is refusing to let it show. "It's a holocron-like device created by Palpatine."
She looks at the sphere with new eyes - and more than a little distaste. She wonders whether you can catch evil. Makes a note to scrub her hands raw once she's tossed the thing back to Ahsoka. "What's on it?"
"I don't know." Her lips purse and Sabine can tell she's more than a little bit peeved by this tiny little ball of metal escaping her vast array of knowledge. "Not for certain. But there were rumors during the war of a holocron, matching this description, also created by Palpatine."
"And what did those rumors say was on it?"
"A map." Ahsoka steps closer, examining the sphere, and Sabine tries not to shrink back from the increased proximity. It's been a long time since they've even been in the same room together, let alone sharing a foot of space. "Every member of the Empire was required to consume a tracking device that molded with their DNA. It was meant to deter against defection. No mater where you ran, the Empire would always be able to find you. A holocron was created to act as a receiver for all the tracker's signals and stored the information permanently."
"So this is the holocron." Sabine tilts her head, searching out a button or. . . something that might open the evil little ball or otherwise switch it on. "What are you doing with it?"
"Three days ago, Morgan Elsbeth escaped from her cell. The last I spoke to her, she was obsessed with finding this map. . . I've spent the last four months trying to find it first."
"Looks like you were successful." Sabine tosses it up in the air. Catches it (suppressing a smile when Ahsoka tenses at the careless action). "So what do you want with it? And why have you brought it to me?"
"Second question first. I've brought it to you because you're the only person I know who stands a good chance at being able to open it."
(Sabine will not fall prey to flattery, she will not.)
"And the first question?"
"That's more complicated." Ahsoka hesitates, scanning her face. "This is a map to every Imperial Officer on the planet, including those currently wanted for war crimes but have, thus far, been unlocatable."
"A fairly good reason."
Sabine certainly doesn't need another. Though, that does nothing to stop Ahsoka from giving her one.
"One of those soldiers is Thrawn. And if we find Thrawn's location, we might find-"
The penny drops.
"Ezra."
[The Jedi were created as an ideal, with the assigned purpose of maintaining balance in the world. An impartial body to ensure no country would ever gain more power than another, and that wealth was distributed evenly amongst the populations. Their existence was considered necessary to ensure that Earth did not suffer another near-extinction event. That billionaires and corporations weren't given a second chance to destroy the only planet they had.
The Jedi were to forsake all romantic and familial ties as well as allegiance to any one country. Their loyalty would be to the world as a whole and through that they would keep it safe. Keep all of them safe.
Ideals rarely ever withstand reality.]
Sabine feels her before she sees her.
A subtle shake in her limbs, shivering up her spine, spreading through her veins. It stills her motions, suppressing the breath in her lungs. . .
When Sabine was little, she used to enjoy holding her hand against the side of her father's jetplane whilst the engine was running, feeling the steady vibrations against her skin, the way they snaked their way up her arm, to her teeth. It felt like coming alive. Like she'd found the frequency of the universe and it was singing through her, consuming her.
This feels like that. Vibrations laying waste to every cell in her body, shaking her skull. The more time passes, the stronger it gets. Until, finally, it settles. . . fading to a hum that she can at least form a thought over.
"What the fuck?"
Then the window explodes.
Sabine nearly drops the sphere in her hand as Murley hisses, hair rising like daggers from his body.
"Shit!" Springing into action, she dashes for the bedroom, Murley scampering ahead and nearly tripping her feet in the process. "Fuck!"
Slamming the door behind her, Sabine falls to the floor in front of the wardrobe.
"Was that a window that just broke?"
"Can't talk right now, Scrappie!"
"Just as long as you're aware that I will not be held responsible for fixing it."
"You've never fixed anything a day in your life."
Scrappie, a class three droid she once rescued from a trash heap and pieced back together - and who she now can't get to move out of her home - gives a noise closely resembling a huff.
"Come on, come on." Wrenching the wardrobe open, she fumbles around for the harsh metal of her safe. There's cloaking technology on it, concealing the unbreakable metal box from view, and even Sabine struggles to locate it half the time.
"Got you!"
Murley hisses his congratulations from beneath a chair. Scrappie, on the other hand, lingers in resentful silence.
Feeling out the raised texture of the keypad, she hastily types in her password, mutters a quick, "Open sesame," and watches the cloaking technology turn off as the top of the safe pops open.
Not wasting a moment, Sabine stashes the sphere inside, slams the lid and shoves it back into the depths of her closet, watching as it disappears from view.
Next order of business is to chase Murley under the bed and give him a stern talking to about not coming out for anyone but her or Ahsoka - which is, of course, when the door to her bedroom flies off its hinges.
Sabine whips around. "Was that really necessary?!"
(she only just replaced the damn thing)
The woman who steps into the room either doesn't hear or doesn't care to acknowledge her words. Which would be infuriating if not for the fact that the humming inside Sabine has started to climb again, higher and higher until it finally reaches its peak when the woman's feet stop less than a meter from hers.
She's. . .
Well, weird is probably the best word. Tall and lithe as any ballerina or model, and decked out head to toe in an outfit that would probably be more suited to Earth's medieval period. The cloak is a particularly ostentatious touch and Sabine can't quite keep back a snort - because snorting in the face of danger is what she does best.
It's the type of dramatic wardrobe she's only ever seen on those employed by the Empire.
Not a great sign.
"Miss Wren, I believe we have an intruder."
"Kind of stating the obvious, Scrappie," Sabine mutters, not taking her eyes off said 'intruder'.
The woman cocks her head, in that same way she's seen Murley do when studying a cornered mouse.
Such scenes usually end in a blood bath.
"You're in possession of something that does not belong to you." She has a faint accent, though not one Sabine can readily trace. Something Eastern European, maybe. It doesn't really help her determine who she's dealing with. "Relinquish it to me and you will not be harmed."
"I mean, technically it belongs to a dead guy so I think I'm going to hold onto it. Finders Keepers and all that."
If Sabine didn't already know that she was fibbing about the whole 'not harming you' part, then the startling red of her lightsaber as it ignites would have clued her in.
The only people she's ever seen wield sabers of that color are the Sith. An identifying mark of their fucked up cult that they proudly display. During the war, the Empire made it illegal for anyone to manufacture a saber of blue or green, the colors of the Jedi order. Now, the tables have turned and Sabine can count on less than three fingers just how many times she's seen someone with a red blade since the end of the war.
There's a tint of orange to this lightsaber but she doesn't know enough about the Sith to hazard a guess on whether that makes her situation less dire or moreso.
Shit.
The woman steps closer, the sharp hum of her lightsaber nearly eclipsing the irritating hum Sabine's veins that she's been feeling since her arrival. "I was hoping you'd say that."
Sabine doesn't doubt it for a second. Whilst her face is unerringly blank, there's a creeping excitement in her eyes and Sabine knows an adrenaline junkie when she sees one.
Mostly because she is one.
"I suppose you wouldn't be open to just grabbing a bite to eat and some coffee? Maybe throw in a bit of clubbing?"
The woman cocks her head, looking an - admittedly - adorable mixture of frustrated and perplexed.
"Nope?" Sabine reaches for the lightsaber at her belt. "Okay, then."
Exhaling, she ignites it.
Ahsoka, you better be on your way.
Lying on the ground, Sabine can only prepare for death as the sound of footsteps draws closer and closer. Then comes to a stop. Her would-be murderer squints down at her, like she's a particularly frustrating puzzle whose pieces refuse to fit together.
Sabine tries to speak, to deliver some heroic last-minute snark before she finishes her off, but she can't find the strength to move her lips. The world moves around her in a fog, hazy and unforgiving, Sabine wanders in and out of the shadows.
She blinks and the woman is bending over, hand outstretched towards her face, her own drawn with curiosity.
The closer she gets, the more insistent the hum in Sabine's head becomes. She groans under the onslaught, just as the woman's fingers touch her forehead - then jerk back.
"What are you?"
(what a rude question to ask)
Sabine parts her lips, tries to form a stinging response-
and it's at that moment the world fades out.
[At first, the Jedi Order was an unquestionable success. Wars dwindled, corruption faltered, and poverty receded slowly from the shores of civilization. Then the cracks started to show. Little fissures in the fabric of the world, that grew and grew. By the time Sabine was born, the entire building had almost crumbled down.
People would always hunger for more. More power. More money. More attention. And ever so slowly they began to gain it.
The Order, which was created as a governing body that would take no sides and work for the good of all, fell slowly into the grip of the Old Republic. Which, whilst not nearly as bad as the Empire that would one day replace it, had grown rotten with corruption, inaction and self-indulgence. Those outside of the Republic slipped slowly into waste, left to fester by the Jedi. Human trafficking and slavery were common in those parts, though - Sabine's learned - such things found themselves at home in the Republic as well. They were just hidden. Never spoken of. Never acknowledged.
('We lost our way,' Ahsoka confides in her once, not long after Sabine has agreed to be her apprentice. 'Became arrogant with our own power and influence whilst believing ourselves above such base things. That became clear to me the day I was expelled from the Order. As much as the Jedi preach against attachment, we had become attached to the Republic. A dying Republic.'
'They chose it over you.'
Ahsoka inclines her head. 'Our intentions were good - I still believe that - but the day we stopped focusing on the entire world instead of just one governmant, is the day we signed our own ruin.'
'Do you think the new Jedi Order will be better?'
'. . . I hope so,' Ahsoka says softly.
Sabine doesn't point out that, as much as she may hope, that hope hasn't been strong enough to call her back to the Order. Though she has reclaimed the title of Jedi, she refuses to return to the past.
Sabine can't blame her)]
It goes without saying that she managed to crack the map open. She is, uncontestably, brilliant at what she does. And, sure, it was a little trickier to start with than she expected but that wasn't necessarily an unwanted hiccup - it's been far too long since Sabine's had a challenge she can really sink her teeth into.
The problem wasn't the map.
The problem was the blonde, lightsaber-wielding gremlin that crashed her victory party and tried to steal the damn thing - but not before rearranging some of Sabine's insides.
She winces, massaging the wound on her side.
"Stop touching it," Ahsoka scolds. "You'll only get it infected."
"I can't believe she just left me lying there. She didn't even care enough to finish the job!"
"I'm sorry, are you upset that you were only stabbed somewhere non-vital instead of mortally wounded by the person who tried to rob you?"
"I mean. . . not really," It's more the principle of the matter. Sabine is very happy to still be alive and breathing - it just wouldn't be fair to poor Murley and Scrappie to render them orphans - but the utter disrespect! What? Homicidal blonde lady didn't even consider Sabine enough of a threat to make sure that she'd never get back up again? She left her - like trash!
Ahsoka raises a doubtful brow but doesn't comment.
Sabine sighs, turning to the sphere on her bedside table. "At least she didn't manage to take it."
Ahsoka's arrival was timely, if a little too late to stop another scar from being added to her collection. Sabine winces, regretting her decision not to accept painkillers, as she attempts to make herself a little more upright.
Huyang, to her left, clocks her struggle and adds another pillow to her already impressive collection, creating a sturdier surface to support her weight.
Ahsoka frowns, eying the sphere. "Were you able to open it?"
"Yeah." Sabine winces, backtracking. "Well, mostly. I did get it open but I was only able to unlock about thirty percent of the map. Bloodthirsty Barbie interrupted before I could work my way through the rest."
"Still" - Ahsoka smiles - "thirty percent is impressive. It's more than anyone else has managed."
Sabine curses the way her lips itch to break into their own smile, the little thrill that zaps through her at Ahsoka's praise. She's not her master anymore. And Sabine is not her apprentice.
Those days are behind them. The only reason she's doing this is because of Ezra. Ezra, who disappeared off the face of the Earth along with Thrawn ten years ago.
"Get some rest." Ahsoka moves like she's going to pat Sabine's hand but stops herself at the last second. "We'll talk more later."
Sabine has no intention at all of resting - she still has seventy percent worth of map to unlock - but she nods at her former master like a good girl and watches as she rises from her chair in preparation to leave.
It's when she's partway to the door that Sabine remembers something. Something that she could only take in stride and dismiss at the time but that now has her stomach twisting in on itself.
"Ahsoka."
Ahsoka halts, turning slowly back to face her.
Sabine hesitates, unsure if she even wants to voice this. If it's even worth voicing. After all, she has no idea what actually happened. What she felt. What if her brain is just misremembering shit because of the trauma of getting stabbed?
Except her brain never misremembers shit.
It can't.
"I sensed her coming, Ahsoka," Sabine whispers, watching her turn very still. "I felt her. . . I don't even know how that's possible."
The confused frown on Ahsoka's face mirrors her own internal state, which is comforting in its way. "It shouldn't be. . . not for a human."
Sabine smiles grimly. "Except I'm not entirely human."
Not anymore.
"It all depends on your definition." Ahsoka hesitates, then forces her own smile - it's not nearly as reassuring as she probably thinks it is. "As for what you felt. . . it's something we can try to figure out the why of in the future. Right now, our priority is that map."
"Right." Sabine tries not to let the smile on her lips falter. "Of course."
And she's right. That map is their priority.
Finding Ezra is their priority. Nothing else matters more than that.
Sabine won't let it.
A/N: Next chapter will be much longer and then we'll be up to present day and the chapters will be pretty much entirely shin/sabine from that point on. we've just got to get through the setup first
Next time: sabine learns more about the mysterious woman who attacked her