'Tyger Tyger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry.'
- The Tyger by William Blake
Ahsoka stops at the foot of her bed, where Sabine has been fiddling with the most frustrating map in existence for the past three hours. "How much have you managed to open so far?"
"About a third." A disappointingly trivial amount but at least it's something. "See for yourself."
Ahsoka takes a seat on the chair by her bed, examining the holographic map. "That's a lot of names."
"Yeah. I think when they're faded like this," she points to a name nearest to her, "it means they're dead. I've taken out more than a few of these people."
"Me too."
"I can't work out the ones in red, though." Sabine squints, studying the various names and coordinates highlighted in blood.
"Defectors."
"How do you know?"
"I recognize more than half of them from the New Republic's witness protection database. A not insubstantial amount of Imperials turned against the Empire and aided the Rebels, especially towards the end of the war."
"Rats fleeing a sinking ship."
Ahsoka hums but doesn't dispute her cynicism. "Some of them, though, were working with us from the start. Acting as Rebel spies. . . Palpatine must have kept this map up to date, adjusting it for every traitor in his ranks."
"So it also functions as a hit list."
Ahsoka nods slowly.
"Do you think that's why she's after it? Shin."
"There are any number of reasons why she could be after it. If she's loyal to the Empire, she may simply want it for Thrawn."
Like us.
"A synth loyal to the Empire?"
"It's been known to happen. Some people serve no master but their own thirst for power - synths aren't immune to that."
"Yeah, but this particular synth. After what you said they did to her."
Sabine's not buying it. Nothing - not even the promise of power - could get her to aid in bringing back the Empire that slaughtered her people.
Ahsoka's voice is soft, "Sometimes. . . when you've been without freedom too long, you don't know what to do with it once you get it. Sometimes, you don't even realize it's there."
Well, that's depressing.
A little too depressing, in fact. Sabine likes her theory better:
"Or she's on a revenge kick and plans to use the entire map as a kill list." In which case, Sabine would be hard-pressed to condemn her.
Ahoska inclines her head. "Perhaps more likely."
Huyang bustles into the room. "Hera wishes me to inform you that she's received information from a reliable source that Lord Baylan Skoll has spent the last decade or so operating as a mercenary."
"Well, that's interesting," Ahsoka leans forward over her knees, eyes narrowed in thought.
Sabine can't help but agree.
If Baylan's a mercenary that pretty much makes it guaranteed that Shin's one too. It's not what Sabine expected and she feels her opinion of the synth drop exponentially.
Not that she really has room to talk. What with her history of being a bounty hunter and all. Not to mention her people are renowned for their mercenary work and Sabine's positive some of that work was less than honorable. Her house is made of glass and she definitely shouldn't be going around throwing stones. But still.
She expected something a little more. . . purpose-driven from Shin. A meaningful motivation for her actions.
Though some would argue that there's nothing more meaningful or motivating than money. It does make the world go round, after all.
"So, what, we think they're hired goons?"
"That would explain why they broke Morgan Elsbeth out of prison," Ahsoka says. "And why they were at Corellia. I knew it couldn't be a coincidence."
"You think she hired them?"
"It's the most plausible theory we have at the moment."
So the odds that Shin is aiding the Empire are significantly higher. Of course, there's always the possibility that she's not doing it of her own free will.
(Sabine's not sure why she cares so much either way. Why it should even matter to her.
The woman stabbed you in the gut.
Maybe she needs to learn some self-respect. This has to speak to some kind of deep-rooted self-esteem issue)
Ahsoka reaches into her pocket, pulling out a note and placing it unceremoniously on Sabine's lap.
She squints at the words scrawled on the page.
"What's this?"
"Something that might help. I contacted Mara to see if she knew anything that might aid us with this newfound thorn in your side. She was the Emperor's Hand. If anyone knows anything about the Hatis, it's her."
"I bet that was a fun conversation."
Jade just loves talking about her time with the Empire as Palpatine's brainwashed doll.
Ahsoka grimaces a little. "I don't think she'll be inviting me out to drinks for a while."
"Wait, she invites you out to drinks? She never invites me out to drinks."
Sabine's barely ever gotten more than a few syllables of conversation out of her.
Ahsoka just smiles before continuing. "Most of what she had to say was already known to me and - like us - she was led to believe that all the Hati had been destroyed. I do think there's information that she's sitting on, details that she won't reveal for whatever reason but I don't think those details would be of aid to us. . . there are some things we don't have a right to."
"So basically you learnt nothing."
"Almost nothing. When I explained the situation to her, she did divulge this." Ahsoka taps the paper on her lap. "It's a trigger phrase. Only about a dozen or so people were given the position of Master when it came to the Hati. Safer that way. But also problematic if a Hati ever found a way around their existing commands and went rogue. So a safety lever was invented. Something anybody could pull, master or not, that would shut them down."
"Shut them down?"
"Place them in standby mode. At least until someone says the release phrase. It should give us enough time to escape if needed."
She examines the sentence scrawled on the page.
'In what distant deep or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?'
It's obviously an excerpt of poetry. Probably something super pretentious since it was presumably picked out by Palpatine himself.
"All I have to do is say these words and she'll turn off?" Sabine can't help but feel a little skeptical.
Ahsoka hesitates. "In theory. Mara did warn that it may no longer be functional. The phrases were constantly changing for security reasons and this was simply the last one she was given before the Hati were destroyed."
"Good to know." Sighing, Sabine pockets the note with less than eager enthusiasm.
With her luck, the phrase will trigger something like Homicidal Rage Mode instead.
"Did Jade know her? Shin," Sabine asks with forced nonchalance.
Ahsoka nods slowly. "Not well. Mostly she knew of her. There were times that their paths crossed but Mara's missions were usually of a higher caliber and kept her separate. . . She did say that Shin was renowned for her short temper."
"Isn't that a little like the pot calling the kettle black?"
Ahsoka snorts. "I think we've landed on why you've never been invited out to drinks."
"She tried to kill her husband. Multiple times."
Far be it from Sabine to judge other people's romantic relationships but. . . she's kind of judging.
"Well, it's not as though they were married at the time."
Uh huh.
She still thinks one too many blows to the head have thrown a few of Luke Skywalker's screws loose.
"I'm just saying. I mean, I know that some relationships can have a rocky start but I don't think I'd be in such a rush to hitch myself to someone who wanted me dead." Ahsoka looks doubtful - which, okay, insulting. "Sex is one thing. That might actually be kind of hot. But commitment? That's a whole other kettle of fish."
"She says as someone who's never had a committed romantic relationship in her life."
"Neither have you."
"Jedi. What's your excuse?"
Sabine bristles faintly, even though she knows this is just friendly banter - something she should be delighted to be having with Ahsoka again since she never once thought they would - but that's a wound she's still a little raw from. She could blame it on Ezra. On the undefinable thing that existed between them before his disappearance, that thing that was then later left to flounder hopelessly in the sea of unknowns and what-ifs after he was gone. But the truth is, since the war, she hasn't been able to connect with anyone. Not like that. Letting a person in, letting them see her enough to love her. . . well, that just sounds horrible. What sounds even more horrible is the thought of letting someone in. . . only to lose them like she's lost everyone else. Worse, to be rejected by them and watch them walk away.
The same way Ahsoka walked away.
Which isn't exactly something she can say to the woman in front of her.
So instead Sabine shrugs, pretending her smile doesn't hurt her lips. "I don't know. Guess I just haven't found the right person yet."
Ahsoka eyes her like she knows she's a liar-liar-pants-on-fire but kindly doesn't call her on it. "I guess so."
[Over the centuries, millions of alien species have wound up in their solar system. Refugees fleeing the reckoning of their home galaxies, crash landing in the Milky Way., their ships destroyed.
Many tried to rebuild the advanced technology that enabled them to travel through different galaxies but Earth and its surrounding planets were severely lacking in the necessary materials required. They were stranded. Safe from the forces that had propelled them to flee but never able to return home.
Ahsoka's grandparents were among those refugees.]
The Seatos safe house, located on the floating manmade territory of Lothal, is only a ten-minute flight from LothalNet tower and it's somewhat of a test in self-control not to grab the holocron, swipe Ahsoka's jetplane and chart her way back there. It's not that Sabine's particularly attached to her apartment but she's keenly aware that Scrappie isn't up to attending to Murley's needs for days on end. Last time she left the two alone together for any length of time, Murley lost the end of his tail.
Sabine still doesn't know how exactly this happened and Scrappie has remained suspiciously mum about the whole thing.
At any rate, it certainly doesn't bode well that this is her fourth night away from home. For all she knows, they've massacred each other.
"Just another day or two," Sabine swears, more to herself than anyone else.
She'll have the map cracked by then. She knows it. And then she'll have to figure out a more permanent solution for Murley's care whilst they go after Ezra. Unless Ahsoka is agreeable to bringing the little mongrel along. Sabine thinks she could sell it. Pets are good for morale.
Speaking of Ahsoka. . .
"How are we coming along with the map?"
"I love how you say 'we' when what you really mean is me," Sabine sighs, stretching out her spine - which gives a worryingly loud pop. Maybe she should get into yoga. "And I'm about most of the way there. Eighty percent now."
Ahsoka raises a brow and that small pathetic part of her that she tries to kick into submission fills with bubbly warmth at the impressed look on her face. "Good work."
Huyang trots into the room, looking as flustered as she's ever seen a droid. "I'm afraid we have a breach."
Her head shoots up. "Wait, really?"
Breaching a safehouse of this caliber's unheard of. At least, it hasn't happened in Sabine's lifetime.
"Affirmative."
Or. . . I guess now it has.
Sabine and Ahsoka exchange a look. "What's to bet it's my favorite new pain in the ass?"
"I'd say the odds would be in your favor."
"Great."
She's been so looking forward to getting pummeled to with an inch of her life again.
"Stay here. Protect the map." Ahsoka's already unsheathing her lightsaber and heading for the door. "I'll do my best to subdue them but if they get past me, you'll have no choice but to destroy it." She stops long enough to meet Sabine's eyes. "Can you do that?"
"Yeah," she breathes. "I can do that."
Just as soon as she's unlocked the coordinates for Thrawn.
Ahsoka seems to read these unspoken words on her face - she really has to get better at concealing her thoughts from her. "I'd unlock the rest of that map very quickly."
She doesn't wait for a response.
Releasing a groan, Sabine turns her attention to the sphere on her lap. "You better be amenable to this plan."
It offers no retort.
"Good. Glad we're on the same page. Now let's get started."
Present
The hand around her neck is firm and unyielding. Shin could crush her throat without any effort at all, without so much as a blink.
Sabine has definitely moved on from worrying about the smell of her breath to worrying about just what it will feel like when her head pops off like Miss Polly's poor dolly.
She thinks she is, at least partially responsible for her present situation. If only because they were having a pretty pleasant and respectful altercation before Sabine's mouth said one too many things that it shouldn't have and Shin chose the quickest and most effective method available to shut her up.
I am going to kill Ahsoka when I see her later.
You know, if she doesn't get decapitated first.
That so-called trigger phrase was about as useful as one of Sabine's childhood nursery ryhmes. Only worse because the minute Shin heard it she took immediate offense.
Though offense might be putting it mildly.
Her eyes bugged in her skull and her hand struck out for Sabine's jugular with the ferocity of a wolf. Or a very pissed-off puppy.
Big mistake.
Huge!
If anything's become clear in the last few minutes it's that Shin has been holding back in their fights. Substantially. Toying with her like a cat with a mouse, letting her live just so she can toss her up in the air with her paws and watch her go splat against the floor. Kitty playtime.
Well, she's not toying with her anymore.
"You have no power," Shin grinds out in a breath, and there is such rage in her words, such violent desperation - that Sabine's heart twists in her chest.
(no-one has ever looked at her with such loathing)
The kids on Lothal like to chase the stray cats that pepper the streets. Running after them with stones in their hands. Sabine has seen those stones fly through the air like blaster fire, leaving mangled and bloody fur in their wake. A small-scale echo of wartime's violence.
When Murley first came to live with Sabine (read: snuck in through an open window one night and made himself at home, thereafter refusing to leave) he used to flinch every time she raised her hand. His hackles would rise, his body bending low to the ground, as his lips drew back in a hiss. He never ran, never hid. Instead he held his ground, furious desperation in the whites of his eyes. Once, he launched himself at her wrist, fangs sinking into flesh. She still has one of the scars.
Eventually, he came to learn that there was no threat in Sabine's actions, no stone in her grasp. But even now he still hisses whenever someone else raises a hand in his presence.
Sabine has just raised a hand in Shin's.
Worse, that hand actually had a stone in it. One she threw without hesitation - even if its target was missed.
In what distant deep or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
Guilt floods her being.
From everything Ahsoka's told her, she can hazard a guess as to what Shin's life was like during the war. The sheer powerlessness that must have defined her existence. Living as a slave in anything but name, helpless to even protect yourself. To run.
During the Empire's reign, Sabine saw what people would do to their synths. These objects under their command that look so very human - but aren't seen as human. Aren't seen as possessing the feelings of one, let alone the rights.
In the past, synths like Shin could never raise a hand to their master. Never fight back against the indignities heaped upon them. But the past is the past and no synth will ever be that powerless again.
(the fingers around her throat press deeper, cutting off her last breath of air)
Still, Sabine isn't ready to die to prove Shin's newfound power. So she does something that is, in retrospect, quite rude:
she blasts her in the face.
The hold on her throat releases in an instant as Shin goes flying across the room, landing with a thud that makes the floorboards shudder under Sabine's feet.
"Sorry!"
The word hurts to get out through the abused flesh of her throat and Sabine decides that, actually, she's not that sorry.
Shin is silent and still. Which means she probably has at least a good minute or two to get the hell out of here.
"Great talk. Let's never do it again."
Patting her chest to ensure that the map is still safely ensconced in her bra, she beats a hasty retreat.
Sabine tries to ignore the harsh whip of icy wind as she huddles behind one of the impressively large stones that mark the top of the cliff. In the last week, she's made a routine of coming out here to sketch the roiling ocean down bellow, the seagulls that crest the skies above and the dew-touched grass of the hills. A short, scheduled breather during her mad race to unlock a, potentially cataclysmic, map.
But that was always during the day. When it was warm. And sunny. And it didn't feel like the wind had taken on a personal vendetta to destroy her.
Sabine grits her chattering teeth, numb fingers sliding along the sphere's outer edge, shifting - what she hopes is - the last piece into place. There's a promising click.
Holding her breath, she presses the button on the top of the sphere which she's learned by now releases a projection of the map's contents. Before, only eighty percent of the earth's surface was visible. A large chunk of the North Atlantic Ocean and American continent glaringly absent.
This time, they're plain as day to see and Sabine's hungry eyes rapidly take in the missing chunk. She doesn't know how much time she has until a - no doubt - royally pissed-off killing machine manages to track her down. The cliff's edge is far enough away from the cabin that it's certainly not going to be the first place Shin looks but Sabine isn't optimistic enough to believe that she won't eventually expand her search here.
That is, if Ahsoka doesn't manage to take care of her first.
But who even knows if Ahsoka is still alive?
She hasn't heard a thing over the comlink from her master since Shin made her grand entrance and decided to choke the life out of her. The last transmission she received contained the distant but ominous sound of Baylan's voice and a harsh order from Ahsoka to destroy the map.
Which Sabine plans to do.
Any second now.
White dots litter the map, each one attached with a name and list of coordinates. Sabine knows if she touches one of those names she'll get a detailed biography that would put the likes of one of Huyang's to shame - but that's not the kind of information she's after.
At least seventy new names have been added to the map and Sabine scans all of them, filing them away in her memory as she searches out that one specific-
"There you are," Sabine breathes.
A satisfied - and, more than a little, relieved - smirk settles on her lips, though it falters when she takes in exactly where Thrawn's beacon is emanating from.
No fucking way.
The sound of rushed footsteps interrupts Sabine's disbelief and she feels it - that now familiar hum rising in her blood. It's a somewhat unsettling alert system but not an unhelpful one.
Hastily, Sabine turns off the map and reaches for her lightsaber. "Sorry about this."
It really is a beautiful piece of technology and, given more time, Sabine would have loved to examine it further, figure out exactly how it works. But alas. . .
She lights up her saber, just as a shadow enters her field of vision.
"You."
"We really have to stop meeting like this."
A hand grabs Sabine's throat, driving her back against unforgiving rock as her head bounces off it with a crack. Fuck. Pain splinters through her skull, spiderwebbing out until she sees spots, blooming in the corner of her vision. Sabine blinks them away, unable to suppress a wince.
Definitely pissed her off.
When she opens her eyes, Shin's own are a breath away, nostrils flaring, harsh breaths falling from her mouth - though she doesn't even need to fucking breathe! Unlike Sabine, who is all of a sudden finding it rather difficult.
(read: impossible)
Well, this feels familiar.
She really wasn't looking to end up back here quite so soon. Her throat is particularly peeved at the development.
Sabine tries - and fails - to gasp for air, taking in the furious sight of her opponent.
Shin's hair is singed and parts of her face are still knitting themselves back together, a grisly patchwork of skin that crawls like ants the longer and harder Sabine looks. She's also missing an eye.
So that blaster shot might not have been the best thing to endear her to me.
In fact, she may have just made herself an enemy for life. Though if the threat in Shin's one eye is anything to go by, at least it will be an incredibly short feud.
On the ground, the remains of the map lie blackened and deformed.
"I should have killed you the first time we met."
Sabine would respond but it's a little difficult to get a word out between the crushing pressure on her throat. A pressure that only grows tighter and tighter.
Oh, boy. She's definitely going to kill her this time.
"Shin." Baylan's voice is a command, hard and unyielding - daring any to disobey. "Let her speak."
Shin's hand tightens around her throat, taking the dare. "She destroyed it."
Yep. You've really done it now, Sabine.
Great plan.
"And you can kill her for that in time - after she's been given the chance to speak."
The pressure on her throat doesn't ease.
"Shin!" Baylan barks. "She was the last person to see the map. She is the apprentice of Ahsoka Tano. She may yet have something of value."
Slowly, with great reluctance, the hand on Sabine's throat begins to slacken, just enough for her to speak.
Sabine doesn't waste the opportunity. "I have a photographic memory!"
Both Shin and Baylan go very still.
Okay, okay, they're listening. Good. Great. Now keep it moving.
"I looked at the contents of the map before I destroyed it. The information was valuable, I couldn't just. . ." Well, she could. She very much could. But that information included Thrawn's whereabouts. Thrawn, the last person to see Ezra alive. She couldn't just let that information disappear forever. "Valuable to the Republic. And, well, I knew that you're little murder puppy here wouldn't be too happy with its destruction so I figured I better make myself valuable too."
She wasn't actually thinking about that at the time but, really, it's a smart move. Sabine is more than willing to lay claim to it in the aftermath. It's not like anyone's going to call her out.
"She's lying," Shin hisses.
(the trust issues are strong in this one)
"Perhaps," Baylan hums. "And soon enough we'll know for certain. Until then it would be more prudent to let her live."
Shin only looks more furious at this pronouncement. Apparently, right now, her hatred for Sabine far outrivals her desire to access the contents of that map.
Really, if looks could kill.
Well, Sabine probably would have been dead a hundred times over by now, considering the kind of looks Shin has been inclined to send her way. Actually, Sabine's starting to get the impression that she doesn't like her very much. Which is, frankly, baffling. She is incredibly likable.
The hand around her throat tightens, cutting off the air she's only just started getting a taste for again. She claws at Shin's knuckles, armored fingers digging uselessly into synthetic flesh. This is it, she's really going to-
Sabine slams onto the hard earth, a groan cracking through her ribs as the hold on her is released.
Shin stalks off.
Fucking rude.
It takes a good minute of hacking and gasping to feel like her lungs aren't going to explode but eventually she manages to regain some dignity and look up. Baylan still stands at a distance, a faintly amused - if irritated - twist to his mouth.
"You should really keep your dog on a tighter leash."
He ignores her hilarious quip. "Shin listens to my command. . . But if you are lying, not even I will be able to stay her hand."
It's more a warning than an apology - perhaps even a little bit of a chiding for her recklessness - and then the man is following after his apprentice.
Sabine releases another groan, head flopping back onto the ground.
Great work.
Complete and resounding success. No notes.
Really, she should write a book. How to Make Enemies and Influence People.
A/N:
the trigger phrase is taken from the poem The Tyger by William Blake. If you're interested the full poem is here accompanied by an analysis /william-blake/the-tyger/
also the Miss Polly line is a reference to the children's nursery rhyme Miss Polly Had a Dolly but in school kids often replaced the lyrics with 'Miss Polly had a dolly and her head popped off' because kids are wild like that lol