Chapter 60 - Rise of Clovis

Author's Note: Ahsoka and Padme spend some time together, sort of, and Omega reunites with her brothers. :D

~ Amina Gila

Sometimes, Ahsoka could swear that the moment she leaves, Padme gets herself in trouble. It happened again – the Chancellor sent her to Scipio to collect Padme, who apparently has been arrested for suspected espionage. "Okay, what, exactly, is going on here?" she asks, frustration radiating from her as she steps into the cell.

Padme looks slightly relieved upon seeing her, immediately pushing herself into a sitting position. She must've been sleeping, understandably. At least the cell here is bright instead of dull, boring, and gray, though Ahsoka keeps all snippy comments about it to herself. "Ahsoka, I'm glad you came," she replies. "How long have I been here?"

"Few days," Ahsoka answers shortly.

"They say Teckla is dead. Is that true?" Padme queries.

Ahsoka wishes she could say otherwise, after knowing how it feels when a clone she's close to dies, but she has to tell her the blunt truth. "Yeah. The Muuns claim she sabotaged the power grid. No idea if that's true, but she was found shot by the site."

Ahsoka feels a flicker of grief from Padme, one she feels every second of every day, since Anakin walked away, and perhaps even before then when her mother died.

"I need to get out of here," Padme relates, "Something is very wrong with the banks. Clovis was helping me search for information."

Ahsoka physically takes a step back, gaping at her. "Clovis? How is he involved in this?!" she demands, temper rising. He tried to kill Padme, and even if her friend has forgotten, she certainly has not. "He can't be trusted! What if he's the one who was involved in whatever happened and got Teckla killed?"

"I'll explain when we're out," Padme replies firmly, and Ahsoka hisses in a frustrated breath. She's seen too many people like him on Tatooine, who pretend to be kind, but only do it for... ulterior motives. She doesn't want Padme to get hurt by him.

Ahsoka releases a frustrated growl. "Alright, fine. Come on. Let's get going."

They head back for the ship, waiting to talk until they've boarded and are safely out of earshot, just in case. "You need to trust me," Padme begins finally, frustrating leaking into her voice, "I can't leave without the files Clovis and I took from the vault."

As annoyed as she is that Padme is putting herself in danger senselessly again around Clovis, this does need to be addressed. "Where are they?"

"Likely, they're in Clovis' private residence outside the city."

That... sounds like a lovely place to go. "Fine, let's get moving," Ahsoka concedes. And then, they really need to get off-planet before something else goes wrong.

**w**

Clovis' residence is too quiet, and Ahsoka doesn't like it at all. Her montrals are picking up on movement somewhere close by as they search, which isn't helping either. Whoever's here is hiding.

"Careful," she warns, in a low voice, "I don't think we're alone."

"Then where is he?" Padme objects.

"If he's not here, whoever wants these things probably took him." She can't say she'd feel an ounce of sympathy, either. He nearly got Padme killed last time.

"These files are important," she replies, sounding slightly irked, "We need to find him."

"They'll expose a corruption that goes to the very core of the Banking Clan," another voice speaks up, and Clovis materializes out from behind some furniture.

Was he seriously hiding back there?

"Clovis!" Padme exclaims, visibly relieved as she hurries over to him.

He stops just short of hugging her, though Padme steps away before he can. Ahsoka's eyes narrow as she watches him. There's something about the way he's acting that's far too friendly, in a way that's distinctly not just friends. And she doesn't like it one bit, especially because Padme doesn't even seem bothered by that. She should know she can't trust him!

"I knew you'd come," Clovis rushes, then pauses to look at Ahsoka when she pointedly steps closer, "You again?"

"Yes, me again," Ahsoka snaps back, barely able to control her sudden growing rage. To be fair, it's been harder to control herself, period, since Anakin left. "Now tell us where the disc is."

"I'm not about to hand over the information to just anyone," he throws back.

"I'm a Jedi Knight," she retorts, "Here to rescue Padme from the mess you dragged her into."

"I needed her help, because she was the only one that I could trust."

"Will you two stop?" Padme interjects, irritated, "We need to get out of here."

Which somehow, is the very moment Ahsoka suddenly senses danger. There's something –

A blaster shot rings out, and she ducks instinctively, whipping out her lightsaber. She deflects the next shot – it's coming from somewhere out the window. "Get to the door! Artoo will have to pick us up!" she yells, running for it, the other two close behind her.

Except, the walkway on the outside of Clovis' residence is long, and there's no cover for Padme out here. Not that there's anything she can do but to try to keep up with the shots, as they run.

They barely make it to the speeder, but then, another shot takes that down. It crashes in the snow in a flurry, but at least the engine is still operational. Somewhat. Now, they just have to make it back to their ship.

**w**

Kitster has had a bad feeling about this from the moment it started. He heard about what happened with Clovis last time – second hand, of course. He wasn't involved in person at all. But Padme had once... been close with Clovis. She let it go, because it's what she was supposed to do, though he doesn't know if she fully has.

With the time and stress that she's under in the Senate constantly, he can't blame her for trying to find some kind of future, but not with him. Not with someone who nearly got her killed.

It's Ahsoka who contacts him first, telling him ahead of time about how the Chancellor apparently requested Padme work with Clovis on some banking matter that they're not explaining the details about – they shouldn't, either, considering that it's classified. He won't ask, no matter how curious he may be about it.

"I don't trust him," Ahsoka finishes fiercely. "Can you keep an eye on things? Just to make sure she's alright?"

"Of course," Kitster promises, sighing heavily, "I don't like it either."

"Clovis tried to kill her!" she exclaims, "I don't understand what she's thinking."

"I'm not sure that she is," Kit replies, and he's not. "She... used to be close with him, and I'm afraid that might be off throwing her current judgment."

"Close?" Ahsoka repeats, taking a moment to process his words before the full meaning dawns. "Oh. That... yeah. I was wondering. I mean, I knew that, but I didn't know how far it went."

"I'm afraid being in the Senate is destroying her," Kitster admits, and he hates himself for having to say it no matter how true it is. He knows how much the Senate means to his adopted sister, and he doesn't want her to have to give it up, but it isn't as though there may be a choice for much longer. "She never takes breaks." Just like you, he doesn't add.

And it terrifies him. He's trapped in the sidelines, watching as the two people he loves most destroy themselves, endlessly fighting a losing battle. Maybe it's selfish to want to leave with them both, but he does. He does, desperately. He wants to go with both Padme and Ahsoka someplace they won't have to worry about the outside world anymore, some place they can just live.

That will never happen, of course, because he's fighting for the freedom of slaves everywhere – and as soon as the war's over, he'll fight for the clones, too – and Padme and Ahsoka won't leave.

He won't ask them to, hasn't dared to talk to them about it, because he doesn't want them to feel pressured into doing something they're not comfortable with. He couldn't do that to them.

"Yeah," Ahsoka agrees, sighing. "I know what she means to you, and I don't want her to get herself killed."

He wishes there was something he could say to that. There's not. Not really. All they can do is trust Padme to make the right choices, and Kitster does trust her, but he also knows how much she's struggling. He couldn't blame her for making some... stupid mistakes. She wants to settle down, even if she's a little too stubborn to actively do it. In the Senate, there... may be some good people, but mostly bad, and she can't stay in the Senate and get married.

"I know what she wants," he continues, "Though I'm not sure if she's serious about it. Before the war, it was... easier. She was younger. Now, everything is so stressful for all of us. I can't blame her for wanting a distraction."

Ahsoka huffs. "Yeah. Me either, when you put it like that. But still, this is stupid."

"It... might be necessary for her to work with him," Kitster has to grudgingly admit, though he hates himself for doing so. "I just don't know if things would go farther than she intended, or how personal this is for her."

Ahsoka hisses out a breath. "Yeah. Just – be careful, okay? And don't get yourself killed trying to take care of her, either."

That isn't something he can promise, though he'll try.

**w**

Ahsoka has a very bad feeling from the moment the Senate has a meeting over the banking situation. Apparently, Clovis and Padme did discover evidence of corruption and how the system is about to collapse. Except, of course, Clovis requests that he be nominated – how can Padme not see that he's just doing this for his own name, not because he cares anything about the system? – and for some foolish reason, the Senate actually agrees to that.

She knows something is about to go very badly, very shortly, so she's not even surprised that, by the next day, there's another emergency Senate meeting called, and that several Jedi Council members are attending along with her.

Because predictably enough, they just got a message from the Banking Clans that the interest rates for the Republic are immediately being raised.

Some neutrality.

Now Padme will finally see it. But for as momentarily relieved – even if that's probably not how she ought to be feeling – as she is that Clovis finally exposed his true colors again so Padme will hopefully learn to stay away from him this time, she's also worried because Padme's presently on Scipio with Clovis, and anything could happen to her.

"This is an outrage!" someone shouts, as the entire Senate is flooded with furious exclamations.

"And what of the Separatists?" someone else demands.

"From the little information Senator Amidala has been able to establish, there will be no raise in their current loan."

Of course not. This is always about Clovis' profits, after all. It's disgusting, as is what it is. "I knew he'd do this," she comments, glancing over at the other Council members.

"Correct, you might have been," Yoda muses. She swallows the snippy comment that instantly rises up of nice to notice now.

"His move makes no sense for him. It will turn the entire Republic against him," Mundi points out.

"He's doing this for profits," Ahsoka scoffs, "Why would that matter to him? The Republic still needs the banks."

"Want us to turn against him, he might. Unclear, his motives are," Yoda points out.

Palpatine calls for temporary restraint to assess the situation and the meeting ends, but Ahsoka has the feeling things are only about to get worse.

**w**

Her concerns are proven right only an hour later when Palpatine gets a call from Padme – Ahsoka's presently in his office – that Separatists are invading Scipio. Somehow, she isn't even surprised about that. Probably, this is all some kind of set up, but either way, she has to go to get Padme safely out of there.

Separatist ships are already orbiting Scipio when she gets there with her fleet. "Rex, have you located Senator Amidala yet?" Ahsoka demands, as they fly for the surface in a gunship. She leaves her fleet to deal with the Separatists. They need to focus on Padme right now.

"We'll get a better lock when we're over the city, but initial scans suggest she's still alive, sir."

Except, the Separatist ships jump to hyperspace almost immediately, leaving the Republic here entirely alone. That doesn't make sense. If the Separatists were trying to take the planet, why would they just leave it to the Republic? Komari must be playing at something here, but Ahsoka can't figure out what. Unless it's just some scheme to make the Republic look bad.

But what matters right now is getting to the surface. There's only a small group of vulture droids down there to stop them as they fly in.

She jumps off the gunship onto the landing platform outside the towering building Padme's in, cutting through the droids as she runs for the entrance. Clones are falling all around her, but the fastest way to bring an end to this isn't to stay and fight right now. It's to get to the person behind all this madness.

Clovis.

She sprints through the building, cutting her way through every droid in her path as she makes her way to the top level. Forcing the door open, Ahsoka steps inside, cutting through the two battle droids right in the entrance.

But as she spins to face Clovis, he has an arm around Padme, and has a blaster held up to her head.

So much for loving her. (Ew.)

"Surrender, Clovis," Ahsoka snarls. She will not let this – this creep hurt Padme. They may not be as close as they once were, but they're still friends. And she already lost Anakin. She won't lose anyone else.

"Stay away from me!" he protests, "I didn't do anything wrong."

"Right," she scoffs, "That's why you have a blaster to someone's head."

"You have to believe me," he insists, desperately as though she should somehow care to hear a word he has to say, "You don't understand. You've all been deceived."

"Yeah, the whole Senate noticed."

"No, not by me," he argues, "By Komari. I'm not the villain here. Tell her, Padme."

"Let me go, Clovis," Padme demands instead, trying and failing to pull away. At least she's not defending him anymore, not that there's any way she could be, after all this.

Ahsoka senses the danger a split second before something hits the building. The large glass window shatters, wind and glass fragments whipping wildly through the room. Ahsoka stumbles, trying to regain her footing, but the floor abruptly starts tilting wildly, and the next she knows, all three of them are sliding for the open window that's now gaping open far above ground.

She scrambles to the edge, heart hammering, right as Padme and Clovis start going over the edge. The angle is precarious, but she takes the risk anyway, leaning down to grab Padme's hand before she can fall.

Clovis reaches for her wildly, but she... ignores him.

Trying to hold him would only throw all of them over the edge. And frankly, why should she try?

"Clovis!" Padme calls, desperately twisting around and trying to catch him with one hand – and failing spectacularly, obviously – as he falls down, out of sight.

He's... dead.

And Ahsoka has no regrets about that, even if Padme does. "Come on," she urges, awkwardly trying to pull Padme over the edge.

With the angle they're leaning at, it's hard, but she manages through sheer determination. At the end of the day, for all the disagreements the two of them have had, Padme is still her friend, and she could never forget that.

"You okay?" Ahsoka asks, sinking onto the remains of what was one the floor, just trying to catch her breath.

"Yes," Padme offers, breathing out heavily, "I am. We should get out of here."

She could say something about the whole deal with Clovis, but frankly? He's dead, and Padme's safe, and that's all she cares about right now.

**w**

Padme still doesn't know how to feel about Clovis being gone. She didn't truly know if she could trust him, but there was a part of her that had hoped he was actually changing. And sometimes she's just... tired. Of being in the Senate, of fighting verbally for battles she rarely wins, of... everything, really.

She wants something more, but it's not realistic. There are still so many duties she needs to attend to.

Like the Senate meeting she just walked out of, where Palpatine officially took control of the banks. They're under Republic control now, and it might be for the best of the Republic, but one person controlling the banks isn't a good thing, and she doesn't know where it'll go from here.

"At least the Separatists won't be getting their funds anymore," Ahsoka comments. She's here along with Kitster at the apartment now.

"It may be ideal now, but it... could cause more problems in the future," Padme replies. Mostly, she's just concerned about Palpatine's power, but she doubts Ahsoka would want to hear that.

"I think both of you have had enough politics for the day," Kitster interrupts. He seems strangely troubled.

"You okay?" Ahsoka asks, nudging him.

Kit sighs. "The Senate is... stressful for you both," he replies, "The war has been on all of us. Sometimes... I want to just leave, to be away from all of this. I know we can't, but I still want it."

Padme pauses, glancing at him. She knows he... has issues with it sometimes, but she didn't realize he outright considered walking away sometimes. "We can't abandon our duty," she reminds, though she wants it, too. Sometimes, like right now, she just... feels like she can't do this anymore. "Though I sometimes want that myself." She shouldn't feel like that, because it's selfish, and there's something she needs to do, but sometimes? She can't help it.

Her adopted brother's face lightens a little. "That... it would be nice, I think," he confesses, "Just for a little while. I don't know. Maybe when the war's over?"

"Maybe," Ahsoka replies, "But we have to end it first."

Padme laughs. "That's fair," she agrees, because no matter how badly she wants that, Ahsoka's right. They need to bring this war to a close. With Komari and Grievous out there – even if Ventress and Dooku have been dealt with – Padme doesn't exactly think the war will be coming to an end any time soon. "For now, all we can do is keep fighting."

Padme still thinks it'd be easier if she had something to look forward to after. Right now, all she wants is... a future.

Kitster is right, she has to admit. She doesn't want to stay in the Senate like this, not forever.

**w**

Excitement has been building inside her from the moment she knew she'd be able to see her brothers in person again – along with a slight amount of anticipation, because Omega knows it's been a while and that things have started changing, but she'll be with them again, and that's all that matters. If they're together, they can figure anything out. Even this, and she's so, so grateful to Anakin for giving her this chance.

Hunter is there to greet her first, and Omega all but throws herself into his arms with a near-squeal of his name. Hunter catches her, arms wrapping around her in a tight embrace. And Omega clings to him, desperately, because he's their leader, and he's always protected them, even if there are times there's not much he can do to help. She's been away for months.

Wrecker practically snatches her away, and Omega hugs him, too.

"Good to have ya back, kid," Wrecker informs her exuberantly, squeezing her tightly.

Crosshair crowds in next to hug her, too, no matter what snippy comments he had in that regard during their parting. Force, she has missed them all so much. Wrecker hands her over to him, and their youngest brother catches her easily, snuggling her against his chest.

Crosshair sets her down by Tech, who crouches to give her a one-armed hug himself.

Wrecker snatches her away again, shoving Lula into her arms. "She missed you, too," he supplies, and Omega snatches the doll, hugging her, too.

It's not until she's with them again that the sheer relief of being back finally catches up to her. She'd been so afraid she might never see them again, not get to be with them, and after all the time they spent together, she can't imagine that.

Omega inhales shakily, tears spilling down her cheeks. Hunter's hand touches her hair, lightly stroking through her curls. "You okay, kid?" he asks quietly, and Omega nods against him. She wants to just be with them, but Anakin's here, too.

"Anakin is the one who got me here," she says, turning to look at him, hovering nearby, just far enough away to give them some semblance of privacy.

Hunter steps back from her, turning to look at Anakin. "Thank you."

"Yeah," Anakin offers bashfully, shrugging slightly. "You're friends. It's the least I could do."

Anakin finally approaches them, and Hunter reaches to touch his shoulder. Anakin flat out hugs him, and Hunter returns it just as fiercely.

Crosshair comes over to hug him next.

Anakin turns to Wrecker third, hugging him tightly and pausing to squeeze Omega's shoulder. He's sixteen, and she's twelve, which is a very age gap distance, but he's still almost ridiculously taller than she is. He looks happy here, which isn't even something Omega can say for when they were on Naboo. She can say the same. She liked living there, but it wasn't with her brothers. She's used to the action, the fighting – has trained for it, and she doesn't want anything else.

Anakin hugs Tech, too, who doesn't have the qualms Omega almost expected him to about returning it.

Crosshair shifts back over to her, hand resting on her shoulder, and she snuggles closer. In their times in-action, Omega usually was with one of them – Crosshair, anyway, if they were trying to keep her out of danger. She's missed always having him beside her.

And there's something else she badly needs to tell them about. "I have a twin," she announces, and everyone freezes.

"What?" Wrecker splutters.

"His name's Boba," Anakin supplies, "He was raised by Jango Fett, until Geonosis. He became a bounty hunter for a while, and he attacked us Naboo. But... he teamed up with us now. You wanna meet him?"

"He wants to meet us?" Hunter asks, likely surprised with how rare that is.

"Yeah." Boba had been hesitant, but he hadn't not wanted it, either.

She goes to call him in; he still seems hesitant, even if not openly.

"You're Omega's brothers," he states more than asks, looking at them, "She told me about you."

Tech almost instantly leans forwards with his datapad, presumably scanning him. "You're the clone they code-named Alpha," he observes.

Omega's... glad that Boba doesn't immediately get prickly about being called a clone. He's not being quite as hostile as he was when they first met.

"Omega said you were different from all the others," Boba comments, finally.

"We're nothing like the regs," Crosshair states, watching him with that assessing look. He doesn't know if he's a threat yet or not, understandably.

"Regs?" Boba echoes, confused.

"Regular clones," Hunter clarifies. "You... want to be here, kid?"

Boba shrugs slightly. "She offered me a chance to stay here. I might."

Omega hopes he does. So long as he gets along with the rest. And she really hopes that this means they'll also be constantly working with Anakin when they're on missions.

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