Chapter 9 - The Price It Costs
Author's Note: The Empire arrives. ;)
~ Amina Gila
"I wouldn't have expected to find Jedi hiding out here," Ahsoka remarks, as she and Anakin make their way across the scorched, sandy surface of Mustafar. Ahsoka hasn't been here for long. They're still adjusting to having her here.
"That was the point," Anakin replies. It's far from the kind of place Anakin wants to be living in, but he can still appreciate the hiding spot – Sith wouldn't look for Jedi on a Dark Side planet. Even if the darkness in the Force is driving him crazy, and he can't help thinking that if Jedi often hide in places like this when they're already so unbalanced, it's not hard to see how the darkness of the planet could start unbalancing them even further.
Lightning flashes in the sky far above, as they continue trekking across the surface. They're on a brief scouting mission at the outskirts of the Rebel camp. It's centered on slightly higher ground, with some actual life here – trees that are somehow able to survive the nearly inhospitable environment – even if, in the distance, the glowing rivers of lava still light up the area.
Even at this distance, it's still almost smotheringly hot and difficult to breathe. They should be getting back to the base soon.
"True," Ahsoka muses, crossing her arms, "But I'm not sure this is the best place."
"Why is that?" Something about the amusement she's radiating in the Force makes him less inclined to actually be worried about it, but – She was with the Empire. She ought to know if something about this place isn't good for hiding from the Sith.
"The Sith Witch of Mustafar," she replies, whispering conspiratorially. "When the night is dark and the lava bubbles, the Sith Witch of Mustafar arises to spread fear and troubles. First you hear an angry wail, then the woods shall shake, and a ghastly light will fill the swale."
Anakin blinks, entirely caught off-guard by the sheer ludicracy of it.
Yes. Definitely a fairy tale. Or horror story, actually.
... Right?
Legends often have some truth to them.
"What's a swale?"
Ahsoka shrugs. "I don't think we want to find out."
He almost agrees with that. Almost. "... It's Mustafar. When does the lava not bubble?"
She shrugs again. "Whenever the Sith Witch isn't near?"
Anakin laughs. He can't help it. This entire thing is bizarre, and unreasonably funny. "What, do they tell those stories to children at the Sith Temple?"
"Yeah," she replies, nearly laughing too.
"Well, the lava's bubbling right now. It must be near," he says, dryly.
She snorts. "We better run."
He's about to reply when he suddenly senses something off. And he doesn't think it has anything to do with this Sith Witch or the fact that the woods suddenly look a little ominous with rumors of a Sith ghost being on the loose there. It's something else. Something's wrong.
"We are... not alone." Something's coming, and he can't say what it is, but it feels very, very wrong.
"Don't tell me you're getting jittery. The woods aren't shaking yet."
"If the woods are shaking, that would mean we have to run faster. At least right now, there's still a chance to escape."
Ahsoka frowns suddenly, presumably picking up on the same thing Anakin is.
His comm beeps, suddenly. "Anakin," Qui-Gon's voice crackles over the lines, "Imperial ships have come out of hyperspace over Mustafar. We have to evacuate immediately."
The Empire is here? Now? How did they find them? "On my way," Anakin replies, disconnecting the call and breaking into a run, Ahsoka close behind.
They have to get back to base immediately and see how he can help. If the Empire is here, he has no doubt they're here to kill everyone. He's well used to the knowledge that his friends could die at any minute – had to be, for how often the clones he knew died – but that doesn't stop the fear.
Qui-Gon died the last time Anakin was in all-out battle with him, and he can't let anything happen to him again. He can't lose him again.
Ahsoka is a traitor to the Empire, and he doesn't want to think about what could happen to her, if they get ahold of her again.
Padme is a good fighter, but she's not a Force user like them.
Asajj is... Well, he has the least reason to worry about her because he doubts that she'd stick around to play the hero, but still.
That's not to mention the countless others here who don't deserve to die.
Ships are swooping down through the low-hanging clouds by the time they come into view of the base again. Blaster shots rain down on them all at once, and Anakin ignites his lightsaber, deflecting the shots away as they run.
The ships circle in low, taking down most of the rebel guards right outside the building's perimeter, but they're concentrating most of their fire on the structure itself. And a lava planet is not a good place for a battle.
Ahsoka doesn't have her lightsabers, but she stays close to him, dodging the blaster shots, as a couple of the ships fly low to the ground, their ramps opening to drop off several tanks, and squads of ground troops.
He was expecting clones but something about their armor looks different. They don't exactly feel like the clones do in the Force, either. There's something... different about them, which he can't make sense of. He didn't know the Empire had troops who weren't clones, but it... isn't really that surprising. It's also relieving that he doesn't have to be fighting the clones here.
But this is not looking good. The Empire obviously came here fully prepared, and the Rebellion had absolutely no forewarning. They have to have an immediate evacuation plan, but they weren't counting on this. The Empire came here fully expecting what they were going to run into – how did they even know to come here?
But that's not what matters right now. He needs to focus on getting everyone out, and he knows where he'd be more of use.
"I'm going to take a fighter," Anakin calls breathlessly to Ahsoka, deflecting shots away near the entrance as the troops start advancing. More ships are already flying in, and the first Rebellion fighters are just starting to take off to defend them. "Stay near Asajj. You can get out on her ship."
He doesn't want to leave them down here alone, but he'll be the most help at stopping more forces from getting to the ground.
Ahsoka nods, though she doesn't have the chance to spare him a glance. "Good luck," she calls, anyway.
That was the last thing he heard his Ahsoka say to him, and he hasn't seen her since. He doesn't want to think about that right now. (Nor does he want to think about how the last time he was in a space battle when Qui-Gon was left on the ground, he was gone when Anakin came back.)
He spares her a final glance before scrambling for the nearest fighter he can get to, picking up Artoo along the way. The droid beeps nervously as it flies into its place in the fighter, and he takes off.
The ships are exchanging heavy fire not far above the ground, and he's quick to join them. The Imperial fighters keep shooting at the building, trying to weaken the shields around the structure, and it only takes Anakin a moment to figure out why. They're trying to hit the supports – which are shielded – because if they're able to take those out, the entire structure is going to collapse into the rivers of lava below, along with everyone inside.
Including their own troopers, but apparently, the Empire doesn't even care about that. It just makes him feel sick, to see how expendably they treat everyone. And this is why he has to help stop the Empire the way it is now.
None of the Imperial fighters are able to break past to the surface now that he's helping, but they keep coming. They probably have an entire Star Destroyer here. They're hopelessly outnumbered, and all he can do is try to keep them off, so the Rebels have enough time to escape.
The first escaping transports start taking off not long later, the Imperial fighters moving to intercept them. It forces the battle higher up into the atmosphere, and Anakin follows.
A Star Destroyer looms right ahead, out of his viewport, once he finally makes it all the way through, still taking down as many fighters as he can. He spins out of the way as the cannons all along the top of Destroyer shift position and start shooting at the Rebels.
Laser blasts tear past his viewport, and he jerks his fighter downwards, below the heaviest of the fire. But now, they're shooting right at the transports, which don't have any way to fight back.
Anakin flies higher, firing on the cannons, except a blast from another fighter catches his, sending it spiraling off-course. There's three of them closing in on him now, and he has to break off from shooting at the Star Destroyer to deal with them. But he's running out of time. There are not nearly enough ships to defend the transports.
Most of them abruptly streak into hyperspace, but one of them shudders violently, its back end starting to tear apart before it starts crashing, dragged back for the planet's surface. And he has no doubt that everyone on board is going to die. Even if they could survive the crash, they might land right in the lava.
(That's true about everyone who's being shot down in the battle, and he doesn't want to think about it.)
He flies towards the Star Destroyer again, dodging the constant laser fire as he starts shooting at the guns to take them out. Another fighter circles in behind him, firing two missiles.
These things again.
Anakin jerks his fighter forwards, spinning towards the Destroyer – several blasts from the lasers hit his shields, but he has to ignore them – so the missiles collide. They explode right above the surface of the massive ship, taking out a bunch of cannons along with it.
That's something at least, because a bunch more transport ships from the ground are flying into view now. He spots Lost Familiar with them, and finally dares to breathe a sigh of relief.
"Everyone is off the ground. Get to the rendezvous point," someone from rebel command calls over their fighters.
The others feel alright, even if for some reason he has the feeling that this fight is far from over. But they need to get out before more reinforcements show up. Lights are starting to flash on the controls of his fighter, warning that the shields are failing.
It's time to go.
Anakin waits until all the transport ships start making the jump before he pulls the lever to send his own ship into hyperspace. They... made it out.
Barely.
He has no idea how many were lost. It's not something he'll know until he gets to the rendezvous point. For now, all he can do is settle back to wait, alongside Artoo – like he has so many times throughout the war.
**w**
Anakin can't say why it is he can't sleep – just that there's a feeling of foreboding in the air that's crawling under his skin and slowly freezing him inside out. He hasn't heard from Lost Familiar. No one has, but they're still alive. He would have felt it if they died. At first, Anakin assumed it was that they had different rendezvous coordinates, but now...
Now? He knows something is wrong. They're in danger. They could die. They could be hurt – maybe are being hurt.
Anakin gives up sleeping and gets out of bed, pacing out. He doesn't know how he ends up outside. Somehow, he does though, and its nighttime. The stars are out, bright in the sky, and Anakin might not know this place, might not trust many people here, but it's still... calming. They don't have running water nearby, or that's where he'd go, because it always helps.
They're on the new Rebel base now – a planet named Duro. It's the home to the same species as Bane, but they're located far enough away from the population that no one should catch them out here. Hopefully.
They're surrounded mostly by forests, and the calmness of the life is relaxing, but... it's still not quite enough.
Instead, it's Padme who finds him, gently easing herself down beside him. For a few minutes, neither of them speaks.
"Can't sleep?" he asks her finally.
She shakes her head. "No. I take it you couldn't, either."
"Qui-Gon should have made it back by now. I think something's wrong."
Padme sighs. "The galaxy is so big, sometimes, it feels like there's nothing we can do."
"I know what you mean," he confesses, "In my time, in the Clone Wars, everything often felt so hopeless, but we made it to the end. We will always make it to the end. The Empire might not be easy to overturn, but I know, someday, we will succeed."
"Thank you," Padme murmurs, "But... I thought you didn't want to overturn the Empire."
"I might support the... idea, but that does not mean I align with this one."
"I thought the Jedi fought for democracy. For the Republic."
"We do. That does not mean I don't see the flaws in the Republic. I – I was close with the Chancellor. It often seemed like he tried to help but did not have the strength to do so. But I cannot trust him, and I don't know what to think anymore." He trusted Palpatine, but Palpatine was just using him. It hurts, and he's still angry when he thinks of it.
"Did you know my sisters in your time?" Padme queries.
Sisters. Anakin actually knows very little about Padme. "I – I hardly knew you," he replies, "If you had family, I was unaware."
"They should have made contact, too," Padme murmurs, "If we weren't so occupied, I would have gone to find them long ago. I worry about them."
Almost instinctively, Anakin reaches over to take her hand. "Where were they, the last you heard?" Of everything, he should make finding them a top priority.
"Naboo. That was where we usually stayed."
She's looking skyward now, and Anakin follows her gaze. "It's there," she says, pointing. "That's our sun. I spent long enough on Coruscant, I know the constellations. They're similar here."
Anakin smiles faintly before looking at the sky. Everything... looks normal, but there's still something... wrong.
With a jolt, he remembers what Asajj had said she heard on Tatooine. About... places disappearing. That couldn't have happened to Naboo, could it? He has to blink a few times at the star, making sure it's still there, but... actually, that wouldn't matter. They're light years away. Even if the system mysteriously vanished, they would never see the difference for decades. Maybe centuries.
Obi-Wan had pointed out a forming star in the sky once on Coruscant which had changed... long enough ago that they already knew when they could see it on Coruscant. He was friends with someone who... was involved with that. Some sort of explorer – Anakin can't remember the name anymore. He found it fascinating.
"What's wrong?" Padme asks, and there's a mild concern in her voice.
Anakin blinks a few times, snapping back to the present. He could tell her, but the thought makes his skin crawl. He doesn't want to make her worry even more. "Nothing," he answers, forcibly tearing his eyes away from the stars to look at her. "I just... have a bad feeling."
He can't even explain the irrational dread coursing through him right now. It just feels like something's wrong, like his fears are right, but he doesn't want to worry her.
"I don't actually know much about you," Padme notes, "Why do you support the idea of an Empire?"
He shifts a little, remembering how Padme reacted a long time ago when Anakin first told her he was a slave. "Before I was a Jedi, I lived on Tatooine."
Padme is watching him, waiting, and Anakin can't... he doesn't know people. He's not good with people.
"My mother and I were slaves," Anakin continues finally. "I was nine when Master Qui-Gon found me. He freed me and took me to become a Jedi. The Council... didn't want to train me. They said I was too old, that I was dangerous, but eventually... they agreed to it. It was Qui-Gon's dying wish. Obi-Wan took me as his padawan."
"Obi-Wan?" Padme asks, sounding a little blown away. "As in Obi-Wan Kenobi?"
"Yeah. I know, he's a Sith here. We had... we had struggles, but we were close. I... met the Chancellor, and he was the only friend I had when I was growing up."
"The Chancellor?" Padme asks, slightly incredulous and curious at once.
"Palpatine," Anakin sighs, "He was a Sith, but I didn't know that until right before I came here. I was fighting him." It hurts to say this, but... "I sometimes don't know how much of what I believe was me, and what was him. I trusted him. I thought... I thought he cared."
"Maybe he did," Padme replies softly. Anakin's head snaps around to look at her. Her hand is still touching his arm. "He may have," she repeats, "That doesn't mean he was right to do any of what he did. Even the worst people care about someone. That doesn't mean we don't still have to fight them."
"I just can't believe he could have been responsible for the entire war."
"What was the war like?" Padme asks, "How did it start?"
"I wasn't there when it broke out," Anakin confesses, "The Trade Federation attempted to assassinate you. They wanted you dead in exchange for joining the Separatists. Obi-Wan and I were on an extended mission, and when we got back, the Jedi were heading to Geonosis already to try ending the war before it began. The Geonosians captured the Jedi that the Council sent there, and they were going to execute him."
"I heard Palpatine went there," Padme replies, "To try to negotiate some sort of treaty. The Geonosians tried to have him executed. The Sith came and intervened before his execution."
Something twists uncomfortably inside him. "That didn't stop him from allying with the CIS?" He could imagine that, but nothing about Palpatine is ever what it appears to be.
"He's not!" she argues, "He's allied with me. We want the same thing – the Empire gone. We want freedom."
"The Empire can be made free. It's just a matter of whether those in charge will be willing to do so."
"Do you really believe that?"
"I – I don't know." He thinks so, but like he said, he often has no idea how much is him, versus what Palpatine told him. He can hardly trust his own mind most of the time, and it's hard. Either way, it doesn't matter. "But it doesn't matter right now. With... what's happening right now, I think the galaxy needs a complete change of leadership."
"Most of the CIS leadership was... lost in the battle," Padme tells him, "They were on the transport that was destroyed. After seeing the lengths they were going to in the war, perhaps we need a leadership change, too."
Anakin nods idly. "If it was anything similar to what I know from my own, yes. I fought them for years. The things they did are... not something I can forget. And neither are they something forgivable." He remembers the horror he felt when he found Echo, and a wave of grief crashes over him again. Hearing this Echo was dead for sure feels like losing him all over again.
"What I believe most," he adds, returning to their previous topic of conversation, "Is that we will always find a way to make it work. We always have."
Padme smiles at him, and Anakin returns it. "There are so few people left who believe that anymore. The Empire was made long ago, and now that Count Dooku is gone, we have so little left to challenge them with."
Anakin makes a face at that. "I killed Dooku in my time."
Padme laughs. "I can't imagine that. He was never evil, but he was still responsible for what his followers were doing."
"Did the Jedi help you?" Anakin asks, "Did you have... anyone?"
"Some, but they were always more focused on the war. After the Federation took over my planet, I was on the run. My handmaids stayed with me. My parents and sister, Sola, stayed on Naboo. I haven't seen them in a long time. I haven't talked to them since the war ended."
"I'm sorry," Anakin says softly. He wishes he had siblings. Someone. To be fair, that's what he and Asajj are growing towards. He can't quite explain how it happened.
"I knew it could happen. I... the Empire eventually caught up with us. I covered for my sisters while they escaped."
Sisters. She had... a few of them. He doesn't remember the number. Five, maybe? She could have died, but she sacrificed herself to save them.
"It's been a... long month," Anakin sighs finally.
"What was the war like?" Padme asks, "I never fought in it. We were never involved in it."
"It was hard. Tiring. But that was when I met the clones, and Rex was the first friend I have had since I was young."
"Rex? Isn't that the one Ahsoka worked with?"
"Same one," Anakin confirms, "He was our captain. Ahsoka was my padawan and their commander. We were close. A lot happened in the war." He could tell her so many war stories, some dark, some far more... cheerful. They had many ups and downs. And Padme is right that it often felt dark, hopeless. It did even in his time, but he always knew he'd make it work, no matter what it took.
"I can imagine," Padme says sympathetically, "It could never be enough to explain, and it's not really relevant, but if you ever want to talk about it..."
"Thank you," Anakin answers gratefully, looking at her for what feels like it might be the first time.
She smiles back. She's struggling still, visibly, but they still have something if they have each other.
**w**
The images that haunt his dreams that night are familiar. Hauntingly familiar. He hears Asajj scream. He hears Ahsoka calling him, sees her struggling against the Imperials – clones or the... whatever they call the new recruits – holding her. He can feel her fear. Hear their voices.
They're out there, being hurt, and they need him.
The Empire.
It's always the Empire, and Anakin jolts awake heart hammering so fast he can hardly breathe.
These are his new family. He already lost Qui-Gon before. He lost everyone before, and this is so much like what happened to his mother. He can't – he can't just wait here.
They need him. His family needs him. Force. He has to find them, but Anakin doesn't even know where to look right now.
He needs a clearer picture, but he doesn't... Anakin has never been good at finding visions. They always come to him, whether he likes it or not. If Ahsoka and Asajj are in danger, are captured, then... Qui-Gon is with them. That means he will be, too. He should have stayed with them.
It was his mistake, and it's wrong for them to be hurt because of him. He should have seen it coming, felt it before it happened, protected them, something. He made the hyperspace jump without ever seeing what happened to his family. He left them. He thought... it wasn't supposed to happen. They were supposed to be fine.
He doesn't even know where to start looking, short of going back, and with that in mind, Anakin settles down to try meditating.
Reaching for Ahsoka when he has bonds with two is hard, because they often fade over and mix, intermingling with one another. It's very easy to... touch the wrong one when he searches for them, and instead of finding the one he needs to, his mind slips over, slips past her to his padawan, a galaxy away.
Their bond lights up for a fleeting moment, and Anakin whispers a "hello, Snips" through before it closes. He knows she felt it, because he feels it, but he's gone before she reaches back.
He misses... her. Them. Everyone. Everything. But right now, he – he needs to help his family here before it's too late.
(Just like his mother.)
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