"Welcome to Tahashi station, Inquisitor," an officer greeted the Fourteenth Sister as she exited her ship. "Captain Khiim sends his regards. He is glad you can help out with this… problem." The tone in which the man spoke conveyed that he didn't entirely agree with the captain, but the Fourteenth Sister paid it no mind.
"Explain the situation to me, Lieutenant," she said.
"Well," the lieutenant swallowed, "there is this old man who keeps claiming he's seen a Jedi and keeps sending messages to the local garrison. Our intelligence officers are having trouble fulfilling their duties because of him."
"He also keeps bothering patrols, and it has completely messed up our ability to keep this station secure. Which I assume is none of your business," he hastened to add. "But the Captain hasn't punished him because there is nothing about this in Imperial protocols, except that any potential sighting of a Jedi should be reported to the Inquisitorius."
The Fourteenth Sister could feel the man's fear of her reaction. Most inquisitors would probably make some threat to the man and the captain for potentially wasting their time. She had already expected that this would be a waste of time, but still decided to come anyway, which most inquisitors would never have done to begin with, so she didn't bother further frightening the officer.
"The old man who submitted those reports, his name is Mallard, right?" she asked instead.
The lieutenant nodded. "It is him, yes," he confirmed. "You were already aware of him, ma'am?"
"Not the first time he's bothered the Inquisitorius," the Fourteenth Sister murmured, half to herself. She then turned towards the door. "Alright, Lieutenant, take me to him."
"Right this way, ma'am," the officer gestured for her to follow as he made his way over to the hangar exit.
It had been several years since the Fourteenth Sister last visited Mallard. The man probably wouldn't remember her anymore. Back then, it was also about a Jedi sighting, which turned out to be false, and she concluded that the man was insane. She doubted her conclusion would change this time around.
The lieutenant guided her to an area of the station where the station workers had their apartments. At some point while they were walking, the Fourteenth Sister felt a slight shift in the Force. She became aware of another presence on the station. It stood clearly out from the other living beings on the station, indicating it was someone strong with the Force. She couldn't help but smile to herself. Perhaps Mallard's report on a Jedi was true this time, and even if it wasn't, at least this trip wouldn't be as much of a waste as she initially expected.
She immediately put up her mental shields. She didn't know who the other person was, but she didn't want to take any chances of them detecting her.
"We're here, Inquisitor," the lieutenant said, motioning to the door they had just stopped in front of.
"Thank you, Lieutenant," the Fourteenth Sister said. "I'll deal with him on my own."
The officer made a small bow. "As you wish, Inquisitor," he said, before turning around and leaving.
The Fourteenth Sister knocked on the door. Initially, there was no response. She was about to knock again when an old Pantoran opened it. At first, he looked at her suspiciously. Then his face cleared once he spotted the Imperial logos on her armor.
"You're here for the Jedi," he said.
The inquisitor didn't respond. "Mallard?" she just asked instead.
The Pantoran let out a chuckle. "That's me." He turned around and headed inside. The Fourteenth Sister followed him. "I'm glad the Imperial finally listened to my calls," he said after the door closed. "I've been warning them about this Jedi for months, but they don't listen."
"So I heard," the inquisitor said, ignoring the smell of rotten food from the kitchen. "Tell me about this Jedi."
The old Pantoran got a conspiratorial look in his eyes. "It's that girl who does the elevator maintenance," he said. "She is the Jedi!"
"And how do you know this?" The Fourteenth Sister asked drily. She had seen the girl he meant while on her way here; she wasn't Force-sensitive at all, let alone a Jedi.
"It's that look in her eyes," Mallard said. "Every time I walk by her, she's watching me. She knows I know her secret. She's scared of me."
Mentally, the inquisitor shook her head. The smell hanging around the old Pantoran was enough to make anyone, even an inquisitor, feel uncomfortable. "I very much doubt that," she said, folding her arms. "I've seen this girl, and she is definitely not a Jedi."
"B-b-but-" Mallard stammered.
"You are constantly trying to report this innocent girl," the inquisitor continued in a stern voice, ignoring his interruption. "You are wasting valuable Imperial time and resources."
"But I swear, she's a Jedi. I saw-" The old Pantoran couldn't finish his sentence as the Fourteenth Sister pulled him towards her using the Force.
"The Jedi are gone," she hissed. "If you think you saw one, you are delusional. If I hear anything about you bothering the Empire with false reports again," she ignited her red blade to emphasize her point, "I will kill you."
The frightened Pantoran managed only a small nod in response. At this, the inquisitor let him go and turned around to leave.
Back outside the apartment, the Fourteenth Sister reached out with the Force to see if the presence she'd sensed earlier was still on the station. Fortunately, it was.
Good
But if she sensed correctly, the presence wasn't too far from the hangars. The inquisitor started walking faster; she didn't want to risk her prey escaping before she could get to them.
As she got closer, she could sense it more clearly. Whoever it was, they weren't shielding their mind at all. Either they didn't know how to, or were confident enough that they didn't need to. Regardless, it allowed the Fourteenth Sister to track them down more easily. She could also feel that they were powerful, so hopefully that meant she would have a good challenge.
As she walked around the final corner, she saw someone in pilot gear, busy with a dataspike. She could feel his presence clearly through the Force. She had no doubt that this was the Force-sensitive she had felt. He also had some sense of familiarity. Not enough to be someone she met before, but still someone she knew about. Perhaps it could be…?
After a few steps closer, she cleared her throat. "Well, well, well, look who we have here."
The pilot quickly turned around in alarm and instantly recognized his face.
Finally.
"Is there a problem, ma'am?" he asked.
"Cadet RT-3019," she began, "or should I call you Ronin?" Ronin's eyes went wide in surprise. The inquisitor waited a few seconds before continuing. "Well, Ronin, I've been looking for you for quite some time."
"You've heard of me?" His voice hardened, but it still couldn't hide his surprise.
"Of course, your trick at the academy caused quite a stir." The inquisitor said, before igniting her lightsaber. "Now I'd recommend you to surrender quietly, unless you want to end up like your friend."
At the mention of his friend, she felt a surge of anger from Ronin. He stared at her for a moment with hatred in his eyes. "No," he finally said, his voice filled with anger.
He immediately pulled his small blaster pistol and fired a couple of shots. The Fourteenth Sister quickly managed to deflect them, but it gave the former cadet enough time to pull the dataspike out of the terminal and start running. The inquisitor also started running after him, igniting the second blade and turning on the spinning mode. She threw the lightsaber towards him.
Somehow Ronin managed to duck just under the lightsaber just before it reached him, the blade cutting through the air where his head had been just a second earlier. He managed to do the same when the weapon flew back past him to the inquisitor's hand. If there was any doubt about his Force-sensitivity before, it was gone now.
As she continued running, the Fourteenth Sister couldn't help but smile. This was the part of being an inquisitor she enjoyed. The thrill of the chase. The pilot fired a few shots back at her, which she easily managed to deflect. They were now almost at the hangar. She tried to close the doors before he got there, but quickly abandoned the effort as Ronin was running too fast.
They were now in the hangar. The Inquisitor put her lightsaber on spinning mode again and threw it at him. And once again, the pilot managed to avoid her blades. The Fourteenth Sister held up her hand to summon her weapon back, but instead of turning around, it made a curve and flew out of the hangar into the vacuum of space. She almost immediately noticed that Ronin's hand was also up, and she could feel him using the Force as well.
The Inquisitor had only a moment to decide whether she would try to capture Ronin or recover her lightsaber.
Akiris chose the latter.
As the weapon flew back into her hands, she heard the sound of an engine starting up. One moment later, a blue A-Wing passed over her head. A smile crept onto her face. "Nice move, kid," she murmured, as she watched the fighter disappear into Hyperspace. "Nice move."
Ronin didn't even have time to feel relief at his escape before he sensed danger again. The image of a comet appeared in his mind. He immediately changed course, and the feeling passed. Then he sensed the same danger again, only this time a gas giant appeared in his mind. He steered the ship clear of it. He then checked to see what course he was on.
There was nothing in the navicomputer.
Ronin immediately pulled out of hyperspace and silently scolded himself for not having entered any coordinates before his jump. Traveling through hyperspace without a navicomputer was suicide.
Or perhaps not, he had managed to survive this first jump after all…
Ronin pushed the thought from his mind as he prepared the ship to jump into hyperspace again, this time inputting coordinates into the navicomputer.
As he was traveling through hyperspace again, he couldn't help but start wondering about the woman who had tried to kill him. If he had to guess, she was probably an Inquisitor. Ahsoka had described them to him, and it seemed to line up. The spinning blade, the armor, and the fact that she wasn't human. There weren't many non-humans with any position of power within the empire otherwise.
What concerned him most was that she seemed to be hunting him specifically. She clearly knew about his escape from the academy and probably everything else the Empire had on him.
What also confused him was how she could have found him. Had she somehow figured out he would be on this station? He couldn't imagine how that would be possible. The other option was that it was mere coincidence, or, as Ahsoka would put it, the will of the Force. And if it was the will of the Force, Ronin didn't even want to understand why.
But at least he had been able to escape. He was surprised that he'd actually succeeded in using the Force to push the inquisitor's weapon away. Even more surprising was that she actually went after it, when she still could have caught him instead.
…
When Ronin landed his A-Wing at Chopper Base, he noticed he was not the first pilot to return. Several of the other fighters that had been sent out were already back at the landing platform.
Hera turned towards him as he approached the command center.
"Good to see you made it back, Ronin," she greeted him. "What did you find?"
"I don't think Tahashi station is any good," Ronin said. "I barely managed to escape."
Commander Sato frowned. "Strange, from what we heard, it would be an ideal station for our supply lines, with very little Imperial presence," he said.
"I didn't see much of an Imperial presence," Ronin answered. "But I barely managed to escape an inquisitor."
Hera's eyes widened in alarm. "An Inquisitor? How did you escape?"
"I got lucky," Ronin said, handing the dataspike to AP-5.
Hera and Sato quietly deliberated for a bit. Then Hera turned to Ronin. "Thank you for the intel," she said, still with concern in her eyes. "You should get some rest now." Ronin nodded and turned around to make his way to the barracks.
As he sat down on his bunk, he took his Kyber crystal out of his pocket and looked at it. He was still a bit shaken up from his escape. For some reason, he couldn't get the image of the inquisitor out of his head. She had tried to kill him, and it was only luck that he managed to escape.
But even so, he had a feeling that there was something else to her. Something beyond her just being out to kill him. He wasn't quite sure what.
But even so, the next time he'd come across her, he'd still need a way to defend himself. He didn't want to count on luck to escape. He lay down on his bunk, pocketing the cyber crystal. When Ahsoka was back, he would ask her if she could help him. It was finally time for him to build a lightsaber.
…
Ronin was in an unfamiliar environment. There was a long grey hallway, similar to the hallways in the Imperial academy, only much larger.
"Hello?" he called out. "Anyone?"
The sound of voices reached him, although they were too distant for him to make anything out. And they came from all around him.
Then, suddenly, he heard a familiar voice cry out, "Help!"
Ronin recognized the voice instantly. "Goose!" he shouted. He ran around a corner to see his friend-
-standing there with a red blade piercing his torso.
Ronin gave a silent cry as he came to a halt. The red blade vanished, and his friend's body fell to the floor. Behind him stood a figure, whose face was indistinguishable. The shape of the hilt in the figure's hand vaguely reminded Ronin of the Inquisitor he had encountered.
"About time you showed up," the figure said, their voice sounding very different from the inquisitor Ronin had already met. "Ready for your training?"
Anger rose in Ronin. "No," he grunted, before he attempted to Force-push the figure away. Somehow, it didn't affect the figure. Instead, Ronin found himself flying backwards, as if he had pushed himself off against a wall. He landed in another hallway, which looked completely different from the previous one. It was much wider, and had beautiful architecture instead of flat, dull grey.
But Ronin didn't have much time to pay attention to the architecture. He felt some kind of distress coming down the hallway. The distress had a feeling of familiarity to it. He started running towards it.
At the end of the hallway, there was a huge doorway. He barely paid attention to it as he pushed through and entered what was a huge chamber. Ronin immediately recognized it as the throne room of the Emperor, which he had seen in his vision at the temple. The Emperor was there as well, standing in front of the throne. An unrecognizable figure was lying on the floor in front of him.
The Emperor let out a bone-chilling laugh. "There will be nobody to die for you now, child," he cackled.
He lifted his hands, and blue lightning shot out of them, towards the figure on the ground. The figure screamed, and Ronin was horrified to hear it was his own voice. The figure lifted its head, and Ronin stared at his own face, as it was being destroyed by the emperor's lightning.
Ronin tried to jump forward, in a desperate attempt to stop the Emperor from torturing his other self, but he somehow couldn't move.
The face of his other self changed, and then it was his dad who was being tortured, and then his mom, and then Goose. If Ronin could have closed his eyes, he would have. The figure changed again, and now turned into Ahsoka. He could only watch as his friend and mentor was being tortured by the Emperor's lightning.
Ronin shot up in his bunk, sweating.
Another pilot, who was lying on a nearby bunk, looked at him wearily.
"Sorry," Ronin murmured, "nightmare, again." At this point, pretty much all of the pilots knew he had nightmares, and there was nothing that could be done about it.
Ronin lay back down on the bunk and tried to go back to sleep. But it eluded him. The dream kept repeating itself in his head. Most of his dreams involved either his friend or his family dying, but it had never been like this. Part of him recognized it could have been some sort of symbolism. They had all been killed by the Empire after all. And for anything the Empire did, the Emperor was responsible.
But what shocked him most about his dream was that Ahsoka had also been there. Could this mean that she was-?
Ronin shook his head. No, Ahsoka would be fine. She would return, and then she would find a way to help him with his nightmares.
For the rest of the night, Ronin would constantly fall asleep and wake up again, having short dreams in between. Several times he saw Ahsoka being swallowed by the darkness, and very often the Emperor was also involved. Inside, Ronin was fuming with hatred at the old man, for taking so much from him.
He also had several dreams about the Inquisitor, which were somehow the only dreams that didn't feel dark. Eventually, when it was nearing morning, he got up and went outside. There was no chance of him catching any more sleep.
He sat outside all day, until Hera rushed past, with a worried look on her face. She was followed by Zeb and Sabine. He looked up, and quickly noticed what the commotion was about. The Phantom was descending through the atmosphere towards the base.
For a moment, he felt relief. Ahsoka would be back, and she would be able to help him sort things out.
But that feeling didn't last long. When he reached through the Force, he couldn't sense her Force signature. He could sense Ezra and Kanan, but Ahsoka wasn't with them. Both Ezra and Kanan also felt different from before. It got Ronin worried. Did something go wrong? Why wasn't Ahsoka there? He quickly got up and followed the Ghost crew to the landing platform.
Part of him hoped he had sensed it wrong. Even as the Phantom touched down, part of Ronin hoped his mentor would exit the ship alongside the two Jedi. But when the door of the small shuttle opened, only Ezra came out, guiding Kanan, whose eyes were covered by a bandage. Hera rushed forward to hug the older Jedi. Ezra exchanged a sad look with Rex, an old clone who served with the rebellion, and closed his eyes.
Ronin could feel their grief, even without the Force. Still, it wasn't until he had a glimpse of the inside of the ship, confirming there was nobody else inside, that the fact finally hit him.
Ahsoka was gone.