Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Star Wars movies, shows, books, comics or games. They belong to their respective copyright owners. This story is not for sale, or rent. The Mobile Armors, and later Mobile Suits mentioned in the story are inspired by the various Gundam shows. They obviously belong to their respective creators, and, or copyright owners.
Chapter 9
=FG=
Part 1
=FG=
7.5 ABY
Home One
Coruscant Sytem
This was a Skywalker-type emergency, which was always interesting and had the potential to go spectacularly wrong. Ahsoka had been around Skyguy and Padme long enough to have a knack for sniffing this kind of trouble. Leia, too, even if the youngling was still tiny and adorable. She also had a knack for finding herself into trouble, undoubtedly inherited from her troublesome parents.
Why would a Leia and a brother of hers from a different universe be any different?
At least Padme tended to stumble into danger, usually due to her heart being in the right place.
Danger and trouble simply found Skyguy as if he were a magnet for trouble.
Ahsoka's transport landed in the cavernous hangar of an upgraded Mon Calamari super capital, the flagship of the New Republic fleet in the system. Ahsoka took a stabilizing breath, taking a moment to properly center herself. The Force made it harder, for it was like an ocean in a storm – tumultuous and shaking with possibilities.
The shuttle's rear ramp hissed open and slid down. Ahsoka marched out of the shuttle, taking in the commotion outside. Worried and angry people ran all over the place. Some were servicing fighters and Y-Wing bombers. Others were busy loading and boarding various transports, which made her curious.
A nervous blond man who painfully resembled Anakin, just short, waited for Ahsoka. At a glance, he glowed with enormous untapped potential. The Force twisted around him as if he had a gravity field to him that pulled it towards him.
"Knight Skywalker," Ahsoka nodded in greeting.
"General Tano," Luke smiled sadly. "I hope you'll be able to help us. I must admit I'm out of my depth here," the young man grimaced. "From what Anakin could tell me before I had to leave, I've apparently made a mistake with my sister," he sighed forlornly. "A grave one at that." He positively radiated misery at that point.
"I felt a disturbance in the force that had a Skywalker written all over it," Ahsoka allowed. "Tell me what I need to know, and bring me to your sister."
In theory, Anakin would be the best to deal with this. However, considering what his counterpart in this part of the galaxy had been up to, letting him on board, much less close to the other Leia would be a disastrously bad idea. This meant it was a minor miracle that Skyguy stayed put and returned to the fleet instead of barging in here to help. That was likely Padme's and Leia's good influence at play.
Instead, Ahsoka had to deal with more Skywalker and Jedi drama, for she was the closest thing to a neutral party with the right credentials available. She wondered if her status as a former Jedi and now Imperial Knight or her experience in wrangling Skywalkers made her more qualified to deal with this.
"This way," Luke nodded and pointed across the large hangar.
Ahsoka spent a moment tasting through the Force how everyone in the general area was on edge and looked pointedly at Skywalker.
"I expected more security just in case," Tano noted.
"We can thank Admiral Ackbar for this. He wants the problem solved before it can escalate. The situation is already bad enough without adding any more complications," Luke grimaced.
"I can sense that," Ahsoka noted. "Lead the way and tell me all about it."
"My sister or the situation at hand?" Luke asked warily. Smart boy.
"Are they not connected? I am here to help you with your sister, young Jedi."
"You aren't much older than me!" Luke frowned at her. "I must admit I've only seen a Togruta or two, so I can't be sure, but you might be actually younger!" He pointed out, a bit of levity sneaking into his voice.
"We should be about the same age or close enough," Ahsoka admitted after scrutinizing his appearance for a few seconds. "But that's beside the point. Tell me about your Leia,"
"My Leia?" Anakin repeated.
"Mine is back home, likely with her aunt, and too young to get into this much trouble, though not for lack of trying," Ahsoka admitted.
That clearly took Luke aback. "Ah. Your Alderaan is intact," he nodded in a wishful tone. "I was fortunate I wasn't attuned enough to the Force to feel it die. Leia too, for that matter, not that it makes it much better."
"Alderaan? My Leia should be on Naboo with her grandparents or aunt." Ahsoka asked. This was an abrupt reminder that this odd reflection of the future was very different. "However, we're here to discuss yours, so tell me about her. What kind of training does she have? How long has she been under pressure?"
Luke shook his head, then nodded and gestured for Ahsoka to follow him.
"Leia has been too busy to go beyond the very basics of using the Force/ I've had to fly all over the place to try to lay the foundations for a restored Jedi Order or to put out fires," Luke explained. "The galaxy is kind of on fire. The Emperor dying didn't suddenly solve all our problems like we believed it might right after Endor."
"Palpatine," Ahsoka nodded in agreement. "No matter how shrewd a politician or powerful a Sith, it is a big galaxy, Luke. I used to believe that as a Chancellor, he might have the answers to our problems. Skyguy, too, along with countless other people. Then he died, and everything went downhill," Tano sighed. "But we are not here to discuss long-dead people. Your Leia is a politician, isn't she? She has to deal with all the dirty politics that trying to rebuild the Republic entails?"
"Among other things," Luke confirmed.
"So she is under constant pressure, dealing with people who vex her to
no end on a daily basis. And you thought it was a good idea to begin training her as a Jedi, then left it slide because you two were too busy?" Ahsoka asked for confirmation.
The picture Luke was painting wasn't pretty. If Leia was anything like Padme, with the Force on top of everything else… Ahsoka grimaced at the thought. Later in the war and after its end, she got to know Padme well enough. They talked politics a few times, and she watched in amusement how the Skywalkers argued politics more than a few times. She remembered the young, wide-eyed idealist and saw how the war changed Padme. If she had been a Force Sensitive, with just enough training to be open to the Force…
"For how long could your sister touch the Force?" Ahsoka demanded. "What kind of stress has she been under since then?"
"I've been giving Leia pointers on and off for the past couple of years. I believe she could reliably touch the Force for the past year or so. We've been busy…" Luke trailed off, realizing how his excuse sounded.
"Then I must first ask who trained you and for how long," Ahsoka inquired. "How much do you know about the Force and the dangers of the Dark Side?"
"Obi-Wan trained me for a bit on our way from Tatooine to Alderaan. A bit later, Yoda trained me on Dagobah, though I had to leave to rescue Leia, Han, and Chewie. When I finally got back to Dagobah, Master Yoda was dying. I've been doing what I can with what they taught me, and with the few holocrons we managed to recover."
"Ah," was all Ahsoka could say. She spent a moment to gather her thoughts and figure out how to best explain. She had to keep in mind that she wasn't dealing with regular Padawans or even young Jedi Knights but Skywalkers, who did things differently. "That explains it. I would have expected better from both Masters Yoda and Obi-Wan. However, life gets a vote, too," Ahsoka grumbled. Skywa
lkers. They always had to do things their way, didn't they? "On multiple occasions later in the war, I was on the edge of falling. You can argue that I fell at Corellia, and during a few battles afterward," Tano began.
Luke stopped and whirled around, looking at her in shock. His huge blue eyes were like saucers. She didn't recall the last time someone got such a stunned expression on Anakin's face. At that moment, the resemblance between the two of them was uncanny.
"You don't feel like Vader or the Emperor, much less the few of their Force Sensitive agents I've encountered," Luke blurted out.
"Why, thank you very much!" Ahsoka preened. "I managed to more or less claw my way back, so to speak. While it has been years since I considered myself a Jedi, I am no Sith or some crazy Darksider. However, I am intimately familiar with the Dark Side and how insidious it is. I know from experience how it can use your pain, anger, and desperation. More importantly, I've had a few lessons from a proper Sith on the topic. I knew what was what, so to speak, which helped me find my way back, though most of the credit goes to Obi-Wan."
Luke just nodded numbly at that admission.
"Let me be clear on this point, Luke. One of the worst things you could do to a Force Sensitive is to train them just enough to touch the Force reliably. That way, the Force as a whole, and the Dark Side in particular, can influence them, yet they lack the training and understanding to deal with it. It is even worse if you leave them in an environment where they are under constant pressure of any kind. The highest political echelons of a revolutionary movement fit the bill," Ahsoka explained.
Skywalker blanched at that.
"You are not surprised that my sister apparently snapped and might have fallen to the Dark Side?" Luke asked in a small voice.
"Don't be ridiculous. You don't fall that easy, or both Skyguy and I would be cackling maniacs," Ahsoka blanched at the thought. "Then Zash might have gotten me as her Apprentice," she shuddered at the very thought.
"Who's Zash?" Luke wisely asked while seemingly ignoring everything else.
"Our other resident Sith. The crazy one."
"Your Sith are a topic we should discuss later," Luke decided. "What do you mean about Leia and falling? From what I heard, she's in a bad place, and we must find a way to bring her back!"
"Like I said, if it was so easy to fall, everyone would fall," Ahsoka tried to reassure the young Jedi. Padawan. Or whatever Luke was considering, she now had huge questions about the kind of training he had. If he wasn't a Skywalker with all that entailed… "I've talked with Sith who excels in turning and breaking Jedi. I've talked with Skyguy about being on the edge and slipping to the Dark Side, then getting back. We should be able to help Leia, but make no mistake, she should complete her training without all the constant pressure. Otherwise, the odds are good, and she will fall for good."
=FG=
Part 2
=FG=
7.5 ABY
Home One
Coruscant Sytem
Cold fingers gripped his insides, clenching around his heart and lungs, constricting his ability to breathe. Crix Madine clawed at his throat before his experience prevailed over rising panic, and his hands went for a hold-out blaster. Before he could pull the weapon and fire, for all the good it might do, Solo drew his blaster and stunned Organa. The slip of a girl collapsed, hitting the deck hard.
Madine followed suit, not that the arcane power holding him in place vanished.
"We need Luke here, yesterday…." Han mumbled. He looked up from Leia's body to Madine's pale face.
Solo looked as bad as Madine felt at that moment. Ever since he learned who Leia Organa and Luke Skywalker's real father were, he had been quietly observing them, looking for anything particularly concerning. However, until very recently, neither of them showed a hint of being anything like Vader. That should have been a relief. Yet. Luke Skywalker. Anakin Skywalker. Vader. The connection there was obvious: Vader was General Skywalker, the famous Hero Without Fear of Republic propaganda.
Crix had pondered that conundrum many a night after he connected the dots. There were too many missing pieces for him to make a proper conclusion, though he kept wondering. Now, after seeing Leia, of all people, lose it in such a spectacular fashion, things fell into place. One day, the stress of the war had been too much for Anakin Skywalker, and he broke. Crix had seen it happen too many times to count. Palpatine had been waiting in the wings and got a powerful Jedi to subvert and turn into his enforcer.
At least this time, there was no Palpatine to make things worse than they already were.
"You do that. I need to go see medical," Crix rasped after neither Ackbar nor Solo reacted for a painfully long time and instead kept staring at Organa's crumpled form.
"I'll call him," the Admiral finally got over his shock.
Madine simply nodded, rubbed his neck, and made himself scarce.
Princess Leia Organa was as much a symbol and unifying figure as Luke Skywalker, the Last Jedi. She had been infamous even before Alderaan, and after that atrocity, Organa became an icon for the Rebellion. Skywalker became a hero and the most wanted man in the galaxy overnight. As the Last Jedi, he was a living, breathing symbol of the old order many in the Alliance wanted to resurrect. However, Crix was not blind; people wanted the symbol of Luke Skywalker, not the Jedi, with his firm moral compass. The same was true about Organa in certain circles. After all, it was Madine's job to know such things.
With Organa breaking under pressure, Crix now had to seriously consider that Skywalker might follow suit. Either way, the fallout would be catastrophic even if he did nothing to guide it to his purposes… and right now, Madine felt particularly uncharitable towards the New Republic.
After all, while he was all about tearing down the monstrosity Palpatine created, Crix wasn't particularly keen to see the Republic of old come back. He would have very much preferred a reformed Empire that lived up to its promise. There was a time when he took pride in wearing the Imperial uniform. Hells, many of the best soldiers and operatives in the Alliance were former Imperials, and many shared Madine's sentiment. He should know – he either recruited or debriefed most of them and read the reports about everyone else of note.
Unfortunately, without the Emperor, the Empire fractured frightfully, and madmen of all stripes took charge. Virtually all the Warlords represented one stripe or another of the rot Madine wanted to be excised from the Empire at all cost, even if it meant backing a restored Republic to see it done. Until the Federated Empire emerged, there was no third option. Even then, discarding what little honor he had left and his loyalty to the people he had fought beside for years was anything but easy.
Organa made a great Vader impression, which changed that. The floundering New Republic leadership also helped.
Madine walked past the turbo lifts that would have led him to the nearest medical station and instead kept walking to another set of lifts that would get him to his office as soon as possible. As the man in charge of New Republic Intelligence and Counter-intelligence, Madine's people maintained cyber security across the fleet. Home One had been the beating heart of the Rebellion for many years now, and Crix had his fingers in its security systems. After all, someone had to watch recent defectors if they were spies or people otherwise suborned by the Empire. While it might surprise Admiral Ackbar, the man's office was not as secure as he believed it to be. Not to Crix, anyway.
The first thing Madine needed to do was retrieve and secure the recordings of the argument that led to Leia choking him. Then he had to decide what to do with it, and himself for that matter.
=FG=
Half an hour later, Jedi Skywalker was on his way back, and Madine was in his office, sipping from a cup of iced water. The cool liquid helped his throat and insides feel better, for he could still sense phantom pain from Leia's temper tantrum. He watched the argument unfold, closely examining Organa's eyes. They were clearly wrong, though Crix thought it was merely the stress and everything the young woman had endured to date taking its toll. After all, lesser ordeals had broken many people. It was shocking how many of the New Republic's leaders were still functional people after all they had to endure over the years. Madine knew he was no exception in that regard.
Now Crix had to wonder if Luke Skywalker was nearing his own breaking point. He might not have lost his homeworld, but everyone knew that Imperials murdered his family. Then General Kenobi, the Jedi's first mentor, died on the Death Star, followed by the more recent death of his second mentor, Master Yoda. Skywalker lost friends in combat as well and saw his own share of horrors. What did he really know about how Jedi broke beyond emulating Vader when it happened?
Madine tapped his desk, feeling uncharacteristic indecision. He was torn. A singular mistake shouldn't damn someone for eternity. Crix joined the Rebellion to atone for his own mistakes when he 'simply' followed orders to disastrous consequences for the people he was supposed to protect when he donned the Imperial uniform.
Unfortunately, this wasn't merely about Organa losing it. If it was just that, he could rationalize it as someone powerful breaking and chalk it off if the woman got the help she clearly needed. Crix certainly needed time to get his head straight when the full implications about what happened Dentaalians hit him.
The crux of the matter was the increasingly questionable decisions made by the politicians leading the New Republic and this fledgling nation's course. Without an alternative, the wise course of action would be the choice to keep serving the lesser evil and try his best to make a difference.
Now, there was an alternative. More importantly, Madine was uniquely situated to show the Federated Empire some of the pitfalls that ruined the promise of the New Order. Defecting would be dangerous without a guarantee for a better future, yet what guarantee was here with the New Republic? Besides, it was a good sign that the likes of Pellaeon decided to try their luck with the Federated Empire. Everything Crix knew of the man pointed out that he was among the best the Empire had left.
Crix tapped his desk again, weighing his options. He knew for a fact that rumors of what happened would soon spread if they weren't already. He wasn't the only one who saw what happened in Ackbar's office, and while his people were loyal, their loyalty was a double-edged sword in this case. Madine wouldn't put it past them to leak the recording because Organa attacked him unprovoked.
And there was always the chance that his people slipped up, and someone else recorded the meeting. Even here, on Home One, nowadays, there were too many new people to properly vet and keep tabs on all the time. On paper, all new crew members and passengers were loyal to the New Republic, as ensured by the intelligence services of the local governments who supplied these people. In practice, Crix had his doubts. At best, they were loyal to their people first and the New Republic second.
Madine's terminal chimed, announcing a priority message. Crix appreciated the distraction and opened the message after the counter-intrusion software ensured it was safe. It was a brief memo from one of his people in the know. Ackbar and Skywalker were calling in a specialist to help with Organa, which was prudent. The specialist was from the Federated Empire, which retained a cadre of people able to utilize the Force. That by itself made Skywalker indispensable for the New Republic. Madine knew how much a Jedi could impact operations if they had a modicum of competence. With the Federated Empire in the picture, it was imperative that Skywalker got his planned Jedi Academy up and running at full capacity yesterday.
Unfortunately, after what happened with Organa, Crix was sure that Skywalker would have to face a tremendous amount of scrutiny. His intervention to prevent disaster earlier would only make things worse. The truth of the matter was that too many people who vied for positions of power in the New Republic wanted the Jedi as symbols, yet nowhere near them, because they were allergic to the kind of oversight independent Jedi Order might incur. Damned politicians.
The more Crix thought about it, the less enticing the future the New Republic offered sounded for the likes of him. Organa was right in the end. His loyalties were not to the Republic, to her vaulted democracy. He craved Order and stability, and the Republic utterly failed in that regard. Sadly, the New Republic was ponderously moving in a direction that all but guaranteed it would repeat the same mistakes.
Ultimately, Madine wasn't sure what made him take the chance. Perhaps it was the ember of idealism left from his youth, which was enticed by the dream of the New Order Palpatine offered. Perhaps it was the disillusionment with the New Republic, undermining his loyalties now that there might be an alternative. Or maybe he was simply resentful that Organa choked him with space magic for no good reason.
Either way, Crix made up his mind. It was time to leave and see who among the former Imperials in the New Republic military might be willing to follow him. However, he was going to do things right. First, Madine called up a form and quickly filled it, then put on a digital signature. With his resignation letter ready, he had a few things to arrange before cutting ties with the New Republic.
