How to Take an Empire

Chapter Nineteen: Recruits

"Before you say something condescending about it," Ahsoka said, knowing exactly what Vader was thinking about finding her here, "I wasn't captured. It was a girl that's probably some distant cousin to me and looks like I did a few years ago was. I'm rescuing her."

Ahsoka extinguished her stolen blade, stepped over the stormtroopers, and stopped in front of the warden's unconscious form, and said, "Look at you. Practicing restraint."

"Not restraint so much as if this situation gets back to the Empire, he will not suspect that a Jedi was here at all or that I helped them escape," Vader corrected.

"How kind of you?" Ahsoka said and then asked, "What are you doing here anyway? You're supposed to be on the other side of the galaxy."

"Well, when the name of such a renowned Jedi such as yourself comes across my desk, I make time to personally intervene," Vader replied, giving Ahsoka that weird cognitive dissonance about him where he sounded like the informal young man that had trained her and this much more jaded formal man that was the Emperor's enforcer. He continued, "I suspected this was a case of mistaken identity. But you surprise me. Taking on an apprentice? I don't remember that being part of our agreement."

They actually hadn't gotten as far as talking about her ever taking on a Jedi apprentice because they never agreed about what to do with the Jedi in the first place. She'd insisted that there might be surviving Jedi that would be willing to join her rebellion. Vader reminded her that his clemency toward the Jedi only extended as far as she was concerned. He had every intention of hunting those that remained down. Ahsoka had argued that the remaining Jedi were her concern, and her rebellion would provide them sanctuary. Neither had been willing to budge on the point and decided to table the matter to talk about more important issues.

"She's not my apprentice," Ahsoka replied shortly. "I just found out she was Force-sensitive today."

More bitterness than she intended must have slipped into her tone because Vader's head tilted sideways, and curiosity slipped past his shields to her. She sighed. He was going to find out about it eventually...

"Besides," she continued, "if there's going to be another generation of Jedi, I won't be the one teaching it. I've renounced the Jedi."

"Renounced?"

"Yes." Before he could ask her anymore on the matter, she added, "But that doesn't matter. I need to get out of here before anyone realizes I really am here."

She glanced at Vader, blocking her way back to the lift, and tilted her head in askance as she said, "I trust you'll smooth all this over just in case it gets back to the Emperor."

"Like always, left to clean up your messes," said Vader as he stepped to the side and out of her way.

Ahsoka decided not to even bother pointing out that he held part of the responsibility for helping bring and keep Palpatine in power, forcing them to work together to take him down, which meant she was effectively cleaning up his mess. This was not the time to instigate Vader's ire towards her, though.

Just as she was about to press the lift button, alarms started to blare in the facility. The unconscious warden's comm flared to life as a message came through, saying that the prison had been breech and that the captive detained there had been released.

"It was just too much to ask her not to attract any attention and just to leave without causing any trouble," Ahsoka said, jamming the lift button over and over impatiently.

When it finally arrived, Ahsoka couldn't get in quick enough and jammed the button to take her to the ground floor. Vader joined her, and as paranoid as she knew him to be, she was sure he'd already come up with a reason for being with her in case anyone recalled seeing them together. As it was, Ahsoka decided when they arrived at the ground floor, no one would see them amongst the utter chaos that had broken out into a full-on prison riot.