How to Take an Empire

Chapter Twenty-Three: Confrontation

Vader had obviously revisited the training of the inquisitors, Ahsoka thought to herself as she listened to one of her task agents, a human named Jace, report on his mission to extract a Jedi. None of their usual diversion tactics to lose track of an inquisitor were working, and none of the agents from her task Force that she'd sent to extract the Jedi and possibly take down the Inquisitor had succeeded yet. In fact, she'd lost two agents to this particular inquisitor in the four months they'd been trying to help their Jedi charge get away.

Ahsoka wasn't even surprised. She knew when she let Vader know of her intentions to stop the inquisitors that he wouldn't take such a challenge lying down. So it was no shock that her mission had gotten much harder since. Then there was the fact that he was determined to prove his point to her about being detached from the Jedi just like he was, likely thinking that the harder he made things for her, the more likely she would give up what he no doubt thought was a foolish endeavor.

And perhaps it was foolish. She saved what few Jedi remained now, integrated them into her rebel network, and then what would she do with them when she helped Vader defeat Palpatine and become emperor? Fight another war, this time with a rebellion led by the Jedi she'd let live because they would never allow a Sith to rule the galaxy? Would she be forced to turn her blade against the Jedi when they inevitably came against Vader and her for what some would perceive as a betrayal? Would she be willing to? Would they be right to worry about Vader at the helm of the galaxy? Probably, was the answer to most of those questions.

Ahsoka shook her head. She couldn't worry about hypotheticals that might happen in the future. Hypotheticals she wouldn't even have to bother with if she didn't strengthen her rebellion enough to fight against the forces of Palpatine's Empire that Vader couldn't get on his side. She wasn't sure what Vader's idea of the Empire looked like, but she knew that whatever it was, she'd do everything in her power to curb his darker tendencies. And that started right now by continuing to keep the Jedi out his and his inquisitor's grasp.

"Send me your next coordinates," Ahsoka decided. "I'll deal with that inquisitor next time he tracks you."

The holo of Jace faltered and said, "General?"

Ahsoka could imagine he was certainly surprised. She gave orders and approved missions and even took assignments to get intel and assess situations personally in Imperial spaces too dangerous for her best agents. But she never joined her Jedi task force in finding Jedi and tracking inquisitor movement.

"We've been trying to shake this inquisitor for months. Obviously, he's a tricky one. Asking you to retrieve Jedi and deal with inquisitors is a lot for me to ask of you to begin with. I won't let you continue to endanger yourself for a mission that's obviously so risky," Ahsoka decided as she stood from the seat in a hidden underground conference room in the Alderaan Palace where she conducted rebellion business when she wasn't off-planet. "I'll let you know my ETA and give you specifics about where we'll rendezvous once I've looked at the coordinates. In the meantime, tell the Jedi that the Fulcrum is coming to assist."

She cut the call after that, not wanting to stay connected any longer than she needed to for fear that someone might trace them. Diya had assured and shown her that the calls she made on the underground network she'd set up couldn't be traced back to Alderaan. But conducting any rebellion business on Alderaan at all was too risky as far as Ahsoka was concerned.

She decided to find Luke and Leia before doing any preparation to leave. They were in their room like they usually were in the evenings, playing a game of pretend with their toys spread across the floor. It looked like they were re-enacting one of the clone wars stories that she'd told them and disagreeing about a detail of the story she'd given them.