How to Take an Empire

Chapter Fifty-Four: Wish

"You have the most impeccable timing," Vader commented as soon as he answered Ahsoka's comm, and her image came up as he prepared a shuttle to go down to the surface of Naboo.

Two weeks out from when he and his master would arrive on the planet for Empire Day, Vader traveled to Naboo under the pretense of one final meeting with the Moff of the sector and his immediate subordinates about their security measures for the week. An unnecessary fool's errand, as far as the Emperor was concerned, but all the more for Vader to be absolved from blame when the rebellion underwent their attack.

"Am I interrupting something?" Ahsoka asked, raising an eye marking in a way that signaled she wasn't too concerned.

"Not yet. What has gone wrong now that we need to fix?"

Ahsoka shrugged. "I'm probably getting on everyone's nerve coordinating our debut, but everything's fine. I didn't contact you to discuss any pressing matter. Not Rebellion or Imperial related, anyway."

"What did the twins do now?" Vader asked.

She'd relayed to him weeks ago that she was having trouble with the two children acting out in protest that come Empire Day, they would be moved from Alderaan. It had been a wise gamble early in the Empire to keep two strongly force-sensitive children in the Core. But Alderaan and the Core worlds would be facing increased security once the Rebellion revealed itself and eliminated one of the Empire's allies. The risk of them being discovered would be exponentially higher in the coming weeks, even with all the precautions Vader knew Ahsoka and the Alderaanian monarchy took to hide them.

The twins exhibited wisdom and understanding far beyond their years, given the nature and arrangement of their family dynamic. They'd learned from an early age to keep secrets and how to divert people's attention away from oddities that might give those secrets away. But every now and then, they reminded Ahsoka and Vader that they were still children who didn't understand the full gravity of the danger they were in by virtue of who their parents were. And because of that lack of understanding, they were prone to the emotional outbursts of children their age.

Leia, in particular, reminded them yet again of just how much she'd taken after him. She'd tried to remain calm at first, but when she realized that no argument she or Luke could give would change Ahsoka's mind, Leia threw a tantrum the likes of which Vader had, fortunately, never experienced and that Ahsoka hadn't seen in years. She spouted hurtful words and accusations, blaming Ahsoka for her heavy involvement with the Rebellion, stomped to her room, and didn't talk to Ahsoka for days. Luke, much less spiteful than his sister, would never say the things Leia was bold enough to, but he certainly seemed to share her sentiment. He resigned himself to Ahsoka's decision before joining his sister. He hadn't entirely given Ahsoka the silent treatment, but he had sulked around and not gone out of his way to interact with her.

When she told him what had happened, Ahsoka shrugged it off while trying to hide the fact that she seemed ready to cry. Knowing better than anyone that Ahsoka had as much of a stubborn sense of pride as he did, Vader refrained from pointing it out and told her she'd made the right call instead.

"I know," she'd said, and he got the brief humming sensation across their bond before she realized what she was doing and stopped.

The twins had since apologized, if not forgiven her. Still, they, especially Leia, were prone to subtle acts of rebellion in protest. If this was any indication of what they would be like as teenagers, Force help him and Ahsoka both. Especially Ahsoka since she was their primary parent. He would never be able to repay the debt to her.

"The twins have actually been behaving well this week. I'm not calling to talk about them either."

"Then what is it?"