Rebel Pilot: A Star Wars Story

Chapter 14

"So..." Luke gave a nervous laugh. "We have to have this conversation again."

Ahsoka looked around the room in terrified confusion. "What is happening?! I was just about to pour sand on Anakin to wake him up—I  mean no I was just about to not do that—"

"You are such a traitor, Ahsoka!" Anakin exclaimed, betrayed.

"No matter what, the world just blinked and I was here! And you said..." Ahsoka searched through her memory. "That I was in the future somehow... and that's older Obi-Wan." Ahsoka looked over at the two Obi-Wans and hesitated. "Their Force signatures are very similar..." she bit her lip. "Actually, they're the same. Those are both Obi-Wans. Force."

"It was hard for me coming to the future too," Anakin explained gently. "Especially finding out that I was a Sith."

"That was the hardest part for me too," Obi-Wan said. "But don't worry. You become incapable of being surprised very shortly!"

Ahsoka let out a breath. "Okay. And I think you said... that those are your kids." Ahsoka pointed to Luke and Leia.

"I'm Luke!" Luke said cheerily. "And that's my sister, Leia. We're twins! But we didn't even know we were related until a few days ago because I was raised by my aunt and uncle on Tatooine and she was raised a princess with the Organas."

Ahsoka's eyes shifted back to Anakin. "And Anakin didn't raise you because...?"

Anakin pointed at Vader. "Did you not hear me say that that's a Sith version of me? Obi-Wan didn't exactly want a Sith raising the kids, so he hid them and for some reason separated them." He glared at older Obi-Wan, who put his hands up in surrender.

"It wasn't my idea," older Obi-Wan reminded him.

"I heard you say you were a Sith," Ahsoka admitted. "But I was kind of hoping I heard you wrong." Ahsoka turned to Vader, tilting her head and sizing him up. "You don't look like Anakin."

"You have Kenobi to thank for that." Vader turned his head toward older Obi-Wan, and though his eyes were hidden in the helmet, you could tell he was glaring.

"Huh?" Ahsoka wondered.

"You don't really want to know," the Obi-Wans, Anakin, Han, Luke and Leia chorused.

Ahsoka blinked. "Alright then. And uh... what was that you said about Palpatine?"

"That he's a Sith," Anakin said bluntly. "About two decades ago in this time, he took over the galaxy and became Emperor, I became his apprentice, Darth Vader." Anakin nodded over towards Vader. "We're currently all about to go and kill him."

Ahsoka nodded slowly, and then she shrugged. "Okay, cool! That's not the worst thing I could be doing in the future. I mean, one of these days I'm gonna crack and start silently crying that the Chancellor is a Sith and my master became a Sith and the whole galaxy fell, but right now I feel mostly fine because I'm not sure how to react!" Ahsoka forced a thumbs up. "I just have one more question."

"Yeah?" Anakin asked.

"Who is that?" She pointed at Han.

"A guy who didn't mean to get mixed up with this disaster of a family," Han answered. "And also a pilot. And a former smuggler."

"Former?" Leia lifted an eyebrow. "When did you stop?"

"When I helped you guys take on the Death Star. And now I'm flying you guys to Coruscant to assassinate the Emperor of the galaxy. That's not very 'smuggler-ish.'" Han sighed. "If only I was still an everyday smuggler who had never taken the job to fly Kenobi and Skywalker. Honestly, being a 'low-life,' as her Highness puts it, sounds pretty good right about now."

"I understand the sentiment," Ahsoka said sympathetically. "I didn't mean to become an honorary Skywalker either."

"How close are we getting?" Luke wondered.

"Close enough that I'm scared out of my mind," Han said gruffly, not sounding scared, but it was definitely leaking into the Force. "How in the galaxy do you plan to kill the Emperor?"

"We freeze him up with confusion at the fact that there's so many past people and then we stab him," Anakin said with a shrug.

The Obi-Wans blinked, and in unison exclaimed, " That's your plan?"

"It's just a basic outline!" Anakin defended.

"Okay, I don't know much about this empire." Ahsoka crossed her arms. "But I think maybe we need a better plan."

Anakin huffed. "You guys don't have a plan, you just hate mine!"

"That's because yours isn't a plan," Leia said. "So let's think. I don't hate the idea of first using the time travel as a confusing distraction. The Emperor sounds strong in the Force. Vader, do you happen to know anything about his strategy that might allow us to see his attacks coming and overpower him?"

"He can shoot lightning out of his hands." Vader crossed his arms. "I can't do it without electrocuting myself." Was he... pouting?

"Okay," Leia said slowly, also a bit bewildered at the sight of Darth Vader acting like a whiny child. "Is there any way to deflect that kind of attack?"

"You can block it with a lightsaber if you focus. It takes a lot of control," Anakin explained. "But it's possible. I've... dealt with Sith lightning before."

"We have a lot of people," Leia said, looking around the room. "So we can organize ourselves."

"I call staying on the ship," Han interjected.

Leia rolled her eyes. "Han will not be joining us. So, Luke is pretty good at bluntly and cheerfully distracting people, so he can drop the time travel bombs, all the proof right there for Sidious to see. I think Vader should be the one to actually kill him, but Obi-Wan - that is, younger Obi-Wan - and Anakin and Ahsoka can keep him occupied while we attempt to kill him.

"Obviously, we will as a group be able to take out the Crimson Guard to get to the Emperor, but likely once the news that we're attempting to, you know, murder the emperor, there will be more guards coming. I've got my blaster, and older Obi-Wan has his lightsaber and Force powers. No offense, but I don't think you could take on the Emperor," she apologetically told Obi-Wan. "But you could easily take the guards.

"Of course, this plan will need revision and we will likely need to improvise some, but with at least this much of an outline I think we can better have an idea of what we are attempting. Does everyone understand and agree with their roles?"

Everyone in the room slowly nodded. Anakin beamed with pride. "You're so much like you're mother."

Leia grinned. "Padmé? Really?" Pride radiated off of her in the Force.

"Yes," Vader said quietly, and though it wasn't really all that quiet coming through his vocoder, it had the impression of being soft. "Very much so."

Leia was slightly less comfortable taking this praise from Vader than she was Anakin, so she quickly changed the subject. "Alright, so now that we have a slightly better idea of what we're doing," she gave Anakin a pointed look, "Han, how close are we to destination?"

"Eighteen standard minutes," Han said with a sigh. "We're actually doing this, aren't we?"

"Any chance you'll change your mind about staying back and come in with us?"

Han was clearly about to say no, but then he met Leia's challenging gaze and hesitated. She raised an eyebrow, daring him to say no. He sighed. "You know what? Why not. Sure."

Leia brightened triumphantly, giving Han a smug smile. "Alright then. You'll be with older Obi-Wan and I keeping the others clear to kill the Emperor. Eighteen minutes out, guys! We can do this."

"Yes!" Ahsoka shouted, trying to be cheerful. "Eighteen minutes till taking down an evil tyrant that five minutes ago didn't exist , at least for me! Just another normal day!" She forced a huge smile. "Totally normal!"

Obi-Wan gave her a reassuring pat on the back as the reality of their plan set in, everyone looking out the front window of the ship.

Eighteen minutes indeed.