It Takes Two to Tango

A New Evil

Ahsoka stared at the holomap in front of her. No matter how she looked at it, there was no way they were going to be able to pull this off. She sighed and buried her face in her hands.

She felt Lux's presence approach behind her.

"You need to take a break. You're wearing yourself out before we even get there," he half joked.

"I should be able to solve this," she replied. She and Anakin had been able to succeed in the worst odds possible back in the Clone Wars. Why couldn't she do the same thing now? "I just don't see how the pieces connect."

Lux placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Maybe you don't have to. You can't solve a puzzle until you have all the pieces, right? There has to be something missing."

She nodded feebly, picking her head up and studying the holomap some more. "How much longer do we have?"

"We're leaving in about two hours. At least take a break until we have to go, okay? The map isn't going to change between now and then."

Ahsoka paused, taking one final glance at he map. "There are a couple key places to hide or regroup, but the path to get to the Emperor is the hard part. These," she said, gesturing to her lekku, "aren't going to fit under a stormtrooper helmet, and quite frankly, no one else has been trained for combat like I have. It has to be me."

"True," he said, turning off the map. "Why don't we scratch the assassination plan and go for the ship itself if it's going to be too much of a problem to confront him head on?"

She placed her hands on her hips. "Now you're just being ridiculous. We can't kill all those people on board."

But what if they could get everyone else off somehow? That way, only the Emperor and any high-ranking officials would be killed. Still not ideal, but there was no other way.

Lux was talking, but she stopped listening and let her mind work. Old Republic protocol had been to evacuate the important people in event of boarding, so assuming the protocol hadn't changed—a big assumption, really—the Emperor would take his shuttle and leave as soon as possible. They just had to create a disturbance large enough and close enough to the bridge for the Emperor to evacuate.

But that was easier said than done. This ship was more massive than anything Ahsoka had ever seen. A small disturbance in the hangar wouldn't be enough to cause an evacuation. She'd need an army...

"Ahsoka, are you even listening to me?" Lux asked, more to get her attention than an answer.

"How big is the Onderonian army?"

He took a step back. "I'm sorry, what?"

"How many soldiers can you get here before we leave?"

"Ahsoka, it would take a day at least to get the army together and loaded to go somewhere. We can't wait that long. The army here isn't equipped for this sort of thing anyway."

Scrap that plan.

The door slid open, drawing their attention. Captain Myec came in, holding a datapad.

"The Emperor has invited all Imperial Senators to view the final stages of construction of a classified project. An Imperial shuttle will pick you up on Onderon and take you there if you accept."

Ahsoka made eye contact with Lux. "Well that makes my job a lot easier."

"In what way?"

"Go back to the army plan," she said. "We get some pilots to attack, which means that the Destroyer will send out TIEs to retaliate. They'll be so worried about defending space that they won't be looking for an assassin on the actual ship, especially if they let you bring a plus one, Lux."