The Far Dark Shore

Chapter Five

Rebellion and Rescue

Summary: The Jedi act on Naboo and again on Orto Plutonia, but the Empire is waiting for them.

0o0o0

Ahsoka Tano, also known as Fulcrum, dropped out of lightspeed in the small, rickety transport she'd borrowed from Bail for this mission, and immediately checked her scopes. Nothing except routine traffic going into and out of the Orto Plutonia system. In the distance, a Star Destroyer held position, seeming to be a regular patrol looking for smugglers or pirates, or even potential rebels. Although why the Empire would suddenly be interested in rebels in this system, Ahsoka had no idea. She would have to look into that later. She still had a couple of contacts out in this region.

Her old friend, Admiral Yularen, was now head of the Imperial Security Bureau, the feared ISB, and she had crossed paths with him on numerous occasions during her work setting up rebel cells, although she was certain he didn't know of her existence yet. Her deep-cover agent within the ISB itself had said that no mention of a rebel spy known as "Fulcrum" had crossed the former Admiral's desk, although the ISB was currently cross-referencing all known rebel activity. The deep-cover agent had put forward the theory that there were multiple spies each for the different cells, and as this was the most likely scenario, the ISB was busy trying to disprove it.

That would keep them occupied for a while longer. Ahsoka was careful, very careful, and Master Obi-Wan had taught her a lot about deep-cover work. She'd even gotten a few pointers from Master Quinlan Vos, back when she'd still been a Jedi and the Order still existed.

They had been some of the best the Jedi Order ever produced when it came to undercover work and espionage. She still remembered the Rako Hardeen incident, and Master Obi-Wan's deception which had even fooled her and Palpatine. In retrospect, it had been a good idea to keep the mission secret even from Anakin, although when she remembered her master's grief and rage, the depth of his pain, she wished Master Obi-Wan had left them both in the loop.

She had wondered about the relationship between the two of them many times during her apprenticeship, none more so after Obi-Wan's "death", and she had been unsurprised that Anakin could feel his master, could know with certainty that he was still alive, even when Master Obi-Wan was hiding in the Force. No one else she was sure, could have felt it. But Anakin had.

She wondered if Master Obi-Wan could feel Anakin now, wherever he was in the netherworld of the Force. If anyone could breach the boundary between life and death, it would be those two. Their bond had been so strong in life that Ahsoka was positive not even death could alter it.

All scans came back negative and Ahsoka set course for the line of traffic heading in past the hovering star destroyer and towards Pantora.

Orto Plutonia hung huge and icy white before her. A frigid planet long believed to be devoid of life, it was orbited by a single moon, Pantora, home to a blue-skinned humanoid people named the Pantorans. Ahsoka had never been to Pantora proper, although she had heard it was a warm and humid place primarily made up of marshland. A friend of hers from her time with the Jedi, Riyo Chuchi, had served as Senator for Pantora during the Clone Wars. Riyo had been close with Senator Amidala as well but had stepped down as senator before Order 66 and the fall of the Republic.

Ahsoka had not seen her in many years and had been surprised when she had received contact from Riyo in the underground channels she used as Fulcrum.

The ship pinged and then beeped at her, one engine going dark and an alarm sounding. "Blast," she snapped, wishing for the tenth time that Artoo was with her on this particular mission.

Riyo would meet her on the first floor of Pantora's governmental communications center. She didn't know that it was Ahsoka who would meet her, having merely been told that a rebel spy would find her at the specified time and location.

Ahsoka wondered how Riyo looked after all these years, if she was still as beautiful as when they were girls. Would she be happy to see Ahsoka, or was the past between them best left forgotten?

"Unidentified freight," came a no-nonsense voice over the comm system, starling Ahsoka out of her useless reflection, "transmit your transponder code ad designation coordinates."

She sighed; mindless imperial bureaucracy at its finest. "Right away, sir." And then she was in.

The Valorum Communications Center was the main hub for the holonet, as well as various assorted, and borderline illegal, government oversight programs in Capital city. It was a stunning building, as tall as any skyscraper on Coruscant, and glittered like a jewel in the light of Pantora's rising sun. The windows shone in blues and silvers, the entire structure elongating outwards at the center and then coming to a point again at the top. Durasteel beams, twisted into winding shapes like the vines of tropical flowers connected the panes of glass and transparisteel. At the base of the building, a tasteful area of benches and grass, mixed with some flower beds festooned with vibrant blooms in many different hues, had been created to welcome the constant stream of visitors that poured through its main doors.

Ahsoka stood on the sidewalk, the hum of rushing landspeeders behind her, and watched for a moment as Pantorans and humans and even several other species, filed into and out of the communications center. There was a security guard, but he looked lazy and unobservant; likely they had never had a problem at the center.

She shaded her eyes with one hand and glanced up at the building. A sensor dish array had been placed on top – a giant one – with several smaller ones attached to it. It looked fairly new and was probably imperial regulation. A patrol of TIE fighters screamed by overhead and she dropped her head again, reflexively pulling up her hood to hide her distinctive montrals.

Even this far out in the Outer Rim, the Empire was a daily part of life.

She walked across the park-like area, nodded genially at the uncaring guard, and entered the building. The first thing that caught her eye was a platoon of stormtroopers waiting for one of the many lifts. They were talking amongst themselves but two of them kept a watchful eye on the rest of the room.

The second thing she noticed was the amount of light in this room. The glass and transparisteel meant that natural light filtered in from all directions. Everything was open and spacious and stunning, golden rays of sunshine creeping across the floor and touching the faces of sleepy-looking Pantorans. Several giant trees had been grown right in the center of the building, their lined trunks bending gracefully upwards until they terminated in a grown of wide leaves, vaguely reminiscent of the feathery fans the Zygerrian queen had used to cool herself in the hot climate of her horrid planet.

The third thing she noticed was the beautiful, petite Pantoran woman with the huge eyes who was staring at her in wonder and amazement. "Ahsoka?" Riyo Chuchi breathed like a prayer.

Ahsoka's smile was involuntary, as was her automatic motion towards the other woman. Ahsoka crossed the atrium in seven long strides and then her arms were around Riyo and she was laughing and crying at the same time, grateful that Riyo's arms clutched her back equally hard.

"I can't believe you're alive," Riyo said softly, her sweet, musical voice just as Ahsoka remembered it. Ahsoka buried her face in the other woman's hair and held on, closing her eyes. It felt almost as good as being reunited with Master Obi-Wan on Tatooine for the first time.

"I can't believe I'm still alive either," she admitted with a little laugh. She pulled back a bit in order to get a good look at the other woman. Riyo Cuchi had only grown more elegant and lovelier since Ahsoka last set eyes on her. Her large, golden eyes were warm, her pale lavender hair was worn long and woven with faint strands of gold, pulling it back from the sharp features she had finally grown into. She was still much shorter than Ahsoka, but she held herself with confidence and purpose and there was something incredibly attractive about that.

Ahsoka watched several other Pantorans examine Riyo with interest and approval and maybe even a hint of attraction. "You've grown," she said simply.

Riyo raised both eyebrows and shook her head, smiling. "So have you, Ahsoka. You look lovely."

Ahsoka felt her cheeks heat and this unexpected compliment and she released her old friend except for a loose grip on her hands. "Your message sounded urgent. Where can we talk?" And just like that, Riyo was all business again. Pasting on a professional smile that in no way reached her eyes and was for the sole purpose of deceiving anyone who was paying slightly too much attention to them, she waved for Ahsoka to follow her.

"This way," she said, pitching her voice to carry. "And I will show you the problem."

0o0o0

Obi-Wan stood at one of the massive windows of Theed's royal palace and watched as imperial troops marched into the city. Rank upon rank of stormtroopers came down the cobbled streets, white armor gleaming in the sunlight, and at their head was a figure he had never thought to see again.

Darth Vader strode before them, red lightsaber like a jagged gash ignited before him, black armor menacing, his black cloak billowing and his presence in the Force like an open wound. It was entirely self-preservation that caused Obi-Wan to automatically close himself down and hide himself in the Force.

Vader's presence was a howling maelstrom, and black hole of darkness and hatred and pain from which there was no escape. It sucked up everything good in its path and Obi-Wan could still feel the echo of it even after he'd blanketed his awareness of the Force. He gripped the windowsill before him hard, trying to stay upright and could barely hear Artoo's whistles of concern as the world swam and shadowed before him.

How pathetic, he thought wryly, but he knew the reason he was so affected by the Sith Lord's presence, even now after all these years. Even now when anything of Anakin that remained in that…that creature, was long buried and forgotten. Obi-Wan and Anakin had been two sides of the same coin, two halves of a whole. They had been bound together for so long, united in the Force, that Obi-Wan could feel Anakin's…no Vader's presence in the Force exponentially more powerfully than any other Jedi.

Even from this distance.

He gritted his teeth and breathed until the feeling passed. "I'm alright, Artoo," he assured the little droid, and watched as Siri and Uvell and the Jedi Knights behind them, ignited their lightsabers in blues and greens, and even one yellow, double-bladed weapons from one of the knights.

Behind Vader came a swarm of his pet Inquisitors. They were shadows in the Force, not the black hole that had sucked up Anakin Skywalker and now sought to destroy everything else in its path, yet their stain upon the Force was easily felt.

Obi-Wan watched their red blades revolving around a center handle. It was an intimidating design, but he saw the flaw in their construction right away. A Master with enough training would be able to take them apart with no trouble at all. For a moment he wondered why Anakin would allow such foolishness among his followers and then he remembered the constant betrayal and fear of betrayal that haunted the lives of those who sought their power form the Dark Side.

Vader had no need to fear that the Inquisitors would ever take his place with the Emperor, not when they were so poorly trained compared to him.

Blaster bolts filled the air, several Naboo tanks fired and the line of stormtroopers scattered towards defensive positions behind buildings and speeders and raised beds filled with plant and trees. The Naboo were found of incorporating nature into their cities but right now it worked against them as it gave the Imperials plenty of places to hold defensible positions while keeping up a steady stream of fire upon the Naboo security forces.

Obi-Wan couldn't help but be drawn back to Anakin. To Vader.

The Sith Lord didn't bother to take cover. He strode on through the hail of blaster fire unconcerned, his red blade a blur of motion and using the Force to casually toss aside blaster bolts, bombs and even the occasional Naboo soldier that got in his way.

Obi-Wan admired the efficiency of his movements even as he deplored their results. Vader was horrifyingly compelling as he moved inexorably through the hail of blaster fire. Anger and rage poured off him in an almost-overwhelming psychic storm in the Force, battering against Obi-Wan's formidable shields. The sunlight shown over the black armor which encased him from head to toe and an invisible, unfelt wind sent his black cloak billowing out around him. His red lightsaber was a ceaseless blur of motion, heedlessly deflecting blaster bolts away from him and towards the buildings around the battlefield. Crumbling brick, mortar and stone added to the cacophony.

Obi-Wan was unwillingly impressed to observe that more than half of all the shots directed at Vader were reflected back to the shooter, causing them to dive out of the way or crumble to the ground – dead or dying.

He was a terrifying portent of death.

Obi-Wan watched him fight Siri – one of the best lightsaber duelists the Order had produced in several generations, right up there with Mace Windu, Yan Dooku and Adi Gallia, her master. Yet Siri's Ataru was hard-pressed against the combination of Makashi, Djem So and Vaapad Anakin seemed to have created into a new form in the wake of his injuries. His strength, vastly enhanced by his mostly-machine body, was added to a speed that would have to be seen to be believed.

Obi-Wan watched Siri's eyes widen as she fought him, a flicker of fear darting across her features. Master Uvell, barely holding off three of Vader's shadows at once, tried to help her and Vader carelessly grabbed his wrist and tossed him aside.

Force he was good.

Obi-Wan stared at the machine who had once been Anakin Skywalker and for the first time in years, for the first time since he learned of Anakin's Fall, he felt…annoyance towards the other man.

He had spent years, decades, trying to get Anakin to fight smarter, to utilize his own unique abilities and strengths in order to create a lightsaber combat form just for him. Every Jedi took a form and made it their own, but Anakin always just defaulted to basic Djem So during the Clone Wars, even when another form might have been more effective. It had been frustrating and even infuriating, and yet now, under his tutelage from a Sith Lord, Anakin had finally learned to do what Obi-Wan could not teach him to.

Typical.

If he ever got his hands on Palpatine…

Artoo beeped at him again and Obi-Wan knew that it was time to go. Vader was distracted by Siri Tachi launching herself at him, Uvell coming in low for a blow that should have taken his legs off. The queen had taken to the battlefield now, her handmaidens a blur around her and her aim decent as she got off a few shots towards a group of stormtroopers who were among the closest to her palace.

Naboo starfighters swooped low, performing a dangerous, but accurate, strafing run.

Artoo beeped again. Obi-Wan really should go. Now was the time. They had discovered footage of Leia running through a marketplace in Naboo's Lake Country. She looked terrified and was still dressed in the white nightgown her parents said she had been taken in.

Obi-Wan knew that Bane and Sing wouldn't remain in their current location for long and if he didn't move fast, the trail would grow cold in no time. He was no Quinlan Vos that he could touch an object hours, even days later and pick up Force impressions from it.

Vader pushed Siri back with a powerful Force shove. She threw up her arms and managed to hold onto her lightsaber and keep her feet under her, but she was off palace as he came in for the follow-up blow.

It was pure instinct that had Obi-Wan throwing out a hand. "Anakin, no!" he shouted, his voice echoing around the empty Royal Palace and reverberating in the Force.

He watched, half-horror, half-hope as Vader faltered in his downward stroke. Siri rolled out from under the red blade, threw herself backward and then came up swinging again. Obi-Wan didn't miss her bright hair flaring out as she glanced up at where he stood high above the battle.

Obi-Wan let his hand fall and silently cursed himself for an old fool even as he cloaked himself in the Force once more. He watched Uvell move in to engage Vader once more. He watched an Inquisitor take out one of the Jedi Knights, he watched two of the handmaidens fall, throwing themselves in front of blaster bolts meant for their queen.

He knew he should leave but he found himself running down the main staircase, hood thrown back to reveal his recognizable features and his familiar lightsaber clutched tightly in his hands.

The battle raged all around him, blaster bolts of green and red lighting up the midday sky. Bodies wearing Imperial stormtrooper white and the brown and red garb of Naboo security forces and even the traditional armor of the Gungans lay strewn about a courtyard that, just yesterday, had been filled with laughter and life.

Now there was only death.

Obi-Wan exited the palace as another Jedi fell. He could hear Artoo frantically coming after him, whistling and beeping like mad. He had thought he was stronger than this, more dedicated to his purpose than this, but he found that he could not let the Jedi stand against Vader alone. Anakin was his responsibility; had always been his responsibility. If anyone should be standing between Vader and the death he brought with him, it was Obi-Wan Kenobi.

It was Siri who saw him first across the battlefield, of course. Without even pausing she spun, hands thrown out in front of her and she Force shoved him hard back through the open door and into the shadowed atrium of the Royal Palace.

Obi-Wan landed hard on his back, utter surprise at her move causing him to fail to keep his feet. He lifted himself onto his elbows and looked out into the chaos.

Siri's moment of inattention should have cost her life, but by the time Obi-Wan raised his head to look out over the battlefield, Anakin and Siri were locked in heated combat once more.

Siri's blue lightsaber moved faster than thought but even Obi-Wan, from this distance, could see that she was tiring. Vader seemed to power himself by sheer rage alone, yet five years on the run, without the support of the Jedi Temple, had slightly worn Siri down. Obi-Wan could see it. Knew that five years in the desert had worm him down in certain ways as well – and he knew Siri's more cautious strikes meant she was aware of it as well.

They were still evenly matched. Obi-Wan pushed himself to his feet, hesitated a moment, and then clipped his lightsaber back to his belt. Siri's opinion on whether he should join the battle had been clear. Although utilized as a spy by the Republic instead of as a general during the Clone Wars, she knew how to read a battle as well as Obi-Wan.

The Jedi and the Naboo were going to lose. Obi-Wan's presence wouldn't make a difference either way, even against Vader. All he could do now to help them was complete his original mission; rescue Leia.

It still hurt; the knowledge that he could do nothing.

Master Uvell fell, the combined strength of four inquisitors was too much for him. His green lightsaber dropped from now-lifeless fingers, its blade extinguished, and Obi-Wan watched helplessly as a huge, hulking inquisitor, whom he vaguely remembered form the Temple, turned immediately and struck at Siri. The Jedi Master turned and parried the blow, Force jumping away from Vader's follow-up strike. Three inquisitors were down, permanently, but the only Jedi left was a Twi'lek knight. She moved to put her back to Siri's and Obi-Wan could read the knowledge of their deaths in both their eyes.

There was nothing Obi-Wan could do to help. The Empire was enveloping the far more disparate and less heavily-armored Naboo and Gungan forces. Queen Apailana and her handmaidens were trying to fight their way over to the Jedi, who had born the heaviest concentration of fire on top of the combined assaults of Vader and his Inquisitors.

The queen would not arrive in time. Obi-Wan put a hand on Artoo's dome, stopping the little droid from entering the fray. He was far too loyal and courageous for his own goo.

"No, old friend," he told the droid sadly. "There's nothing we can do."

Artoo beeped forlornly but he stayed by Obi-Wan's side.

Siri glanced away from Vader and towards Apailana and her handmaidens frantically fighting their way in her direction. She said something to the Jedi beside her and then she disengaged her blade from the Sith Lord's in front of her, switching it off. Obi-Wan could feel her reach out to the Force.

The Twi'lek Jedi – A'lura, Obi-Wan thought her name was – started running and jumped, and Siri grabbed her with the Force, throwing her up and over the battle before anyone else could react. She landed on the roof of the building closest to her and vanished from view, a hail of blaster fire shooting uselessly after her.

Obi-Wan heard Vader's deep, booming voice even over the heavy cannon. "Find her and bring her to me." And the inquisitors immediately obeyed.

Siri turned to look behind her at Vader. Her golden hair whipped around her tired face, glinting pale gold. Her smile was sad but strangely hopeful. "You won't find what you're looking for here, Anakin Skywalker," she said softly, more a whisper through the Force than anything else, but Vader heard her and the echo of her words through the Force traveled clearly to Obi-Wan.

The two Jedi felt Vader's resulting rage and a soul-deep spike of fear. It was so strong that Obi-Wan wondered how anyone in a ten-mile radius who was the least bit Force sensitive could fail to feel it.

Vader himself didn't hesitate. Even as Siri met Obi-Wan's eyes in the shadows, blue on blue, Vader drove his glowing blade into her undefended back and straight through her heart.

Siri Tachi died instantly, her faint presence lingering only long enough to softly brush Obi-Wan's cheek, a breath of warmth, the faint touch of a hand, and then she was gone.

Vader pulled out his lightsaber and Siri's body fell at his feet. For a moment he paused and looked down at her, that riotous golden hair of hers gleaming in the Naboo afternoon sunlight, and he felt almost…uncertain in the Force.

Perhaps it was that, a powerful Jedi Master's death, Siri's golden hair, her calling Vader by his true name, that caused him to fail to see Apailana and her handmaidens descending down upon him, a deadly, coordinated, interweaving unit consisting of overlapping personal shields and outstanding accuracy from their ELG-3A blaster pistols.

Apailana reached Vader even as he seemed to come out of whatever trance he was in. She threw herself forward, breaking rank to dive under Vader's guard and the rising blade of his lightsaber. The Sith Lord was slightly off, slightly too slow, still unbalanced.

The Naboo queen was on her back upon the ground, the blue sky above her, her blaster pointed directly into Vader's face, her finger depressing the trigger, and Obi-Wan could feel Ana- Vader's alarm in the Force.

Reflexively his hands clenched, the overwhelming urge to save Anakin, to do something, anything, causing him to step forward and reach out to the Force before his rational mind caught up with him.

Not Anakin. Vader. Anakin Skywalker was dead.

He halted – Artoo's domed head frantically whirling between Anakin and Obi-Wan – and then Commander Cody threw himself into Vader's side, pushing the Sith Lord out of the way and taking a blaster bolt right in the neck; a shot which had been meant for his general.

Obi-Wan watched Cody drop, he watched Apailana scramble to her feet, her opportunity lost as the 501st encircled Vader once more, and watched as the queen retreated behind the protective screen of her handmaidens and call a retreat.

Vader knelt down and slowly pulled Cody's helmet off.

Numbly, knowing now was his moment and unable to watch any monger, Obi-Wan pulled his hood up over his face. He vanished within the Force, kept to the shadows, and exited the palace. Artoo rolled after him.

Neither of them looked back as they kept close to the palace's walls, circled the front of the structure, and left the battle behind them. They were heading towards a landspeeder rental station at the western edge of Theed.

It was strange how not even three blocks from the Royal Palace, the sounds of battle were muted, almost indistinct. Obi-Wan and Artoo didn't talk on the short journey. The world still moved strangely around the Jedi Master, an unreality he knew would be pierced by grief eventually. He just hoped that didn't occur in the middle of something important. The only thought that passed through his head was an inane sense of thankfulness to the Force that Ahsoka was not here.

She was still sometimes as impulsive as Anakin had been. She would never had stood and watched. She would have intervened, faced Vader, and died.

Siri was a faint memory of first love but Obi-Wan hadn't been close to her since – well, years before his mission to Mandalore and introduction to Satine. Siri's loss hurt, even more than he'd imagined it would, but he knew he would recover.

Ahsoka was the closest he would ever come to having a daughter. Her loss would break him as badly as Anakin's had.

Anakin.

"Almost there," he said, needlessly, to the droid, just to get himself out of his own head.

Artoo beeped an agreement.

"As soon as we get to the Lake Country, I need to you run a scan for any ships in a five-mile radius of the nearest cities," Obi-Wan continued. "Bane won't want to be too far away from his ship and preclude a quick escape if needed."

Artoo beeped a question. Obi-Wan had no idea what he said, his binary had never been great, but he took a guess.

"Leia will be alright," he assured the droid, more firmly than he felt. "Bane would be foolish to kill her before he obtains whatever it is that he wants/"

Which was still unknown. As was who, exactly, Bane was working for. Bane rarely worked on his own volition. He would have a hidden benefactor somewhere. And it was him, or her, Obi-Wan was really in a race against time with.

The Organas had many potential enemies, bad people in both the political and criminal world on whose toes they had stepped in their effort to clean up as much of the galaxy as they could. Obi-Wna had next to nothing to go on which allowed him to narrow down that list.

Well, nothing except his gut, and he didn't like what it was telling him. Naboo, he thought. Why Naboo?

"Have you had any word from Ahsoka?" he asked Artoo. The negative response didn't surprise him, but it didn't comfort him either.

One thing at a time, he reminded himself. Leia first.

0o0o0

Cody felt the shot go through him, felt the pain followed by a creeping coldness. His limbs suddenly wouldn't obey him, and he slid ungracefully to the hard cobblestones beneath his feet. The warm, Naboo sun shone done on him but it didn't touch him.

He could see Vader bending down over him, pausing in his rampage…waiting for him to die.

There was something he had to say to him…to Anakin Skywalker…. Kenobi had been here….the General?...

"General Skywalker!" Cody gasped out, vaguely wondering if he was bleeding or if the blaster shot had merely fried his internal organs. Vader was kneeling on the cobblestones, the Clone Commander realized, the shouts and blaster bolts of red and green and blue streaming in the air all around them. People were yelling and shouting and dying on all sides.

It didn't matter anymore. All that mattered was…

"General Skywalker…." He gasped out again. Don't give up, his mind cried, but his voice wouldn't form the words and he wasn't even sure whether they were meant for Vader or for himself. He had too many regrets in his too-short life but this…this wouldn't be one of them. He managed to activate the beacon on his wrist gauntlet. Rex would know what it meant.

But there was still something he had to say to Vader. His vision was going dark and he had no idea how to reach the man, but he had to try.

"Don't…fear…there are still…brothers…"

And then the life fled form the loyal and true body of clone commander Cody, and he became one with the Force at last.

0o0o0

Vader let Cody's body fall heedlessly to the ground and then he stood back up on his feet. He ignited his lightsaber once more, offhandedly blocked a few shots aimed at him and looked around frantically for…

…Kenobi.

He had been here. Vader could feel it.

Well, his old master could run, but he couldn't hide forever. Vader would find him, sooner or later.

0o0o0

Orto Plutonia was a barren rock of snow and ice. Towering snow-covered mountains and steep, icy ravines broke up the landscape, but nothing grew on the surface and only the Talz were able to survive there. For millennia, neither the Pantorans nor the Republic were even aware that the Talz existed.

The Talz were a mammalian bipedal species who spoke a language that had yet to be translated. Ahsoka remembered Master Obi-Wan's and Anakin's stories from their visit with the Talz back during the Clone Wars. She wondered how they felt about the Imperial presence on their world, or if the two groups had yet to come in contact with one another.

Ahsoka and Riyo took Ahsoka's junky, derelict freighter from Capital City at the height of rush hour. They passed the imperial star destroyer and jumped to hyperspace at the designated spot, but they exited again just on the far side of Orto Plutonia, out of range of the Empire's sensors, before circling back to the ice planet again. It was a slightly risky maneuver, for if the Empire checked their exit vector it would be obvious where they had gone, but Ahsoka was counting on the fact that the amount of traffic passing through the system meant the Empire was stretched thin and wouldn't be looking too closely at one old, mid-sized freighter.

Ahsoka was actually surprised Riyo accompanied her on this mission. The other woman had always been a politician not a partisan.

Once the ship exited lightspeed, Ahsoka set course for the ice planet on a very slow, shallow descent, using minimal thrust from the sublight drive in order to mask their signature and presence as much as possible from any Imperial scanners on the ground.

Neither the Pantorans nor the Rebellion was sure how many bases the Empire had on the planet, but if Ahsoka had to put money on it she'd go with just one. Such an inhospitable place meant that it was harder to maintain an outpost here. More than one would be foolish, even for the Empire.

Ahsoka set course, visually checked her position and course out the viewscreen, and then leaned back comfortably in her seat, gaze sweeping the woman beside her.

Riyo was dressed much as Ahsoka herself was, in multiple layers of heat-trapping shirts, pants and boots. Ahsoka wore a hooded, fur-lined coat which had once been a Jedi's. It had been left on Pantora almost a decade ago and Riyo had found it during her rummage through the storage rooms and given it to Ahsoka as they'd prepped for this mission. Ahsoka's fingers kept tracing the rising phoenix symbol of the Jedi Order sewn into the lapel. Consciously, she made herself stop.

Riyo was dressed in silvery-grey and white, her lovely lavender hair braided and twisted out of her face. Ahsoka wondered if Pantorans had hair as soft as most humans. She wondered if Riyo would be offended if she asked.

"Why did you decide to come?" she asked, deciding that the straightforward approach was best.

Riyo turned towards her, the intricate silver hair piece woven through her braid and bun tinkled as she moved. "Because I'm not a fighter?" There was no accusation in her tone.

Ahsoka shrugged. Because your skillset has always led you along a different path," she explained. Riyo, much like the late and lamented Padmé Amidala, had always had the gift to get people to talk to her and to persuade two opposing sides to at least listen to each other. Ahsoka had often been jealous of this ability, especially when she'd seen Master Obi-Wan do it as well.

Anakin was more of a 'swing a lightsaber at it' kind of guy.

Riyo nodded. "Yes, under the Republic I was." She grimaced. "But how skilled was I to fail to see what direction the Republic was heading? Wasn't it my duty as its keeper and guardian to fight such moral decline? Yet I failed to see and did nothing."

It was a regret, a self-recrimination, that Ahsoka had heard all too often in the past five years, from Bail, from Mon Mothma, from Lux, and from others. "It was not your fault," she said gently. It never helped the guilt, but they needed to hear it anyway.

Riyo's eyes were stern. "It was someone's fault," she insisted.

"Yes," Ahsoka agreed. "It was Palpatine's. At the end of the day, he was to blame."

Riyo nodded in agreement after a moment. "I suppose, but why? Why destroy the Republic? Why hunt down the Jedi?"

Ahsoka looked away. Would it help Riyo to learn that Palpatin was actually a Sith Lord instead of the kindly old man he appeared as? She didn't think so. The ways of Force users were unfathomable to most. Riyo would not understand. Not yet. And with any luck, she would never need to. So, she simplified it. "He wants power, unlimited by anyone or anything else."

Riyo shivered. "That is a lonely way to exist," she said quietly. "He seemed like such a kind, good man."

"Yes," Ahsoka said grimly. "Anakin thought so as well."

Ahsoka was 24. She was one year older than Anakin Skywalker had ever been. Because of Palpatine.

And one day, if Ahsoka had anything to say, she would make him pay for it.

0o0o0

The Twi'lek Jedi, A'lura, found Obi-Wan as he knelt in the mud of the Lake Country and examined the print of landing gear which still remained. Not even half a day old.

Tall, ancient and dripping trees towered high above him. It had rained several hours ago, and moisture was still thick in the air. The underbrush was lush and thick here and Bane's ship had left a large imprint. The Force was silent save for a faint echo of fear; a little girl's fear. Leia's fear. It tasted like acid in Obi-Wan's mouth.

A'lura dropped down from the trees above and landed beside him. She looked bad, her robes torn and burned, her eyes wild with fear, and one of her lekku singed by a lightsaber.

Obi-Wan had felt her presence before she'd made herself known and now he stood up slowly to greet her. Something in her seemed to settle at this.

"Master Kenobi," she said respectfully, lekku twitching.

"Knight A'lura," Obi-Wan returned, and she took a small breath, settling even further.

"Everyone is dead."

Obi-Wan shook his head. "Not everyone."

"Enough are."

"Yes."

Her lekku twitched again and she grimaced in pain. "We failed," she admitted.

"Not yet," Obi-Wan said slowly, stroking his greying auburn beard in thought.

The other Jedi perked up at his words, her spine straightening and something like hope flickering in her Force presence for the first time. "What should I do, Master?"

Obi-Wan had an idea on what would help, but it wasn't his responsibility to order another Jedi. The decision would have to come from her and her alone. "What is the first mission of a Jedi Knight?" he prodded. It was a simple question, a lesson taught to all younglings before they were ever given their first practice lightsaber or taught how to make things float.

The young Jedi stood even straighter. "To protect life," she responded promptly. Obi-Wan almost smiled, it took him back to the few lessons he had watched Master Yoda given to young Jedi in the Temple.

"There is still much to protect, much to save, after this day is done," he told A'lura.

She looked at him for a moment and then dropped her eyes to stare at the mud as she thought. "They've made no mention of capturing the queen," she said at last, and Obi-Wan was relieved at this news.

"Then that might be a good place to start. You will have to get her off planet though. Her presence brings too much danger to this system now."

A'lura nodded. "Thank you, Master Kenobi. I will find her." She made to dart away again but Obi-Wan reached out and gently grabbed her elbow.

"Not so fast, young one," he said. "First you must heal yourself. The queen will have gone to ground. She will be hard to find again." He thought for a moment longer. "And I believe that I have someone who may help you, once you have Apailana. She's in the business of setting up rebel cells and I think she might be glad to have a contingent of trained Naboo and a Jedi in one of these cells." Obi-Wan stared at the young Jedi seriously. "However, if you do this, much will have to change. I'm not sure we're ready for open warfare with the Empire. You will have to hide until the time is right. Can you do that?"

A'lura thought about this and stared into Obi-Wan's eyes. The Jedi Master didn't know what she was looking for, but he hoped she found it. Her eyes darted away, around at the woods and up at the old trees. At last she looked back at him and nodded. "I will do what is required of me," she said softly. She stepped back and then bowed once to Obi-Wan, the respectful bow of two opponents after a sparring match was finished or even the bow of a student to a master after a lesson had been learned.

"Thank you, Master Kenobi. May the Force be with you."

"May the Force be with you," Obi-Wan returned, "Jedi Knight."

And then she was gone.

0o0o0

Ahsoka and Riyo lay on their stomachs behind a giant snowdrift and fixed two pairs of macrobinoculars on the distant imperial base. It was a fairly large facility for an out-of-the-way, inhospitable world like Orto Plutonia. There was also absolutely nothing going on outside of the base, no traffic passing through the gate, and only one landing pad that looked like it saw any kind of semi-regular use.

That made infiltrating it much harder.

"What is an imperial base even doing out here," Riyo said, echoing Ahsoka's thoughts.

"Well," she said slowly, scanning the icy, barren flat area that stretched for miles around the base. "If something very large and dangerous was to escape –"

"Like the Zillo beast," Riyo interjected with a smile.

" -no one would be around to notice."

"Except the Talz," Riyo added, her smile fading.

Ahsoka stretched out with the Force but the only life forms she could detect were inside the base. "Master Obi-Wan said the Talz were quite primitive. Would they have had any way to contact the Council on Pantora for help if they were attacke?"

Riyo shook her head.

"I can't sense them," Ahsoka admitted, "but with unfamiliar alien life forms that's not surprising."

The two of them lapsed into silence.

"Perhaps we'll discover more answers when we get inside," Ahsoka suggested at last.

"Yes," Riyo agreed, too quickly. "But how do we do that?"

Ahsoka couldn't help the grin that spread across her face. Memories of her masters and their various antics rose up in her mind's eye. "Don't worry," she confided. "I'm an expert at breaking into places where I'm not supposed to be."

Riyo rolled her eyes even as her lips twitched up into a smile again. "It's not the breaking in I'm actually worried about."

The walls of the Imperial base were eight stories high, smooth, without opening, and entirely covered in ice. They were also topped by barbed wire fencing that appeared to have motion detection sensors placed within it at even intervals.

The only way into or out of the base appeared to be by space ship. Ahsoka and Riyo circled the base from a distance of 5 kilometers, macrobinoculars fixed to find any opening that would make this easier than scaling the wall.

"They probably have heat sensors as well," Ahsoka murmured, the icy wind stealing her words away and making it hard to breathe.

Dark was rapidly approaching, and the limited grey light was disappearing with it. Soon they'd have to turn on the night scopes. This would make them easier to detect by any routine scans from the base.

"Yes, but do they all still work?" Riyo returned, squinting through her own pair of macrobinoculars. "An out of the way, secret, inaccessible base like this? Might not get routine shipments of equipment. Might be on the bottom of the requisitions list."

"Gotta love Imperial bureaucracy," Ahsoka agreed.

"Even worse than the Republic."

"Who knew."

It was Riyo who found the opening in the wall first. "What are those?" she asked, twenty minutes later, after most of the light had left the sky. A storm was blowing in as well and visibility was rapidly decreasing.

"What's what?"

Riyo had found a series of fractures running up and down a large section of the base's perimeter on the north side. Ahsoka studied the cracks. "It looks like something very large broke through and they attempted to patch it up again. Badly," she concluded.

Riyo studied the wall as well. "Does that help us?"

Ahsoka thought about the cracks and the approaching storm, the cover of night, and her increasing connection with the Force as she grew older. She remembered meditating on Tatooine with Master Obi-Wan and the sand they had made dance around them – the eye of the storm.

"Well, I'm no longer a Jedi, but maybe." And as night fell, she left their cover and headed down the hill towards the Imperial base.

Riyo trotted after her. "What do you mean you're no longer a Jedi?" She sounded incredulous.

Ahsoka remembered Barriss' betrayal, the Jedi Council abandoning her, and then how she walked away from the Jedi in return.

"It was my choice," she admitted softly.

"But you're a Jedi!" Riyo still sounded stunned.

Ahsoka couldn't suppress her involuntary smile. Her friend sounded so offended. "Are you still a Senator? You stepped down and have become something else."

Riyo lapsed into silence and then there was only the crunch of their boots in the hard-packed snow and the increasing wailing of the wind. The snow began to swirl around them, making the distant lights of the Imperial base almost impossible to see. Ahsoka relied on the Force to guide her in the right direction.

At last, Riyo said, "Being a Jedi is a not a career, like being a Senator or a…a mechanic." She waved her hand around to illustrate her point, whatever that point was going to be. "Being a Jedi is a way of life. A choice on how to live and how to – to connect with the Force, that you make every day." And in this moment Riyo sounded so much like the departed Padmé Amidala that Ahsoka's heart hurt a little bit. "You still look like a Jedi to me."

She made Ahsoka want to believe her.

Ahsoka stopped several hundred paces away from the cracked wall. The base was invisible in the darkness and a violent, howling snowstorm engulfed the entire valley. Riyo was gripping Ahsoka's elbow in order to keep from losing her.

Ahsoka closed her eyes, felt the Force flowing through her and reached out with her left hand. For a moment she struggled, hearing the wall crack further and several chunks broke off, shattering on the ground, with a noise that could be heard over the storm. Then a gust of wind blew off her hood and in the resulting, icy blast of wind, her connection with the Force was lost.

"Ugh," she said as Riyo tugged her hood back up over the tips of her montrals.

"We can find another way."

Ahsoka shook her head stubbornly. "I can do it." She was sweating in the icy air."

She firmed her stance and lifted her left hand again, and then she felt Riyo slip her own hand into Ahsoka's right. Their fingers intertwined. Riyo's hand was cold but strong, her grip tight. She wasn't letting go. Ahsoka could feel the Force flowing through the other woman, even if Riyo could not touch it. Riyo felt solid, like the earth, in the Force, firm, immovable and steady. Ahsoka's breathing evened out and the storm dropped away from her awareness. All there was, was the feel of Riyo's hand in hers and the looming presence of the wall.

The Force flowed between her and Riyo, her and the storm, her and Orto Plutonia, ancient and cold and powerful. She felt the energy, she touched it. And then she hurled all that energy at the broken wall.

The wall fell.

"So, why did you decide to become a resistance fighter?" Ahsoka asked, shouting over the noise of the falling wall, the wind making her throat burn.

"Is now really the best time for this?" Riyo shouted back, sounding exasperated.

Ahsoka would have shrugged if her muscles weren't freezing solid. "Probably," she yelled back and surprisingly Riyo laughed.

"I've missed you, Ahsoka Tano," Riyo said, when the last rumbles finally died away, and the fondness and awe in her voice made Ahsoka's heart clench.

I've missed you too, she said, but not out loud. She'd thought of Riyo several times in the years since the Republic fell, but only in the moment when she'd felt strong. The past had been so much brighter than the present that if she'd thought on it too long, she was afraid she wouldn't be able to continue on. Try to start over again.

Until she'd found Master Obi-Wan on Tatooine, almost a year ago now.

The future looked lighter now, even if finding Artoo and Bail, Obi-Wan and Riyo gave her something to lose again. She tried to remember her lessons from the Temple and live just one day at a time. She tugged Riyo's hand before dropping it again, and the two of them ran towards the opening in the wall, alarms blarring over the howling of the storm.

"Why aren't you a Jedi anymore?" Riyo whispered in Ahsoka's ear as several snowtroopers ran past, echoing the Rebel spy's thoughts. She should have known her friend wouldn't let the subject drop. Riyo had known how much being a Jedi meant to the younger Ahsoka.

Now she shook her head and didn't answer, even as she and Riyo snuck past several maintenance crew. How could she explain everything that happened? "It just wasn't my path," she said at last, when they were ducking behind several generators.

Riyo gave her a sharp look. "You seem like a Jedi to me. You are as wise as General Kenobi and as brave as General Skywalker."

The sharp pain in her chest this time was a mixture of pride and melancholy and joy. "Thanks," she whispered, Riyo's words meaning more than she could ever know.

Ahsoka knocked out a pair of stormtroopers and she and Riyo snuck into the base using their ill-fitting armor. Imperials rushed past in a vaguely disorganized mob as they attempted to repair the breach. Riyo hefted her blaster in a way that reassured Ahsoka she'd used one many times before. They kept their heads down, marched with purpose and soon arrived in a hallway that was empty.

At a computer terminal in one of the maintenance sections, Ahsoka sliced through the base's security firewalls using a basic Rebel algorithm one of the Phoenix Squadron techs had created and downloaded a blueprint of the base's layout. She suppressed her automatic wish for Artoo and his ability to find anything she needed. This time, she and Riyo examined the blueprints.

"How about here," Riyo said, her voice sounding odd from the 'trooper's helmet distortion, and she pointed at a section that, on most imperial bases, would denote the main hangar bay. "If the beast is as large as your Master Skywalker reported, logically they would put it in the largest space they have."

"Logic and the Empire don't exactly go hand in hand," Ahsoka grumbled, but they agreed to check the main hangar first.

Ahsoka knew as soon as they entered the hangar bay, that something was wrong. She felt cold.

"Well, well, well," came a satisfied voice. "Look what the Loth-cat dragged in."

Riyo and Ahsoka both froze, barely through the doorway into the main hangar. The large area was surrounded by catwalks which periodically led down to the lower level. The main hangar itself was almost entirely dominated by a force-field inside of which, within a series of durasteel clamps, was the Zillo beast. It was a massive, armor-plated monster with ancient, sad eyes. They stared back at Ahsoka even as she took in the sight of the three figures that waited for her on the main level.

Two were dressed in strange, black armor, with spinning red lightsabers. Ahsoka had seen their kind before. She had fought and defeated a Shadow once, on the moon of Raada. He had been a dark presence in the Froce, a bleeding wound. These two felt the same; a huge, hulking woman with a fearsome grin and a slender man with a covered face.

It was the woman at the center though who caused Ahsoka's heart to clench. For there, dressed in a flowing black dress and cape, a single, red blade ignited in her hands, was Barriss Offee.

Ahsoka heard herself gasp, could feel her heart pounding in her chest, knew that Riyo was looking at her in concern even as she leveled her blaster at the three darksiders.

"I'm almost impressed, Offee," said the huge woman, her sharp, pointed teeth barred in a smile. She was from a species that Ahsoka was unfamiliar with, but her face was one Ahsoka was sure she had seen somewhere before. "When you suggested this little plan, I wasn't sure we lure in even one Jedi, let alone Ahsoka Tano."

"I'm sorry to disappoint," Ahsoka said evenly, "but I'm no longer a Jedi."

"Once a Jedi, always a Jedi, little one," hissed the man on Barriss' right. Ahsoka had avoided looking at her old friend, and Barriss herself had yet to say a word.

"I could say the same about you," Ahsoka shot back, a hunch but obviously the correct assumption given the sudden fury she felt off of all three of them. She smiled and unhooked her lightsabers from her belt.

"I'll take the stairs," Riyo murmured from behind her.

Ahsoka nodded without looking away from Barriss. She vaulted over the railing and dropped down before her three, red-bladed opponents, her own silver blades igniting with their familiar snap-hiss. She wasn't sure how long she'd last against three of them, but she knew she could last long enough for Riyo to free the Zillo beast.

"Such a noble act." The burly woman laughed again. "Just like a Jedi."

"You ran," Barriss said, her voice flat and emotionless, her beautiful blue eyes sith-yellow, "but you didn't run very far."

Ahsoka could see Riyo inching down the staircase behind the shadows and Barriss. They obviously didn't consider her a threat, as all three still watched Ahsoka.

"Enough talk," she said, pointing the tip of her blade at Barriss. "Are we going to fight or what?" she demanded. Riyo, moving slowly, was almost at the computer terminal next to the main clamp that encircled the Zillo beast's waist. Its giant golden eye watched her as she came closer. Riyo grimaced as she studied the terminal and all the blinking lights before she reached out and gingerly prodded a button.

Oh dear, she thought, unwillingly amused, this might take longer than I thought. She jumped, spun, and attacked the nearest Shadow. He was easy to defeat.

Barriss stepped in. Her moves were all grace and precision, her skirts flowing out around her. Ahsoka had fought her once before and she'd lost; she knew her own strengths and how much she'd grown by now thought. Master Obi-Wan had trained her well since she'd found him.

He'd often said that the dark side blinded those who followed it. She wondered if Barriss would be so blinded by arrogance she would assume Ahsoka fought just as she had six years ago.

The two Shadows flanked Ahsoka and tried to box her in.

The lights on the terminal turned green and the clamps released with a hiss, almost impossible to hear over the clashing of lightsaber blades and the clanging alarms of the base. "What happened to you, Barriss?" Ahsoka asked, a flurry of blows and thrusts briefly putting the Shadows on the defensive.

Barriss moved in and attacked Ahsoka's unprotected back. They exchanged a flurry of blows. Barriss had improved but Ahsoka kept up with her effortlessly. She threw a hand out and Force pushed the Shadows back. The woman stayed on her feet. The man hit a bunch of crates, cursing, his lightsaber flying out of his grip.

Anakin would never have approved of such sloppy swordsmanship.

Barriss briefly looked over at him and the disdain on her face almost made Ahsoka warm to her. The other woman turned her cold face back towards Ahsoka. "I found a new master to serve," she said, kicking Ahsoka viciously in the chest.

Ahsoka stumbled back, turned her momentum into a flip forward and swept Barriss' feet out from under her. "Well, it seems you forgot everything you ever learned from your true master," she said scornfully.

Barriss growled and jumped back onto her feet. "I serve the Emperor!" she shouted. "I am his personal Hand!"

Ahsoka watched as the Zillo beast suddenly loomed up behind Barriss, saw the two Shadows, now back on their feet, staring up at it with terror on their faces. She smiled. "The personal pet of a maniac," she scoffed at Barriss, "when you had once been a noble knight. How the mighty have fallen." And then she gestured behind her with a lightsaber and jumped away, back up to the catwalk, as Barriss turned around and saw the Zillo beast snarling above her.

Riyo was running towards her along the catwalk, her smile as wide as a hug. Ahsoka turned towards the doors, confident not even the Shadows and Barriss could penetrate the Zillo beast's armor. They might even get away with this yet. Now all they had to do was find a way to escape and hopefully take the Zillo beast with them.

But then, as the door slid open, Ahsoka heard the steady stomp of dozens of uniformed feet.

0o0o0

The rain came steadily down, pinging off Vader's armor as he watched the silent Naboo remove their dead. The square before the Royal Palace was littered with Gungan and Naboo alike. The Imperials had collected their fallen and the Naboo were starting to now. The sky above was lead grey and every light in the city was extinguished. Although Vader's photoreceptors turned the world to red, he knew that everything was in fact cold, dark and dreary.

This had been Padmé's place, but without her it was nothing.

"My Lord?" It was the voice of the garrison commander piercing through Vader's reverie. He waved at the slow moving and eerily silent people. "Should we interfere?"

"No," Vader said. "Let them collect the dead." It would show them the folly of rebelling against the Empire.

The commander saluted and departed, leaving Vader to watch the Naboo. Their grief clung cloyingly in the Force like a dark well of despair. It was pain and loss and unending loneliness, a repeating loop, and Vader drew it into himself until all he felt was despair.

And the dark side grew stronger. He grew stronger.

Vader watched their grief, he could feel their grief, but he himself felt nothing.

After a while he turned away. The sky had darkened further with the advent of late afternoon and a ominous hush hung over the city. The streets one block away from the Palace were deserted. Vader walked purposefully over the rain-slicked cobblestones, the only sounds in all the world the inexorable rasp of his respirator and the plink-plonk of water droplets.

In a city as bright and beautiful and full of life as Theed, always was, the contrast was jarring, and Vader had never felt more alone in his life then he did now, on the walk to his wife's tomb.

Vader stood and stared down at the marble effigy carved in his wife's likeness. She had been so young, only 27. He was one year older than Padmé had ever been.

She was unchanged by time, as beautiful as the day he'd met her, an angel. And she had been his.

Before Obi-Wan had taken her from him.

He could feel the familiar rage build in him again, that rage which drove him to scour the galaxy for his old master – ever more powerful now that he had been so close, had stood inside Kenobi's home, been right on his trail. It mixed with the desire he had to go back to his palace on Mustafar, to see Lord Momin's latest design in order to harness the Dark Side and breach the veil between life and death.

He had seen Padmé there. He had seen many things, but she had been there. He would find a way back to her again, and this time he would take her from the past and bring her back with him, where she would remain, as she was supposed to, by his side.

"Lord Vader." His comm crackled. The walls of Padmé's mausoleum were shaking around him, stones dislodged and falling into the churning, grey waters of the river below.

"What is it, Captain?"

"We have an emergency communication coming in for you over a high-priority channel."

One of the Inquisitorius now doubt. Sometimes Vader through their incompetence, their hindrance based on their Jedi-training, was more trouble than they were worth. "Send it through."

The Ninth Sister's familiar, hideous features swam into view. "You'll never guess who we've captured, my lord."

Vader was in no mood to play games. He breathed and said nothing, watching as the smile eventually fell from Ninth Sister's face. She cleared her throat hurriedly. "Ahsoka Tano, Lord Vader. We have Ahsoka Tano."

It was a name from the past. It was a name connected with Obi-Wan Kenobi. And with Anakin Skywalker.

"Bring her to me on Mustafar," he commanded. "Immediately."

He walked away from Padmé's tomb without a backwards glance. It was only a matter of time before the Emperor learned of Tano's capture. Vader would get to her first.

0o0o0

End Notes: Merry Christmas everyone! I know this chapter isn't at all Christmas-y or happy, lol, but I've been working on it for several weeks and decided to finish it as a present to you all. Thanks so much for reading this, your kudos/likes and your comments! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday and a happy new year!

So, hints of Ahsoka/Riyo just kind of crept in. I never ship Ahsoka with anyone – she's a Jedi through and through – but I know that a lot of people ship her with Barriss or Kaeden or even Riyo, so I decided to try it. Let me know what you think. Or course, you can totally read it as a really close, platonic friendship as well. Whatever floats your kayak and all. Perhaps even a hint of Ahsoka/Barriss crept in?

So, we got some closure on the Anakin/Padmé story and I've always loved the image of Vader standing at Amidala's tomb. How was the Siri v. Vader fight? And the Ahsoka v. Barriss rematch? The Zillo beast made its return. Will Ahsoka discover that Vader is actually Anakin Skywalker? What is Bane even up to? And where is Obi-Wan going now? All will be revealed. Stay tuned.