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The halls of the former Imperial Palace were bare – all the Delta Source plants had been removed. Recently, in fact. Luke stooped down, plucking a leaf up from the floor with a wry smile on his face.
In the flurry of activity following the defeat of the Thrawn and the new smugglers' alliance with Talon Karrde, Luke had barely had time to even notice the goings on in the palace. And maybe that was why it took so long for the message to reach him: he had a guest. A Jedi.
The Force presence behind the door pulsed with a light that Luke had rarely felt. He stepped toward it, only to be restrained. He turned in surprise to his sister. Leia's hand was gentle on Luke's arm, mouth pursed with concern as she pulled him to the side. She didn't want him to hope, not after what had happened with his last lead on the Jedi Order with Joruus C'Boath.
"I'll be fine," Luke reassured her. "You said yourself that she checks out."
As much as any supposed Jedi could, anyway. Ghent was still slicing the old databanks, trying to find any information the Empire had on her, but the NRI had at least cleared her of being any kind of threat.
"We've been misled before."
"And we will be again. That doesn't mean we stop trying."
Leia just sighed.
"Besides, Mara will be in there with me."
"I'm glad you find that comforting," Leia said, a frown turning her mouth. She had not taken to Mara by any means.
"And I'm glad she's running late," Luke joked. "If that's your attitude."
They both turned as they sensed Mara's approach, silent as it was. It struck Luke as somehow incongruous that Mara stood out in the Palace halls – she had spent more time here than Luke and Leia combined, yet she still walked with an Imperial bearing that was discomfiting to see in the headquarters of the New Republic.
"Or you could join us," Mara suggested . Her tone was flat and bored, eyes raking harshly over Leia. She had no sympathy for what she described as Leia's squeamishness regarding her own family history. And that was easy enough, Leia had said, coming from someone who had no family at all.
Remembering the exchange, Luke preemptively placed himself between the two women.
"I have other duties," Leia replied coolly. She looked again to Luke, sending another question his way.
He rolled his eyes.
"I'll be fine, Leia. We'll talk later."
She passed over a datapad with all the information the New Republic had managed to scrounge up about this supposed former Jedi – very little, since she'd been in hiding since the Purge and, if her story was to be believed, her history had been wiped specifically from the databanks by no less than Darth Vader himself. But it did have a name for her and a few vital statistics the NRI was fairly sure were accurate.
A Togruta girl named Ahsoka Tano had in fact been taken to the Jedi Temple some forty years ago, by a Master named Plo Koon. Anything beyond that was as yet unverified.
Mara caught the direction Luke's thoughts were going in and raised her eyebrows at him mildly.
"Isn't that what we're here to find out, Skywalker?"
"Good luck," Leia said. She touched Luke's shoulder again, brown eyes luminous as she looked up at him. She jostled Mara as she walked away, neither woman willing to give any ground.
Luke sighed.
"Ready?" he asked Mara, ignoring the murderous glare she was shooting at his sister's back.
Mara shrugged one shoulder.
"Your father, not mine."
"I certainly hope he's not yours, too," Luke joked.
Mara gave him an odd look and Luke scratched at his neck, looking away. Well, that wasn't necessarily the best thing to bring up right now, anyway. Instead, he keyed the door open.
Eschewing the furniture in the room – relatively plush, for all that it was essentially an interrogation room – Tano instead sat elegantly on the floor. Her legs were crossed, her back straight as she meditated. She tilted her head to the side, as if listening to a song, and blinked wide, blue eyes opening to look directly at Luke.
Her gaze flicked over him.
"You don't look much like him," she said. Her eyes shut again and her expression turned pained. "Except in the Force."
Luke caught his breath as she inspected him. He'd rarely felt such a refined presence in the Force – and none of the Light Side. He'd been too rough and unready to feel anything from Ben or Yoda, really, to perceive them the way he now perceived Tano, and his experiences with his father and the Emperor had a completely different tenor to them. It was hard to describe the raking, intrusive push of their Force presences, but refined definitely was not the term.
Tentatively, he reached back, to be greeted by a warm pulse of affection. He didn't really know what he'd done to warrant that.
"Not what you did. What Anakin did," Tano said. Her eyes opened again and she gave him a small, sad smile. She extended a hand.
A small holoprojector lay in her palm.
Mara looked between the two of them, flat expression barely hiding her disapproval.
"Vader never did much I'd thank him for," she said. Luke raised an eyebrow at her and she rolled her eyes; even if she could admit that the Emperor's death was actually something she was grateful for, being grateful to Vader was another matter altogether. Mara plucked the projector from Tano's hand and then tossed it dismissively onto the table. She braced her hands on her hips as she looked to Tano. "You say you've got answers. How about starting with who you are?"
Tano rose easily to her feet.
"I'm Ahsoka Tano, former Commander in the Grand Army of the Republic and apprentice to Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker. He was my friend." She added softly, "They all were."
"I'm sorry. You must have lost a great many friends," Luke said.
"Only every single one I ever had."
"Because of him. Because of your 'master'," Mara said. The anger in her voice was undercut by confusion.
It was clear enough to Tano as well. She leveled a calm look at Mara; her presence in the Force was traced through with pain, but the core was serene. She had come to terms with this a long time ago and Luke simply had to wonder how. He'd lost so many people in his own life, but he had Leia. He had Han. Even Mara, now.
Not that she probably saw it that way.
But to lose your culture, your people, every person you had known or loved in your youth. That was impossible to fathom.
"Yes and no," Tano said. "I'd already lost most of them before he fell."
"The war," Luke said.
Tano gave him an inscrutable look. He wasn't wrong, he knew that much. But he wasn't exactly right.
"You want to know how?" Tano redirected. There was a tiny smile on her face as she watched Luke nod. "That's what I'm here to show you. How I can still call him a friend, knowing everything that happened."
Mara poked the projector with one finger.
"And this is how you're going to show us. Commander, I don't think this has half the storage capacity you would need to convince me Anakin Skywalker was ever anyone's friend – they don't come in infinite."
"I'm not here to show you," Tano said coolly.
Mara's mouth twisted wryly and she jerked a thumb at Luke.
"He doesn't need convincing, or didn't you hear? He's the one who 'redeemed' Vader."
Luke swallowed deeply. He believed in the good in his father, believed Vader when he said that he had been saved.
"Play it," he said.
Mara turned a pityingly look on him.
"It's not going to give you anything," she said. Her voice was pitched low. "You don't have to watch it."
Now that he had the opportunity, he did. It would be too easy to keep believing and ignore whatever truth there was in the holos.
"What is it?" Mara asked, hand hovering over the projector.
"Our brief stint as prime time viewing," Tano said glibly. She turned a look on Luke, explaining more clearly, "The Empire destroyed most of what they could, but I used to save the files to mess with Skyguy. He hated seeing himself in the newsreels."
Skyguy, Luke mouthed.
Tano seemed embarrassed and tugged on one her lekku; it was the first uncertain gesture he had seen from her. Despite her calm, Luke thought this was as difficult for her as it was for him.
"We had nicknames for each other," she said after a long moment. She focused a glare on Mara. "Are you going to play it or not?"
"Heroes of the Republic!" boomed a voice. Tano's eyes shut briefly. She breathed deeply against a swell of memories, but her eyes were dry when she opened them. The holovid continued, inspiring music loud behind the even louder announcer, "Our boys in brown on the move! The Jedi Generals of the Republic have advanced into Separatist territory, freeing the downtrodden."
The images were degraded, fuzzy. But even with that, Luke could make out the white gleam of stormtrooper armor – clone trooper armor, he corrected himself – and brown cloaks, rustling dramatically in the wind. A bearded man stooped, reaching out a hand to a small Twi'Lek girl. She hugged herself to his arm and the man's expression turned mildly distressed. Next to him, a fellow Jedi doubled over in laughter.
He was dressed in a variation on Jedi robes – black, with a leather tabard. Bracers and shoulder armor painted with a Republic symbol Luke barely recognized. His eyes were a familiar blue, from the mirror, from that brief moment on the second Death Star.
Anakin.
"Kenobi and Skywalker struck another historic victory on the plains of Ryloth, freeing the residents from the terrible grip of the Separatist army. Even the clones joined in the celebration!"
A deeply tan man with a well trimmed mustache had a clone trooper helmet under one arm. He nudged another clone in the arm, and the two shared a smile.
"But what lies ahead?"
The holovid cut to a close up of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Anakin was just over his shoulder, a tired, yet triumphant expression on his dirt smudged face.
"That's classified," Obi-Wan said with a frown.
The narrator did not notice his tone.
"Secret Jedi plans to win the war and secure peace to the galaxy! Keep your eyestalks up, Separatists. Only they know their next moves!"
Mara seemed unimpressed.
"Vader knew how to smile once. That changes everything!"
"But it does," Luke said quietly. He reached out to stop the holoprojector from queuing up the next newsreel snippet, looking to Tano. "Were you there?"
"I was. We were mostly air support during that campaign. Obi-Wan and Master Windu led the ground assaults," Tano said. That certainly fit with everything Luke had ever heard about Anakin's piloting, as well as what he'd seen of Vader's navy. Tano caught his line of thought, smiling slightly as she added, "But that doesn't mean we were always space jockeys. We had kept running count of who took apart the most clankers – sorry, battle droids."
Luke remembered well how many Rogues kept kill counts painted on the sides of their X-Wings. He never had, but then again, he didn't need to. Everyone knew who he was and he tended to think it would be a little crass to paint an entire Death Star on his ship. Plenty of TIE pilots did the same, he knew, but he didn't remember seeing a kill count on Vader's personal fighter. Probably the same reasoning.
Why even keep count at that point?
"Who won?" Mara asked.
She had her arms folded in front of her, hip leaning against the table. She was blocking Tano from Luke, ever so subtly, and blocking them both from the holoprojector. She wouldn't have Tano take it from Luke, or Luke get overzealous. It was a large part of why Luke had wanted her along, though she didn't realize it.
"Master Mundi," Tano said simply.
"And how did Vader take that?"
"Anakin took it just fine. He was pretty impressed. I know that Vader and Anakin aren't really different people – no more than I'm a different person now than I was back then, anyway. But you said yourself that Vader was redeemed," Tano said to Mara.
Luke knew that little of that story had actually gotten out to the general public; the same was true of Vader's true identity. Leia had worked hard to suppress both aspect, despite Luke's protests. It was easy to think that anyone who knew of one part knew the other, but Luke realized that wasn't true. This might actually be the first Tano had heard of it.
"You didn't know?" Luke asked.
There was a ripple of emotion in the Force, of many emotions, layered in a way that Luke struggled to pull them apart and see what they were. And then they vanished entirely, visible only in Tano's expression.
"I didn't know. I hoped, but I didn't know. If Vader was redeemed," she sighed. "Then we were right about him. Then something of Anakin remained, and I'm just trying to show you what that was."
The next clip was back on Coruscant, familiar and unfamiliar is hundreds of tiny ways. The most identifiable was the long shadow of the Jedi Temple looming into frame as cameras bobbed closer to a pair on men on a makeshift dais. The other, of course, were the Republic battleships that flew overhead.
"Is that--" Mara didn't finish, snapping her mouth shut.
It was Palpatine.
He gave a kind smile to the gathered reporters and Jedi. Luke's stomach roiled at the sight of the man, and Mara's Force presence shuddered. Tano looked to her with concern.
"Are you going to be alright? I can stop the holos, if you'd like."
"I'm fine," Mara bit out. Her hands were clenched into fists at her side, her knuckles white.
"If it helps," Tano offered, "this one doesn't have any audio. It's too damaged."
"How did it end up damaged if the others are intact?" Luke asked.
He sincerely hoped the others were, in fact, still undamaged.
Tano looked mildly embarrassed.
"I erased it and recovered it too often. I'm surprised the picture is as good as it is."
Luke watched the holo play out, Palpatine gesticulating as he spoke, pausing to take questions from the crowd at times. He looked like an average politician, no less cunning than the man Luke remembered in nightmares, but at the same time, not at all as fearsome, as grotesque. It was strangely compelling.
And yet not half as fascinating, as disturbing, as the looks Palpatine cast to Anakin, standing beside him. Sometimes they almost looked affectionate.
"What's he saying?" Mara asked tightly.
"General congratulations to the Jedi and something about an upcoming vote about funding for the war," Tano said. "It wasn't really important. It's just one of the only times he publicly singled Anakin out. He got the ball rolling on the whole 'Hero With No Fear' thing, but otherwise tried to appear impartial."
Luke tore his attention away from the holo.
"The 'Hero With No Fear'?" he asked.
Tano waved away his question. He supposed it really did answer itself: it was another nickname, another piece of propaganda, another strange and terrible lie inflicted on the Skywalker family. No one was without fear, ever. Luke imagined how much he would have hated being called that during the Rebellion.
Palpatine put his hand on Anakin's shoulder in the holovid and Mara, somehow, tensed even further.
"Why didn't anyone stop him?" she asked. "Why didn't anyone get Vader away from him?"
"Mara..." Luke started.
Her brilliantly green eyes snapped over to his.
Tano explained what they both knew already, "He was the Chancellor. No one thought there was any danger."
"And he was too powerful to stop," Mara said.
Tano nodded. Her face was lined with compassion as she asked, "How old were you?"
Mara shut down entirely, lips thin, expression harsh.
"It's not the same and it makes nothing right – absolutely nothing," Tano said. She gestured to the holo of Anakin. He was ducking his head, embarrassed by the attention Palpatine was giving him. "But Anakin was nine when Palptine first noticed him."
***
"Kid, I don't know about this," Han said.
"But you remember the Clone Wars," Luke said.
Han had rarely spoken on his childhood, of the time before the Empire, but he remembered the Republic just the same. Luke hadn't thought it was meaningful – after all, no one else in the Rebellion spoke of the Republic except in the most wistful of terms. For people like Mon Mothma, watching the Republic die had been too painful to talk of. For fighters around Han's age, it was even worse. All the innocence of childhood ripped away before they even understood what was happening. There was a reason why most Rebels with any kind of idealism were Luke's age or younger. They could hate the Empire without missing the Republic.
"Yeah, and I remember those dumb newsreels, too. What difference does that make?'
"Points of view," Luke replied.
Han gave a slow chuckle, smirking at him.
"Jedi and points of view again, eh? Alright. Threepio can handle the twins for an afternoon, I guess. Is Mara coming along again?"
Luke hoped she was. That she was finding some kind of peace in the explanations Tano gave, a context for how her own life had been warped. It was hard to say if that was what Mara even needed right now. He hadn't seen her since they left the interrogation room the day before, knowing that she would need him to keep his distance.
With other obligations to tend to, both Luke and Mara had been called away from their meeting far sooner than Luke would have liked. Tano easily acquiesced to the request to continue the next day; Jedi calm or not, it was clearly an emotionally trying experience for her. Truth be told, Luke didn't entirely mind. He wanted this to last.
He'd pushed for Leia to come as well, but she had rebuffed the attempt again, politely deflecting with excuses about meetings. Luke knew her patience was wearing thin, however. Soon enough she'd just be snapping at him that she didn't feel like resurrecting any more ghosts. She accepted that Vader was their father, but that didn't mean she wanted to get to know the man.
"I don't know," Luke said, only to immediately feel Mara's presence within Commander Tano's new quarters. He tried not to smile too widely. "Spoke too soon."
"That's insane," Mara was saying as Luke and Han entered. The door slid shut behind them and Han gave it a wary look, as if contemplating escape, before strolling over casually to the couches where the women sat. He flopped down, legs and arms splayed. Mara gave him the barest look of acknowledgment. "How did you even win?"
Tano shrugged.
"The will of the Force. It wasn't always that bad – okay, maybe it was. Most of Anakin's plans were insane."
Mara just shook her head. It wasn't the Imperial way.
"Ben and Yoda always told me he was reckless," Luke offered from the door. Mara and Tano both turned to look at him. He tilted his head to the side, giving a quick, sardonic smile. "And that I was just like him."
"You knew Master Yoda?" Tano asked in surprise. Anger flashed across her face. "I thought he died."
"He trained me. He never said... but I thought he was in exile, waiting. They both were, I guess."
Realization passed over Tano's face. The white markings on her face drew together and then the expression cleared as she stared at Luke.
"By Ben you mean Obi-Wan? He survived too? He never –" She looked away, biting at her lip. "He never contacted me."
Luke shifted on his feet awkwardly.
"I'm sorry. I thought you knew. The New Republic put out a lot of information after Endor."
"A lot of propaganda," Mara scoffed.
Luke nodded in acknowledgment.
"Yes. Like your newsreels. I just figured you'd seen them too. I'm sorry, I should have..." He went to sit next to Tano, placing a hand on her shoulder and waiting for her to look up. "This exchange should go both ways. Is there anything you want to know? About Ben or Yoda or ... the end of the war?"
"Where were they?" Tano whispered.
Luke heard the complete question: Where were they when everyone else was dying?
"I don't know exactly what happened at the Temple. The Empire – they were very thorough," he said. He looked to Mara and she shook her head. She didn't know any more than he did on that count. "Ben said that he confronted Anakin. They fought and that's how he ended up in the suit."
Tano shuddered visibly at the thought. It was hard to imagine how terrible that battle must have been to injure Anakin so badly.
"And after that, I guess they bided their time. I knew Ben as the crazy old hermit in the desert. He was always there, protecting me, waiting for the right time to teach me."
She frowned.
"The Jedi don't wait to teach..."
"This time they did. Was there anything else?" Luke asked kindly.
"Eventually. Not now. But," Tano forced the words out with effort, "But later. I want you to tell me about the Death Star. I was always taught – we all were, all the Jedi, including Anakin – that there is no redemption."
"No redemption?" Han cut in. He sat up, throwing Luke an incredulous look.
Tano continued, ignoring him, "'Once down the dark path you begin...'"
"'Forever will it dominate your destiny'," Luke quoted. "I know. And I didn't believe it then either. But before that, how about another vid?"
Tano smiled gratefully. The holoprojector was on the low table set between the couch and the other chairs in the room. She leaned forward, turning it on with a flick of her hand and a quick touch through the Force. Han snorted loudly from where he sat on the couch.
"I have a lot of newsreels," Tano said quickly as the image shimmered into focus. "But this one is a little more personal."
The hologram resolved into an extreme close up of a girl – the face markings were the same, but Luke took a moment to put it together, looking between Tano and the image. She was so young.
Young Tano grinned and settled back, sitting with her back to a bulk head, legs folded and arms resting on her knees bouncing with giddy energy.
"That was definitely something," the girl in the hologram proclaimed. "Not that my missions with Skyguy aren't always interesting – or interestingly disastrous, to use Master Obi-Wan's words – but breaking into the Citadel was something else.
"And doing it under Skyguy's nose, too. He's always so overprotective of me and I know he means well, I know that he cares, but sometimes I just feel like he's holding me back! I might be in a lot of trouble when we finally get back to the Temple, with him and the Council, but it was worth it." Her wide blue eyes turned serious as she looked into the camera. "Because it's not just about proving myself to Anakin, but to myself. I've been through a lot and I've learned from it and I feel like... like I can finally be secure in that, because I know what I can do now."
Tano tensed in anticipation of the next part of the vid. Off camera, a door whooshed open and a long shadow fell across the hologram of her younger self. Rather than startled, she simply tilted her head back, montrals against the wall as she looked up at the man who entered.
Anakin threw himself down next to her, casting one cursory glance at the camera before focusing on her. Close up, so much more detail was apparent.
He was young. So much younger than Luke had ever realized.
Luke reached out to stop the vid. Mara threw him a look, hand clenching on her knee. He'd moved too fast for her to react and she didn't appreciate what she thought of as her sole duty being taken from her. But even Han was staring at the holo, a flurry of emotions contained by his stunned expression.
"I thought –" Luke cut himself off, shaking his head, before starting again, "I thought he was your teacher."
Tano looked at him blandly.
"He was."
"But he's a kid!" Han burst out. He jabbed a finger at the holo, looking between it and Luke in bewilderment. "Was he always a kid? I remember..."
"What do you remember?"
"I remember looking up to him. How could he have been a kid?"
"The Jedi Order was stretched very thin," Tano explained. "I was very young to be out in the field, but we needed everyone we could get. And Anakin... I mean, he wasn't that young."
Han raised his eyebrows at her incredulously.
"He looks like he's barely out of his teens!"
Luke winced slightly. He'd been the same during the Rebellion – but he also hadn't been a fully trained Jedi Knight, nor a General.
Tano looked between them. She seemed disturbed that they were disturbed. Luke knew that he'd been considered old to begin his training, but he'd never thought that was because he should have already finished it.
"Well, he was. Anakin was the youngest Knight in the Order. The youngest human Knight in a few centuries, I think."
"And look how well that turned out," Mara tossed in. She didn't look nearly as appalled as Luke or Han. If anything, she seemed faintly bored by all of it.
But maybe she had a point. Here was Anakin Skywalker, hero of the newsreels and youngest Knight of the Jedi Order, already taking on even more responsibility to teach an apprentice. Maybe that was part of it.
Luke pressed his lips together, setting that thought aside. He wasn't looking for the reasons why Anakin had fallen. He was just trying to learn about the man who returned to the light. He tapped the holoprojector with two fingers, sitting precariously on the edge of the couch next to Mara to watch.
"Recording your thoughts, Snips?" Anakin asked Tano. His shoulder was nearly touching hers and he leaned slightly, pushing against her just enough to make her bat him away.
"Master Plo said it was a good exercise …"
"You mean a good way of making sure you've got your story straight. Just remember to wipe it before we land. Wouldn't want anything incriminating on there for the Council to find."
"It's not like that, Master!"
"Oh, right. I forgot. You were 'assigned' to our mission at the last minute and no one told me that my Padawan was going to be carbon frozen for one of the most dangerous missions of my entire life!" Anakin's voice got louder until he was all but yelling the last words. He clenched his jaw, turning a glare on her.
Luke leaned back long enough to shoot a look at Han. Carbon frozen? Han mouthed at him.
Not that that made things any better, really.
The holographic Tano crossed her arms, glaring back at him.
"That's right! And remember that I am your Padawan!" she said with emphasis. "My place is at your side. If you're carbon freezing yourself, then so am I! If you're doing dumb, dangerous things, then so am I!"
Anakin waited a long beat before cracking a smile.
"Then I suppose the only solution is for me to stop doing dumb, dangerous things," he said airily.
Tano grinned at him.
"Not likely."
Anakin slung an arm around around her, pulling the girl close in a half-hug.
"Come here," he said against her montrals. He rested his chin on the dip between them a moment before disengaging enough to look down at her. "But seriously, don't do it again."
"No promises, Skyguy."
Anakin huffed at her.
"You're as bad as Senator Amidala."
The vid ended. Luke looked immediately to Tano.
"Who was Senator Amidala?"
"Who was … ?" Tano blinked rapidly and then shook her head. She turned the holoprojector back on, leaning back against the couch. "Hold on! You are in for some interesting viewing."
***
"Leia, she had dozens of vids!" Luke grinned at his sister, circling around to walk backward in front of her. He wanted to grab her, swing her around in a hug, drag her to Tano immediately so that they could replay the holos. He'd already requested copies and Tano had been happy to oblige, amusement by his enthusiasm barely undercut by her sadness. This was one of the gifts she'd intended to give to them, though she hadn't known how desired it was. The hole that it filled.
"Of our mother or of our mother and him?" Leia asked.
"Both!"
Leia pursed her lips, stopping in the center of the hall. She glanced around her – there were plenty of staffers walking the halls, some plainly interested in whatever had the New Republic's only Jedi so excited – and pulled Luke off to the side.
"Ghent has been digging," she said quietly.
Luke knew this.
"Has he found anything yet?"
"Nothing definite, but there are some very strange results coming back."
Luke had trouble seeing how anything in Tano's files could invalidate the holos he'd seen. Those were not faked. No one would think to fake those newsreels or those diaries. They wouldn't bother with the ridiculous, only borderline believable details in them. Darth Vader hugging his apprentice. Calling her by a nickname. Luke loved his father and he barely believed it.
"Strange how?" Luke asked anyway, feeling the words pulled from him.
"Strange like she was on trial for treason before the fall of the Republic," Leia said. "Like maybe she didn't die with the other Jedi because they wouldn't have her. Did you ever consider that maybe she she's still loyal to Vader?"
"Being suspected of treason by the Empire –"
"By the Republic."
"By Palpatine," Luke said firmly. "Is hardly anything to worry about. In fact, maybe we should give her a medal, if he hated her that much. Did Ghent find anything about her during the Rebellion? Or after Endor?"
"No, but …"
"You just want to find something, Leia. You want a reason not to care and not to believe her, and I don't need you to believe in her, but please, just believe in me."
Leia cast him a dirty look. It was unfair, Luke was perfectly aware of that. He wasn't always the nice one in the family, though, and sometimes she needed a reminder.
"I always believe in you," she said.
"Then you're coming today."
Luke had to all but drag Leia down the hall, but come she did. Han and Mara were already inside Tano's chambers, looking ill at ease with each other as they both made halting attempts at small talk. They stood with relief as Luke and Leia entered. Tano's Force presence pulsed with amusement before her eyes settled on Leia.
"Oh," she said softly.
Leia gave Han a quick peck on the lips and then a shove, turning to bow to Tano.
"I apologize for not welcoming you earlier, Jedi Apprentice Tano," she said. "I'm Leia Organa-Solo and I extend my thanks to you for the aid you've rendered to my brother – and to the Old Republic."
"I'm hardly a Padawan anymore, but thank you, regardless."
Leia nodded stiffly and sat down next to Han. She looked like she was ready to dart at a moment's notice. She had her comm clenched in one hand, hopeful that Mon Mothma would need her, but Luke had already taken the Chief of State aside. After learning exactly who their guest was and why Luke had been conferring with her, Mon was more than happy to relieve Leia of her duties for the morning.
Tano's gaze had not left Leia.
"What?" Leia asked irritably.
"You look like her," Tano said. Then she smiled. "But not in the Force. You're all him."
Luke shot Tano a warning look, shaking his head. That was not the kind of thing Leia liked to hear.
"Why don't we get started?" Luke asked, trying to cover the awkwardness with some kind of enthusiasm. To be honest, he didn't have to fake it. He knew he'd be rewatching these particular holos many times for years to come.
Many of them were of a more personal sort than the newsreel Tano had shown them before, taking with the holocam she used for her diary. As she explained, Anakin's relationship with their mother had been a secret – forbidden, according to the Jedi Code. Even Tano didn't know the full extent of it. She'd just shrugged when asked when it started, saying she wished she knew. Her best guess was just that it had been going on for as long as she'd known either of them.
The holos were short clips, taken from the ends of mission logs. One was merely a quick shot of Anakin walking with Tano, turning to greet a beautiful, dark haired Senator as they passed in the hall. Another was a fairly length discussion of politics where Anakin was absent, Tano apparently visiting Amidala on her own time. Leia leaned forward with interest during that one, looking for all the world like she was mentally taking notes for future reference. But she didn't look like she saw their mother when she watched Amidala. She saw a fellow politician.
It was the next holo that changed that.
It wasn't quite a newsreel. It did not have the bombastic tenor, the propagandistic overtones. It was simply a newsreport, delivered by a standard HNN reporter.
"Luminaries of the Senate gathered tonight in the Opera House to honor the heroes of the Clone War and to pay tribute to the fallen," said a Mon Cal reporter.
Her face fuzzed out, replaced by footage from the event. It was a distance shot and though the Jedi were obvious amid the politicians and other Coruscanti elites, it was difficult to pick out particular individuals. The camera cut to a tall Kiffar Jedi shaking hands with a representative from Ryloth, then to a Mirialan Jedi girl talking to Obi-Wan Kenobi. Tano flinched at the second image, as she had the first time they watched.
"Senator Padme Amidala was not the first to congratulate our Jedi heroes, but perhaps she was the most eloquent," the reporter continued, cutting to a close up of Amidala as she stood on a stage.
"My fellow beings, I know that we all wish for a day to dawn where we can once more live in the comfort and security of peace. Everywhere, thre is struggle in the galaxy, there is conflict and yes, there is death.
"It is the Jedi Order and their courageous clone troopers who bear the brunt of these burdens. They who put their lives on the lines, they who are scarred, and they who are dying for our sakes. I raise my glass to them, tonight, but on every other night, my thoughts remain with them. It is an honor to be in your company."
The members of the gathering nodded, many of the politicians with barely restrained disdain, and Amidala turned to the handmaiden beside her who bore an open box full of medals.
"It is a paltry thing," Amidala said. "But I ask that the Jedi allow us to bestow tokens representing that honor upon them. As remembrance of our gratitude and their bravery."
She listed off several Jedi, and a few clones, bringing them forward to the platform to hang medals around their necks.
Her sober expression cleared as she came to Tano's name in the list. She couldn't help but bend down and hug the girl after she hung the medal around her neck, giving quiet congratulations.
Leia halted the holo, jaw clenched tightly.
She was jealous, Luke realized.
"I thought you were his apprentice," she said with emphasis.
Tano looked to Leia curiously.
"I was. And through him, I became friends with Padme."
Leia folded her arms across her chest.
"I thought that Jedi Masters raised their apprentices."
"Sometimes," Tano said carefully, sensing the undercurrents in Leia's Force presence. "Obi-Wan raised Anakin, even though he came to the Temple late. I was older when I became an apprentice. Skyguy was not like a father to me, trust me."
"So you weren't playing at being a family together?"
Tano actually seemed shocked at the suggestion. She looked between the holo and Leia.
"I … I wouldn't even know where to start. I've never had a family. I was a Jedi all my life, until they kicked me out. I wasn't anyone's daughter, I never wanted to be. Especially not his."
Tano didn't sound angry at the idea, not the way Leia still was when Luke tried to talk to her about Vader. The face she pulled expressed an entirely different kind of discomfort with the idea of being related to Anakin.
Leia caught it as well.
"You were in love with him?" Leia asked in shock. She looked green at the thought.
Tano flicked the holo back on, letting it progress forward. Luke already knew what was coming, why she was doing this to make her point. Anakin's name was another on the list. He all but leapt onto the stage, bowing deeply to Amidala. He looked up at her from his bow as she placed the medal around his neck, eyes bright with admiration and love.
The rest of the room looked at him the same way.
"We all were," Tano said. She looked at the holo of Anakin wistfully. "Everyone in the galaxy."
It was hard to deny. The holovids made Anakin out to be the most dashing Jedi in history, carefully edited to make him look better than anyone could ever be. It was a tempting fantasy, one that even Luke wished were true.
"But that wasn't enough for him," Leia said. Whatever longing the vids of their mother had stirred in her had drained away, leaving cold bitterness in its wake. She looked tired. It was hard not to feel guilty for putting her through this. Leia had never been interested in Anakin Skywalker, not in figuring him out or forgiving him.
Tano lifted one shoulder. She couldn't say that was what it was, that he'd turned for that reason. For her, it simply wasn't relevant, and Luke knew at least some of that was Jedi influence rather than her feelings for Anakin. It was done, it had passed, and nothing could undo the damage wrought by the Dark Side.
The holo had continued without them paying much mind, showing groups together as the report wrapped up. It lingered on Anakin and Obi-Wan, each with a hand on Tano's shoulders, beaming with pride. Senator Amidala was visible in the background. Luke thought she was smiling as well and he absolutely understood Leia's jealousy in that moment.
"Heroes of Geonosis!" blared the next holovid, startling everyone from their thoughts.
Tano covered her eyes in embarrassment, reaching out in the Force to stop the vid. They'd stopped on the medal ceremony the day before. Luke had rewatched several of them before deciding he absolutely needed Leia here before they went further. He had assumed the next would be another to feature their mother and couldn't help being disappointed to see otherwise.
"Sorry," she said. "They're out of order."
The frozen image was plainly staged in a way none of the other vids had been, Jedi standing together with their blades crossed casually before them. Senator Amidala was off to the side, outfitted in a white jumpsuit and wielding a very large blaster.
Han cracked a smirk, throwing an arm around Leia.
"Now I know where you get it," he said.
Leia rested easily in his embrace.
"Don't you forget it."
"Wasn't that the first battle?" Luke asked. He furrowed his brow, trying to remember his history. No one on Tatooine cared much to teach about the Clone Wars and the version the Empire put out was extremely distorted, but unfortunately the Rebel version hadn't been much better. "Or, did that battle happen more than once?"
"Both, unfortunately. But this vid is from the first go around."
She hit play again.
"Following the attempted assassination of Senator Padme Amidala, Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi followed leads to the cloners of Kamino and then to the droid factories of Geonosis – discovering an army just in time to fight the Separatists threatening to destroy our Republic."
The announcer, Luke noted, was less bombastic than he would later become. He was rather stilted, actually, almost as if he couldn't believe what he was reading.
"He just found an army?" Mara said. She rolled her eyes at the holo. "Convenient."
"Captured by Count Dooku, leader of the Separatist and a former Jedi Master himself, Kenobi awaited rescue by his Padawan, Anakin Skywalker and the Senator herself, who willingly threw herself into danger to save her Jedi protector."
Tano snickered aloud as the holo transitioned to another posed scene. In this one, Padme looked up adoringly at Obi-Wan, who looked stoically to the side.
"I guess that's how they got away with it for so long," Tano said. "I almost forgot how much the media wanted Obi-Wan and Padme to be a couple."
"Were they ever?" Luke had to ask.
"Like I said, we were all in love with Anakin," Tano replied softly. "All of us."
"Captured themselves," the holo continued. "Amidala and Skywalker helped Kenobi fight to freedom before the clone army came to rescue them all. Confronting Dooku, Skywalker and Kenobi fought heroically – though it ended in a tragic injury for Skywalker."
For the first time, the vid showed real footage: Anakin leaning heavily on Padme as they walked from a stone walled hangar. Luke traced his eyes over the vid, looking for the injury before it became startlingly apparent. He'd lost his arm. Luke flexed his mechanical hand in sympathy.
It had started so early for Anakin.
Kenobi himself appeared to be injured as well, though less severely. He limped alongside the pair over to a transport.
"In troubled times, we look to the heroes we can find. The Republic will face a difficult road in its fight to uphold the principles of democracy, to restore order, and bring peace back to the galaxy. And so it is heartening that even now, on the dawn of a new and frightening age, we have those we can trust leading us – Chancellor Palpatine, leading us with strength and dignity – as well as the High Jedi Council, commanding the new Grand Army of the Republic.
"And these new heroes, the heroes of Geonosis, have already proven themselves. They seem ready to lead the Republic into the future, past all these travails."
The last holo was again staged, but softer, more casual. Luke questioned its worth as propaganda. The camera crew had gathered Palpatine alongside the Jedi Council on a balcony overlooking one of the newly commissioned star destroyers. It panned over to Anakin, Padme and Obi-Wan, the three of them leaning on the balcony railing. Obi-Wan looked squarely at the camera, solemn and regretful, while Padme projected calm. Anakin had half turned, looking at the ship.
But on the railing, their fingers intertwined. Luke watched Leia from the corner of his eye. She leaned forward, away from Han, eyes set on the holo image. He knew that longing expression, that feeling that he had just started to understand himself, his family.
The image fizzled out.
Leia startled, facing falling. Her eyes darted to Tano who had been watching her with interest.
"Is there more?"
Tano smiled.
"A lot more."