Chapter Text
Maul and his fighters moved through the tunnels. He could sense the presence of multiple beings in the corridors in front of them, he just hoped that they would have what he wanted.
A small signal and the mandalorians around him moved into position to surround the squad of clone troopers. The clones all had those helmets painted to match Ahsoka Tano’s. It made figuring out which clone would have the information he wanted harder, but he was up to the challenge.
Maul stepped out of the shadow off to their left.
“Now, which one of you has what I need.”
As one, the clones whirled to aim their blasters at him.
“There is no need for all of you to die yet,” Maul continued. “No, I just need information.”
None of the clone troopers moved to answer him, instead there were subtle movements towards two clones, one that sported winged pauldrons and kamas and another that sported a heavy duty weapons belt.
“We have nothing to give you.” Growled the clone with the kamas.
“Oh but I think you do.” Maul drawled. “The information I seek is in regards to Ahsoka Tano.”
He felt the surprise flicker in all of the clone troopers. Suddenly the mental barriers of the clone that had spoken crashed down, cutting Maul’s reach into his feelings short. All the clones moved from surprised to defensive. Maul found himself a little surprised at the loyalty these clones showed towards the togruta.
“As I said before, we have nothing to give you. Now surrender Maul.” The clone spoke again, leveling his dual blasters on the darkside user.
“Pity.” Maul sighed before signaling to the mandalorians.
The tunnels descended into chaos. Blaster fire and screams echoed down the passage ways as the clone and mandalorians tore into each other. Maul jumped down into the frey. He bore down on the closest clones, tearing into their minds to find what he wanted. These clones were younger, their only memory of the Togruta being the current siege. He growled and moved on.
Now that he watched closer, he could see which clones were younger by the way they carried themselves in the fight. He ignored them and moved to the ones that were faring better in the fight.
The first one he approached was the one with the weapons belt, he had a memory of a younger Ahsoka Tano but when Maul pushed further, he saw that this clone hadn’t known her for very long. He pushed the clone aside right into blaster fire.
“Sterling!” One of the other clones shouted, charging towards the injured clone.
Maul caught him with his lightsaber.
The clone with the kama and pauldrons caught his eye. He had already felled many of his mandalorian fighters and barked orders to the others to fall back. This was the one that had the strong mental barriers, specifically designed to keep a Force wielder out.
Maul advanced on the clone, motioning for his fighters to back off slightly.
The clone noticed him approaching and instead of backing off, actually charged right at him.
Maul deflected the blaster bolts he sent his way then all of a sudden, the clone was right infront of him. He ducked under Maul’s swing and took a swipe at his legs. Maul jumped out of the way but the clone followed, staying close enough that his lightsaber couldn’t get a good angle on him.
Almost like he’s trained for this.
Maul pushed against the clone's barriers and sure enough, a flash of green lightsabers flickered through his mind. Maul swung again and he got another flash of a memory. Two green lightsabers. The clone landed a kick to Maul’s side.
A flash of blue and white striped montrals.
Maul deactivated his lightsaber and grabbed the clone with the Force.
Now that he wasn’t moving, he focused his attention on the clone’s barriers. The jedi wouldn’t have taught just any clone how to defend against a mental attack. This was the one he wanted.
“We have what we need.” Maul told the mandalorians closest to him.
The mandalorians pounced on the clone and wrestled him to the ground.
“Jesse!” One of the other clones shouted.
When they tried to advance, the mandalorians pushed them back. Maul turned and began to make his way back into the tunnels.
-
“You’re wasting your time, I won't tell you anything.” The clone growled behind him.
“How charming that you actually believe that statement to be true.” Maul chuckled. “Clones, bred for war, all part of the plan.”
The mandalorians around him shifted like they always did when he talked about his master’s plan. The plan wouldn’t affect them though, in fact, if everything went according to Maul’s plan, his master wouldn’t even see his own plan come to fruition.
However, in order for his own plan to work, he needed information.
“Now, there are some things I need to know.” Maul looked to the clone. “And you’re going to help me.”
“We can go round and round all you want. I’m not telling you anything.”
Maul suspected that he wouldn’t, under normal circumstances. These clones were created to be the best army in the galaxy, he wouldn’t be surprised if they were prepped on resisting many kinds of torture. But Maul was no ordinary interrogator.
“It is not up to you.” Maul growled. “Your mind will speak, or it will break.”
Maul reached out his hand and dug into the clone’s mental barriers.
“Now tell me, who is this Ahsoka Tano?”
The clone writhed in the grip of the mandalorians as he fought to keep Maul’s dark presence out. Maul had to admit, he was putting up quite the fight. But he hadn’t been made Darth Sidious’ apprentice for nothing.
The clone screamed as he tore into his barriers. Maul began to see flashes of memories and feelings.
He pressed forward, searching for a name. Finally, the walls broke. Maul ripped into the clone’s mind ruthlessly. He saw memories. Lots of memories. Memories of blaster fire, explosions, laughter, pain, training, rain.
In many of these he saw another clone, one with lightning bolts on his head and a medic symbol painted on his shoulder. He saw them laughing, celebrating, and crying. Then, he saw that the other clone was gone. Missing.
Something about an inhibitor chip. Fives.
Maul moved away from those memories, they weren't what he was after.
He pushed the face of Tano to the clone’s mind and immediately countless memories sprang forward.
Who is Ahsoka Tano?
He saw a very young Tano stepping off a transport ship and telling Skywalker that she was his new padawan. He saw her crying on the floor of a storage closet after she lost her squadron of fighters. He saw her seated on a med bay bed with the medic clone fussing over a blaster bolt injury. He saw her training with other clones, learning hand to hand combat as well as how to deflect their stun rounds. He saw how she would sit with injured troopers in the med tent and how she would comfort troopers in the barracks after a nightmare. He saw her leading troops into battle with a predatory glint in her eye. He saw her jump in front of a blaster bolt for the clone he was currently holding.
He saw the little Togruta grow from a youngling to the commander he had met yesterday through this clone’s eyes.
“Ahsoka you should really let Kix look you over.”
“I’m fine Jesse. Besides, the others need him more.”
He looked down to see his little commander swaying on her feet slightly as she walked towards where they were loading transport ships, her single lightsaber at her hip emphasizing the movement.
“Yeah but we both know that Kix is gonna be righteously pissed if he finds you hid an injury from him.” Jesse reminded her.
“I’m fine Jesse, really.” She offered him a small smile before continuing forward.
He sighed and followed after her. After another 3 steps, her leg buckled and she fell forward. Jesse lunged forward before she could hit the ground. He raised an eyebrow at her.
“I tripped.” She said lamely.
“I’m sure you did vod’ika.” He said as he stood, picking her up with him.
She sighed, knowing where he was going to take her.
“Hey, I’m just trying to stay on our baar’ur’s good side.” Jesse told her. “Something you should do too.”
“Yeah well he’s never happy when someone comes to him injured. Kinda hard to stay on his good side.” Ahsoka pointed out.
“Tell you what, let Kix worry over you and I’ll give you the flimsi I’m reading when I’m done.”
She looked up at him with wide blue eyes.
“Really?”
“If you sit through Kix.”
She huffed and crossed her arms.
“Deal.”
He shifted her to one arm so he could hold out a hand for her to shake.
Maul had spent enough time around the mandalorians to have picked up on a few words from their language. He had only heard the term vod’ika a few times, but he knew it was a reference to a younger sibling.
As he looked through more and more memories he saw that the clones did in fact see her as a younger sibling. He had seen how she stood protectively over the unconscious trooper when he had first met her. It was clear that the feeling was mutual.
He dove back into the memories of the clone. He lost all track of time as he looked through every memory that seemed relevant.
Finally he came to a point that was tainted in darkness.
“Ahsoka has been arrested for bombing the jedi temple.”
Maul curiously pursued this string of memories.
“She would never do that!” A clone with a 5 tattooed on his temple raged.
“She wasn’t even on world when it happened.” Jesse pointed out.
The blonde clone in front of them shook his head.
“I don’t know what’s going on. Fox won’t answer my calls.”
“Then how about we go down to the prison and ask Ahsoka what happened?” The clone with the 5 asked.
“Because Fives, we can’t just march in there. That could make things even worse. Besides, Skywalker already tried and they denied him access.”
“Ok but they can’t actually think she would do this right?” Jesse asked. “I mean the order is all she knows, why would she attack it?”
The blonde clones readied to answer before his com began to flash.
“Meet me at the prison Rex.” Skywalker’s voice came through the com.
“Yes sir.”
Maul moved through the memory until once again felt a burst of anger.
“They threw her out of the order?!” Fives roared.
“And the Jedi are leaving her fate up to the damn senate?” Jesse demanded.
The other troopers in the barracks also had varying looks of rage and fear on their faces. Rex was pacing in front of the two ARC troopers, clearly as agitated as the rest of them.
The jedi order cast her out?
He knew that she survived her trial because he had just met her. She was wielding lightsabers, though they were blue now instead of the green in this clone’s memory. She mentioned bringing him into Kenobi and the Council as well.
He pressed the last part of the memory.
Ahsoka was standing in front of the clone troopers with her arms wrapped around her front. She had tear tracks on her face and her shoulders were hung low.
“I left the order.”
Her quiet voice rang loud in the silence of the barracks.
“I-I won’t be coming back as your commander.”
The troopers around him shifted. For many of them, she had been there the whole time they had been in the 501st. Few were still alive to remember when it was just General Skywalker. Losing their commander sounded like losing a limb in a way, a vital part of their battalion.
But they weren’t just losing their commander, they were losing Ahsoka. The one that looked out for them, the one that comforted them and made them laugh and had been a bright light in the darkness of war.
Jesse cursed the Jedi council. First they had sent a child into a war zone, then they had thrown her out to play politics with the senate. They had abandoned her.
Rex stepped forward and pulled her into a hug and the young girl’s shoulders shook with quiet sobs.
One by one she approached the troopers to say goodbye. Many were as upset as she was and her last act was to comfort them.
When she finally made her way to Jesse, he had 3 items in his hands. Her eyes widened at the 3 flimsi novels he was holding out to her.
“You’re gonna need something to entertain you without us around.” He told her with a small smile.
“Jesse, I can’t take these, they’re yours.” She said as she stared up at him wide eyed.
“Exactly, they are mine and I can do what I want with them. So I’m letting you have them. For now.” He pressed the books into her hands. “You’ll have to come and give these back to me eventually.”
She opened her mouth but he cut her off.
“This isn’t goodbye vod’ika, this is until we meet again.”
Her eyes glistened and she lunged forward to wrap her arms around his middle. He hugged her back.
Maul pulled away from the memory.
Ahsoka Tano had left the Jedi order. She was here for him, but not necessarily for the Jedi. The Jedi who were too blind to see that they were already defeated. He could use that to his advantage. Ahsoka possessed many great skills. She could help him. She might be the only one that would help him.
As he prepared to pull out of the clone’s mind, he felt a strange presence. Something dark.
Curious, he followed the presence of darkness. Images flashed across his view, images of Tano dead on the ground with blaster bolts in her chest. Flashes of Jesse firing at her and Skywalker. He realized that these were nightmares. Nightmares of him killing his jedi leaders.
‘Good soldiers follow orders.’
That phrase got stronger the further into the dark presence Maul pressed. There seemed to be another barrier around this dark place. Maul prodded at it, surprised at its strength. For some reason it reminded him of his old master’s presence. He attacked this barrier with more ferocity. Suddenly, something cracked inside the clone’s mind.
The dark presence disappeared.
Maul searched the clone’s mind for it, but it was gone.
Strange.
He mentally shook himself. Time was of essence and he had gotten what he needed.
He pulled away from the clone who had long since fallen silent. As soon as Maul had retreated to his own head, the clone’s legs gave out and he fell to the floor.
“Thank you for your cooperation.” Maul told him as he turned away.
His old plan for taking down Sidious might have been scrapped, but a new one was forming. Now all he needed was Tano.