Back From the Future: Episode VI The Clone Wars - Ariel_Sojourner

Ahsoka Observes and Learns Some Important Lessons

XIX.

Palpatine sends Cade Bane to hunt down and kill the rogue Jedi making peace of all things. He can't have Jedi making peace. He is passively aggressively getting everyone to believe the Jedi are behind the war to gain power while simultaneously using the war to kill them off one by one. Given his past victories against the Order, Palpatine is sure Bane won't fail.

Bane fails and fails miserably in his mission for several reasons that Palpatine with all his vaunted foresight cannot foresee. First, Luke is experienced in dealing with bounty hunters. They have hunted Han for years and sometimes they were also chasing Luke due to the enormous bounty Vader put on his head. Luke has faced some of the galaxy's best bounty hunters and is prepared for all of Bane's tricks.

("Vader put a bounty on your head?" Fives asks incredulously.

Before Luke can explain, Vader cuts in defensively, "I needed to find my son quickly and at the time he had unwisely chosen to surround himself with unscrupulous rebels and criminals."

Luke huffs. "My friends are not criminals."

Even with his mask on it is clear that Vader is giving him a Look.

Luke stubbornly refuses to back down. "Leia says that rebelling against an illegal government is not a crime. It is the duty of every sentient to fight tyranny especially if the tyrant is running the government."

"I should–should ground you for saying such treasonous lies! You sound like a-a Separatist!"

"Father, you are pretending to be a Separatist right now!"

"Do not get in between them when they start talking politics," Rex advises Ahsoka firmly, as she nervously fingers her lightsabers as the argument grows more heated. "Sometimes I don't think even they know what side they are on other than on the same side together, whatever side that is.")

Second, Bane fails because Vader no longer cares about waiting to attack the enemy or giving fair warning. Bane came to kill his son. Bane has nearly killed Ahsoka and Padme before. Bane is now dead meat.

Third, Bane didn't expect Force sensitive clones, battle trained, unpredictable and very protective of their new teacher. They may not be skilled yet at saber play, but the three clone brothers move in sync with each other and with speed and vicious strength that would impress accomplished Jedi.

(Vader wants Luke to take away Hardcase's second lighstaber. He's going to stab the wrong person if he is not careful. He's going to stab Luke and then Vader cannot be held responsible for what he will do. Luke resolves to asks Ahsoka for help with Hardcase's obsession with having two lightsabers as soon as she stops looking at him like she wants to hit him.)

Fourth, Bane also didn't expect Ventress.

Bane ends up very, very dead.

XX.

Ahsoka had spent the last few days watching as patiently as she could and she still wasn't sure what was going on. Right now she sat a few meters away from where Luke was teaching Fives, Hardcase, and Chatterbox some basic blocks and strikes with their new lightsabers. There was just something off about the whole thing.

(Ahsoka had already noticed that Luke didn't bother to change the intensity of his lightsaber when practicing so that it would burn but not maim or kill. Luke practiced with a full powered blade and his students followed suit. Ahsoka had never seen any Jedi train at full strength with a fellow Jedi, let alone an apprentice. When she tentatively asked if there was any reason why he trained at full power, Luke looked surprised and chagrined. He turned his lightsaber over and over in his gloved palm.