A Reluctant Sith

Chap 2

K'Ahrie spent the night in a small room. A private bathroom. Shower. And a decent bed. No windows.

She had been directed down a long hallway with gates opening in front and closing behind as she moved.

Her internal clock told her it was morning on Coruscant when the voice woke her. Told her to get dressed in the orange jumpsuit. And that breakfast would be waiting in the room she had met Rex in the day before.

It wasn't the worst meal she had ever had.

She put the cuffs on the table where she was told and the magnetic locks engaged. The generic looking man walked out of the lift and disappeared back into it with the empty tray and plates.

Several minutes passed before Rex appeared. Wearing different clothes, but carrying the same tablet.

"How was your night?" Rex asked.

"Better than I deserve."

"How's the food?"

"Comparable to what was served by Star Destroyer chow halls."

"That bad?"

K'Ahrie looked Rex in the eyes as he sat down. "You say that like you know. Were you ever on a ship I visited?"

"We're not here to talk about me."

"With these Force binders on my wrists and around my neck, you are a blank slate to me. But, at some point I am going to start expecting to have my questions answered if you wish for me to continue participating."

"True," Rex replied. "But, not at this moment. Help me trust you. If you could ask a question, what would it be?"

"Where are we?"

"That I can't tell you. Not now. Where do you think we are?"

"On a ship," K'Ahrie replied.

Rex smiled. "That's not a difficult thing for someone as experienced as yourself to work out."

"Give me time and I will figure it out on my own."

"Knowing what I know about you, I expect you to tell me very soon. Let me ask you some questions."

K'Ahrie leaned back in her chair as far as she could and nodded.

"Vader made you an apprentice along with one of your brothers. He gave you a name. Darth ..."

"Stop," K'Ahrie said. "I never want to hear that name again."

Rex tapped his fingers on the tablet.

"K'Ahrie, then?"

"Ahrie is fine. The K is an indicator of my family's prominence."

Rex looked at her for a moment with an odd look. And then realized what she meant. "You're a princess."

"In your parlance, yes. My father's bloodline. I have no brothers. Leadership of the clan would have fallen to me."

"Is it a title then? Or part of your name?"

"Both."

"Ahrie it is, then. Tell me why your team was on that planetoid?"

"The others, they didn't make it. Did they?"

Rex' eyes lowered. "No. I'm sorry."

"Vader told us there would be no resistance. Running into a plasma canon didn't leave us with many options. To turn back and return would have meant painful deaths for all of us."

"Did you know about the trap that Palpatine had set for the Alliance fleet?"

"No. Had no idea there was going to be a battle at all. We were told to gain entry and destroy the facility and everyone and everything in it. That we had a specific time in which we had to act. I suspected Vader wasn't telling us everything. That he knew we were walking into a trap. I suspected that on every mission, though."

"I will tell you this," Rex said. "All of the targets your teams hit that day were designed as traps. None of the attacks, except yours, did we know about ahead of time. My spies were so focused on you, that we knew where you were going. We assumed it was a one-off mission to take out what we had convinced Palpatine was there."

"Any other survivors?" Ahrie asked.

"We suspect three or four escaped from various locations. Every team ran into plasma canons."

The faces of everyone she knew as sisters and brothers flashed before her eyes. Her mind raced thinking of who would have made it out of a trap. "I ... I had hoped there was some way out for us. For some number of us. Not that it would end like this. Even if it's what Sidious had planned for us all along."

"Tell me what happened before they stunned you."

"When Vader killed Sidious. Picked him up and threw him off the bridge. I could feel his death. In my mind. Intense pain. And then silence. It was disorienting not having his mind inside mine. And then Vader died. Another shock. I'm ... I'm still struggling with it. As we sit here and talk I am discovering parts of myself they kept suppressed for so long."

"How did you know how Palpatine died?" Rex asked. "You couldn't have possibly known that."

"I saw it." Ahrie replied. "Sidious and Vader had each bored a hole into my mind and dropped an anchor. They were a constant presence. They each became a part of me. At certain times, I was able to peer back through that connection into their minds. Their worlds. When Vader and Luke started their duel, Vader's emotions were so strong I found it difficult to pay attention to our mission."

Rex typed furiously on the tablet.

"Ahrie, I have been asked to get from you an account of all of your missions."

"Kills. You want me to tell you the story of everyone I tortured and or killed."

Rex nodded. "Yes."

"That will take some time," Ahrie replied. Her gaze shifted to her hands as Rex could see the sadness develop on her face.

"We have the time. And we can go as slow or as fast as you want. My intention isn't to harm ..."

"Will confessing my crimes bring me absolution?" Ahrie asked. Rex realized that was a serious question. That she was burdened by a naiveté caused by years of total isolation and mind control.

"Alone, no. But, it will lighten the load a little. Put you in a position, when you walk out of here, to start the path toward seeking forgiveness. Possibly, even some amount of redemption."

"I'm going to walk out of here?" She's not entirely naive, Rex thought.

"It's hard to imagine," Rex said. "Being in your position. If you cooperate fully with us, and the powers that be trust you will not be a threat, then yes. We don't want to be doing this to you. Help us, help you."

"I understand," Ahrie said. "I will do what you ask."

"Let's start at the beginning. What was the first mission you were sent on?"

Ahrie leaned back and closed her eyes. "I spent the first year cleaning up the ranks. Removing problems from the chains of command. Captain Tuhrlach was my first. And three of his command officers."

Rex nodded and typed on the tablet.

"I'm not telling you anything you don't know," Ahrie continued. "You have access to all of the reports I completed." A statement of fact. Not a question. "And everything every person on that ship wrote in their own reports and logs."

"We do. But one thing I know very well, action reports from the field often leave out vital points."

Ahrie nodded. "Captain Tuhrlach was dealing with pirates. Selling Imperial equipment, weapons, supplies. Vader sent me to investigate and retaliate. Being my first outing, Vader told me the fastest way to a crew's respect and compliance, was terror. I provide no defense for my actions. Only that they happened."

"Understood," Rex said. "Please, continue."

"I dropped out of light and landed in the hangar unannounced."