darkforcerising | OPEN POST

He blinked at the kiss and didn't quite have time to return it before Anakin was gone, but it wasn't as though he were upset by it. He followed Anakin to the table, took the other chair and slid into it.

"Then start with Scariff. "

He was actually pretty sure he could be okay through this. Anakin giving him time was appreciated, he expected horrible news, but -

He'd cope.

They had more equipment than just Anakin’s phone by now. He picked up the data pad on the table and called up the current information about the planet Scariff.

“The Empire is building a facility to house and manage information about... everything. It’s like a non-Force version of the Jedi Temple library. In fact, a lot of the information stolen from the Temple is moved here. It’s everything the Empire doesn’t want to be common knowledge... especially information about top secret research projects.

“Do you remember that giant kyber crystal we found on Utapau that Grevious was trying to take off planet?”

The information about the Temple Archives was interesting, slightly... wistful in his response, definitely frustrated about it, but nothing he got 'stuck' on.

Since Anakin was debriefing him, it stood to reason that Anakin knew the information was on the datapad.

So he took it from Anakin and started to read.

He did stop when Anakin spoke, looked up and met his eyes directly. It wasn't a weighted or pointed gaze, simply showing that Anakin had his attention, that he wasn't distracted, that he was present, listening, and hearing.

"I do. I assume it's related to research?"

“Yes.” A breath. “It was meant for a weapon powerful enough to destroy a planet.” He paused to let the weight of that settle.

That was an awful lot of weight to settle.

That was terrifying.

Why would even the Empire want to destroy a planet? No, don't answer that, he's quite happy with his ignorance on that front, and he could imagine answers if he wanted to.

"I'm going to assume that this being the first I've heard of it means that this weapon isn't ready to go live, now, but that you bringing it up means that it will be. What is our time frame and what do we need to stop this?"

“A little less than nineteen years. There are set backs. We destroyed that crystal on Utapau, so the Empire is sourcing other locations to find kyber crystals. That’s why they’ve taken Ilum. They also take Jedha for the same purpose.”

Should he tell Obi-Wan Alderaan’s fate?

But how to stop it... there were possibilities.

“It’s currently being constructed in orbit around Geonosis. The Geonosians first developed the designs, and Palpatine took it during the War... the lead engineer is not loyal to the Empire. He was an officer in the military’s weapons research and development branch. He tried to leave but the Empire hunted him down and forced him back into service. The weapon was ultimately destroyed because of his effort to build a design flaw into it...

“We might be able to use him.”

"Do you know why he tried to leave the Empire?"

That may help inform them and - Force he felt teadily worse about the knowledge in Anakin's head, the more he understands it and the deeper the separation between him and Vader became.

Worse for Anakin.

More... quietly angry at Vader.

“Ideological difference. He helped with our weapons development during the War. He served the Republic. Then Palpatine turned the Republic into an Empire, started oppressing people. He took his family and tried to hide. When the Empire found him, they killed his wife, but his daughter was never found.”

He sighed. “I think... he thought that the project would be completed eventually even without him and that his best option was working towards building in that design flaw. But that’s conjecture. He leaked the information about the flaw, and then was executed for it.”

"He may well be right, and what he did may be the best option for what we do going forward." At least at the moment, he was still turning things over in his mind.

He finally, though, reached out and pointedly put his hand over the back of Anakin's and pressed down. Then simply carried on.

"Why that planet?"

“It’s remote, accessible by only one hyperspace lane. It’s in the Outer Rim so the Imperial Senate doesn’t know about it. It’s also uninhabited and small enough to construct a planetary shield to protect it. So it’s easy to defend.” Mostly, suicide missions aside.

“I don’t think we should destroy it. The Empire will just find another location... I think we should infiltrated it with our own network of informants.”

"I certainly would hope you don't think we should destroy the planet." That would be a bit counterproductive, though at least it's uninhabited.

He realized, not for the first time, just how Good at this stuff Anakin is, and that it isn't all coming from Vader's memories.

Infiltration made him feel tired, but that was hardly new, and it was - "Do you have someone specific in mind, or is this general strategy planning?"

Anakin made a face. "I meant the facility."

For a moment, he wondered if Obi-Wan made that conclusion because of his Vader memories, but pushed his feelings about that aside. Even if Obi-Wan had assumed he was using a 'nuclear' option because that's how he'd thought, as Vader, for so long, he couldn't blame Obi-Wan for thinking it. Even he knew he shared similarities with Vader - not this in particular - but in other ways.

"I do have someone, or some people in mind. They might say no... but I think some of them will want to be a part of working against the Empire... Padme's former handmaidens. The infiltrators will need to be human." And obviously all of her handmaiden were that. "Her handmaidens are combat trained and in self defence. They are already skilled at hiding in plain sight and in subterfuge - in a good way. They know how to gather information and they are already used to working with each other and as a team in general. I think they would pick up on any other skills necessary to be long term spies in that setting."

The real hell of it was... he didn't even believe Vader was capable of destroying a planet. He understood the weapon was created and destroyed. That it was used? Probably. That Vader was capable? Was not a thing he even considered. Certainly not a heavily populated one.

Certainly he didn't think Anakin was.

"I assumed as much. The Handmaidens are a good idea." He hated it. "Will they be willing?"

Every option was terrible, because every option involved a person who would potentially be discovered, killed at best, tortured for information at worst. And a person tortured was a person who could jeopardize all that they were working towards.

"Yes. I think so. Sabe, absolutely. There are ten others still alive. I think at least six or seven would be open to helping us. Or just helping Bail if they can't do Scarif specifically. The trouble will be finding Sabe, but if we get her, we'll definitely get the others. I think I know a way to find her."

It was particularly unpleasant knowing that Vader didn't know where Sabe was, so finding her would mean exposing her.

Then again they had already changed... a lot, and had almost definitely made the Empire paranoid. There was no longer any total reliance on what Vader had thought, or known, or done. There hadn't been since they first left Tatooine.

He had his own thoughts, but he wanted to hear Anakin's first.

"How?"

He braced for Obi-Wan to object. "... It will involve going to Padme's grave- or someone going for us to put something there."

"You are not going anywhere near Padme's grave," he said, flatly. "What do you want someone to put there?"

Anakin tried not to look disappointed, he knew why he couldn't. Just like he knew why he couldn't go visit his mother's grave.

"I made Padme a charm before I left Tatooine when I was nine. I can make another one. Padme only ever wore it privately, Palpatine would never know what it is or meant. Just about no one on Naboo or in the Empire would know. But her handmaidens would recognize it. I guarantee Sabe is watching Padme's grave."

He stopped moving and stopped breathing to look up at Anakin, just for a moment. It was such a small thing, but-

He knew Vader wouldn't know what he was about to say.

"She gave it to me. Just as she died. I didn't know what it was, but it was...." It was a lot of things, and imbued with so many emotions. "I buried it with her. It's a good idea to use to find Sabe."

Maybe after it was over they could both visit her grave.

"Oh," Anakin said softly. And he looked down. He did not know that. He knew talking about Padme in any ways would be a cut to their emotions, he just didn't expect something this deep.

"I can change the pattern enough to make it a code, a hidden message that can reveal a way for her to contact us. Sabe is brilliant, she'll figure it out."

He paused, blinked a few times and then pressed on.

"With people in Scarif, Bail will know everything the Empire wants to keep secret. The non-Force related things."

He moved his hand on Anakin's, just a bit, to wrap his fingers around Anakin's wrist and squeeze firmly, but gently.

"She will figure it out and she should be willing to contact me, at least and she'll likely believe that I am who is leaving the message. Which means she will at least be concerned that there is something with Luke." Which would not go ignored.

He hoped they didn't get her killed.

He hoped they didn't get Bail killed.

"And Bail is a force in and of himself. With information more so."

Anakin moved his hand so that he caught Obi-Wan's fingers. He knew he wasn't alone. Obi-Wan wasn't alone either. And they were essentially gathering more and more people to make themselves not alone.

He picked up that hand and held it in both hands against his mouth. And now he was sort of staring off into the middle distance, because he didn't want to discuss the next topic, but it had to be done.

"Scarif done, check. Now Exegol."

That was an amazingly telling gesture. That it was telling of Anakin being willing to take some degree of comfort from him was nice.

That it was a prelude to something Anakin needed the comfort to talk about, less so.

"I'm here and listening," he said, simply and while watching Anakin. Not warily but with concern.

Exegol was difficult because dismantling an Empire was easy compared to dismantling a Sith stronghold. Especially one guarded by Palpatine.

“Exegol is the secret Sith planet the Jedi never found when they thought the’d wiped out the Sith a thousand years ago. It’s where they hid from the Jedi for so long. Palpatine uses it as a back up for Scarif, and Sith experiments. Back up bodies for transferring his consciousness if he loses the one he has now. It’s also his back up if the Empire fails. He has enough resources there to essentially create another galactic armada.

“To kill Palpatine, we have to destroy everything on Exegol.”

The good news was, that the news was horrible and horrifying enough that it made the hair on the back of his neck stand up and that in turn meant destroying everything sounded like a perfectly good idea.

The bad news was: "While I was recovering and ... Anakin." Mind trip there, because this was not the same Anakin, for him, at all " and Ahsoka went to stop Grieveous at Bothawui, we received intelligence that sent Bail and I to Zigoola in search of a Holocron. I spent very nearly the entire time I was there hallucinating and being weakened by one artifact projecting the dark side." He has no idea how much of this Anakin ever knew to remember. It had been during a war and he'd still been trying to protect Anakin, more than talk to him honestly. It was a mistake, but it was made and he wasn't repeating it.

"I have no idea how to move forward in light of that."

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