The Tragic Jedi | Anakin Skywalker

𝓢𝓬𝓮𝓷𝓮 𝟕𝟖

"𝑺𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒏𝒐 𝒍𝒐𝒚𝒂𝒍𝒕𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒓 𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒆𝒙𝒄𝒆𝒑𝒕 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇. 𝑺𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒍𝒆𝒇𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒋𝒂𝒊𝒍." -- 𝑮𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒍 𝑫𝒓𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒐𝒏 𝑱𝒚𝒏 𝑬𝒓𝒔𝒐

❈✱❉✤❈✱❉

The next three months were both torturously slow and alarmingly fast. Astrid continued to play her role as Bail's advisor, attending events, parties, and senate sessions, but each time she felt as if she was playing with fire.

Here she was, a furtive Jedi in the middle of a lion's den, the Sith-controlled Imperial Palace, waiting to be discovered and captured. Astrid felt as if she was tempting fate.

Whenever she spotted Darth Vader at any of the events-- which was rare, since he was often away, trying to capture rebels-- Astrid immediately left. Bail always went along, but Astrid could tell he was confused by her sudden adamantation to leave the event. Astrid suspected he knew her sudden onslaught of fear was directly correlated to Vader's appearances, but Bail didn't quite know why she was suddenly so afraid of the Sith Lord.

Bail must've chalked it up to Vader's earlier threat to her children, who Astrid continued to miss. Astrid couldn't help but wonder how Obi-Wan was faring with Luke and Leia. It couldn't be easy. She longed to see the twins, but she was afraid her presence there would endanger them.

Meanwhile, Mon Mothma sought to find Jyn Erso through her network of rebels and through her spies scattered throughout the Imperial military. As far as Astrid was aware, the Senator has been unsuccessful in finding Jyn. Astrid could tell Bail was getting anxious about this increasingly apparent inability to find Galen's daughter.

"Perhaps we should just go to Saw Gerrera without Jyn Erso," Bail suggested to Astrid one night when he'd visited the summer house to check up on everyone. The two of them and Cleo were seated at the dining room table, picking at a dinner of balsamic chicken, seasoned green beans, and roasted rosemary potatoes.

Astrid shook her head in disagreement. "That would be a waste of our time. Galen specifically mentioned his daughter was required to be there."

"I don't understand why she is a key player here," Bail groused. He cut into his chicken with a knife in a frustrated manner.

Cleo interjected, "Perhaps Galen believes his daughter will be a good judge on whether or not our cause is worthy enough to risk this knowledge getting out. The knowledge must be about the Death Star. Maybe Galen wants to make sure we are able to, well, rebel effectively against the Empire, so as to not waste whatever efforts he has put into whatever he had done with this Death Star."

It was all quite confusing, since they didn't know what exactly Galen Erso had done with the Death Star. He must've put some sort of weak spot inside the Death Star's construction, though, since he apparently wasn't loyal to the Empire-- that is, judging by his willingness to help them.

"Jyn is the judge," Astrid added with a nod of agreement to Cleo's guess. "If she doesn't approve of us, then she won't help us get the information from Saw." She paused as another thought occurred to her. "Or maybe Saw Gerrera will only give Jyn Erso the information he has on the Death Star."

They settled into silence, all of them stewing over this until Bail had to leave for his residence in the Alderaan palace. After he left, Astrid and Cleo both went to their respective rooms to sleep.

Astrid slipped into her moonlit room and quickly tugged on Anakin's maroon shirt that she'd stolen from his old room in the Imperial palace. The shirt fell to her mid-thigh. She'd begun wearing it at night because it brought her a sense of comfort. Of course, she still wore the japor snippet necklace Anakin had given her.