Force Awakens AU-verse

[grandadmiralartcritic]

There's never enough time to prepare for a war you didn't (quite) know was coming. But given Milliways tends to stop time while a person is in it, Thrawn has taken his datapad full of files, after action reports, and star maps, and made his way into the bar proper.

And given that it is unwise to appear as if one is hiding, he chooses to occupy a table right at the heart of this multiversal cantina.

Caf is welcome, but food is most definitely secondary to absorbing as much information as he can.

Comments

[for_everyone]

"But the Empire did," she says.

"That doesn't seem to be a deal breaker for you."

[grandadmiralartcritic]

"I had my orders, direct from the Aristocra. That mission finished once you and yours mopped up the rest of the Imperials. I have received no orders since, nor will I."

All things have a cost.

"Thus my own judgment is what guides me now. I doubt that is comforting for you, but there is not much I can see at this time to ameliorate that. Save truth, perhaps."

[for_everyone]

"And what is that truth?"

Her voice is dull, thudding. Maybe too tired to be exasperated now.

"Because I doubt your judgment puts any value in the ideals of the Resistance or the First Order."

[grandadmiralartcritic]

"I wish," he says, very precisely, "to be of use. Should your Resistance choose to do that, I will serve your wishes as thoroughly and uncompromisingly as I served those of the Aristocra."

It will, by this point, be something of a relief.

"Until your side is victorious, or until there is no one left to muster a fight."

[for_everyone]

Flat –

"I don't believe that."

[grandadmiralartcritic]

"The more I try to convince you, the less believable you will find it."

His color has deepened back to its normal hue.

"My loyalty to the Chiss was bred in my bones. I have no such ties in this part of the galaxy, and it is such loyalty and such connections that has defined first the Rebellion and then, most likely, your Resistance. I have only my skills and the strength of my word, the latter of which, I suspect, will only be believed once there is action behind it. And that . . . is where the problem lies."

[for_everyone]

"I know what your loyalty is."

Hera looks up to him. Her voice has changed – no longer tired, but crisp, and certain. For a moment, the weariness she had seemed to carry with her since the war melts away, her eyes holding all the conviction they'd had in an interrogation room so many years ago.

"And I believe you think you're telling the truth now. But I don't think it's true. I think you will help us, as much as you can, for as long as you see the First Order as the greater threat to your idea of stability in this galaxy. And maybe that will never change. But if it does, the moment it does –"

It's the only moment she pauses, though she sounds no less certain for it. "– you will turn on me."

[grandadmiralartcritic]

"Then we appear to be at an impasse. No protestations from me seem as if they will sway you."

Thrawn spreads his hands, watching Hera out of his burning crimson eyes.

"I do not say that is unfair. Does this mean we will not be working together? Or is it rather, as they say, 'fair warning' that you will always be ready for whatever move I may make?"

[for_everyone]

"I wish I could say either of those."

That weariness starts to slip back in. "But we will work together, and I can't say that I'll always be ready for you."

[grandadmiralartcritic]

"Mmm."

Thrawn inclines his head again, smile wiped away as if it had never been.

"Perhaps the former will help improve your success rate with the latter."

It would certainly make things easier, on the whole. For a given value of 'easy'.

[for_everyone]

"I wouldn't trust that."

She sees no value in assuming she could always anticipate what Thrawn might do.

"But I can accept that I'm the one who should have this responsibility."

[grandadmiralartcritic]

"The battles ahead will be far too difficult for me to waste effort in attempting to slip my leash."

He misses challenges, viscerally and completely. And smashing the First Order into its component pieces will be a very great challenge.

[for_everyone]

She takes a breath, as though biting back one response. Instead -

"I wouldn't underestimate you."

[grandadmiralartcritic]

"No," he agrees, voice low and cool and almost amused. "I would hardly expect you to. Which should serve the both of us very well."

[for_everyone]

Hera doesn't speak at first. There doesn't seem to be anything more to say – nothing about this back and forth is going to change anything. Nothing he says is going to lessen her doubts about him. She leans back in her seat, and lowers her head for a moment. What does she want from this?

Eventually, "I do hope you're telling the truth."

Another pause. "But you told me hope has no place in this."

[grandadmiralartcritic]

"Not for me," Thrawn agrees.

"But for others . . . "

He gestures toward the front door.

"Only one of us lives in a prison beyond those doors. And so."

[for_everyone]

"Do you regret that?"

Her voice grows softer as she asks it. "Do you think the Republic should have made a different decision?"

[grandadmiralartcritic]

"My answer would have been different half a decade ago," Thrawn allows, after a long silence.

"But now, no."

Having purpose again, constrained or not by Hera Syndulla's presence and orders --

It is worth a great deal.

"Perhaps that is something you regret?"

[for_everyone]

There's no measure to her words now.

"I really hope you don't make me."

[grandadmiralartcritic]

"I do not plan on it," Thrawn says mildly.

Perhaps it will be easier to believe once he has reinforced it with action.

Or perhaps not.

[for_everyone]

"Maybe," she allows.

"But I have to wonder if some part of you is still curious as to what could break me."

[grandadmiralartcritic]

"Perhaps," Thrawn allows, after a moment. "But no more than I am curious about what, in the end, might break me."

Thrawn's voice is cool, for he has had a great deal of time to ponder such questions, in his prison.

"A warrior does what he must to defeat his foes. And we are not on opposite sides now."

[for_everyone]

"I'm not sure that means we're on the same side."

Hera sighs, closing her eyes and pressing her hand to her forehead for a moment.

As she lowers it, "We also won't be using the the kind of tactics the Empire permitted."

[grandadmiralartcritic]

"No civilian casualties, no terror campaigns, sacrificial troops to be used only at direst need and by calling for volunteers . . . "

He pauses, considering.

"I wonder, Hera Syndulla, if you have ever looked over the details of my battles against pirates before rose to my former rank within the Empire? If not, it might prove illustrative."

[for_everyone]

"I did, after the war."

She tilts her head. "But I'd like to hear what you'd say about them."