Loyalty AU-where surviving is a team effort-Revised version

Loyalty, or where two people find themselves at odds with what they want to believe and the reality of their beliefs and situation.

Au of where Aresko and Tua somehow live.

 The only thing the Empire understands, is Fear.
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  Tua didn't know what to think anymore as she stared blankly at the elevator doors, cataloguing the small scratches and indents in the metal, left there from years of use. The low hum of electricity had become a white-noise in the small interior and created a tranquil atmosphere, not that it helped much to calm the young Minister's nerves. 'How could everything go so wrong, so fast?' Maketh questioned, the troubled thought loud in her brain. She quickly answered herself though, and her mind spat out the answer, the two syllables sounding like a curse word, and a particularly vile one at that. The very mention of that name left a small sneer on her face and a feeling of anger burn through her petite body.

   'Tarkin.'

  For the past several months, nearly a year in total, Lothal had been plagued by a particularly strong rebel threat, headed by a Jedi no less, and their sabatoge had embarrassed and weakened their garrison. The miscreants had been too cunning and slipped from their grasp too many times and their small Outer-Rim Base wasn't trained for this type of problem. Even with an ISB Agent and an Inquisitor the Rebels always seemed to be one step ahead of them at every skirmish. They had swallowed their wounded pride and several weeks ago Lothal Base had asked for additional support in helping secure the Rebel threat. They had thought they were getting better armaments and fresh Stormtroopers, they were sorely mistaken.

 Instead of extra troopers they had gotten Grand Moff Tarkin and his harsh brand of "help". The only thing that had been accomplished in his first week here was having a dead Taskmaster, a broken Commandant and a dead Inquisitor. 'Oh, can't forget the Star Destroyer that crashed and burned on Mustafar.', Tua thought darkly, her head shaking in disgust, and Tarkin still had the gall to say the rebels were no threat.

  Tarkin had called them all failures when he first came here, and yet his failures did more to embarrass the Empire than they ever did. His underestimation of the rebels and overestimation of himself had cost the lives of thousands of soldiers and billions of credits in lost Imperial weaponry. The whole fiasco was also broadcasted throughout the area, and let every Star System in the Mustafar Region and beyond know what had happened. This in turn, put the Empire in a position of suggested weakness, the exact thing that they didn't want to happen in the first place.

  'What a hypocrite.' she fumed, her small hands grasping the datapads she carried tightly, the thin metal creaking ever so slightly with the strength of her grip. She had let go though, fearing she would break them.

  The elevator suddenly came to a stop, and the light jerk knocked her out of her angry reverie. And with her thoughts somewhat clear she quickly walked out of the cramped elevator and to her destination, wanting to get to the Commandant's new office as soon as possible. With it's overbearing and tense atmosphere, she wanted to get out of the corridor as quickly as she could.

  The narrow grey walls felt constricting with every step, and the powerful artificial lights that were imbedded within the durasteel were bright and unforgiving to her eyes. Imperial HQ had never been a warm and welcoming place to begin with, but now...now it felt even more oppressive than ever before.

  Pretty soon she seen a couple of lone Stormtroopers on Night Patrols, their white armor was bright and nearly blinding under the lighting. With the orange pauldrons that adorned on their shoulders they signified they were a part Lothal's Garrison, and not one of Tarkin's men, which put her at ease. Tarkin's Stormtroopers were just like their commander himself, harsh and cruel and didn't care for civilians, much less a Civilian Minister.

  Once the two stormtroopers were close enough they saluted her. Arms rigid, sharply bent elbows, fingers perfectly straight and barely touching their helmets. The proper Stormtrooper salute. And Tua lightly bowed back in return, formality always at the forefront of her every interaction.

 "Good evening, Minister." one of them said, his raspy voice was slightly muffled but still very audible. Maketh knew who was under that Stormtrooper helmet, the gravelly voice giving him away.

  "Good evening, Captain Jarel. How's patrol going?" Tua asked, attempting to make small talk with the Captain she had known for several years. It was a small interaction, but Tua enjoyed talking to people she somewhat knew, and familiarity was a comfort that was slowly disappearing on Lothal.

  "Pretty good, Minister. The only exciting thing that happened was when Sergeant Esso got scared of a Lothcat during the Perimeter Check." Said the Captain, slightly laughing and lightly elbowing the younger Stormtrooper next to him. Seeing the stormtrooper get jumped on by a startled Loth-cat and falling straight on his ass was the highpoint of this otherwise mundane night. The the thin scratches on the sergeant's helmet still very visible to the naked eye, and would take some serious buffing to get them out.

Esso groaned heavily and slumped his shoulders but took the teasing with stride, knowing his Captain meant nothing malicious. Still, Esso was embarrassed about it and wished the captain would quit telling everybody what had happened to him. It quit being funny after the third telling, and this was the fourth time he told people.


  Tua chuckled at the younger Stormtrooper's misfortune and bid them both a safe evening, knowing she had to get back to work as well. Once that was over and the Stormtroopers left for their duties, she was left alone again. This time, however, with a small feeling of happiness in her mind, Tua was glad there were still some people that respected her position of authority.


  The walk to his office was longer now, thanks to its new location and she quickened her pace until the brisk footfalls were loud against the metal corridor and her ears. Tua felt uneasy in the hallway, feeling as though someone was watching her every move even though she knew she was the only person there.

'The walls have eyes and ears now Minister, don't forget that.' She said to herself, the comment that Agent Kallus said days ago in a casual conversation had become a mantra in her mind. A warning that her questions, comments and small talk were being monitored, scrutinized, and stacked against her. It chilled her to the bone, knowing that any candid conversation she might have with a friend about the new changes or a small, offhand comment on how differently things were being run here could send her in line with a harsh reprimand, or worse.

  Maketh knew of several Junior Officers that had been sacked and replaced for their outspoken, and yet assumed confidential comments against Tarkin's new policies, and she didn't want to be one of them.

  Tua kept her head held high, and tried to keep a semblance of composure on her face, making sure that she looked untroubled for the unseen eye. She knew Imperial HQ had been bugged in several places but she didn't know where though. As far as Tarkin was concerned that information was classified, even to her. Even though, as Minister of Lothal, she was equal to the rank of commander and was, supposedly, privy to all Base policy changes.


 Soon, Tua was at the door to the Commandant's office and was ready to go in, but as her finger was poised to press the buzzer and make her presence known to the occupant inside, she hesitated, finger stopping just short of the button. Tua was nervous about entering and thought about the man inside. Maketh hoped he would be willing to see her after what had happened nearly two months ago and was anxious to see him up close after so long.

  The memories of that day, and the sights and sounds that came with it, would haunt her for the rest of her life.

   After what had happened in Tarkin's office, he was more distant and colder than he ever had been before. Aresko shunned nearly all contact with the few companions he had left and lashed out at lesser officers that got too close to him, giving them their orders and walking away quickly. In one unfortunate incident Yogar Lyste had come up from behind the Commander and grabbed his shoulder, unaware of Aresko's newfound haphephobia, and startled him. The young Supply-master ended up with a sharp reprimand and bruised jaw for his mistake.

  She couldn't blame him for his behavior though, seeing a close friend you worked with for several years being killed so unceremoniously like Myles was, and then working close with the man that had him killed in the first place would put anyone on edge.

  'Because, Gods forbid Tarkin let up with his cruelty for even one moment.' She thought, disgustedly.

  In an odd and surprising turn of events, the only person he had any real contact with in the past month and a half was Tarkin himself. No one knew why the Grand Moff had taken Aresko under his wing, and many didn't want to know. As far as they were concerned, it wasn't their place to ask.

  She wanted to know though, and she was going to find out what was going on. That's why she came here in the first place.

  'It's ok Tua, you can do this, it's just like talking to him like old times.' She tried to tell herself, but she knew it wasn't going to be anything like the past, those days were over.

  Tua sighed quietly before pushing the buzzer and making herself know to the occupant inside, and waited for the door to unlock.

  She hoped he would be willing to talk to her after all this time.

    After several long seconds, the door slid open and quickly Tua entered, not wanting to stay in the foreboding hallway longer than she had to, and locked the door behind her, softly sighing in relief at being out of the hallway and in the relative safety of his office. As she looked around though, she discovered Aresko's new office wasn't that welcoming either. It was dim, ulitarian and cold, and while the new office was larger than his old one, the larger size made it even more empty than ever.

  It had no personal belongings, no plaques of his past achievements, nothing, just bare, charcoal grey walls. The only thing of note were several datapads stacked off to one side of a large desk, and the man in the middle of it going over them quickly before putting them away.

  "You wished to see me, Minister?" a monotonous voice rang out, startling her from her scrutiny. Tua was heartbroken, she never heard him sound so...listless before. Sure, Aresko was never a vibrant person in all the years she had known him, but he always greeted her with some enthusiasm in his tone and was happy to see her in the past. Now, he seemed to look through her, barely aware of her presence, and it frightened her. Tua held the datapads she was carrying closer to her chest, using them as a shield.

She walked to his desk to see him better and was saddened even further, she had never seen him look so unhealthy before. In the bright light of the datapad screen Aresko's skin, normally pale to begin with, was ashen and drawn tightly over his face. His eyes were hollow and sunken into his skull, making him look even more ghastly. The Commander's body was thinner, and made his normally form-fitting uniform loose. He looked like he hadn't had a proper meal in weeks.

  The most disturbing thing about his apperance, however, was the wound the Inquisitor gave him.

  After his botched execution, Aresko was left with a horrendous lightsaber scar on the left side of his neck. Heavily discolored against the surrounding flesh, contracted and highly noticable, it was a vivid reminder of his brush with death. Tua didn't know how he survived it.

  "If you're done staring, can you state your business and leave?", Aresko questioned, the annoyance in his voice loud and clear. He hated being stared at and in the past several weeks that's all people did when he was around, that and talk under their breath.

  "You're to go over the new Officer selections list." Tua replied, coming closer to the desk and handing him the portfolios before taking one of the seats in front of him, trying to get comfortable in the chair. "You know, you could have just sent a courier to give me these." The Commander said while giving the datapads a cursory glance before adding them to the ever expanding pile of paperwork.

  "There's no need for you to come here yourself." Aresko stated, wondering why Tua was here in the first place, at this time of night she should have been at home, not delivering paperwork.

  "I know that Commandant-"

  "I'm no longer a Commandant, Minister." Aresko quickly interrupted, correcting her mistake. His tone of voice, cold. "That part of my command was stripped from me, along with nearly everything else."

  'Good job Tua, you just started talking to him and you already made him mad.' This wasn't going well, but she hoped she could salvage the situation.

  "I'm sorry I forgot Cumberlayne, I just wanted to see how you were doing." Tua responded truthfully, using his first name to try and convince him that her visit was something more personal than a mere paperwork delivery. There was no point in lying to him about the visit, it would only make it more difficult for him to open up to her.

  Aresko narrowed his eyes and gave her a doubtful look, wondering why she cared about him, of all people. No one cared about him, no one alive at least. He let it go though, knowing she had nothing to gain by lying to him.

  "As you can see Minister, I'm fine." He lied, a weak smile gracing his thin face, and turn Tua gave him an incredulous look, not believing him for one moment.

  "Don't lie to me Cumberlayne. It looks like you haven't eaten in days." Tua demanded.

  "I said I'm fine, I've eaten my daily Ration Bars." Aresko said, trying to assure her.

  "Those aren't food, that's just something soldiers used on the field to trick their bodies into thinking they ate something." Tua retorted, in disbelief at his stupid decision, and stood up out of the chair.

  Ration Bars were only made with the barest minimum of vitamins and nutrients, and while, theoretically, you could survive on them for some period of time, they weren't advised for replacing actual food and it was generally know as a bad idea to even try that. It wasn't healthy in the slightest.

  "What were you thinking!?" She yelled, standing over the seated commander, startling him and leaving him slightly trembling at Tua's sudden outburst. She didn't know where this sudden burst of anger came from, but she used it to her advantage, and made it clear to him she wasn't taking his lies and wanted the truth from him.

  It worked, for a few seconds, the fear at being yelled at suddenly seemed to leave Aresko vulnerable and willing to tell her what she wanted to hear. But soon that fear turned into anger and he stood up as well, not taking this berating sitting down, and towered over her, using his height as an advantage. Aresko glowered at Tua, blue eyes burning and lips tight with anger. He could feel himself becoming dizzy at the sudden movement, and leaned surreptitiously on the desk and used it as a brace, trying to stay upright and not look weak in front of another person. He knew better than to look vulnerable in front of peers.


  "It saves me the hassle of not wasting my time on making food and gives me more time to do my duties as an Officer. I don't have the luxury of eating properly." Aresko said heatedly, body tensing for a confrontation. He was getting angry now, he didn't liked being questioned like this, and by the Minister no less. Tarkin insulted and talked down to him enough as it was, and he didn't need her yelling at him too. "Why do you care in the first place?"

  "Because I care about YOU, that's why! I came here to see you personally, and I find you nearly emaciated. You're the only person who understands what's really happening here, and I don't want to lose you too." She yelled, before falling back into her chair, arms crossed over her chest in annoyance. She was mad at him for being an idiot and mad at herself for her sudden outburst. Tua didn't think this would have upset her so greatly.

  "What?" Aresko was stunned, he didn't know she felt that way about him. He sat back in his chair, heavily, trying to process the fact that someone cared about him. Him, the failure that lost everything and got his friend killed in the process.

  "I-I didn't know you felt that way." Cumberlayne stammered.

  "We've know each other since you were stationed here years ago, what makes you think I wouldn't care about you?" Maketh questioned, her memories of meeting him long ago coming back to her. She still remembered seeing the young lieutenant, and his eager to please face, all those years ago.

  After a few seconds of silence Aresko shrugged his thin shoulders, having no real answer to the question.

  "Look, Cumberlayne, I'm sorry that I yelled at you. How about I help you with your paperwork to make up for it?" Tua asked, motioning to the stack of datapads to the left of her. She wanted to make amends for her earlier behavior, it wasn't right to do that to him.

  "I-Ok, you can help." Aresko relented, knowing he did need the extra help, and then handed her some datapads, mostly the ones that dealt with expense reports, supply notifications and basic civilian/military functions that needed attending, leaving the Officer portfolios to himself. Tarkin looked over those personally, and Aresko didn't want him knowing a Civilian Minister went over those instead of him.

  She didn't need to get into trouble because of him, someone had already paid dearly for that.

  After several minutes the office was calm and quiet, save for the light taps of a stylus going over datapads, the nearly undetectable hum of electricity and the sound of breathing. For a couple of hours, it felt like an average, monotonous workday, and Tua hated it. She hated the false calm that surrounded her, she hated that it felt so normal, when nothing about this was.

  'This isn't real, none of this was real.' She though. Tua had to break up the silence, one way or another and with a deep breath and asked the important question.

  "Cumberlayne, how are you really feeling?" As she asked the piercing question, Tua knew he didn't want to answer it, but after several weeks of him being closed off from everyone, she had to know what was really happening to him.

   Aresko tensed at the question, and looked at her over the datapad he was finished with, before sighing and throwing the small tablet at the rest of the completed forms. The Commander had hoped she had forgotten all about her reason for coming here, but apparently that wasn't the case.

  "You first. Then I'll tell you how I'm feeling." Looking at her and crossing his arms expectedly. If he was going to tell her how he really felt, then she should do the same. He wasn't going to give her his thoughts that easily.

  Maketh knew he was stalling, but was willing to speak first. If it got him to open up to her, then fine, she'd do it. She wanted to tell her thoughts to a living person anyways, because talking to herself wasn't cutting it anymore.

  "My power and title as Minister is slowly shrinking, Cumberlayne." She started out, not even dancing around the subject but going straight to it. "Lord Vader and Kallus, most of the time, see me as a hindrance to their Rebel hunting." Those two didn't like having to go through her and Lothal's regulations in dealing with her citizens.

  "Governor Tarkin sees me as, how did he put it? 'An anachronism of a bygone era.'" Using her hands to quote the Grand Moff. Tarkin made it quite clear of his distase for politicians and the like, and seen them as a nuisance at best and at worst, Tarkin saw her as a thing to get rid of altogether.

  As she spoke for several minutes, Aresko could see how frayed her nerves were becoming, seen her hands trembling and her blonde hair coming undone from her bun in whispy strands. He had never seen her so shook up before. Even after the TIE explosion several months ago she wasn't that bad off afterwards.

  "The worst part is, in a couple of days, I'm going to have to tell lothal's Ruling Class that their powers are going to be diminished too. You know they won't be happy about that. Just...everything that could have gone wrong has and it keeps getting worse by the passing day." Maketh sat back heavily in her chair, closed her eyes, and caught her breath from her long rant.

  "I wish Ahrinda was here, she'd know what to do." Tua said quietly and rested in her seat, done with what she had to say.

  'The Planetary Governor always had a way with people and she could have de-escalated this situation much better than me.' Tua mused quietly to herself, wishing she had the Governor's political finesse and poise.

  After Tua was finished, it was Aresko's turn to talk, and she looked at the Commander, waiting for him to speak. Wondering what he was going through as well.

  He stopped and started for a few seconds, trying to get the words off his chest. He really wasn't well versed in talking about his feelings, but once he felt ready, he took a deep breath and began.


  "Maketh, I feel horrible." He started out, using her first name instead of her title, like she had been doing with him. "Every day it feels like I'm walking on rotten ice, and I'm waiting for it to finally crack under me. I lost everything. My command, the power and freedom I had with it, and the security it came with." Aresko felt that was nearly the worst thing to lose, the safety his lofty position once provided. Now that he, for all intents and purposes, had no real rank, Aresko knew he was vulnerable.

  Tua listened with rapt attention, absorbing everything he said.

  "The worst part of it is, I have no one to blame but myself. This was all my fault."

 Aresko said with a brittle voice, and heavy chest. It was hard to talk about what was happening, but it felt good to actually tell someone he trusted how he really felt.

  "If I was a better officer, Myles would still be alive and-"

  "It not your fault Myles died." Tua interrupted. "It wasn't your job to hunt Rebels."

  "Yes it was!" He said heatedly back. "The First oath an Imperial Officer takes is to serve your Emperor, and the Second oath is to destroy those that would undermine His Authority. I failed to capture the Rebels in my sector and was rightfully punished."

  "None of us could fight off the Rebels. Not even Agent Kallus, or the Inquisitor himself, could defeat them. Hells, even Tarkin lost against the Rebels." She explained firmly, trying to make him see reason, but he wasn't listening.

  "It doesn't matter who else lost against the Rebels. They came onto My planet I was assigned to and caused mayhem and destruction. They infiltrated MY Academy and made a mockery of all I do here." Aresko said, his voice taut with anger. "I lost control of the situation and Myles was e-executed as a result of my inability to properly take command." Cumberlayne said brokenly, it was still hard for him to talk about what happened to Myles, but he had to accept that his Taskmaster and loyal friend died because of him.

  He slumped into his chair, held his head in his hands and massaging his temples, trying to relax. After a while he looked back at Tua, eyes dull in the dim light.

  "The only reason I'm alive is because I'm here as Tarkin's Pet Project." Voice drained of any inflection.

  "Pet Project? What does that mean?" Tua questioned. She wasn't part of the Command Staff, so she didn't know.

  "Do you know why Tarkin let me live?"

  "I-" He interrupted her before she said anything.

  "Tarkin let me live for two reasons. One, he said I wasn't worth the energy it would waste in killing me, and two, Tarkin thought I would make a great example for others to see what happens to failures."

  "I don't understand, what do you mean by that?" Perplexed by what he was saying.

  "It's ingenious, actually." Aresko explained. "With my failures and punishment being seen by most top ranked officers, I'm seen as living proof of what happens when you fail in your duties. That's the reason why I'm usually seen with The Grand Moff. I make a great example for others to see firsthand." His existance served as a warning to others. His lightsaber scar and loss of rank were a vivid and noticable reminder to others; Failure will not be tolerated.

  "That's horrible!" Tua was dismayed. This wasn't right.

  "And it's successful. Imperial efficiency has increased on Lothal by 42% and Officer productivity has doubled. Tarkin's plan is working, and that's what's best for Lothal." He sounded proud of this, and that's what scared her. The fact that he thought this was ok.

  'Damn it Cumberlayne, I should have been there for you.' Tua thought. It wasn't fair that he was the only one getting the brunt of the punishment.

  They sat in companionable silence together, with Tua trying to make sense of this, and she couldn't, really. But before she could speak her mind, the office chronometer chimed and they had both looked at the time. The wall chronometer's bright face telling them the time in bold Aurebesh.

  12:00am/IST(Imperial Standard Time)

  'I didn't even notice how late it was. We must have spent hours talking.' Tua and Aresko were both amazed at how the time went by so quickly. Maketh turned back to the commander and looked at his weary face and felt her own exhaustion become apparent. It was late, late enough that even the living maintanence staff probably went home and left the driods to do the dirty work.


  "Look, Cumberlayne, I'll come back tomorrow evening to help you finish the paperwork." pointing to a pile of unfinished datapads, thankfully smaller than it was earlier. "I'll even bring you some actual food, too." She knew a small diner by Imperial HQ that served great meals, she'd get him something there with actual nutrition.

  'It would be healthier than eating only Ration Bars.' Tua thought crossly, she was still mad at him for doing something that foolish.

  As Maketh was talking, Cumberlayne was apprehensive about what she was suggesting, and became lost in thought.

  Aresko still wasn't comfortable with allowing another person so close to him, especially the Minister. If what she said was true and Tua did want to resume their friendship, she would be in the cross-hairs of the Grand Moffs ire like he was as well. He didn't need another person to suffer because of his mistakes.

  'We all know what happened last time, right?' A nasty voice said in his mind, and a red beam of light, the smell of burning flesh and the loud thud of a head hitting the floor came back into the forefront of his mind, and stopped all train of thought. The daymares of that fateful day coming back to haunt him. His lightsaber scar throbbing in phantom pain from the memories.

  He came back to the present when a soft  hand touched his right shoulder, and a steady voice called him by name.

  "What?" He looked around to see Tua's hand reaching over the desk and felt her slightly shaking him.

  "Are you alright? I said what do you want me to get you from the diner." Tua said softly, looking at him with a worried expression. The blank expression he had earlier was disturbing.

  "Fruit or something? Nothing with meat." He didn't care for meat all that much to begin with, but cooked meat made him sick to his stomach now.

  "Ok, I'll remember that." She knew some good quiches and fruit salads he might enjoy.

  With that said, she got out of the chair and stretched, trying to get the soreness out of her body from the uncomfortable piece of furniture, especially her lower back.

 "I'm going back home, it's already midnight, and you should do the same." Maketh said, going by the dark bags under his eyes, he looked like he didn't get much sleep as well. As Tua was ready to leave she turned to him, making sure Aresko did as asked and waited for him by the doorway. She knew he would have probably stayed behind even later if she didn't.

  "Alright, I'll do it once I get everything locked up for the night." Aresko huffed, slightly annoyed at her bossing him around. Getting up as well, and gathering the few things he could take back to his quarters, he left with Tua. Using one of his code cylinders to lock the door behind him properly, he made sure to use the highest security codes available. This left the both of them in the desolate corridor.

  "Good night Maketh, and thanks for the help. My office will be open tomorrow so you can come right in." Aresko said grudgingly, breaking the silence. He was still unsure of this re-established friendship, but was willing to give it a chance.

  "Goodnight to you too, Cumberlayne. See you tommorrow." With that, she waved to him and set off to one of the flight decks for a personal shuttle to take her home, yawning with exhaustion.

  As Aresko turned to leave for his own quarters, he realised, suddenly, he actually had something to look forward to tomorrow. He liked that feeling, it was something he hadn't felt in quite a while, and while not grinning, per se, his scowl did lessen in intensity.

               Fin