The Naughty Jedi [Star Wars, The Clone Wars]

[Maltacus]

Chapter 1

"Ahsoka, wait!"

The massive pillars of the jedi temple had been the sight of home for as long as she could remember. Safe, steady, welcoming. They had welcomed her for the last time.

The massive stairs leading to the entrance, with the great view of Coruscant as far as eyes could see. She would pass down it one last time.

"Ahsoka, I need to talk to you!"

Ahsoka stopped and turned around to face her no longer master Anakin.

"Why…are you doing this?"

"The council didn't trust me, so how could I trust myself?" Ahsoka turned away to stare at the ground.

"What about me? I believed in you, I stood by you!"

"I know you believe in me, Anakin." She looked back up at him. "And I'm grateful for that, but this isn't about you. I can't stay here any longer. Not now."

"The jedi order is your life. You can't just…throw it away like this!" Anakin insisted while Ahsoka closed her eyes. "Ahsoka you are making a mistake."

"Maybe. But I have to sort this out on my own." Her look became one of sadness. "Without the council. And without you."

Ahsoka turned away, and Anakin too. Back to back, both of them hurt.

"I understand. More than you realize." Anakin said, with voice heavy but accepting. "I understand wanting to walk away from the order."

"I know."

The sun was setting over the jedi temple as Ahsoka Tano walked down it's stairs, no longer a padawan. Anakin Skywalker stood sadly and watched her go, no longer her master.

***​

The night of Coruscant was never dark.

Everywhere Ahsoka looked she saw lights, and everywhere she looked closer and deeper there were shadows. Deeper, further, beyond the veneer and the facade that she had learned was disturbingly thin. Steep descents and narrow side streets and winding passages and stairways all led away from the bustle of the main walks and the ribbons of light form the traffic lanes above.

She had been down there just the other day, practically.

The clear sunset sky had given way to rain. Cold drizzle, a constant for the latest two hours. Much as Ahsoka would like to pretend she was above it, her teeth were long past the point of clattering.

The door in front of her was deceptively nondescript and unguarded. Ahsoka caught herself shivering when she pressed the button of the comm.

"This is the Naboo senatorial residence. Good evening." a voice Ahsoka did not recognize answered.

"Thi-this is Ahsoka T-Tano. Here to see Padm – Senator Amidala."

"Do you have an appointment, ah…Miss Tano?"

"No."

"I see. Hold on a minute."

The comm quieted. Ahsoka rubbed her arms and resisted the urge to huddle by the doorway.

Control. Balance. Harmony.

Shivering out in the cold was not the jedi way. Then again, she was not a jedi anymore.

Then the comm beeped again.

"Ahsoka?" Padmés sounded surprised and drowsy.

"P-P-Padmé?"

"Your voice is shaking! Come on in, I'll be right there."

The call terminated and the door opened with the familiar hiss. Ahsoka almost leapt inside the warm hall and had barely heard the door close behind her when Padmé appeared hurrying down the stairs. She was wearing an embroidered and elaborate night robe of the typically impractical Nabooean fashion and ornate slippers. Her hair was out of order, which told a lot when it came to the senator of Naboo, but any trace of sleep was gone and replaced with concern when she almost bumped into Ahsoka on the bottom floor.

"Goodness Ahsoka, you're drenched! What have you been doing?"

"Walking."

Padmé blinked once at the sparse answer.

"Okay. Do you want to come on up?"

Ahsoka nodded, and tried to wipe some of the rain off herself before she followed Padmé up. They met no one else, Padmé had apparently instructed her guard detail that Ahsoka was a known visitor. When they were inside the senator's living quarters she turned to have a proper look at Ahsoka.

"Didn't they give any robes against the weather at least?"

Padmé made a quick grimace and the question combined with her unusual reserve, or carefulness rather, about inviting Ahsoka in suddenly clicked. The usual Padmé would not have hesitated a second before ushering Ahsoka inside if she appeared wet and shivering, and would have taken no refusal.

"So you know?"

"Anakin told me." Padmé confessed and sounded a little apologetic. "I think he was hoping you would come by. I was hoping you would."

Ahsoka shrugged. At least now she was spared having to explain everything and explain herself. Hopefully.

"I wanted to say thanks. For defending me. For everything. You and Master Skywalker were the only ones who stood up for me."

"But of course! I would do it any time."

"If you hadn't, if either of you hadn't, they would have…"

"But they didn't." Padmé cut her off. "You are safe now."

Ahsoka wanted to laugh out. She was a fresh jedi temple dropout, probably a disgrace of a padawan, who had made a throng of enemies across the galaxy and very few real friends. Apparently. And she had no job and nowhere to stay either. Those mundane little details that jedi did not have to concern themselves with.

"3PO!" Padmé called out.

The gilded protocol droid C-3PO, unchallenged authority on political correctness and a challenged authority on most other things, stepped stiffly into the room. Ahsoka had never seen the point of giving these poor protocol droids such jerky motor functions. Did not people get distracted from important meetings wondering if the droid assistants were not about to trip and fall over all the time?

"Yes, how can I be of assi…oh, Padawan Ahsoka what a delightful surprise!"

"Hello, C-3PO." Ahsoka managed a small smile. "It's just Ahsoka now. These days."

"Then allow me to welcome you as Miss Ahsoka Tano." the droid pointed out in his characteristically light metallic voice.

"3PO, Ahsoka has been half frozen and needs something warm in her. Would you please get her one large Nabooean Tooth-rotter with extra everything?"

"Oh, dear, I shall do so right away. Although I must point out that extra everything would logically result in just a larger serving of the original drink or dish, provided of course that each ingredient was added to in a proportionally equal amount…"

"3PO. The Tooth-rotter. Now, if you please."

"Right away, Mistress Padmé."

Ahsoka looked questioningly at her hostess but Padmé ignored it and shoved her into the deep corner of the sofa in the room and procured a thick blanket – with silver thread patterns, because why not…. – that she proceeded to wind around the togrutan. Ahsoka tried to fend her off half-heartedly at first but then relented. It was Padmés home and Padmés rules.

The discreet clicking of droid feet brought her attention to C-3PO and the prodigious cup he carried on a tray and put down on the small table in front of them.

"Thank you very much, 3PO. That will be all for the evening." Padmé thanked him.

"Very well. Good night Mistress Padmé and Miss Ahsoka."

"Night." Ahsoka replied as she emerged from her blanket and studied the cup. It was covered in something white and fluffy with dark brown liquid over in and brown powder sprinkled over everything. A long-shafted spoon was placed next to the cup. It all smelled lovely.

"Er…do I eat it or drink it?" Ahsoka asked unsurely. She felt like someone very uncultured but Padmé only laughed merrily.

"That is an eternal question that even the wisest philosophers can't find a definite answer to. Search your feelings." Ahsoka was sure she had seen a brief smirk there.

"Alright. I'll give this spoon a try then."

"Eat. Or eat not. There is no 'try'" Padmé said pompously. And with a slight croaking, which made Ahsoka stifle an embarrassed giggle.

The white fluffy thing with the dark brown thing on it gave way to hot steamy brown drink underneath it in which the white fluffy thing slowly melted. Ahsoka took a trying bite and found that it melted just as quickly on her tongue.

"Mmm…" she found herself humming and licking her lips. "What is this?"

"Hot chocolate, whipped cream, melted dark chocolate, sprinkled cocoa powder. All the basic and wholesome nutrients needed for a healthy body and soul."

"Why is it called a Nabooean Tooth-ro…okay, I get it…" Ahsoka tried to lift the cup and drink some of the hot chocolate. She succeeded, but at the price of ending up with a small moustache of cream which made Padmé snort with laughter.

"This is harder than it looks." Ahsoka defended herself. "Why is the cup so big? It's like it was made for a Trandoshan.

"It's of proper size for it's purpose, I will have you know. I had the set custom-made from Naboo's best potter. A true work of art."

"That is a most impressive focus on spending the Nabooean taxpayers' money." Ahsoka scooped up a particularly delicious spoonful of cream and melted chocolate-

"Precisely. Financial management is my pride and joy. Why do you think I am popular enough to get re-elected?" Padmé boasted smugly. Then her smile grew sadder. "The galaxy would be a happier place if people spent more tax money on hot chocolate instead of star destroyers and dreadnoughts."

Too soon the remaining cream had melted and Ahsoka had finished her cup. She happened to burp just a little when she put it down.

"Sorry…" she said and clutched her mouth. "Well, I guess I should…"

"If you finish that sentence with something involving the word 'leave' I will summon the guards." Padmé warned. "Honestly, Ahsoka, it's in the middle of the night and you have nowhere to go, am I right?"

Ahsoka shrugged, then sighed and nodded.

"Please stay, just for a while. Just a few days at least until you figure out where you want to go next. Okay?"

"Okay." Padmés blanket was rather nice and she had a point. Ahsoka had nowhere to go anyway and no place to be.

***​

Padmé went to the kitchen to grab some snacks for the chance that Ahsoka had not eaten for quite some time, She put it on a plate and went back to the living room to present it to the evidently hungry togrutan. At least her stomach growled for one reason or another.

"I'll be right back." Padmé promised and disappeared into her bedroom. She picked out a small comm from a drawer and after a moment of hesitation decided to send a recorded message.

"Good evening Master Skywalker and apologies for the inconvenient hour." She waited and counted to twenty. Apologising for inconvenient hours was their seemingly innocent way to flag a coming personal message, if one of them should happen to check their comms when they were not alone.

"Ani, hey, it's me. Ahsoka's here with me and I think I persuaded her to stay for a few days at best. She's, well, I guess she is doing well considering the circumstances. Just wanted you to know. Love you." Padmé whispered out the last words and was just about to put the comm away when it hummed. She hesitated for just a second and then took the call.

"I only have a moment." Anakin's voice was as hushed as hers had been. "And I'm bound to ship out in hours, but if there's any chance I can talk Snips out of this…" Padmé's heart ached over the desperate hope in his tone.

"I don't think she's ready to be talked out or into anything at the moment." She could hear Anakin sigh deeply.

"Yeah, you're probably right. She can be really stubborn…"

"Wonder where she picked up that trait now, hmm?" Padmé could not resist teasing.

"I have no idea at all." She could hear the small smile in Anakin's voice. "Okay, you take care of her. I'm glad she's with you. There's no one better. Thanks for telling me about it."

"I'll talk to her. I'll do my best to help her out, I promise."

"I know you will. I got to go. I love you."

"You too."

When the voice died out her room fell back into the dark emptiness it always held when she was no longer talking to Anakin.

"Goodnight, my good knight…" Padmé whispered and rose to go back to her lover's former padawan.

Ahsoka had nearly finished two stuffed breads with spicy stews inside them. She complimented the food while eagerly licking her fingers where some of it had landed.

Padmé took one for herself. She would not be able to go to sleep for a long time yet and figured she could use the extra energy. They ate mostly in silence while the lights from outside the windows danced on the wall.

"You're right." Ahsoka then said. "I don't know where I'm going to go now."

"Leave that for tomorrow. We'll think of something."

"Yeah…"

"Ahsoka, you've had a hell of a day. It's not exactly weird if you feel completely drained right now."

Ahsoka leaned back against the couch and rested her head in her palm.

"I can't believe it. I can't believe she would do something like this. And at the same time I can totally believe it. Do I even know her? D-did I even know her…?"

"You and Barriss were the best of friends. Yes, you knew her. Until she became somebody else." Padmé spoke as gently as she could.

"I'm not sure." Ahsoka stared emptily ahead. Padmé was about to contradict her. "…that she became someone else. What if she was still the same Barriss but nobody wanted to see this part of her?"

"You…knew her best I think." Padmé conceded, not sure of what to say. "Or would that be Master Luminara?"

"No, or maybe, but she and Barriss were…distant. Master Luminara was never close to her like…other jedi masters sometimes."

That statement left them in uncomfortable silence for more than one reason.

"Padmé?" Ahsoka asked very unsurely. "Was Barriss right?"

"Right? What do you mean?"

"Not about bombing the temple hangar of course but about what we have become? What the jedi are becoming?" Ahsoka was looking up at her with such agitation that Padmé had rarely seen from her at any time. "I can't think clearly. That's why I kept walking in the rain. I feel so lost."

"Well…" Padmé tried to gather her thoughts. What did she really think here? In truth, everything since before and after Ahsoka's trial had left a seriously bad taste in her mouth that she had forced away until now for the sake of convenience. "I will never condone what she did. Which has not been properly investigated I should like to point out, because a single confession is not necessarily the whole and unaltered truth of a matter. What exactly did Barriss do and what did other involved parties do that led to all those deaths?"

Ahsoka remained silent and let Padmé keep gathering her thoughts.

"But… Suffice to say that your trial, it's made me doubt. No, that's not it, I have had doubts that have now been added to more than I feel comfortable thinking about." She shifted her seat. "Politics, it used to be – I know there is corruption, and backstabbing, and general foul play in heaps – but what I loved about it was that at it's core it was still about sitting down and talking things over. Seeking solutions and solving things, with at least a modicum of respect. Even if solutions were imperfect, and slow, and dissatisfying. But now…we have become so quick to point a finger and yell 'WRONG!' when we should learn to listen instead. Even if we don't agree."

Padmé felt that she was probably not making much sense but Ahsoka had sat up straighter and was offering her full attention.

"Look at the separatists. Before the war broke out we did not see eye to eye but their arguments for leaving the republic were not baseless. And then we used to condemn their violence and brutality with every right but not their choice of wanting to leave the republic. But have you listened to the senate now? The rhetoric about separatism in itself being wrong rather than the war? Now that idea itself is being talked about like a crime, like it is an act of treason against the republic to want to leave it!"

Padmé shook her head with clear dismay.

"Padmé, you were…there when it all started. How was it? Who really struck first?"

"I was not there when it begun, it had been a long time in the making I think now, even if I don't know exactly how."

"But…"

"Alright, I get what you mean. Well, what I know is largely this. Someone sent an assassin after me and Anakin and Obi-Wan picked up a trace that led to Kamino. Obi-Wan encountered a bounty hunter there and was ordered to bring him in for questioning. He pursued the man to Geonosis and was captured. Anakin and I were on Tatooine and received a message from him when that happened. We decided to go and rescue…don't laugh!"

A very knowing smile had spread across Ahsoka's face. Padmé cleared her throat pointedly.

"While arriving me and Anakin landed in a hangar – yes, perhaps not the stealthiest entrance, I know – and ran into a droid factory. Anakin lost his lightsaber to the assembly line and we were captured along with Obi-Wan. And the Geonosians along with Count Dooku and the dear Viceroy Gunray of the Trade Federation decided to have us torn apart by one monster each. At which point a strike force of jedi arrived, only to become surrounded and about to be overwhelmed by the battle droids until the clone army landed. And then we were at it, I suppose."

Padmé shrugged.

"From a purely political point of view Geonosis handled a matter of three suspected spies unjustly and brutally, but that does not constitute a declaration of war. The republic and the jedi order were out of line coming there with an invasion force and striking without prior warning. Because of…what, really? Because their spooky dark count had secret meetings with other known delinquents – like Nute Gunray who the republic's own courts failed to bring to justice! – and was guilty by association? Because they were producing battle droids? There were few who protested when the batch that invaded Naboo rolled off the assembly line…"

"Padmé, they were going to kill you! How can you be so…detached?" Ahsoka protested.

"Perhaps living close to a certain temple preaching about the dangers of attachment has rubbed off?" Padmé smiled ironically.

"I asked for that one, didn't I?" Ahsoka smiled slightly. "Count Spooky…" she snorted.

"I'm going to make tea. Would you like some too?"

"No thanks." Ahsoka actually yawned. "Do you have a refresher I can borrow?"

"You've been here before, honestly you've got to be able to find the way to the bathroom without a jedi master holding your hand." Padmé sighed theatrically and rolled her eyes in a ridiculous manner which coaxed another tired smile from Ahsoka.

She was distracted by a myriad of unwelcome thoughts when brewing the tea and slower than usual for it. When Padmé was finished she found Ahsoka back under her blanket and asleep.

Padmé fetched one of the pillows from her bed and edged the togrutan down on it. It was tricky, but eventually Ahsoka was lying down properly on the couch with only having mumbled something unintelligible. Padmé watched her work with a little bit of pride. She carefully moved Ahsoka's feet and sat down to drink her tea with them across her lap.

She sat there for a long time before going to bed herself, thinking of Ahsoka and Anakin and Barriss Offee and what was becoming of the Galactic Republic.

 

[Maltacus]

Chapter 2

Ahsoka overslept something fierce and found Padmé reading at a table by the window. She scanned a datapad with a look of intense concentration and dissatisfaction that signalled clearly how something was bothering her. Ahsoka blinked and crawled to sit more upright.

"Hey."

"Hi, Ahsoka, good morning…" Padmé said almost absently.

"What's happened?" Ahsoka nodded towards the datapad.

"Nothing, I'm just going over the case against you again."

"Why?"

"I can't stop thinking about it. I keep wondering if there is something I should have paid more attention to, some detail I missed that could have helped you, or helped Anakin earlier and prevented this from happening to you."

"Padmé, don't assume responsibility for how the jedi council acted. That was not on you."

"They shouldn't have given up on you so easily! What kind of loyalty is that supposed to inspire?! If that is the 'no attachments' rule at it's finest then it kriffin' sickens me and Barriss isn't the only one who has strayed too far."

She was so riled up that it took Ahsoka by surprise.

"Ahsoka, there is one thing I want to ask you. You and Ventress went to that factory together where you were later attacked by Barriss with Ventress' sabers and helmet."

"Yes."

"Had she followed you there?"

"No, or at least I don't think so. I made contact with Barriss using a holo terminal on site."

"You what?"

"I thought she would be helping me."

"And why the hell did you not tell me about it?! That could have exposed Barriss earlier or at the very least been a major point in your defence when the case against you rested largely on you being alone on every alleged crime scene and operating alone."

"I'm…I'm not sure. Maybe I thought it wasn't that important?" Ahsoka mumbled rather feebly.

Padmé did not buy the explanation.

"Not that important? Are you out of your kriffing mind?"

"I…" Ahsoka searched for words. Actually, she searched for an actual answer. "I guess I just wanted to protect Barriss. I didn't want her involved in any way."

Padmé looked at her intensely and slowly nodded. "You went through a lot together."

Ahsoka didn't say anything. A hundred memories of Barriss rushed by in front of her; happy, sad, ugly, beautiful memories. Hard days. Better days.

"And then she betrayed you like this." Padmé sounded disgusted. "How freaking low."

The day passed with Padmé having to go away to attend meetings and the other things a senator needed to be present for. Ahsoka did more or less nothing. She read and watched news on the holonet and felt too tired and emotionally exhausted, and quite frankly lost, to do anything more.

Nothing she tried would bring her any peace of mind.

When Padmé returned in time for dinner Ahsoka stuck by her, and it turned out she was not alone it feeling the need to unburden herself. Padmé shared a good deal of anecdotes and sharp wit about the comings and goings of the republic senate which were both amusing and saddening. Beneath the laughable examples of incompetence and stupidity were after all very real opportunities lost and dire consequences for lots of people. Padmé unreservedly admitted that the people of the republic deserved a better senate at times.

There were some lights in the dark. Padmé mentioned some names that Ahsoka knew, Bail Organa and Riyo Chuchi and some others that she regarded as examples of reason and integrity.

Despite all other things on her mind, it was Padmé who first returned to their previous discussion.

"…I have been unable to wrap my head around one thing." Padmé explained while they were moving to her sofa with a – thankfully not gilded – cup of tea each. "Why did Barriss choose to come clean and confess everything like she did?"

"Master Skywalker caught her in the act and exposed her." Ahsoka answered reflexively.

"He exposed that Barriss was in possession of Assajj Ventress' red lightsabers. By threatening her with a drawn saber of his own…" She shook her head and mumbled something Ahsoka could not discern but sounded very much like "Typical Anakin…"

"Would it have been any point in denying things by then?"

"If she wanted to escape, yes! I mean, what did Anakin have on her, really, except two red sabers and the witness statements of you and Ventress? Not exactly a prime case considering the senate's opinion of the two of you. And even if Barriss could have been proven to be your attacker, why would that have been enough to connect her to the bombings? She could have just claimed to have had some ill-fated idea of capturing you on her own, or a Force vision guiding her or whatever."

Ahsoka fidgeted a bit with her cup at that detail. It wasn't really like that. Not anyone could waltz up to the jedi council and blame the Force for just about any far-fetched ideas. But…perhaps you could say that the jedi in general were inclined to believe more of such things than the average person.

"But would Barriss have thought of these things?" Ahsoka wondered.

"You're the one who knows her, you tell me."

Barriss Offee was the perfect padawan who could memorize complex blueprints of hundreds of rooms without difficulty and who were always prepared beyond the point of thoroughness. But she was not the best at adapting when the plan failed. She could become unbalanced and discomforted by the smallest of things sometimes.

"She would have thought things through, very much, I think." Ahsoka reasoned out loud. "But if something went wrong, which clearly it did in some way, she would have had more difficulty than many others to keep a level head."

"And maybe she just lost it at that moment and let it all out but I have learned to be wary of convenient turns of events. It seems to me that Barriss changed course somehow. She went to all this trouble to frame you and then stepped in to take the blame and hold a speech where she just about took full responsibility. She didn't even attempt to make you appear as her accomplice or the driving force behind it or anything, which certain parts of the senate and Tarkin especially would have been very eager to swallow whole."

"I thought she was sincere. When she said those things at the trial, it was as if she looked at me one time, and just…I don't know. But if that was her plan from the start – to make that kind of statement I mean – why did she not do it earlier instead of all these schemes to frame me?"

"She could have been looking for the right moment, with the right audience, and her appearance at your trial provided her with such."

"You don't believe that."

"No, I don't."

"Then what do you believe?"

"I believe that it is very hazardous to speculate with insufficient information, and that the case of Barriss Offee's is not nearly as clear cut as her confession would make anyone assume at first glance. I believe that we are still in the dark about a significant part of her plans and her motivations and I also believe that something happened along the way that upset them, whatever they may have been."

"Then there could be more things that aren't what they seem."

"Possibly." Padmé spoke the word reluctantly, maybe even warningly. "Ahsoka, I don't know how to say this without a great risk of sounding patronizing but I promise that I at least don't want to. I don't hold anything you have said or done against you and you're frankly holding togther much better than I think I would manage. But I think we are at great risk of speculating now and know too little, and maybe it is simply wisest to let the matter be until we know more for sure. That goes for myself just as much."

Ahsoka nodded quietly. It was hard to think straight and Padmé was most probably right. Perhaps they would get more answers at some point in the future. Some point.

"Could you…act as Barriss' defender?"

"Her legal counsel? No, I wouldn't be impartial after having represented you, and if I pressed the issue it would undermine all I had to say for Barriss' sake."

"I understand."

Padmé looked very thoughtfully at her but didn't say anything. Ahsoka felt uncomfortable under her steady gaze. Padmé was not a judgemental person, but she often managed to give Ahsoka the impression of noticing a little too much. Like Master Plo Koon.

"What's going to happen to Barriss?" Ahsoka asked, and did not know what she felt about her question or any kind of answer to it. She could see that Padmé noticed it.

"I am not sure. I think it is likeliest that they will execute her. But you were regarded as a lone jedi traitor while Barriss has had more people around her, so there is some incentive to keep her alive for information. For a while at least." Padmé added rather darkly. "There is also the fact that she made a very public statement that is bad enough without making her a full-fledged martyr on top of everything. But people are rarely smart enough to keep such things in mind when they are busy screaming for blood."

Ahsoka stared dully ahead at nothing at all. It could have been her. It very nearly had.

Because of Barriss. But not only. Ahsoka could have been given a fair chance to explain herself. She could have been offered the benefit of doubt.

Would Barriss?

"For now I think there will be some hearings and questionings but kept under a lid. But a lot of people will want to spin this whole thing into something that suits them, so for that reason if nothing else I hope some discretion could be maintained. Whenever she is tried I doubt it will be a very large affair. She wanted to make a statement and at least the majority of the senate would not want to accommodate her on that point."

They sat quietly until it was getting late. None could think of anything more to say. Padmé tentatively put her hand a little closer to Ahsoka with the palm up, and after a little while Ahsoka put hers next to it. When Padmé took it she sank back with her eyes closed.

Padmés hand was a steady thing in her whirling storm of thoughts.

***​

The next day Padmé came home earlier, while Ahsoka was on her way to completing a slightly toned down training regime indoors. It would very much not do to accidentally nick or break any valuable piece in the senatorial apartment so she was kept on her toes even throughout this routine exercise.

"I have something that is yours." Padmé handed her a nondescript box in standardized dull grey.

Ahsoka frowned and opened it. Inside were two unassuming short metal rods with scratches and dents here and there and gripcord that needed to be replaced. And they were Ahsoka's most precious things.

"My sabers…"

"Since you were turned over to the republic military for sentencing – or to "stand trial" – so was every item considered evidence in the case. And with your acquittal, personal effects are to be returned to the person they were confiscated from. Technically I still counted as your advocate and representative and could therefore receive such items on your behalf." Padmé actually sounded rather smug.

"But, what about the jedi order?"

"Much to learn about republic bureaucracy the jedi order still has." Padmé declaimed. "They have apparently not worked out much of a routine for turning their backs upon their own padawans and dealing with the resulting formalities. How embarrassing. How embarrassing. Now, the order may have been able to lay some kind of claim to your sabers in accordance with it's internal rules but since you have left the order and only after that come into possession of these items again, they are not in a position to do much about it. Unless they wish to plead their case against citizen Tano in a republic court and argue for their right to any current or future lightsabers in your possession whatsoever, in which case I will insist on representing you. But I am positive the jedi order realises that it is not in it's political interest to be seen as a petty laughing stock of the entirety of Coruscant at this particular time."

Ahsoka had come to smile more and more as Padmé went on with biting eloquence. She was a senator to the very bone, and in Ahsoka's mind what a senator should be like. If the republic was ruled by Chancellor Amidala, they wouldn't be having this worthless war.

"Padmé…thanks. It means a lot to me."

"A jedi's sabers are deeply personal items, correct?"

"The kyber crystals within are. The other components are very basic, but everyone has their own style and taste."

"A blaster is ten times deadlier in the hands of anyone except a jedi. It would make no sense to allow you to arm yourself to the teeth with anything except lightsabers. And more to the point, these are yours. Your own property, that you may now learn to grow attached to." Padmé winked.

"You didn't happen to get my belt too?"

Padmé produced Ahsoka's slightly worn utility belt from a pocket.

"There's a stain at the back." she pointed out impolitely.

"Hush."

"So! Ready to rip ears off gundarks again and other things you adventurous heroes do. Although I've never understood why you should be doing something like that to the poor gundark, it's evil! And if the gundark attacks you there has to be way more effective means of defending than jumping for it's head and starting to tug at the ears."

Ahsoka had to force herself not to laugh out loud.

"Now that you've completed this basic exercise of attachment, here is a harder one of unattachment for civilians. And bear in mind that you have slept on my couch for two nights and it would be very impolite to reward me with refusing to accept a simple gift, correct?"

"I…I guess so. Not that the jedi order is very experienced with accepting gifts."

"Then say after me: 'Thanks Padmé, I will make good use of it'."

"Thanks Padmé, I wi-" Before Ahsoka could protest Padmé had pressed a bag of credit chips into her hand. "No way!"

"Too late, gift accepted. Now be reasonable, Ahsoka. You are a war hero who has sacrificed years to keep the rest of us safe from separatist invasions and if it weren't for your order's principles you would have earned a fortune."

"But…you…"

"Senators have salaries too. This is from me so don't think about pulling something about mismanaging official finances on me."

Ahsoka was at loss for what to say. She had been a jedi youngling and padawan for as long as she could remember. Now she was none of that, nobody. She couldn't own a fortune in republic credits.

"You've known no other life than that of a jedi and republic soldier, Ahsoka." Padmé said with unexpected gentleness. "You deserve to have a real choice, for once."

"I'll pay you back. Once I've found something to do."

"Ahsoka, you need to get used to accepting credits if you're going to make a living, you know." Padmé said meaningfully. "If it makes you feel better, and if you need something to occupy yourself, I have a couple of things you could help me with. Your first civilian job?"

"Yes, tell me what needs doing!" Ahsoka answered immediately. If she could help Padmé with something ever so small, she would.

"Alright, but let's have lunch first. I don't want my contractors grumpy from lack of sustenance."

Half an hour later Ahsoka was on her way to the lower levels of Coruscant with the comforting presence of her lightsabers dangling against her sides and a smile on her lips.

***​

Ahsoka quickly learned that the occasions which had brought her to the light-deprived slums beneath the rich and influential were far too few to have given her a true feeling of the places. With her mind firmly on the missions, with the ever-present knowledge that she had the jedi order and the republic military at her back, the naked poverty and neglect did not move her as deeply as it did now, when she had the time to look. And sense.

It was appalling, both the noises that nearly made her montrals hurt and Ahsoka question how anyone could live close by without going crazy, and what she sensed through the Force. The ever-present fear from some direction, the hopelessness and stifling monotony of constantly being on ones guard, Ahsoka could not honestly say she had felt what it was truly like any time before. Maybe she didn't right now either, when she was armed with her sabers and her knowledge of the Force, and had the warm home of a caring senator to return to.

A trail of questions and modest tips – Ahsoka was not greedy but she wanted to show Padmé she could spend her credits responsibly – had led her to blue block 65, level 2, street 21. Only there was not a blue building in sight anywhere she could see and the sign with the street number had been replaced with a lop-sided one depicting a rodian with a crown and scepter of some kind and informing visitors that this was in fact the 'rOOyal ZtrEEt' and nothing else. It looked as if another sublime artist had incorporated the double 'o' into the upper body of a sultry Twi'lek woman but the paint had faded to be almost unrecognizable. Ahsoka still considered the rebellious redecoration to be an improvement.

Padmé obtained a great deal of information from a wide variety of sources. Some were official and well known. Others less so. She used what she received to bring other senators' attention to problems, as political arguments and political leverage. Being able to stun the opposing side with detailed knowledge of obscure and covered up details of how things really were was always a respected ability.

Ahsoka did not know the details of what Padmés current source intended to deliver except that it was a package of some kind and that the man had gone into hiding instead of fulfilling his part of the agreement. She had however received a message where he stated his willingness to honour the bargain but that he was forced to go into hiding and would meet Padmés representative at a certain time and place. Which Ahsoka had now checked out and found empty, and was therefore methodically circling while throwing out a casual question here and there about anyone matching the human man's description.

Ahsoka's efforts were rewarded when a series of crashes and ruckus brought her attention from the small passage between two buildings she was currently investigating, and braving the rancid smell of. Outside she could see a man hurrying down the street, stumbling on something and getting back up again while looking frantically all around.

The reason for his hurry became apparent when a dark red blur descended from a nearby emergency stair in quick jumps. The human, in worn and rugged clothes that matched his surroundings, startled and redoubled his efforts, but just as Ahsoka made it out onto the street his escape was cut short when a blue armoured figure suddenly stepped out into his path and put out it's leg and tripped him.

The hunted man hurled forward and tumbled in a painful-looking way until he finally skidded to a halt and let out a loud groan.

The blue figure knelt beside him and Ahsoka saw to her surprise that it was a woman in Mandalorian heavy armour, painted deep blue with silver lining and details. Her face was invisible behind the characteristic T-shaped visor but she did not appear overly aggressive when she rolled her quarry onto his back.

"Gyle, Gyle, don't run off again like that. Look at yourself."

That settled it. That was the name Ahsoka had been given and the description fit well enough.

The other pursuer was nearing, and on closer inspection the red blur proved to be another apparently female Mandalorian, but with her armour in red and black. While the helmet was near identical, her body armour was a little tighter and sleeker, showing more black armourweave that accentuated the red. She carried a blaster that she just holstered and Ahsoka had the distinct impression that she was walking with something of a swagger despite the serious occasion.

"Playing hard to get, handsome?" she asked with such amusement that not even the helmet could distort completely.

Ahsoka stepped out in full sight and tried to come up with a smooth solution to the problem before her. Unfortunately she could only think of a blunt solution.

"I fear you are about to make a serious mistake, madams." She tried to sound as polite and assured as she could while she focused her will on making her words seem plausible. "This is not the man you are looking for."

Two sleek expressionless helmets turned to her.

"Sorry to say that it is, girl. But if you know of a better catch I'm all ears for some relationship advice later." the red one answered.

"This is not the man you are looking for." Ahsoka waved her hand slightly and concentrated hard but her suggestion fell on deaf ears, or helmet sides in these cases.

"Fancying yourself some sort of jedi?" the blue one asked dryly.

Ahsoka summoned her main saber to her hand with the Force and ignited it. She rose to her full height and looked down at them imperiously like Master Shaak Ti used to do but never admitted doing.

"Woah! Careful what you wish for, Scallywag!" the red one exclaimed and jumped to her feet.

"Don't call me that in public… And I did not wish for her." To Ahsoka it sounded like the blue Mandalorian spoke through her clenched teeth. "Look, do you mean to tell me that the jedi order is actually interested in this lowlife?"

"He is of interest to me." Ahsoka simply answered. It was true after all.

"You've got to be kidding me…"

"Blue, we're not getting paid enough to tangle with jedi, cute though she may be…" Ahsoka had to steel herself to maintain her composure. Who the heck called a jedi 'cute' when they pointed a lightsaber in your general direction?

"Agreed. This job is starting to stink." The blue Mandalorian nodded to Ahsoka. "This man is Gyle Uefer. He is wanted for a great deal of shady business that I assume you are aware of if you're laying claim like this. But confronting jedi was not part of the deal and we have no quarrel with your order. He's all yours."

Ahsoka nodded, and tried to stop herself from looking too grateful. She would absolutely not have wanted this to spiral out of control. Not least since either of these bounty hunters seemed unfazed by the prospect of actually confronting her if it would come down to it, they simply considered the payment insufficient.

Blue had knelt down again and swiftly rolled up one of Gyle's sleeves to uncover a nasty looking bruise where he must have scraped against something sharp. She had picked out something from a compartment on her leg armour.

"What are you doing?" Ahsoka asked warily.

"Just a little bacta gel." Red answered in her stead. "No need to be unsportsmanlike" she shrugged when Ahsoka couldn't hide her surprise. "Gyle, you need to work on your stamina and be a little bit tactical. That was some nice climbing back there but running along the street in a straight line like this? Come on, man."

Blue had been swift in applying the bacta gel and make a smart field dressing over the wound.

"So it seems you're off the hook for the time being then, Gyle. Or on a worse one, what do I know? Don't let me catch you here again, until you have a reliable bounty on you that is…"

"Yeah, whatever…" Gyle muttered. He peered at Ahsoka and seemed to debate whether to be relieved or worried by the new development.

When Red and Blue had marched off Ahsoka heard him out.

It turned out that Gyle had indeed Padmés package of information but not on him. Naturally. Instead Ahsoka could find it in a room at a certain bar with a sort of hostel upstairs with rented rooms. He described the place and handed Ahsoka a keycard for the door.

"…and why can't you collect it on your own? Or together with me?"

"You kidding? I'm not setting my foot near that hole now! You go ahead…I'm out of here…"

There was no arguing with him, and Ahsoka had no right to detain him or force him to do anything at all, despite what impression she may have given off to a certain pair of bounty hunters. Being on her own and not with the authority of the republic military behind her was an uncomfortably new experience to her.

Finding the Spicy Hot Bar was easier said than done, and much easier said from a local with little grasp of cartography and describing the way to newcomers in an easy to follow manner, than done. Ahsoka spent at least two hours wishing for the next concrete-and-steel corner to reveal the place before her until finally locating it, only one city level above the location described by Gyle. Here the surrounding were in considerably better shape and the constant sense of fear was less prevalent. People who inhabited this level had something rather than nothing. The blatant stratification of Coruscant's population that revealed itself was almost parodical, but Ahsoka could keep herself from laughing.

Spicy Hot was a long room that was divided into a small maze of booths on one end and an open, rowdier area by the actual bar. A stair and back door was there too and Ahsoka followed the stair up like she had a reason to be there.

Room 5 by the left was at least correct. It had a few personal effects left by it's owner and Ahsoka tried not to pry too much while she looked through the wall boards under the bed and found the loose one and the hidden package behind. It was…none too clean.

After brushing herself off and finding a restroom which was mercifully functional, Ahsoka went down and turned the keycard over to the bartender.

"Hey, this looked like it belonged to room 5 upstairs, the owner must have dropped it or something…" she said casually and turned around without waiting for an answer.

She came face to face with a Mandalorian bounty hunter in red armour.

Ahsoka prided herself (even if a jedi really shouldn't do that) on having pretty fast reflexes but she hadn't so much as blinked before Red had taken her neck in an iron grip and half shoved and half lead her towards the far end of the room. Ahsoka was almost about to use the Force to push her away or draw one of her sabers, but she had a familiar sinking feeling that she was not in any physical danger, but rather in for the kind of talking to that left your montrals nearly shouted off your head.

"Look what the krayt dragged in…" she could hear Red growl when they reached one of the furthest booths and Ahsoka was almost hurled down onto the rounded seat. She blessed whoever had invented padding on those.

"Well, if it isn't our esteemed malefactor." an icy voice noted. Ahsoka took in a tall human woman with pale blonde hair and eyes that were as icily blue as her imposing armour. Blue, but with her helmet removed. Ahsoka shrunk beneath her gaze.

"He – Hello there." she tried. Master Kenobi had always managed to make that simple line work.

She was looking at a group of for people. Red, Blue, a pantoran in his thirties or forties and a zeltron perhaps a decade younger. They looked both rougher and tamer than the Mandalorian humans at the same time. The pantoran was wearing a studded leather jacket, well-worn and form-fitting like only long use could make them. His face was worn but still hard, with short hair and stubble across his chin. The notable cords visible along his neck hinted at a good deal of muscle and Ahsoka reckoned he would fit right in among the most grizzled and veteran clones.

The zeltron wore a similar-looking jacket, but newer, and underneath had some sort of body armour. He had something of a sharp-looking face and a rascally look about him. Dark unkempt hair hung down one side of it while the other one was cropped short.

None appeared directly hostile, but six eyes and a Mandalorian helmet looked quite accusingly at her and Ahsoka swallowed.

"So." Icy blue eyes bored into her. "Who the hell are you?"

"Aksoka Tano."

"Then, Ahsoka Tano, would you care to explain why a certain Gyle Uefer was registered boarding an off-world commercial transport not two hours after you interfered with his capture?" the pantoran man asked nearly as coldly.

Oh. Ahsoka swallowed as she connected the dots.

She was momentarily distracted when Red started to remove her helmet and Ahsoka found herself curious despite the tense situation.

Red was very similar to Blue, and yet she was not. She was also a blonde and light-skinned human woman and of similar height, and one could probably wonder if they could be related. But with warm brown eyes, bushy hair of deep yellow-golden-brown and wider and fuller lips she appeared more or less as Blue's polar opposite.

"Let's take it from the start, shall we?" She actually smiled at Ahsoka's probably rather self-conscious face. Predatorily. "Rowena." She indicated herself. "Disgruntled bounty hunter #1."

Rowena gestured at Blue. "This is Scalwena, disgruntled bounty hunter #2 and my partner in crime. Scallywag to her friends."

"Only you call me that and only to annoy me!" Scalwena snapped at her before she could stop herself. Ahsoka had to stifle a nervous smile.

"Meshif, our ship's captain…" Rowena gestured at the pantoran who nodded even though he was still just about glaring daggers at her. "…and Telash, self-styled mastermind of technology and technicalities."

"Self-styled? I'd say repetitively proven." The zeltron flashed a rakish smile.

"Repetitive I can agree with." Rowena quipped without missing a beat. "And now you can explain yourself to us and make it damn good. And…and…" Rowena's eyes widened. "Holy kriffing tentacles, you're Ahsoka Tano!"

"Language, Red." Scalwena groaned. "So what? She just said she was."

"This babe's on the news, planet-wise! Didn't you watch it? It's the whole jedi trial story, it's like someone directed it or something. Damn!"

"Not everyone's knee-deep into jedis you know… But you mean we were scammed by a fresh celebrity from every holoscreen between here and the Outer Rim? Great…" She turned to Ahsoka. "Are you a jedi knight?"

"Padawan. Ahem, former padawan that is." Ahsoka confessed.

"But still with a kriffing lightsaber." Scalwena muttered while Rowena was starting to grin.

"Technically we never asked." It earned her a long glare form Scalwena. "Okay, so what did you want Gyle for really? Because you were apparently not taking him into some jedi custody."

Ahsoka debated how much to say. She felt she owed these people some sincerity at the very least.

"He had information I needed, which he gave me. I let him go after that."

"Just like that?"

Ahsoka shrugged, a little apologetically.

"As opposed to, what do I know, demanding to speak with him without taking him off our hands…"

Ahsoka was starting to feel foolish. The man had been a source of information to Padmé but apart from that Ahsoka did actually not know anything about him or what he had done.

"Well played." Rowena continued sarcastically. "In one stroke you managed to deprive our merry gang of the bounty and a certain potentially very lucrative business relationship here on Coruscant which has now soured rather kriffing completely. Contacting your hirer with complaints about jedi intervention when the target is seen walking off planet on his own has a way of making you look like a bunch of complete idiots that nobody of a sound mind would have anything to do with. Especially not entrust with any coming bigger paying scores that the capture of Gyle Uefer was supposed to be a qualifying test for."

The heat rose in Ahsoka's cheeks and she wanted to sink through the seat and the bar floor.

"So, cheers!" Rowena raised her glass mockingly and took a sip. Then she put it down in front of Ahsoka.

Ahsoka was not too inclined to imbibe unknown strong drink form the same glass as an unknown strong person, but she was not in a position to be able to refuse either if she wanted to maintain the small reserves of goodwill and manners that she possibly still had. She took a swig, and immediately coughed.

Rowena looked surprised and then snickered.

"Oh, you should have seen the face you just made! Kriffing delightful."

"I'll…I'll buy the next round!" Ahsoka blurted out and rose quickly.

Her lack of experience made itself known when the bartender raised the very reasonable question of what she wanted to for the round.

"Uh…the best in the house. For each."

The trandoshan behind the bar desk broke out in a grin that showed a great deal of teeth.

"Oh, so you want the good stuff?"

"Yup. With extra everything." Ahsoka nodded firmly.

"Hah! You togrutans got a sense for the good game, that's what I'm talking about!"

A couple of minutes later Ahsoka was on her way back with five big glasses of reddish liquid and a multitude of fruit slices decorating the rims of the glasses. It actually looked rather interesting.

"Hey! Check this out!" Rowena exclaimed.

"Niceee." Telash grinned at her.

"Ahem, with my compliments." Ahsoka said and tried to come up with something smarter. "I'm sorry I've caused you these problems."

"Peace offering accepted. Consider it a ceasefire between us for the moment." Rowena slurped eagerly through one of the elaborate drinking straws. "Well, what're you waiting for?"

Yes. Ahsoka had managed to order five glasses after all.

She took a trying sip. Then another. This was not the foul liquid she had tasted previously but tasted like a mixture of fruit juices. It was actually delicious. Though it burned notably in the back of her mouth and her throat. And you could pick off the fruit slices from the glass and have as snacks along with it. Neat!

"Mmm…a decent start of negotiations." Rowena sighed appreciatively a minute later. "But I think it will take more to cement our good relations."

"I had been looking forward to repaint the hull for that prize money..." Meshif said out in the air while thoughtfully taking a bite of Alderaanian sunfruit.

Ahsoka caught the meaning. Despite the size, these drinks did not last long and resupplying was needed. And she wanted more of that fruit.

"Would anyone like another round?"

***​

Ahsoka had convinced herself that she was the role model of all infiltrating role models when she sneaked up along the senatorial-residential stairs. She only banged her foot against it once. Despite her precaution, a hidden danger lurked close to the apartment entrance and ambushed her in a most unfair way.

"And good evening to you too, Ahsoka." Padmé said in a calm, and utterly terrifying, conversational tone.

"E'enin'." Ahsoka managed and stifled a very inconvenient hiccough. "Nishe night – nice night for working late…"

"Apparently." Padmé remarked tonelessly. "Is your comm by chance out of order?"

"Comm…"

"That small device used to communicate with others. Hence it's name. The one I gave you so that we could stay in contact if, say, an unexpected delay or something like that would happen."

"Oh… So, you mean that one."

"That one." Padmé had raised an eyebrow and looked sternly at Ahsoka, who was starting to think that senators with their arms crossed were a seriously underestimated challenge when it came to the 'no fear' part of jedi training.

"I guess I…didn't hear it…"

"No mean feat considering what I have been told of togrutan hearing."

"The place wash beconning – coming – a bit loud."

"And it didn't occur to you to perhaps check your comm on your own once or twice, or maybe after exiting this random noisy place?"

"I was jus…jus…a teeny, tiny, twiny, tweeny…uh…bit…"

"Late, I believe is the operative term you are unsuccessfully looking for."

"Yesh!" Ahsoka snapped her fingers, or tried to, to underline the revelation. "Date – I mean late – is the word. It was a late date. 'Cept it washn' a date. Though I was dragged to a table by a flirty red…Red. Tha's right. A Red. A red Row…row…rover? Anywash, it was just shome drinkz…"

"It is past 22 and you have been gone for eleven hours! What was I supposed to think?"

"Relasch, Senator Amygdala…" Ahsoka broke down in fits of giggles. She tried to lean at the door post next to her but missed it, and would have fallen freely if Padmé hadn't reacted quick enough and caught her.

"You are drunk and you are grounded, young padawan!"

"You can't…"

"My lair, my rules. At least until tomorrow noon or however long it takes for you to get that sludge out of your system."

"Yes mummy…mommy…"

 

[Maltacus]

Chapter 3

Of all the cruelties of the universe, the chirpy cheerfulness of morning persons was one of the most persistent and inescapable, in Ahsoka's opinion. Because, take evening persons. Evening persons did not barge into the rooms of morning persons who had gone to bed early, to pull the curtains open again. Nor did evening persons disturb morning persons with unreasonable praise of the late hour.

Why could apparent morning persons, like Padmé, not reciprocate and leave evening persons alone during the early hours? Ahsoka thought it was a very reasonable idea.

"Good morning sunshine!" the senator of Naboo twittered with outrageous joyfulness.

Ahsoka pulled the bedsheet and blanket over her head. The blanket was not designed for these emergencies and was too short, so her feet were left exposed to the elements.

"Did you sleep well?" Ahsoka just waited for her montrals to burst from the shattering waves of sound. Padmé must be yelling at her lung's full capacity. All those speeches in the senate must have given her a good deal of training. "It would be a shame if you hadn't, after such a sturdy nightcap I mean."

Ahsoka only groaned in response. Her eyes…did not quite fit into their sockets today. Someone must have disassembled her and then assembled her with the left eye to the right when she was asleep. Or something. Was this how droids felt after being repaired?

"3PO!" Now she was sure Padmé yelled at her lungs' full capacity. "Ahsoka wants a really sturdy breakfast today, with something spicy and hot together with lots and lots of very clear water."

"That was the bar's name…"

"What?"

"Spicy Hot. The bar I went to yesterday to pick up your pack…" Ahsoka tried to rise up in alarm but a spike of dormant headache hit her and she only managed to whine and clutch her forehead.

"You managed to bring that one home, don't worry." Padmé finally sounded a little compassionate. "How do you feel?"

"Hungry. And my head hurts."

Padmé put her hand against Ahsoka's forehead. It was very cool, and very calming, and on the whole a first class remedy. Ahsoka sighed and leaned against her.

"I know the feeling." Padmé whispered. "This is a state secret of the highest clearance level, but you are aware that my handmaidens would occasionally act as decoys for me?" Padmé hesitated and Ahsoka understood why. The task came at a terrible risk. Not all of them were still with her. "Sometimes, Sabé or one of the others that resembled me the most would cover for me, and I and the rest would sneak out on our own. And sometimes not all boxes of ceremonial clothes and regalia contained what they were supposed to during official trips…"

Ahsoka looked up and saw Padmé actually biting her lip and blushing slightly.

"Senator Amidala!"

"To be fair most of these times happened while I was queen."

"Your Royal Majesty!" Ahsoka repeated in the same scandalized tone and Padmé laughed at her.

"Did you have a good time, Little 'Soka?"

Now it was Ahsoka's time to feel embarrassed. "Only Master Plo is supposed to say that."

"That's us politicians – always on the lookout for compromising information that we can use in our nefarious schemes." Padmé winked at her. "I'll make you a deal; the more you tell me about last night the less I will divulge to C-3PO. What do you say?"

"I call that extortion."

"Have mercy, please? In one hour I will be going up against a whole day of budget cuts drafts and debating and I desperately need something else to think about. Budget cuts, Ahsoka."

Well. Padmé had been extremely nice and Ahsoka did not relish a day of the appaled advice on good behaviour that C-3PO's tireless processors would supply.

"Okay. Deal."

While breakfasting, and keeping her voice down to avoid upsetting the delicate sensibilities of said protocol droid, Ahsoka recounted the main events of the previous day and evening. She was starting to feel notably better from having something more substantial than deceptively sweet fruit drinks in her stomach.

Padmé was a good listener but when Ahsoka was finished she thought that the senator sported an unnecessarily broad smile. And it wasn't very senatorial to actually…giggle like that, was it?

"I have to give it to you, you managed to resolve things peacefully at least. I had no idea my contact was that deeply into whatever that could have been about. But it sounds like Madam Red and Blue accepted your apology at last."

"I think Scallywag didn't like me very much… Scalwena, I mean! Rowena calls her Scallywag to annoy her."

"Better luck with your next Mandalorian entanglement then." Padmé rose. "I shall do my best to contemplate the cultural quirks of the local enclave as I try to grasp the significance of a 4,63 or 4,67 % cut of the durasteel manufacturing oversight during the next two years. As if anyone knows a thing of what could happen during two years, but a budget we shall have at least…"

Ahsoka actually felt genuinely sorry for her.

"I may have another small job I could use your help with. I'll call you after lunch, and do pick up your comm this time. And I'll let you know if I catch any news about Barriss."

Ahsoka waved her goodbye half-heartedly. It hadn't been Padmé's intention but now she had a sinking feeling in her stomach. A really sinking feeling. While she had been out drinking her sorrows away, Barriss Offee languished in a republic prison cell somewhere deep inside a mountain of concrete and durasteel.

Barriss who had bombed the jedi hangar.

Barriss who had framed Ahsoka.

Barriss who had been her best friend.

Barriss who was imprisoned.

It was all Ahsoka could manage not to throw up in the bowl Padmé had placed next to her last night.

***​

For the next two days Ahsoka was kept busy by various jobs for Padmé and familiarising herself with the nearest parts of Coruscant for real. In case her tasks took her to the lower levels again Ahsoka did not want to repeat wandering about blindly and at the mercy of directions from questionably sane or honest strangers. She had obtained a holo-map but it was hopelessly outdated beneath the fourth level or so, meaning that it showed things which were not there. Either the facilities had long ceased operating or they had never been set up in the first place. Padmé had commented that some official holo maps were little better than glorified advertisements of coming – and in the event unfinished – civic projects of one senator or the other.

At least she knew that the Spic Hot Bar was operational for real, and where to find it. It was as good a landmark as anything else.

When she was mapping out an abandoned plant of some kind on the bottom level her comm device beeped and Ahsoka took the call dutifully.

"Hey, it's me." Padmé told her without further ado. "I just wanted to give you the latest about Barriss. There's a hearing scheduled in twelve days. It seems like something that's being kept under the lid. I gotta run but we can talk more at home, okay?"

"Okay."

Padmé quit the call and Ahsoka found herself alone, and without anything to keep her occupied enough not to think. Was this good or bad news? What was good news or bad news even in this case?

Ahsoka started to walk briskly. She was finding it increasingly hard to keep her emotions under control, only she did not even know for sure what her emotions were, only that her inside was in some kind of turmoil right now.

Several jedi had died. Ahsoka's brothers and sisters in the order, who had had nothing to do with how the order acted towards her later on.

Clones had died. Ahsoka's brothers-in-arms, all of them really, who bore the burden of an inescapable duty that Ahsoka had the privilege of being able to simply walk away from.

Maintenance personnel had died. Employed technicians, the people of the republic who jedi and clones were supposed to protect. They had been failed.

Ahsoka loathed the loss of all of them.

Barriss was in prison because of it. She had turned her back on all the jedi stood for. Hadn't she? Had Ahsoka too, by leaving the order the way she had? Barriss was a traitor and a murderer and Ahsoka was better off without her. Right?

Ahsoka loathed the loss of Barriss Offee. Her friend Barriss Offee.

She quickened her pace. She had to get somewhere, anywhere but where she was. To somewhere that would make her stop thinking in circles.

She missed the jedi temple.

The comforting nooks. The quiet meditation rooms where she had never excelled but liked to be anyway. The private corners of the library where she had barely found her way around until she started tailing Barriss everywhere.

What would the Ahsoka of a month ago have said about her present self seeking out a rowdy and unsavoury bar in her frantic search for nothing she could really define?

Almost out of breath, Ahsoka barged into the Spicy Hot with her heart pounding and feeling almost out of breath. She needed something, anything, to take her mind away from these circling thoughts. But not drinking. The memory of her waking up was still uncomfortably fresh and more so it felt outright disrespectful – sacrilegious – to get drunk at a time like this.

"Hey, Ahsoka?" She turned and saw Telash coming towards her.

"Morning. Or…day. Whatever."

"How are you?"

There were many, many things to say about that but none escaped Ahsoka's mouth right now. She stood mutely for maybe a full minute while her eyes darted this or that way while she was searching for an answer. Eventually she just managed a feeble shrug.

"That bad?" the zeltron had the gall to (accurately) read into the gesture. When Ahsoka didn't really answer he nodded questioningly towards a pair of stools by the wall.

Given the alternatives, a rakish one-night drinking buddy with a dubious goatee was perhaps not too bad. He could hardly be worse company than the concrete street.

"Well, how's, uh, business?" Ahsoka managed at least.

"Bit…slow." Telash cleared his throat. "The thing about Coruscant is that everything is so damned regulated. You don't just grab a posted bounty and deliver, you need to ask permission from all sorts of officials and other petty crime lords just to get to do your job."

Ahsoka smirked a little bit at that example of the characteristic Telash-y humour.

"Other petty crime lords?"

"Yeah… Actually, bribing ordinary thugs is usually much more straightforward than handling corrupt bureaucrats. Less krayt-spit and better service."

"So you're stuck with negotiating with some less honest parts of Coruscant's administration?"

"More like infamous after irritating a slightly too influential, and very much too grudgy, local agent of a hutt syndicate. After we let some random girl with a lightsaber walk into this deceptively simple trial job of ours."

Ahsoka looked down and rubbed her forehead. "It really stuck that much to you?"

"Coruscant." Telash shrugged. "Hey, no hard feelings. At least it ended a lot better than last time one of us had taken up a hot bounty. That means a bounty with more than one interested party in the game." he added in answer to Ahsoka's questioning look. "A cold bounty conversely is one with lacking interest from the involved parties."

"So you're looking for work?"

"Scalwena and Rowena are, upstairs. I got tired of it." Telash yawned. "How about you?"

"I…" Frankly, Ahsoka found that she didn't have the energy to care anymore if this was sensible or not. "It's a friend I have. Or had. She… She's done something horribly bad –"

" –and made you take the fall for it?"

Ahsoka stopped. Was she that transparent now?

"Rowena filled the rest of us in on jedi gossip essentials and other life's necessities." Telash explained casually. He still retained his relaxed demeanour and Ahsoka decided that she appreciated it. "Tough thing to have something like that happen to you, I reckon."

"I guess I'm just not over it." Ahsoka tried to mimic a little of his off-handed ways. Maybe it would be easier to talk about the whole thing if she tried to make it less dramatic.

"It's a downright shitty move, selling out your friend, so it sounds to me like you're entitled to do some brooding if that's what you're thinking of. But wasn't the whole going-mad-and-blowing-stuff-up thing pretty much a matter of time? No disrespect intended to those who got in the way of it."

"What the hell do you mean?"

"Just that this idiot war's been going on for years now and you jedi have been in the middle of since the start, right?"

Ahsoka nodded. That was certainly true. "And?"

"And you start way before you're fully trained knights, you're thrown into it as cadets – padawans, my bad – because you're supposed to accompany your masters and they are needed at the front lines. Non-stop, or close enough?"

"A padawan is to be given assignments of appropriate difficulty…" Ahsoka trailed off. Her own career had…not exactly been a role model when it came to learning curves and planned progression. And predicting what would happen on a mission was never entirely possible, often just qualified guesses.

"Sure thing. I'm sure the separatists have been polite enough to respect that." Telash flashed her a grin. "My point is, even if you have your Force and all you're still kids sent out to murder people with little or no respite in-between. Doing that for month after month, and kind of literally seeing your dead clones in the face of every new shiny gets to people sooner or later. I honestly can't figure how you keep it together."

"We…a jedi avoids attachment. To people…"

"The lightsaber is your one and only love, is it? Is it comforting to think that way? Or feel, if that's a better term?"

"It's not like that!" Ahsoka shook her head. "It's…"

And she was spilling it all out. In a bar, in some of the most unsavoury parts of the block, in front of an irreverent zeltron scoundrel she did not even know barely. The adventure of missions that had always been mixed with horror and grief, her unshakable faith in the jedi order without which she felt she had nothing, her sense of now fitting in nowhere and not really knowing what to believe in anymore.

Telash listened with interest but if asked, Ahsoka would probably not have characterized him as a good listener. He was not like Padmé, he had very few reassuring things to say and all the more that stoked the fires of mistrust inside Ahsoka.

"…and republic justice is a joke." Telash yawned dismissively. "I could go over it at length but look at your own trial. I rest my case."

"It…the jedi council shouldn't have mistrusted me." Even now, here, it took an effort to openly criticize the council.

"Screw the council, that shouldn't have to matter even. Not if you had gotten anything resembling a fair treatment. Instead you have, what, a bunch of aged wise guys sitting in a ring declaiming you at least half guilty after meditating upon basically nothing, and throwing you to a sarlacc with that in the baggage. Named sarlacc being the not at all biased senate." Telash clarified contemptuously.

"There was a…strong case against me." Ahsoka reminisced with something of a shudder. "Until my master intervened."

"It was not. Even Rowena's idea of retelling makes that much clear. They had absolutely nothing that proved who did what, just a convoluted charlatan sputtering out the dramatised plot of a tenth grade pulp. Of which I am excessively familiar, again thanks to a certain red someone." He huffed disdainfully. "But I guess Tarkin gets to play storyteller in front of the bunch of legal amateurs soon enough about your ex-friend anyway as a consolation prize."

Ahsoka had grown steadily more quiet throughout his rant.

"You don't think Barriss is going to get a fair trial?" she asked lowly, feeling that she knew the answer but needing to hear it out loud.

"In whose interest would that be?"

It was, actually, a very justified question. But any further conversation was cut short by the appearance of two fully armoured Mandalorians.

"Why are you here now?" Scalwena asked without even greeting her.

"No new renegade jedi business we hope." Rowena said.

"I was just leaving!" Ahsoka excused herself hurriedly and left before she could be interrogated further.

She very much wanted to see Padmé.

***​

Ahsoka walked without looking very much at her surroundings and probably without keeping any measure of guard up, which was a foolish thing at best in these neighbourhoods. She was restless, and reflecting on her own thoughts and what Telash had said while she hurried faster and faster and got even more out of breath with every step. When she finally reached the door of Padmé's residence she had to lean against the frame.

Her vision had blurred and Ahsoka struggled to breathe through it and not think of anything but inhaling and exhaling. The blur receded into random dark dots, at least she hoped it receded.

When she dared to press the button and enter, Ahsoka kept a hand on the wall and stair handle and walked slowly. The dark dots became light dots and she could breathe a little steadier, but felt nauseous. Meditating might be good. Or might make her throw up.

In the end it was all Ahsoka could manage to stagger into Padmé's living room and snatch herself a pillow to lie on, sprawled across the rugs on the floor with the ceiling spinning before her. She didn't trust high and potentially unstable places like the sofa at this time.

The room gradually span slower and slower while Ahsoka's thoughts did the same and she did not fall asleep so much as blacked out.

Ahsoka had no idea what time it was or how long she had slept when Padmé's voice woke her.

"…soka, what's the matter? Are you sick?"

Ahsoka sat right up, no longer nauseous but breathing heavily and with her pulse up, she noticed.

"What…what time is it?"

"About time for dinner. How long have you slept?"

"Don't know…afternoon…"

She noticed that Padmé was kneeling next to her, and Ahsoka braced herself for some smart wholesome comment that never came.

"Is something wrong? I mean, did something happen today? Or have you dreamt something?"

Ahsoka realised she must be looking like a major mess. She certainly felt like it.

She sat leaning forward against her drawn up knees and looking dead ahead while Padmé rubbed her back lightly. What had she been dreaming about?

Barriss.

Barriss, alone in dark surroundings with threatening shapes looming over her. Barriss, chained or restrained to something, either sitting or lying or standing. Dark shapes that approached her, bent over her to do something despicable, and Barriss quietly, or screaming, or petrified with fear, or hopeless but defiant to the last, being aware of it. Barriss, hurt and harmed and…damaged in all conceivable ways by the shapes around her, faceless and emotionless and indifferent. Until, quickly or slowly, all light faded from Barriss' eyes and she did not breathe anymore.

Ahsoka shivered.

She had dreamt of Barriss being killed.

"It…it was just a bad dream."

It had just been a dream. It wasn't real.

Yet.

***​

Padmé had gone from deep sleep to being fully awake before she had realised why. It was completely dark and must still be in the middle of the night. She was lying in her bed and could not hear a thing. Why had she woken up?

Had she heard something, now that she really thought about it?

She couldn't tell, but now she had a distinct sense that she had heard something. And she had better check that the something was not Ahsoka.

Padmé swung her legs out of the bed and tip-toed out into the living room. A small ray of light shone helpfully on Ahsoka's face from the windows. It was drawn, Padmé saw, and the togruta was breathing heavily.

"Ahsoka?" Padmé whispered.

There was no answer. She debated what to do. She didn't want to deprive Ahsoka of her sleep but if it was a sleep not worth sleeping…

"Ahsoka." Padmé clutched her shoulder and shook her lightly. Ahsoka opened her eyes, startled and disoriented.

"You had a nightmare. I think." Padmé said, kneeling beside her. Ahsoka was wet with sweat and her bedsheets had tangled.

"Nightmare…" Ahsoka mumbled, and there was something haunted about it.

"Do you remember what it was about?"

"No…" Ahsoka sighed deeply. Padmé thought she seemed exhausted despite having slept. "…taken…can't remember…"

But Padmé thought she could guess. And just seeing Ahsoka like this hurt.

"Hey, your sheets are all soaked through. Come on, we can squeeze into my bed. I'm too tired to search for new bedclothes."

"...kay…"

Padmé's reservations were unfounded because her bed could easily accommodate two. But after some deliberation she still laid down behind the togruta's back, and Ahsoka didn't protest when Padmé put her arms around her belly and they drifted slowly back to sleep together.

***​

Padmé did not tell Ahsoka that she cancelled a meeting during the next day and rescheduled another in order to be able to come home early in the afternoon.

Ahsoka looked terrible. Padmé wouldn't have guessed she had gotten any rest at all during the night if they hadn't slept next to one another. The otherwise energetic togruta was pale and gloomy and spoke little. Padmé did not even consider bringing up any small job this day. Something was seriously wrong.

Ahsoka was trying, she could see that. She had trained, she had gone out for a walk, even borrowed Padmés luxurious bathtub. But nothing seemed to help with whatever it was that hung over her.

It was late in the afternoon and the togruta was meditating in a separate room while Padmé participated in a holo meeting. She was luckily on mute when a scream of horror rang through her rooms.

Padmé threw herself towards the room Ahsoka was in and felt her comm stir at the same time. She answered the call from her guard just as her eys fell on Ahsoka.

"My Lady? Is everything alright?"

"No…yes, captain. There is no danger."

"…ah, do you need help with anything?"

"Thank you. No, I've got this." Padmé said gently and sat down next to the shaking Ahsoka who was sitting cross-legged upon the floor and staring blankly ahead.

"Ahsoka."

Ahsoka stirred, and looked at Padmé like she had just seen her and had no idea how she could be there.

"What happened?"

"I…saw her…" Ahsoka said hoarsely. "Taken away…to…" Something like the haunted look from last night was still over her.

"It's okay. You're safe here. Come, let's have some tea, would that be alright?"

Ahsoka got up tiredly and almost leaned on Padmé as they made their way to the living room. Padmé closed down her holo terminal and hoped the five minutes she missed would not be world-changing. She went to make some tea while Ahsoka stared out of the window.

Padmé took the opportunity to sneak off into her bedroom and bring her private comm with her. She sighed with relief when Anakin answered the call.

"It's clear, it's just me here." he said immediately.

"Hey, I need to ask you about something really quick." Padmé whispered hurriedly.

"What's going on?"

"It's Ahsoka." Padmé gave a quick description of what she had seen and the togruta's distress.

"Force vision, maybe."

"You really think so?"

"I can't tell, of course. Not without asking her about it. Sometimes revelations and our own thoughts can manifest very vividly, and sometimes the influence of the Force is not easily distinguishable from the influence of our own subconscious mind. Jedi are encouraged to meditate both to open ourselves to the Force and to be aware and mindful of our own thoughts and emotions."

"That sounds very wise, Master Skywalker." Padmé couldn't resist teasing and pretended to be suitably awe-struck.

"Not a word to Obi-Wan. I have a reputation to protect." Anakin chuckled.

"Alright, thanks. Got to go, the tea's getting ready. Love you."

Padmé still had a small lingering smile on her when she brought her and Ahsoka's tea. The togruta had calmed, and Padmé decided that she wouldn't press her about what it was she had experienced. Ahsoka would tell her if and when she wanted to.

The evening went by in uncomfortable silence mostly. Padmé did her best to be at hand without intruding, and Ahsoka sat close to her but it was clear how her thoughts were far away. When it was time to say goodnight Padmé nearly asked her to come sleep in her bed again but stopped herself. Ahsoka needed her space and was not a child, however much Padmé found herself caring for her.

It was proving bloody hard for her to get any rest for herself. She was simply too worried about Ahsoka and found herself lying with her ears pricked up for the smallest sound that could mean Ahsoka needed her.

However much Padmé strained to listen, there was no such sound.

Actually, there were no sounds at all that she could catch through the open door. Should there be? Did she usually catch the sound of Ahsoka's breathing?

She was being utterly ridiculous and she knew it, but now she had to get up and just take a look. Honestly, Padmé was the one who couldn't sleep alone this night. If only she could have Anakin with her.

Tip-toeing up and wrapping her robe around herself, Padmé went as quietly as she could to see the empty space on her couch. She inhaled sharply but then caught sight of a shadow standing in the room and looking out of the window.

She was fully dressed, including the cloak she had gotten herself against Coruscant's worse weather. Outside, the rain was pouring and Padmé thought she could catch distant sounds of thunder.

Ahsoka kept standing where she was when Padmé walked up to her side. The sight of the togruta so obviously ready to leave was heart-wrenching.

"You were burglared. Or someone you took in cheated you and left with a lot of money." Ahsoka said after a small while.

"Very strange. That sounds nothing like the togrutan friend I have." Padmé was hardly a stranger to deception when it was necessary but if something would put Ahsoka in harms way somehow, and especially now when she had just been unjustly accused in front of the entire senate, she felt instinctively repelled by the idea. "My friend who I would like to stay."

"I can't stay, Padmé. I wish I could. I have made a decision and I fear very much that I need to go through with it."

"Then let me help you. Whatever it is you need, anything that can make it better."

"You can't follow me. You can't be seen helping me in any way. You need to tell people that I stole the credits from you, or attacked you and took them." Ahsoka was collected but dead serious. Padmé had the distinct impression that she had made a decision of some kind.

"I will file a report if you insist, but I'll make sure it stays out of sight until it's needed."

"How can you make sure of that?"

"Please, I am a senator. Much to learn of the republic you still have, young padawan." Padmé smiled sadly. "I…I wish you well wherever it is you are going but I hope you will come back one day. You will always have a place here, Ahsoka."

Without giving Ahsoka time to protest, Padmé took a step forward and hugged her fiercely.

"Did the culprit make off with a speeder too?" she whispered.

"No, not from here she didn't." Ahsoka whispered back.

"Goodbye, Ahsoka. I think you might want to leave in a hurry to get the surveillance photo to support the burglary story."

"Goodbye, Padmé."

Padmé nearly managed to hold her tears back until the door closed behind Ahsoka.

 

[Maltacus]

Chapter 4


It was raining again. Not lightly like a few days ago when she had come to Padmé but a deluge that clouded the skies and made the traffic lanes run slower. Ahsoka's cloak dripped small rivers when she stepped inside the almost familiar door. She had barely encountered anyone in the street outside.

Shaking the worst off her, she lowered the hood and approached the trandoshan behind the bar desk. A quick glance around told her that quite a few patrons frequented the Spicy Hot at this hour but not the ones she was searching for.

"What can I get you, favoured guest?" he smirked. Ahsoka did not return it.

"The company from when I was here earlier, are they around?"

The bartender regarded her for a few seconds.

"Last door on the right. If they don't want to be disturbed you didn't hear it from me, got it?" he pointed back towards the stairs behind him.

Ahsoka nodded.

There was no comm at the door so Ahsoka simply knocked. The metal clang sounded hollow to her montrals.

She counted to five before it opened and Ahsoka found herself facing Telash, with a blaster in his hand even though it was lowered. He stepped aside and let her in without a word. Ahsoka walked past him and up to the table the rest of the crew was seated around, and dropped the bag with all her remaining credit chips on it.

"What will I get for this?"

Scalwena eyed her sceptically. "What are you buying?"

"Extraction from a secure compound. Non-lethal only. Escape from Coruscant and drop-off at a safe location."

Scalwena turned the bag upside down and emptied it's contents for all in the room to see. She glanced over the sum like she made a quick count while Rowena whistled.

"Who is the target?"

"A Mirialan female, shorter than me and thinly built. Blue eyes, dark hair. She is a former jedi padawan…" Ahsoka could see Telash's mouth quirk at this as he clocked the connection to their previous conversation. "…well educated, excellent memory, healing skills…"

"Healing?" Rowena asked, and her casual tone was contradicted by the rapidity of the question. "That any good?"

"Sure, she's a great healer, one of the most skilled in the entire order. Can work wonders, really."

That had been Barriss' true calling. She was never so happy or so confident as when she was allowed to properly treat the sick or injured. And then she had turned to the opposite extreme, destroying life instead of protecting it. Or no, she had turned from destroying separatist life to destroying republic life. Right then and there, Ahsoka suddenly felt like something had slid into place. An epiphany or a question, she was not quite sure which.

The jedi had picked a side in the war. They fought for the galactic republic, for what the republic stood for, and were prepared to pay for that in lives sacrificed and taken, and to accept the toll the war took on all those caught in it's side effects – devastation, famine, epidemics, crime. The survival and triumph of the republic was the overall objective. But what if someone did not share those views, and saw the republic as just another tool to protect and preserve the life and health of the people within it? What was to say that such a person would not come to view the republic as part of the problem instead of the solution?

And how wrong would that person really be?

Ahsoka realised that she had trailed off. Scalwena was gazing at her suspiciously with narrowed eyes and asked the obvious question that Ahsoka did not want to answer.

"What is the target?"

"It is a location on Coruscant that I will disclose if you accept the assignment." Ahsoka tried to sound surer of herself than she was. Bounty hunter customs and business courtesy was not part of the regular jedi curriculum. And Scalwena was undeterred.

"Difficulty and costs involved in a job is a question of pricing but I want to know what we would be hitting here."

Ahsoka hesitated. She was reluctant but she could not call Scalwena's demand anything less than reasonable. It was the final step now. Ahsoka still wanted to maintain deniability. So far there was only a minor incriminating note from Padmé meant to not be found until it was needed.

"It is a big grey building. It is extremely well guarded and fortified."

The look she got in return was unimpressed. Scalwena only raised an eyebrow.

"It is very big." Ahsoka looked intensely at her, wanting her to understand. Scalwena first looked questioningly at her and then shook her head almost warningly as her expression shifted towards disbelief, then realisation.

"Oh no, no kriffing way…"

Rowena grinned at Ahsoka. "Naughty, naughty jedi renegade…"

Ahsoka held her gaze for a few seconds longer as the response sank in.

"Alright." She tried to act nonchalantly. "I had just assumed you were among the best, but if the job is too difficult or too risky for you I won't bother you anymore. Thank you for your time."

Scalwena huffed. "I've been around for too long for that to work on me."

Ahsoka shrugged, collected the credits, and left the room without another word.

In the corridor outside she sank down and slumped against a wall section. She wasn't planning to stand there but she had nowhere else to go. What would she do know? Was there someone else? Of course there was, but she had…felt something right with this crew. Instinct? Intuition? Guidance from the Force? Or just her own stupid wishful thinking.

This was all a fool's errand. Something that could not be.

Ahsoka was looking emptily ahead when she heard the hissing of a door opening. She saw something red in the corner of her eye passing by.

"Are you going to stand there all day, naughty jedi?" Rowena asked when she passed Ahsoka on the way down.

***​

They had been arguing almost since they left the bar. When the loading ramp closed Meshif turned to them and snapped irritably.

"You two work whatever this is out and don't come down until you are kriffin' finished! Understood?!" When Rowena and Scalwena, who had been removing their helmets, had been about to retort he had stormed off. "Captain's orders! We are onboard!"

Scalwena kicked angrily with an armoured boot against the hull. This whole trip had turned into one royal krayt-spit screw-up beyond belief in less than two days and all because of one stupid little jedi brat of a togrutan who couldn't keep her fucking disasters to herself! She had cost them their assignment, their reputation and now they were going to be fighting over…what really?! Some mad idea of hitting the republic military headquarters – and not only that but non-lethal of all things!

They were fighting over complete droid-screwing lunacy.

"This is kriffing insane." Scalwena forced her voice back to civil.

"It could be doable."

"It could be suicidal, because it is."

"The naughty jedi could help." Rowena persisted with her stupid nickname for that little pest.

"This isn't like your bad holo shows with jedi waving their hands and doing mystical signs to make everyone agree with them!"

"You should see the main character's outfit." Rowena flashed her a quick grin. "Trust me, it was not the hands signs…" She whistled lewdly and extremely inappropriately considering what they were in the middle of.

"Get stuffed. I'm not going to argue any longer. I'm going to go below now."

"Scalwena…please."

Scalwena flinched. She had almost never heard that tone. Almost never.

"What did you say?"

"Please. It's the polite way of asking, so coming from me your confusion is excusable."

"It can't be done. I can not make it happen." Beskar and armourweave ground against one another when Scalwena clenched her fist.

Rowena blinked once during the long stare while she took in the answer, and Scalwena could practically see how a faint spark of something disappeared in her closest friend's warm eyes. Rowena straightened, and she had finally given up their long argument.

"First mate. Have a nice night."

"Quartermaster. You too." Scalwena answered cordially.

She watched Rowena walk stiffly down towards the interior of the ship. Her unbending back. Her laboured gait when they were onboard and she did not have to pretend any more. She was neither faking nor hiding anything and she would take insult if she was asked about it. But Scalwena could not stop seeing it anyway.

It was one of the bad days.

The whole cargo hold resounded with the clang when she hammered her fist into the hull. It left a small dent. Scalwena breathed heavy, ragged breaths leaning forward against the metal wall.

A healer.

…one of the most skilled in the entire order. Can work wonders, really.

Damn it.

Damn it all.

Her hand moved on it's own accord to her comm.

"Honey?" It was almost like hearing yourself speak from a distance. "I'll be out for a while. I love you."

"Are you and Rowena good?" There was no trace of anger or irritation left. Meshif only sounded concerned.

"We are not fighting. But no. We are not good."

Scalwena walked back to the ramp, pressed the control to lower it and went back out in the rain.

***​

Two hours later Scalwena stepped back onboard.

"I was just about to organise a search party." Meshif said only half jokingly. He was leaning against the doorway leading to the crew quarters with his arms crossed and a stern expression. Scalwena couldn't quite help running her eyes over the bulging muscles that the pose brought out.

"You can live without me for two hours, Captain." she quipped.

"Yeah, but I'd prefer not to right after you have an argument with Rowena and when our…business situation is what it is. What was so important?"

Scalwena stepped slightly to the side to reveal the cloaked togrutan beside her.

"I'm calling a crew meeting."

"Now?" Meshif almost groaned. "And what about her? I assume she's our client now?" The captain wasn't in the mood for being overly polite.

"She's coming too. Part of the crew for this job."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll tell them. Show her in then."

Scalwena waved their guest forward. The cargo hold was surrounded by a raised platform and from it one passage led down one level to the crew quarters and storage areas and another to the bridge, brig, medical bay and turret controls on the upper level.

There was no dedicated meeting room onboard. Scalwena led the way to the mess hall, which currently lived up to it's name in more ways than one. She resolutely cleared the board of everything. Rowena could clean that up later.

Their quartermaster entered at that moment followed by Meshif and Telash.

"What…is this?" she asked.

"Sit down." Scalwena only said. She indicated the spot beside her for Ahsoka.

"Now…" she brought out a small box and let it pass around the table after taking her pieces out. "I am putting this mission to a vote. The mission parameters are as discussed, and rejected by me, earlier today. A non-lethal strike to extract a prisoner held in the highest security cells imaginable in the republic military headquarters."

There was a momentary silence, until Telash spoke up.

"But you still think it could be possible? Or you wouldn't bring it to a vote."

"Yes. I think there is a possibility of carrying this out. It depends on the information and cooperation of our client." Scalwena turned to look at the young togrutan. "In broad terms our realistic options are infiltrating the compound, commandeering a transport carrying the target or some form of extortion or trickery."

"I wouldn't recommend trying to extort anyone, the clone troopers are conditioned against that kind of thing, and the whole system is designed to have multiple checks and redundancies to safeguard against anyone being compromised." Ahsoka said. "It would also take time…"

"So we're on the clock here?" Scalwena regarded her. "This gets better and better… Anyway, I am of the same opinion. The clone troopers' adherence to protocol makes them hard to bribe or threaten but also renders them less likely to question properly authenticated orders. That is something we can use. I think we can also safely say that some form of diversion will be required at one or several points in the operation."

"They will have orders to remain guarding the headquarters and let the city's security forces handle any riots and such, if that's what you're thinking of."

"Oh, don't worry, I think we can come up with something that makes clone troopers tick... But that is a thing for later. Now, these are the terms and they are not negotiable. First, I want full disclosure on your part on whatever detail that I ask or that you think could be of the smallest interest regarding the target, the headquarters, the garrison and any remotely relevant detail whatsoever."

"Deal."

"You will be consigned to our ship while you help us plan and prepare the operation in order to minimise suspicions. You do not set foot outside without my express permission until the operation is underway."

"Deal."

"You will assist us during the operation itself in whatever capacity I choose."

"So long as you respect the terms. No one is killed and no needless harm is caused."

"The terms will be honoured. With the balance of forces I would hardly want to resort to open combat in any case."

"Deal."

"We all escape together, initially. It will be the most practical anyway."

"Deal."

"You will make your friend heal Rowena."

"I can't answer for her. I'm very sorry, I truly wish I could but…" Ahsoka saw Rowena's face, that was set in stone and looking down at the table before her. "…Deal."

"Then I will consider this possible. I now call the crew to cast their votes. Telash first."

Telash produced the marker that was white on one side and grey on the other. He put it with the latter side up. "Grey mission."

Meshif slowly did the same. "Grey mission."

Scalwena looked across the table at her sister-in-battle, with the warm brown eyes darting between faint hope and overwhelming dread of yet another disappointment.

"White mission." Scalwena nearly slammed her marker down into the table with the white side up.

"That isn't how it is supposed to work…" Rowena mumbled quietly.

"Shut up!"

Rowena put her marker down. "White mission…" she said weakly. "Though perhaps you should not trust my assessment in this particular case…"

"We are at an impasse then." Scalwena declared formally. "The captain has the final vote as the ship will most definitely be needed."

Meshif glanced between Rowena and Scalwena and then exchanged a long look with Telash.

Then, as one, they turned their markers over.

"White mission."

 

[Maltacus]

Chapter 5


"How did you come by all this?" Ahsoka blurted out incredulously.

Telash sighed.

"Who are fighting this war?"

"The republic and the separatists."

"No, I meant are doing the actual fighting?"

"Clones and…battle droids. Right."

"There are black markets for just about anything. Honesty and tasteful art are in short supply though." Ahsoka couldn't tell if he was joking or not. "So! Here are our two gentlemen."

Telash indicated two sets of complete clone trooper armour on the floor, picked out of a far larger pile of discards. Ahsoka swallowed. Each piece was so similar to the next. Each could have belonged to anyone. Each could have belonged to Rex.

"What is it you need me for?"

"The uniform does not make the clone. Especially not without the actual uniform as in this case but the manufacturers do not pay their staff enough to prevent a few from going missing when they need to, and one size fits all in this case as we all know… Anyway, they paint their armour, right? And for all the things kriffed up with them, clones are human enough to form their own cultures, their own habits and their own ways of acting in different companies, right?"

"They do." Ahsoka nodded and could not stop her voice from thickening. She missed them. All of them. And she missed Rex. And she missed Anakin.

They would call her a traitor and spit on her name.

"You okay?" Telash asked. Ahsoka noticed that for all his disillusioned cynicism regarding all things wrong in the republic, he was not indifferent to others. "Voice modulators can only take you so far if you don't know what to say. Me and Meshif will need your help with that. Expressions, background, prejudices, pop culture and whatever else that could come up if we have to make small talk. And along with that we need to figure out how the troopers on Coruscant are likely to behave. Let me get Meshif so you can put us shinies up to speed."

"Shinies?"

"Uh… I guess I heard someone say that's what clones call new ones…"

Despite the thoughts hanging over her, Ahsoka grinned. "Well done CT-Telash."

"Right… Well, time to meet the rest of the actors in the play. May I present…the opposition!"

Telash opened the door of one cargo container and as soon as the light reached it Ahsoka had jumped into a ready stance with sabers in her hands.

Telash grinned back at her.

"Didn't Scalwena say we'd have something to make clone troopers tick?"

Ahsoka glared at him.

"Don't worry, they'll be remotely controlled and only have blaster replicas."

"They had better."

Telash winked at the glaring togrutan. "Roger roger."

***​

The republic military headquarters were many things but perhaps most of all a hub of communications. From it a military commander could reach the furthest outpost through a system of relayed messages, boosted signals and in sensitive cases couriers and scouts flying into the darkest corners of the galaxy. As such it maintained a complex web of communication relays and channels, overlapping and complimenting each other, and sometimes conflicting and acting as mere reserve options.

Thus, making sense of the overall functions and functionality was a highly classified and specialised task, and far beyond the training and clearance level of even the higher ranking clone troopers assigned to guard the compound.

CT-0305 and CT-1103 were therefore not completely surprised when they were met by two unknown troopers carrying toolboxes and requesting entry to the outlying maintenance shaft they were assigned to watch. Few would probably even have guessed that it was part of the headquarters at all.

"Designation?"

"CT-1337. We're here to do an unscheduled check on maintenance and routines."

"On whose authority?"

"The captain in charge."

"Being…?"

"More than we were told. Look, my unit was drafted into this at the last minute, barely got our helmets on. It's some form of efficiency drill combined with this, quick response, that's all I know."

CT-0305 sighed inwardly. Right now he felt especially fed up with the tangle of orders and directives and new routines that some desk-hugger somewhere managed to come up with instead of just letting him and his brothers do the miserable job they were trained and born to do. Couldn't they just have some peace to carry out their tasks once in a while?

"Fine. Do you have clearance codes?"

"Not even that." CT-1337 said without managing to hide his disgust completely. "Because, you know, this is this unscheduled check up and scheduling something so boring as clearance codes or anything other remotely sensible would take scheduling." He quieted and collected himself. "Sorry, brother. That was out of line."

CT-0305 had better things to do than be mad at him. It wasn't CT-1337's fault things were what they were. And now that he thought about it this made a kind of sense. High command was always looking into drilling and stress-testing every thing they could lay their eyes on.

Heck, people said clones were better than droids – which him and his brothers were, any day! – because they could think creatively. Or so the Kaminoans at home had said. But what did that matter when you were burdened with all these protocols and kriffin' leadership moving at the pace of an elder hutt when it really mattered?

CT-0305 still caught himself missing Kamino from time to time. In retrospect it had all been kind of eerie, and Tia Daala had scared him at times. But it had still been a home. And he still hadn't learned how it felt to lose a brother at that time.

"Well, I need to take a look inside this hunk of junk or go and request clearance codes, but I need to do something. Would it be alright if we took a peek?"

Yeah, now that he really thought about it, life was too short and too hard without CT-0305 and his brothers making it worse for each other. And CT-1337 seemed like a decent soldier just wanting to get his messed up job over with.

"Yeah, you go right in and get this over with."

"Thanks. Appreciate it."

CT-1337 and CT-91919 entered the maintenance shaft and after maybe ten minutes they came back out.

"Okay, all done here. Thanks again. You have a good one, CT-0305."

"You too. Say, got any name outside your CT number?"

"I go by Ace. Yeah, I know, my brothers were bored that day… This is Shave. Tends to land himself in close ones, you get it..."

"Jed. My buddy here goes by Hix."

"Nice meeting you." Ace nodded. "Jed, you might want someone to take a look at some of that circuitry. I'm no techie but…I don't know, that's seen better days."

"Okay, will do. Hey Ace, if you got some time off you should drop by the clone bar some time. Heh…scheduled or unscheduled."

"I'd like that." Then he saluted, and Jed did the same, and they became CT-1337 and CT-0305 again.

Clone troopers CT-1337 'Ace' and CT-91919 'Shave' marched in regulated lockstep out of the view and then took a quick turn to the side and between a few cargo containers someone had deposited on this backstreet area. The two armoured Mandalorian women and cloaked togrutan had already gotten there from their hidden spot close to the clone troopers' interaction.

"Seriously, Telash, you and names…" Meshif muttered while he hurriedly removed his helmet and slipped into a stained and too large overall that could hide the rest of the armour until they were somewhere more private.

"Don't go getting any ideas now, soldier. I like it just the way it is." Scalwena scratched affectionately at his stubby cheek.

Telash had a smug smirk ready when he removed his own helmet and proceeded to disguise himself in the same way.

"That was some smooth Force work if that's what you did." he said appreciatively to Ahsoka.

"It was." The togruta didn't look very pleased with her success. They started walking away when she continued. "Most people I have heard call it mind tricks, which is true enough, but it really is more about suggestions than some form control or something like that. The more ready someone is to believe or catch on to an idea the easier does it become."

"And you know your clones, right?" Telash looked attentively at her. "You know how they think and what they are likely to think about?"

Ahsoka nodded.

"So in other words you were damned suggestive back there, girl." Rowena's helmet revealed nothing but it was clear to all that it now masked a wide smile. "No guards can resist our naughty jedi."

"W-what, no! It's not like that, it's more like I've just lied to my little brother. I think. Not that I'd really know…"

"You got a big family then. Hey, look at it this way, the less they know the better for them and we got what we need to do this skilfully." Telash raised his toolbox.

"What's in that?"

"The short answer is that it's comm data that should have been wiped if you wanted to maintain proper information security while balancing that need with redundancy and reserve capacity in case the whole system is briefly knocked out. The thing is that messages going into the…okay, short answer, uh… Well, the republic military was less keen on paying for the continued support and development of their information security countermeasures than they should have, and proved to be less attentive and respectful to a few of the tech junkies who designed them than what was good for them. For the right price, some elements of Coruscant are willing to reverse engineer the data inside this little box and create a working clearance code for some lower priority message. Perhaps not enough to obtain the release of a high security prisoner but…forwarding a new flight plan for said prisoner's transport on the day of her already scheduled hearing…"

"Yeah, yeah, gloat about it…" Meshif interjected. "What he means to say is that whoever designed this headquarters cared a lot more about preventing true information from leaking out than false information going in."

"They live next to the galactic senate after all so maybe they will have learned to live with that…"

Four hours and two shifts of the guard later, a certain comm module in a less prioritized node of the military headquarters exploded, burning itself thoroughly beyond recognition and salvaging but causing little other damage.

Typical bad circuitry with too little maintenance, CT-0305 shrugged when the routine inquiry came about it. CT-1337 had been right.

Nobody bothered to investigate further and determine whether the exploded comm module was in fact the real one and not a replica with a timed low-yield incendiary charge inside it. The trail ended in a republic garbage compressor in the lower levels of the compound.

***​

Clone trooper 34954, Vex, was not a shiny and not green at the high security assignments. When the message came through to the shuttle he was piloting, Vex did not lose his composure in the first place.

"This is irregular. Contact flight command, double-check the course change." Vex told his co-pilot, CT-2287, Dom.

"Yes sir." Dom typed in the request. "Sir, I'm reading disturbances on the frequency, possibly interference."

"Switch frequencies, try again." Vex slowed down just a little. They would soon be at the junction where the new orders indicated a turn that had previously not been planned. High security transports did not follow the obvious routes or the same route twice, but they did not deviate either without exceptionally good reasons.

An explosion and great cloud of smoke ahead of them pulled Vex's thoughts away from any communications protocol issue.

"What was that?!"

Dom looked wildly from side to side without being able to provide an answer. He tapped his comm pad and actually paled.

"Sir, you better listen to this." Dom said gravelly and brought the speakers up.

"…I repeat, DROIDS IN THE CITY, DROIDS IN THE CITY! WE NEED IMMEDIATE ASSIS..." The speaker's voice drowned in a wave of static.

Vex did not hesistate any more. Whoever had suggested this course change was a kriffing genius and he would congratulate that damn marvel later. Right now, their duty was clearer than in many days.

Clones defended the republic. Clones protected the republic.

And good soldiers followed orders.

"Escort fighters, this is Lieutenant Vex. Reported separatist incursion ahead of us. Break formation and lend assistance. Transport will proceed to the target according to the new flight plan. This is not an exercise. Vex out."

The heavy republic prison transport sped up and made a sharp break to the left while diving towards lower altitude.

"Kriff, that's actual B1:s down there!" Dom almost shouted when looking out of his side of the cockpit. "How the hell did they get here?!"

"Eyes forward!" Vex commanded. He kept his own on the instruments and the traffic lane straight ahead. The flight orders were telling him to drop further, did that mean there were separatist fighters in the air too? It would be a massacre if they reached these traffic lanes! All he could do was fly as steadily as possible while still not wasting time, and not causing a panic among the drivers either. They would listen in but maintain comm silence of their own for the time being.

They were navigating the denser districts right now, with concrete and durasteel beams all around. The shadows cast did not contribute to Vex's mood.

The shadows? Or one shadow. Right above them.

The prison transport ship shook from the impact of a direct hit.

Vex instinctively veered away but the ship did not respond to the controls as it was supposed to.

Another two hits impacted.

"Ion cannon!" Dom called out.

"Hang tight! I'm trying to dive and shake them!"

Vex was not a bad shuttle pilot and he put every grain of his skill to use, but two more ion hits sent his ship nearly tumbling out of the sky and it was all he could do to divert power to stabilizers and keep them from spinning nose first into the ground or something else.

"Who is that bastard above us?!"

"Something dark and big, looks like a freighter but he's keeping pace with us easy as hell!"

"No shit! Dom, brace for impact!"

***​

"Target going down, I'm opening the ramp." Meshif's collected voice sounded from the speakers in the cargo hold. "Prepare to jump."

The roar of the engines welled in and drowned out the hiss and clank of the cargo bay doors and ramp opening.

"Deploying smokescreens."

Ahsoka could see the inhospitable Coruscant architecture drift by as the ship descended, coming to a halt and holding position in the air.

"Time to go." Scalwena's distorted voice, enhanced by her helmet's speakers, announced.

Ahsoka saw Rowena run towards the ramp and then throw herself out with wild abandon. Ahsoka could slow her own fall with the Force and dampen her landing considerably but even jedi powers had their limits. She would like to know what was outside and how high up they were.

All such aspirations were thwarted when Scalwena grabbed her firmly around the thighs and back and lifted her up.

"Hold on to me, Peaches!" Without waiting for a reply the blue Mandalorian walked briskly out on the ramp and stepped over the edge.

The air rushed against her and Ahsoka's mind raced to determine the right time to jump and how to land, until she felt the strong tug when the jetpack of Scalwena came alive and broke their fall to a controlled descent.

There was smoke everywhere but the crashed shuttle's silhouette was well illuminated by the fires that had broken out. Rowena was already at the cockpit with a blaster out but not looking like she considered the pilots to be a threat. She had a long vibro-knife in her other hand and was bending down to slash and hack at a cracked portion of the windows. Ahsoka hoped they had managed to make as good an emergency landing as Meshif had reported.

"Red's got it, now get to work with your part." Scalwena reminded her curtly.

Republic high security prison transports worked on a module system. A prisoner boarded a container module that was then lifted to the hangar and carried by the shuttle. He or she would be let out far away from the hangar in a more controlled environment. The double doors of durasteel and various other alloys would take almost any hand-held tool hours to cut through.

Almost any tool.

Ahsoka used her main saber and pierced the centre of the door slowly. She did not want the tip sticking out inside. Telash had helped her practice after obtaining the schematics from yet another very expensive and very shady business partner. Sensing and focusing deeply with the Force to help her, Ahsoka let the metal around the bore heat up and begun to carve slowly and steadily down, through the sealing mechanism of the outer doors. If she needed to she would cut them out completely but the aft hull was largely undamaged since the pilot had managed to land with the nose first and scrape his vessel's belly against the street.

She pushed the durasteel doors apart with the force, with little resistance. The next door was closed horizontally instead of vertically and would have locking clamps on each side instead of the middle, all to prolong any attempt at forced entry. With only half as much metal to cut through this door was easier, if also riskier as there was a longer cut required. Ahsoka switched to her shoto saber – her dual wielding style with a long and short saber brought some very practical benefits on the side – for this delicate work.

"Both pilots are secured at a safe distance. Red is coming over here now." Scalwena reported. "Time estimate?"

"Just a minute or two…" Ahsoka angled her saber to cut along the edges of both door sections without sticking the tip inside. "There."

She focused on the door with the Force, but only the lower section budged.

"Mechanical countermeasure. They're built to prevent anyone from opening one half without opening the other too." Scalwena pointed out. She activated a light from her rifle and raised it along the side until she found what she was looking for. "See the dent? Something hit the hull and deformed the tracks. Can you cut it up a bit?"

Ahsoka followed her and it only took a pair of quick slashes with her main saber to make space for the door to slide. She pushed again, one with the Force and with nothing but this stubborn door in her mind. It was metal, it was bent, it was stuck, it was of no consequence for the Force was everywhere…

Screeching and groaning made her montrals hurt when the door halves finally gave way. Scalwena knelt and aimed her search light inside.

"Nobody close." Ahsoka's heart skipped a beat. It couldn't be…empty, could it? "Something dark in the corner…"

Ahsoka had her main saber in two hands before the last word. Durasteel melted, sparked and dropped around the oval opening she made, and then tore the pieces out with the Force. Scalwena pushed the glowing metal away with an armoured boot.

Seated in the darkest corner with her arms around her knees and her hooded head down was a small, thin creature garbed in dark mirialan robes.

"Barriss? It's me, Ah –"

The dark bundle moved and two deep blue eyes glimmered for the faintest moment until a stun blast sent her collapsing unto the floor.

Ahsoka turned and looked at Scalwena and her raised rifle while anger and outrage boiled inside her.

"Save it for later, Peaches, we're running out of time! Red, get her!"

Ahsoka felt Scalwena grab her and almost forcibly drag her out while Rowena climbed inside and bent down. Ahsokas anger abated a bit when seeing her how the red-lacquered Mandalorian very carefully scooped up the unconscious Barriss Offee in her arms and rose. She walked sideways through the opening, pressing her armoured back and head back against the hot edges to keep the mirialan in her arms away from them. It was...an unexpectedly tender sight.

"Don't worry, I've got her." Rowena said and briefly looked down on Barriss. She made a movement that was almost like she was rocking the mirialan in her arms and pulled her closer. Then her jetpack ignited with a roar and Rowena soared like a rocket towards their ship.

Scalwena put her arms around Ahsoka and Ahsoka clung to her neck, undignified but effective. As Scalwena carried her into the air she saw the white shapes of the clone pilots far away in the smoke and took in the full scope of the destruction. Small in scale compared to what she had seen in real war zones, but on Coruscant still.

The red streaks of point defence fire hit the unshielded shuttle, blowing it to pieces in short order. A second salvo succeeded in igniting fuel and the wreckage disappeared among the flames.

***​

Rex never fancied himself a veteran, or someone notably experienced or knowledgeable. He was too busy doing his job and trying to keep himself and his clone brothers coming back in one piece as often as possible from the madness the war threw them into. But when the news reached everyone about droids – and lowly B1:s no less – roaming the streets of Coruscant and somehow managing to intercept and shoot down a republic prison transport, but still failing to finish the knocked out pilots, Rex honestly thought it was like each person around him had had their brains replaced with slag. How could reasonable people and trained, experienced troopers buy that krayt-spit without a second thought?

When all your instincts screamed that something did not add up it usually did not kriffing add up. It was as simple as that.

And since he had a very good reason to keep his eyes peeled for any piece of news from Coruscant ever since this nightmare of insane screwed-up shit about his general, and one and only little sister in the whole wide galaxy, had begun, Rex was sitting here alone after hours at a terminal and using his increased clearance to try and make some sense of it all.

The droids were real. So far so good. But how they had gotten to where they appeared, and by what sort of ship, nobody knew.

Prison transport escorts had engaged and dispatched the droid force pretty easily but the transport had continued on it's path – of course, what else was it supposed to have done? – and been shot down by an unidentified vessel that did not look like any sort of regular separatist ship. As if they would use their own models for an infiltration mission but by all means, Rex noted that. He zoomed in on the unreleased footage that existed, which he had access to on account of being a senior officer in charge of training and tactics and therefore a need to know about separatist operative patterns. Especially those notices flagged as urgent.

The hull of the prison transport was in pieces and could tell little except that exploding fuel or projectiles had scattered it all over the place. There were dutifully added pictures of each larger pile of debris but Rex doubted scanning through them would offer up much in the way of answers. Still, he would look them over.

The cell container's walls were just about gone, the remains little more than twisted and blackened pieces of scrap. Rex had no idea how to find out anything useful from that. The door parts looked to be in much better shape, as if they had been hit differently or thrown away before taking the brunt of the damage. Which was a little strange.

He looked closer. They were of sturdy construction, thick durasteel through and through. Rex was vaguely aware of how such a module was designed and could almost picture how those door plates would have been mounted.

How then, had the explosive ordinance or fuel or whatever it was managed to turn the hull into twisted scrap while cutting the door parts clean like that?

Why had the republic's horde of analysts not spotted that and raised the same question? Even Rex was well aware of what cut plating looked like because he had seen it happen in action, right in the thick of it, and you didn't forget that sight. Was the entire republic intelligence made of shinies or something these days?

He slowly scrolled between two photos. Slowly, because of a very prominent feeling that he was more right than he wanted to be. Yes, it was entirely possible that whoever had analysed this had not thought of the same thing as reflexively as Rex. Because they had not been where he had. They had not seen what he had. They had not fought with those he had.

They did not instinctively recognize the cut of a lightsaber through thick armour plating.

But it was likely only a small matter of time before someone else did. And for all his loyalty to the republic Rex found that he did not look forward to it, for his instincts told him to make a very unpleasant connection to the original reason for why he frantically had kept up to date with Coruscant news these days.

A reason wielding green lightsabers.

"Ahsoka, what have you done?" Rex whispered.

---

THE END

BUT THERE IS A SEQUEL. THERE ALWAYS IS, ISN'T IT?

THE MISADVENTURES CONTINUE IN
FRUITS AND BERRIES
​

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