Dependable Barriss

Everything about the man teemed with loathing. His blue eyes beamed harm and he would have fought back if he could, the Inquisitor mused. Instead, the Captain was forced to stand there with a lightsaber through his guts as he died, though he did die with dignity. He tried to grasp the lightsaber in some vain attempt to free himself and he refused to break his deathly glare as if he was making a point to his men, who had long since ceased paying attention to their duties. They had instead followed the heated exchanged with horror yet none had lifted a finger to come to his aid. The silence was deafening, only the increasingly distorted breaths of the Captain could be heard on the bridge.

It’s not enough, she thought cruelly and slowly brought the lightsaber sideways just a tiny bit at the time, which was enough to surpass the man’s pain threshold. He emitted a strangled sound and she knew he was choking on his own blood. That in itself would have been enough to lift her spirits and perhaps lure her into a smile, but she had no time to draw it out.

His suffering can never be great enough.

In her exasperated state, it was a challenge to repress the dark side. It was tempting to let it run through her veins again and invigorate her, but she could not afford a loss of control here, she might end up killing every last officer on the ship. She looked across the terrified faces of the crew in their pits or standing by their consoles. She had to make sure they all understood the price of treason and she had to do so fast. She needed them if she was going to stand a chance at recovering from this disastrous loss.

She did not deign to look at the Captain when she cut through the rest of his midsection, severing him in half. Instead she addressed the crew and officers of the bridge, most of whom stared at the dismembered corpse in fear.

“I want every man and woman who had any contact with the jedi to be questioned,” she commanded with a calmness she did not feel and watched as all eyes turned to her. “All surveillance camera recordings of the past twenty-four hours are to be analyzed and every possible jump vector along the jedi’s last known trajectory is to be calculated.”

“Yes, Inquisitor,” came the only reply from her side. She looked to find a youthful man whose rank insignia told her he was a Lieutenant. He visibly shivered, but at least he had the presence to act. “It will be done.”

She did not know who he was, but neither did she care.

“Good, I expect a report within an hour, is that understood?” she told him directly.

“Yes, Inquisitor,” he replied again without daring to look her in the eye.

“He spoke of a prisoner as well,” she continued. “I want them taken to the Captain’s quarters.”

“Yes, Inquisitor,” he said.

She gave him a nod and he turned to set the confounded crew to work while she turned to head for the Captain’s quarters. She gestured for her colleague who stood beside her to follow.

“It’s difficult to believe he would have risked his life for a jedi of all beings,” her companion said as she fell into step beside the Inquisitor. Her voice was augmented as it passed through the helmet but the skepticism in it was still pronounced. “I would attribute this failure to incompetence rather than treason.”

“Are you saying I shouldn’t have killed him?” the Inquisitor said, cutting straight to the point. Had it been any other Inquisitor, she might have taken the wording as a challenge, but this one was different. She was congenial company.

The reply was a chortle followed by a headshake. “No, of course he deserved it, but I am simply saying… It may have been the result of mind tricks.”

The Inquisitor felt the clutch in her chest tighten. That was not how jedi mind tricks worked, one could not simply trick an entire star destroyer yet that was what had happened. The Captain had claimed that he had done what was asked of him. He had defiantly told her that because the Inquisitorius was not officially a part of the Imperial Army or Fleet, why should he have used a military scanner for her identification card? He had only run through the code and been satisfied with a match.

“Perhaps you’re right but it matters little,” the Inquisitor told her as they entered a turbolift. “The jedi is gone and only keen thinking will put us back on the trail.”

They stood alone inside the lift next to each other as it started to ascend. The walls were polished to a mirror-like finish and the Inquisitor was reminded that she still wore Barriss’ clothes. It irritated her and she fought back an urge to rip the attire to shreds, however, she noticed something else. Her hair was not covered. Intrigued by this abnormal slight, she pondered it for a moment. Barriss had always kept it covered out of tradition, but the Inquisitor had done so out of habit.

One more thing to take from you, she told the abyss.

“I’m glad you’re optimistic about the situation,” her companion said and then raised a hand to disengage the visor. Lime-green eyes, yellow skin the same color as the Inquisitor and an equal lack of tattoos. She was sleek and tall for a mirialan with the same physique as was expected of an Inquisitor. She wore a double-bladed circular lightsaber and the standard uniform, though the helmet was of a different design. Its pointy tip looked sharp enough to pierce and she had a much-desired look that was incredibly intimidating to ordinary citizens. The force told a different story, however. She was not the wild, impulsive shadow that seemed to be generic amongst Imperial Inquisitors. The Empire had shown them how to use the dark side and encouraged them to study the jedi archives, but that was the extent of their training. She suspected it was a means of control to keep the Inquisitors from growing too strong, but it meant that most lacked even rudimentary training in how to focus and control their power and as a result, they were often no more than beasts let loose.

Her name is Yena, she recalled – or at least her former name was. She had received a number like everyone else but hers was so obscurely high that it would have been an insult to mention it.

“Do you honestly believe we stand a chance?” Yena continued. “Even if the prisoner talks and the holo-surveillance tapes show us exactly what she did, we will never know where she went.”

It was true, their chances were slim. Ahsoka had been smart enough to steal the Advanced TIE-fighter which had a hyperdrive – or perhaps the Captain had let her take it. TIE-fighters did not usually have a hyperdrive so she could not have known of its existence unless someone had told her.

She sucked in a cold, refreshing breath and forced herself to think. If unconsciousness counted as sleep then she had been asleep for far too long but it did nothing to make her feel more rested.

“The Advanced TIE-fighter isn’t the fastest in the galaxy,” she started, “and to get to the nearest hyperspace lane she will have to astrogate from time to time at sublight speeds.”

“Even still, she has your codes. She could use Imperial hyperspace buoys or the hyperwave beacons, couldn’t she?”

The Inquisitor crossed her clenched hands behind her back, trying to keep breathing easily.

“I’ve had the codes nullified already,” she said, “but yes… She could have made it to the Inner Rim by now.” Ahsoka would have had to revert to real space every once in a while, to let the navicomputer calculate the next vector, which meant there was a chance to capture her. It was an incredibly slim chance - nigh impossible if the trackers had been removed from the TIE-fighter and it was difficult to believe that Ahsoka would not have thought of that. The only real option they had was to back trace where she had gone and then make an educated guess from there.

“Had I arrived here a few hours earlier, she would have been stopped,” Yena said with a hefty sigh. She radiated disappointment in the force and the Inquisitor couldn’t blame her. Ahsoka had been beyond lucky. As she sat in a holding cell, she had felt Ahsoka skulking around the ship like a fox. Her mind had been in a frenzy trying to figure out how to save the situation before it ended in defeat but there was nothing she could have done. She had been completely powerless just like in her nightmares while Ahsoka tore up the fabric of her world.

“It’s just a series of unfortunate events which led to this,” Yena muttered. “As I recall, jedi often find their way through seemingly insurmountable odds.”

“No,” the Inquisitor replied simply. “The force was with her,” she said as if that was a good enough explanation. It was, however, the only one that made any sense.

They did not have to ascend for long before they reached their stop. The Captain’s quarters were only a short walk from the lift.

“What do you mean by that?” her companion asked, trying to understand. “Was the force not with you? Was that why you were beaten?”

“No,” the Inquisitor replied as they entered the Captain’s quarters. They were large and split into four separate rooms. A refreshing room, a holo transmission room, a bedroom and the entryway they stood in now. The furniture and the architecture bore the distinct simplicity of Imperial produce. Barren steel, sharp angles and nothing in the way of personal affects. It had a calming effect on her and she looked to the uniformed Inquisitor with a neutral face.

“I had her right where I wanted her,” she said shortly, “but aided by the force, she managed to overcome me at a critical moment.”

It was the truth, but it wasn’t Ahsoka she was referring to. The traitor within her had been the one to sabotage the situation. She wanted nothing more than to strangle the culprit but there was nothing physical to take hold of. She had already deleted all traces of Barriss that she could without killing herself. There was only one thing left to take from Barriss and she had just let that slip through her fingers.

“As you say,” came the reply after a pause. It was a very vague explanation if there ever was one but it was the only one she was willing to give for now.

“Prepare my uniform,” the Inquisitor said and headed towards the refreshing room. It was a good thing Ahsoka had left it untouched, otherwise she would have either had to work with these rags or put on the uniform of another. “I expect you’ll find it in the medbay.”

“Very well,” the other Inquisitor returned and without a single question she left the quarters to do as she was told. She thought nothing more of it before she threw off her clothes and took a hot shower. Only the Captain’s cabin had the luxury of a shower with fresh water. Everyone else had to do with a sonic shower, a much more sophisticated and effective hygiene tool, but it lacked the comfort running water against the skin could give.

The air quickly grew warm and thick with steam and she allowed herself a moment amidst all of the chaos to relax and believe that everything was going to be fine. The water hit her head with low pressure and washed down the sweat and blood of yesterday. The discolored water swirled up into a miniature maelstrom over the drain and was swallowed up along with her worries. She would find Ahsoka with the leads that she had, she was confident in that and now that she had the aid of another Inquisitor, her chances were improved. She felt better about the situation and she felt clean – in more than one way. It had been an icky feeling to have people looking at her with hope in their eyes. The uniform would allow her to ease into her natural role as an Inquisitor once more, but she could not stop herself thinking back to the twi’lek Sergeant, whose existence proved that the jedi had done their work well. The benevolent words he had tried to cheer her up with repeated themselves in her mind and her jaw clenched, resulting in pain. She glared at her scarred hands and wished they were drenched in twi’lek blood. The jedi presence was like a disease. They filled empty-headed dreamers with hope and told them they could fight the Empire, but there was no such thing. All resistance resulted in death and it was never going to end before all of them were dead.

That means you too, she told the pit within her. Once I have her, what hope will you cling to then?

Exiting the shower, she wrapped herself in a towel and walked to the mirror. She wiped her hand across it and studied her reflection closely. She had dark-yellow bruises on her cheeks and jaw which explained the pain. She must have taken a few nasty blows, but at least she had all of her limbs and she was alive. She turned her head from side to side, taking a look of herself from several angles.

Why didn’t you kill me? she asked her absent friend, but she knew the answer. Ahsoka might have left the jedi order, but she was still very much entwined with their ideology whether she would admit it or not. A weakness which had saved the Inquisitor’s life. Instead, Ahsoka, or one of her minions, had put binders on her as if they had wanted to question her.

You knew I wasn’t going to talk. What did you hope to gain?

The answer was obvious. A trial and an execution. It was not like Ahsoka to kill for any reason other than survival and especially not an old friend. To weak to do it herself, she trusted a court to do what she could not.

She prodded her upper lip carefully, feeling a sting. She had taken quite the beating even though she had defeated Ahsoka. Most of what had happened went by so quickly when she tried to recall it that it was hard to trace her exact errors, but there was one thing she did remember clearly. One blow that stood out from the rest.

She rejected me, she realized. Her cheeks felt sizzling hot and suddenly, she could not stand looking at herself in the mirror anymore. It was almost too bitter to swallow. She had been so close - just a second more and Ahsoka would have opened a door she could never shut.

She would have been mine, she thought regretfully and opened her eyes again to see her reflection changed.

“No…” she breathed, unwilling to cope with another ordeal. The diamond tattoos were back on the ridge of her nose, her bruises were all but gone and her eyes were staring back at her with what she recognized as pity in them. The Inquisitor’s vision became blurry with unexplainable tears. “Why won’t you leave me alone!?”

She had let her greatest chance of destroying Barriss for good escape and this was the price. She could sense the force closing in around her, prodding her with memories that she never wanted to relive. She could feel the jedi within crawling around like a Geonosian worm in her mind, sabotaging everything and trying to erase her free will. Biting her tongue, she felt the rage consume her like a blaze sweeping through a stack of kindle until she reached the point where she could no longer contain it. She slammed her fists unto the sink with such force that it broke loose from its piping and the mirror shattered into a thousand pieces. She screamed until her lungs were empty and then only barely managed not to collapse on the floor amidst the wreckage. Her heart was hammering its way through her chest and she felt disgusted with herself but at least control was back in her hands.

The only victory is death for the both of us, she thought bitterly. For the past few days the mental assaults had been severe. Although she had had the nightmares for years, she had never had any trouble keeping down her former self. It was probably due to denying her true self for the past few days. Had Barriss believed she stood a chance because of her deception? Or perhaps Ahsoka had sparked new hope? Was that what the clutch in her chest meant? She could not know, but what she did know, however, was that she had to do something about it soon.

She shook off the assault on her way to the bedroom, but the knot in her chest refused to untie. Her face stung and she should probably have sought out medical aid, but she had wasted enough time and besides, painkillers were out of the question. She had to keep her head clear or she would miss something in the imminent investigation.

“Should I request a repair team?” Yena asked as the Inquisitor entered. She stood by the side of the door with her hands locked at the small of her back. She looked quite the docile servant and this time, the Inquisitor could not let the oddity of it pass.

“You are here to investigate my work, not tend to my every need,” she said in recall whilst searching the young face for clues. “Or perhaps you lied to me?”

Yena bristled, her gaze downcast as if she had been stricken. The Inquisitor turned to pull on the clothes that were laid out on the bed and it wasn’t until she had the black body glove on that Yena spoke up.

“You remember me, don’t you?” she asked. It was an innocuous question but the Inquisitor could tell how much it really mattered.

“Of course I do,” she replied to such a stupid question.

Years prior

Imperial Academy of Coruscant

"Atten- tion!”

The sound of boots hammering into the flooring on cue was gratifying. If anything, timing and precision was taught well.

"Thank you, Supervisor," she told the man next to her. Any thoughts she had on the duty she was about to perform were well hidden in her indifferent expression.

The Supervisor was a stern-faced older man who she guessed had been drafted from the previous core of Republic officers. He was strongly built and judging by his practiced voice, he was the type of man who relied more on his authority than his ability to inspire in order to lead – as with most Imperial officers.

He inclined his head in turn and stood aside to allow the Inquisitor space. The Cadets of the Imperial Academy on Coruscant were lined up in the mustering hall, a great and spacious room in which she reckoned they could fit half a battalion. The place had been a Republic Academy months earlier and it still showed signs of reconstruction. The core values of the new Empire were abundantly clear in the architecture. The empty durasteel floor was a symbol of the cold hard efficiency that was expected of its citizens and the large overshadowing banners with the white Imperial cog on them were to remind everyone to whom their loyalty was given. The massive transparisteel viewports lining the walls with a view of the surface of Coruscant gave it all a majestic look that was bound to impress even the most anti-Imperial citizen.

She shifted her gaze across the rank and file. They stood in four platoons, each consisting of about thirty individuals. Barriss had been accustomed to inspecting clone troopers during the Clone Wars, but this was different. These cadets were not soldiers, they were teenagers, all wearing gray helmets and light-gray uniforms with the Imperial insignia on their chest. Could she really find what she was looking for here?

They're all scared out of their minds, she saw. Fear was oozing from them in the force and it might have something to do with the list she held in her hands. They shouldn’t have been aware of her mission, but rumors spread quickly.

Let's get this over with.

As the Inquisitor began walking, she glanced across row upon row of covered faces. The platoons were two rows deep so she had to walk quite a distance to get a look at all of them. Her list had their profiles loaded and ready. Good grades, physical prowess and combat excellence were highlighted among other things, but she relied more on the force to tell her who might be eligible.

The Supervisor fell in beside her. The most vital information popped up on the list as she moved past the Cadets, the Inquisitor barely bothering to glance at the helmeted children.

Cadet no. 56| Name: Everret, Tristan | Age: 13 | Species: Human | M-count: Very low

Fear, she thought, as she moved on disinterested.

Cadet no. 45| Name: Ikarel, Yuria | Age: 15 | Species: Umbaran | M-count: Low

No, the force told her.

Cadet no. 23| Name: Rigana, Jean | Age: 14 | Species: Human | M-count: N/A

Hate, she considered, but not force sensitive.

Cadet no. 37| Name: Dukarr, Imerko | Age: 14 | Species: Human | M-count: N/A

She halted, sensing something in the force. She looked up from the list on her data pad and the Cadet standing right next to her held his breath.

A person. The other end.  

She started again at a slow pace, keeping her expression clinical. It took a minute or so to walk to the end of the last platoon and the Supervisor seemed confused by her actions but followed along nonetheless. Her feet came to a halt before the last Cadet and the Inquisitor’s azure blue eyes squinted at the information on the data pad.

Cadet no. 115| Name: N/A | Age: N/A | Species: N/A | M-count: N/A

That's strange.

"Supervisor, why is there no information on this Cadet?" she asked curiously. There had been no sound but the steps of her boots on the flooring until now, even the sound of the busy traffic of Coruscant was kept out by the thick walls of the Imperial Academy.

"Do forgive me, Inquisitor, but some of the more… recent cadets have not had their information entered into the system yet. If you will excuse me a moment, I can fetch the- "

"That will not be necessary, Supervisor," she cut him off. "Cadet, state your name and age."

What is the force trying to tell me?

The cadet straightened out and started getting the helmet off. The Inquisitor watched the force brimming around the child, a single eyebrow raised in subtle interest.

"Ujira, Yena. Fourteen, Inquisitor." The child spoke clearly and the Inquisitor finally recognized what the force was showing her.

She knows what she’s doing.

She put away the data pad behind her back.

"Eh - .. Cadet 115 has shown great ability in most fields, but -"

She held up a hand and the Supervisor took the hint. The mirialan girl had shortly cut black hair and lime-green eyes. As they made eye contact, the Inquisitor felt the force tremble. The cadet was trying to read her which was a poor decision though the fact that she knew how to do it was laudable.

"You’ve had training,” the Inquisitor said matter-of-factly.

The girl flinched. She parted her lips to speak, but when no words came out she bit down and accepted her defeat.

The Inquisitor brandished an uncharacteristic smile which broke the neutral façade she had planned to keep up.

Was this how Master Luminara had felt when she chose Barriss as her padawan?

Searching through the profiles of younglings until she found someone she thought sufficiently similar to herself?

The Supervisor saw another opportunity to break in.

"As I was saying, Cadet 115 has shown great ability in most fields, but has been having difficulties fitting in."

"Fitting in?" the Inquisitor inquired, her gaze searching Yena's face for clues, but the girl didn't twitch a muscle.

"The cadet has shown complete disinterest in co-operating with her fellow cadets," the Supervisor elaborated. "To lead, one has to work with ones’ subordinates - not against them."

Interesting.

"Put your helmet back on," the Inquisitor commanded.

The cadet did as she was told and the Inquisitor walked to the center of the formation with the Supervisor close behind.

"Have Cadet 115 sent to screening office seven," she told him. “I have what I came for.”

“Right away Inquisitor,” he replied and saluted stiffly. She gave him a nod in return and he dismissed the Cadets. She stayed to watch them drift away to their duties though only with half her attention.

She had no tattoos, she realized suddenly.

Barriss had had a pattern of diamonds tattooed over her cheeks and the bridge of her nose. The back of her hands had also been also marked with the same pattern. The girl should have had some by now unless she had been deemed unworthy of them. Perhaps she had refused to conform to the jedi’s beliefs and thus been kept from advancing? At her age in the time of the Clone Wars, she should have been a padawan. She knew the bitter feeling of being denied what was hers and it seemed as if that was exactly what had happened.

Steeling herself, she turned on her heel and started towards the main entrance hallway. There were myriads of people entering and exiting at all hours of the day and many of them did not wear uniforms. They were applicants and she did not know what to feel about the apparent popularity of Imperial military service. She took a left turn down a narrow corridor which led her past many doors that all had the nametag of their owner on them and their function. Most of the names were unknown to her but she knew every function well. When she reached the office, she found the Supervisor inside with the Cadet she had requested. He looked at her, inclined his head and left them to themselves.

A man of few words, she thought. With such a no-nonsense attitude, he was bound to make it far up the Imperial hierarchy. Without sparing another thought on the man, she took a glance around the room.

“Remove your helmet and stand at ease,” she said while she moved to the desk that was a necessity in such a place. There was a stack of data pads littering the desk and a small framed picture of someone’s family. On either side of the desk there were two chairs. Behind them, on the walls, there were shelves and archives which seemed to be stuffed full of holo discs or pads. All of the furniture was either made of metal or some other alloy and on second thought she decided to stand. She had her hands locked behind her back and as she eyed Yena, the girl was unable to hide her anxiety. She stood with her helmet under her arm as she had been taught to do and she looked like she was on her way into her first battle. Her eyes riveted around the room and the Inquisitor almost felt bad for the girl. Almost.

“Do you know why you’re here?” the Inquisitor asked calmly.

Yena took a deep breath before finding the courage to look the Inquisitor in the eye and then answer the question.

“You’re going to execute me,” she said as if that was the only reason she could think of, but she sounded very composed for a teenager who thought she was about to die.

“All jedi are to be destroyed,” the Inquisitor began. “But then again, you’re not a jedi – You’re an Imperial Cadet. Tell me how that came to be.”

“I fled when the temple burned,” she replied in a low voice but straight to the point. “Recruiters pressganged me. They didn’t know who I was.”

“And how do you feel about your new position?” the Inquisitor asked, detecting no dishonesty so far.

Yena’s eyes ventured to the lightsaber by the Inquisitor’s belt. Her eyes watered and she sucked in a breath through clenched teeth.

“They killed everyone I ever knew,” she replied quietly. “They forced me into this and if I tell them who I really am, they’ll kill me too.”

She looked up at the Inquisitor and added, “well, I guess that doesn’t matter now.”

The Inquisitor knew exactly what the girl was feeling. The destruction of the temple had been the death of her former life as she knew it. She had probably watched as her friends were gunned down around her, unable to do anything and unable to call for aid. She had then been thrust into a harsh world that she did not know with no preparation whatsoever and now, to top it off, she was working for the Empire that had caused her so much suffering. It was not surprising that she felt despair, but the Inquisitor knew what came after that.

“Is sorrow and self-pity all that you feel?” she asked. If what the Supervisor had said was true, then there was a good chance that Yena had a lot more potential than she knew. Yena must have taken the question as a test because she wrinkled her brows in contemplation.

She’s smart, the Inquisitor thought. Even in the face of supposed death she took her time to think. And she came out clean as well.

“No,” she said after a while, wiping the tears with her sleeve. “I wish I could pay them back.”

“Is this why you’ve been working against your colleagues?” the Inquisitor carried on. “You’ve been picking fights with them, haven’t you? Winning, naturally.”

Yena nodded though she appeared uncertain what she was supposed to answer this time. It didn’t matter, the Inquisitor had made her point and now, she expanded upon it.

“It makes you feel better when you beat them, doesn’t it? When you strike out in anger, your blows are stronger and the misery of your enemies takes away the pain inside of you.”

The girl was all but clutching the helmet under her arm as she listened, the force around her in turmoil.

“I can sense the dark side within you,” the Inquisitor said as her hand was placed against the girl’s cheek which dulled her angst though the Inquisitor did not know how. “You’ve always been taught to detest its nature and refrain from using it, but I tell you now that what the jedi told you is a lie.”

The Inquisitor thought back to when Master Luminara had comforted Barriss. She had used a special voice that held such compassion many thought the stern and disciplined Master incapable of. This was the voice the Inquisitor used now and it worked like a charm.

Thank you, Master Luminara.

“I served the jedi once myself, but I figured out the truth long before the jedi were massacred. They fed us lies as soon as we were old enough to swallow them. They told us that we were to be peacekeepers yet sent us to invade entire planets. They wanted us to uphold justice and be righteous yet they refused to do what was necessary to end the war.”

Yena’s attention was on the floor and her head tilted into the hand on her cheek. She raised her arm to wipe her eyes once in a while but otherwise remained quiet as she listened to the truth.

If Master Luminara could see her legacy now she would weep, the Inquisitor contemplated and felt a pang at her heart. Angered by the guilt that belonged to Barriss and not herself, she could not prevent her voice from hardening a bit.

“They led us all to believe that what we were doing was the right thing yet they never took a look at themselves. Had they done so, they would have seen this coming but they refused to do so, consumed by violence and a lust for power they could not control. That is why the jedi order is gone – that is why everyone you knew are dead and that is why the rest of the jedi must be destroyed.”

The Cadet had given herself over to grief by that point, her small figure shaking as she could not hold back the tears.

“I don’t understand,” she pushed out between breaths. “What do you want from me?”

The Inquisitor didn’t fully understand why she did it, but she opened her arms. Yena dropped the helmet and leaped at the chance for comfort, something that the Inquisitor surmised she had not received ever in her life. She felt Yena’s arms wrapped tightly around her midsection and at that moment she didn’t feel like giving the girl the stamp of approval that was necessary to send her to Mustafar, although she knew that was the only way for her to stay alive.

“You’ll understand in time,” she whispered into the girl’s hair. “All you have to do for now is hold on to your feelings and use them to survive.”

With those words, she brought up the data pad and scrolled through the list with the flick of a finger.

Cadet no. 115| Name: N/A | Age: N/A | Species: N/A | M-count: N/A

Her finger hovered over the snippet of information.

She would have been a suitable padawan.

But Barriss is dead.

She pressed it lightly and the text flashed green for a second before disappearing from the list of cadets.

And the jedi order along with her.

It was a strange sensation to alter someone’s life so drastically. The jedi would have said it was wrong, but that was exactly what they did themselves when they took children from their homes and trained them for battle. The never-ending hypocrisy of the jedi had always displeased her and she was beyond trying to morally justify her actions or the actions of the Empire. She was concerned only with the destruction of the jedi and if this child could help bring that about sooner, then whatever horrors she had to endure would be worth it.

Through the transparisteel window, the last light of the day had just disappeared and a dismal twilight illuminated the office. Yena was no longer shaking, but the Inquisitor kept stroking her head. She took in the beautiful cityscape of Coruscant's overworld bustling with activity and wondered whether Yena would live through the training she was about to experience.

She told herself she wasn’t worried.

Present day

Imperial Mining Moon ORT45M

It was difficult to focus when the very air she breathed was trying to choke her. She was certain the atmospheric regulators had given in which was no joke, it meant they only had a few hours left to live unless they found hazardous environment suits or got out of there in a jiffy.

I’m not gonna die here in this ronto pit, Hoss fumed internally. She blinked rapidly, the red dust still wasn’t out of the air and as a result, she kept getting it in her eyes. It was humid, it was growing increasingly hot down in the landing shaft and her stomach was churning. She had trouble being precise with her finger movements which was bad, as the work she was doing required just that. She was almost done rewiring the last of the torn off cables and thankfully, most of the damage sustained affected only the right steering. The left was still intact, she had only needed to replace the stabilizing fin on that side. She had taken one look at the engine and hoped that the burnt insolation that she removed from it had been the cause of all that smoke because she really was no expert on A-wings. She wasn’t a mechanic.

Wiping sweat from her brow, she finished her work and stood back to observe the fighter. It still very much resembled a wreck but oh well. She couldn’t judge it before she’d tried it and so she crawled up on the fuselage and leaned into the cockpit. She carefully avoided the spots where Tapham’s blood still stained the metal which wasn’t easy.

“Come on, don’t let me down!” she prayed and then pressed the button to start the ignition sequence.

There was a heavy clank and then the sound of a metallic beast coughing, inhaling air and fuel at the same time. She heard the engines fire up with a few rickety blasts but they seemed stable enough after she had waited a minute. She felt a buzz sweep through her but she did not dare celebrate yet. Not until she had made sure the hyperdrive still worked and she tried entering some random coordinates into the navicomputer to make it run a functional test. It was a long twenty seconds as the computer hummed and the engines roared. Finally, a green button flashed and the navicomputer reported everything okay. Then, she turned off the engines and raised her fists to the skies, exclaiming her victory.

“What are you doing?” Dreem asked. He always had a skeptical look about him even now when he was half covered in bandages around his head-tailed head, arms and torso.

“It works!” she grinned at him, slipping down the side of the fighter to stand beside him. “We’re getting out of here right now.”

He shook his head.

“Good work, but we’re not going anywhere,” he said dejectedly. “The stardestroyer is still up there.”

“What?” she proclaimed. “Why? There’s no one left here but us!”

“No, but they’re probably waiting for someone to repopulate the moon don’t you think?”

That was likely, but they didn’t need an entire stardestroyer for that. Besides, they got what they came for, didn’t they?

“You haven’t found Adder and the others, have you?” she asked carefully. He had been very insistent that they make sure the others weren’t holed up somewhere else on the moon and he had suggested that they look through every surveillance camera just in case. She had thought it a good idea though they didn’t have endless time so they had split up.

He sat down on an empty crate, put his elbows on his knees and rested his head against his knuckles.

“I couldn’t find them on the cameras,” he said despondently and she felt a tug at her guts. She didn’t like seeing him like this. He was the tactical genius of the two. “I did find them on the play back recordings though, but they’re not on the moon any longer. They took them.”

Her heart sank and she had to sit down on the crate as well.

“Who did they take?” she asked and put a hand on his back to rub some comfort into the twi’lek. It didn’t matter if he needed it. “All of them?”

“No, Adder and Fulcrum were dragged off,” he said, glancing up into the purple skies above the landing shaft. “They took Captain Tikira as well. They’re still up there on the stardestroyer being tortured for information, I know it.”

She felt for them. Imperial captivity was nothing like Republic captivity. There was rarely a trial and sometimes they didn’t even ask questions before the torture began. She had never been a prisoner herself, but she had heard the stories from other pilots. She had been close to reconsidering her venture with the rebels more than once on account of that. But the torture wasn’t the worst thing about it. If it didn’t outright kill them then they would be sent off to slave mines or other Imperial installations. They had to have a lot of intel on them as well – just imagine, two jedi? As far as she knew, the both of them could be entangled in several cells, all of which would be compromised now.

“Thanks for rescuing me by the way,” he said suddenly. She looked at him and knew that he was thinking the same thoughts as she was.

“We were lucky, but we have to warn everyone,” she said. “If they end up talking, a lot of people will be getting an Imperial visit soon.”

“Yes, but how?” he sighed. “We’re not getting past that stardestroyer.”

“Well what did you see exactly?” she asked, trying to establish a better picture of the situation. “I mean, was it just the stardestroyer or does it have TIE’s out there on patrol?”

“None, it’s just the stardestroyer,” he elaborated, squinting at her with his amber eyes. “But they’ll see us the moment we exit the –“

They shared a dawning glance.

 “…if we don’t exit the atmosphere and stick close to the surface, then the interference to their scanners might be enough to let us slip away to the other side of the moon.”

She slapped him on the back and recapped the plan.

“Bingo. We fly under their scanners and slip away into hyperspace from the other side of the moon. Simple.”

“That would work,” he said, but she detected a trifle resistance to it in his voice.

“But?” she asked when he didn’t care to enlighten her of his worries.

“But,” he started. “Does it really matter if we escape? I mean, we can only go one place and for all we know, that might have been wiped out and replaced with a trap.”

“Maybe we don’t have anywhere to go, but if we stay here, we’ll die for sure,” she reasoned. She thought of Commander Tamas, the old man who was the leader of their cell. The way Tapham had crashed here on his own with an all shot up fighter was an eerie sign that something had gone terribly wrong there. There had been no answer from the long-range holo transmitters and if they made their way back, they could be ending up in an ambush. Their only option really was to make for a planet or an outpost where they could hide and gather info about what had happened and perhaps link up with another cell somehow.

Hoss pulled her arm back and Dreem winced. His wounds would require some professional attention she reckoned, otherwise she might end up alone in this mess.

“We can’t leave them to die,” Dreem told her as he ran his hands up and down his face. “I owe the jedi my life, I can’t just run when they need me.”

Idiot must’ve hit his head hard, she thought to herself. She gesticulated towards his form and tried to convince him with a single stare. He carried on as if he wasn’t talking nonsense.

“I know I’m in a bad shape, but maybe we can-“

“No,” she overruled, gesturing with her arms as if ruling it out of the picture. “No, no, no. We’ll both die along with the others and then the Empire will win. Is that what you owe the jedi? I don’t think so.”

“Just hear me out!” he said desperately. “We can turn on the relays and when they investigate the signal transmissions, we can sneak onboard in stormtrooper armor.”

She rose from the crate, stood before him and took a hold of his shoulders so she could lock eyes with him. He flinched in pain but she had to do it.

“Listen to me Dreem,” she told him slowly and clearly so that she knew he was listening. “They’re gone. There is nothing we can do to help them – you know that. We have to save ourselves and live to fight another day. Why is it even me telling you this? You’re the Sergeant, you’re supposed to keep your head cool!”

It seemed like she had broken through the fog in his mind. At least the tension went out of him and he threw his gaze to the deck below.

“You’re right Hoss,” he admitted. “We can’t save them. It’s just … Everything was going so well. We had jedi on our team, we we’re saving lives and just look at the fleet that came to pick us up!”

“Yeah,” she agreed. “I didn’t think we could do something like this either.”

When she signed up, she met only the Commander and his cell. She didn’t get to know of any others until later on which was probably for the better. She wasn’t certain she would have joined if she knew how ambitious their leaders really were. She had signed up mostly for revenge, to get back at the Empire which had executed her partners in crime and scared her business contacts out of dealing with her. Back then, she had wanted to sabotage and perhaps kill Imperials but now… She knew there were better ways to take revenge.

“Where do you think they’ve gone?” she asked him as if he knew. He’d seen the surveillance recordings after all.

“I saw them jump to lightspeed,” he responded and then lifted his shoulders in a shrug. “They probably realized it was hopeless too and ran for it. I have no idea where to, but my guess is back to their respective sectors.”

She put her hands to her hips and turned to look at the A-wing. When she had been transporting miners up there to their ships, she had seen at least three corvettes and about six or seven smaller craft. They were no challenge for a stardestroyer unless it was severely crippled and that in itself was not an easy task.

Dreem descended into a fit of coughing and she knew their time was getting shorter.

“We need to go Dreem or you’ll end up dead before we get out of here.”

He didn’t say anything – or well he couldn’t as he was still coughing, but he got up and started climbing the A-wing to get into the instructor’s seat. She assisted him and when his breathing was normal he took a look around and frowned.

“Did you fix the cockpit with tape?”

“Not just any tape,” she said and picked the tool from her belt to show him what she had used to fix the cracks in the cockpit glass. “I’ve used it on the Anguilli several times. Works perfectly. Hyper durable.”

He shook his head in aggravation but didn’t pursue the issue any further. What was he going to do anyway? Refuse to come? She slipped into the pilot’s seat and started the ignition sequence again.

“I guess if Tapham can fly this broken thing then you can too,” he said from behind her and she let out a mirthless laughter.

“Was that a compliment? ‘Cause I’m going to take it as one.”

She flipped the switch to lock the cockpit. There was a hiss as it sealed airtight and she put down a mark mentally. One more thing on the list of things that could go wrong but actually worked. Then she activated the repulsors and as the ship lifted itself from the ground and started to make a wobbly ascent, she strapped herself in.

“You good back there?” she called over her shoulder. The engine wasn’t supposed to be so loud that they had to shout, but some of the insolation had been burnt away so the noise had an easier path through the hull. He patted her shoulder as a response and she took that as a sign that everything was A-okay.

“Hold on!” she shouted and then put forwards thrust on the sublight engines. She angled the ship so that they were facing upwards into the violet atmosphere and then jacked the throttle up. Everything was still airtight and they were making good speed. When they exited the shaft, the stardestroyer was looming right above them. It felt like they were terribly exposed and they had to fly for a few minutes at least to get out of the stardestroyer’s line of sight. She took the ship low amongst the rocky impact craters on the surface of the moon, but that meant they were in the way of geysers spewing gasses. It was a good thing she was the best pilot in the sector and she took the many outbursts from Dreem as signs that he was still alive. Still, every second that went by she felt like they were going to be discovered but in the end, nothing happened.

As they were reaching the far side of the moon she plotted in the coordinates of the only planet nearby that she knew of. A holographic image of Axxila appeared above the screen of the navicomputer and she accepted the computer’s calculations. All she had to do was to engage the hyperdrive once they were in position and they’d be out of there. Then she felt a hand tugging at her shoulder.

“Wha’? What is it?” she shouted, staying her hand for now.

“The coms!” Dreem shouted back and pointed at the instrumentation. True enough, a diode on the short-range coms was blinking insistently.  “Someone is talking on one of our frequencies!”

She changed the loudspeakers from the headset option to the entire cockpit and jammed up the volume.

“…formation seven-six, Mentke-squadron flanking maneuver twenty-two with Kakatau-squadron until sector bravo confirmed open…”

“Sounds like tactical battle plans!” she told him and he agreed.

“I know those squadrons,” he called from behind. “We’ve flown with them before. They’re from another sector!”

“What?” she replied and looked over her shoulder at him. “How come we can hear them then?”

He had such a dumb grin on his face that she had to smile as well though she didn’t know why until she followed his wildly pointing finger and saw what he saw.

They didn’t go back to their sectors, she realized. They never left.

“Where is she going?” Yena asked wondrously. She had both her hands planted on the holo table and her eyes followed the miniature togruta around the corridors of the massive ship. Ahsoka was taking turns and pathways that didn’t lead her directly to the dorsal landing bay where she had made her escape. There were places where the cameras couldn’t reach her and there were times where she had been smooth enough to avoid being seen, but she appeared on enough cameras that it was possible to roughly back trace her path through the stardestroyer and it was anything but the shortest.

“She doesn’t know her way around,” the Inquisitor concluded. She had one arm over her chest and the other resting on it while she rubbed her chin. “These stardestroyers are different from the Venator-class destroyers the Republic used. It stands to reason that she would have problems finding her way around.”

“But there are maps everywhere on the ship,” Yena countered. “If she was able to defeat you, then she should be able to read a map.”

The Inquisitor shot a glance at the younger mirialan, who was a little too callous about bringing up the recent defeat. She knew that it wasn’t meant to spite her, it was more or less because she spoke freely and wanted to solve this mystery at once but it would not do.

“I appreciate your assistance,” she said quickly. “But remember who I am to you.”

“Excuse me, Second Sister,” she said apologetically but not without a hint of sarcasm. “But if you haven’t noticed, we’re both out here in the gutter.”

“What do you mean by that?” the Inquisitor asked interestedly which caused Yena to pause the recording and send her a curious glance. Ahsoka had just taken wrong turn number twenty and one of the cameras had snatched a close-up angle of her face. She was wearing her most determined expression which had always meant that she was unstoppable in whatever she had decided to do.

“You know this is punishment, right?” Yena asked.

“What is, you coming here?” the Inquisitor questioned back and mirrored Yena’s inexplicably puzzled expression.

“Yes. How long has it been, exactly, since you were on Coruscant?”

She couldn’t remember. It had to have been at least four or five years since she had made a report in person to the Grand Inquisitor or had a mission that didn’t require her presence far, far away from the Core.

“Why would it be punishment?” the Inquisitor asked in genuine confusion. The Outer Rim was the opportune place for someone who didn’t want to be found to hide. “I’ve been here for years.”

Yena turned her hands to show her palms briefly.

“The last report of jedi activity in the Outer Rim was investigated a long time ago,” she said, outlining what the Inquisitor thought to be Yena’s guesswork. “Some backwater planet named Raada and it was only investigated because there had been sightings. Nobody wants to head all the way out here only to find a cold trail and then be forced to commit to it or report back a failure.”

The most common method of ascension within the Iquisitorial hierarchy was the untimely death or execution of one’s superior. With that in mind, she could see the logic behind Yena’s words, but it also meant that most Inquisitors were useless non-committing leeches. It made her muscles tense to think that the jedi who were still out there had an easier time because most Inquisitors were too afraid to get their hands dirty.

“Why are you still out here?” Yena asked, ripping back the Inquisitor’s attention. “You should be on Coruscant, dispatching us on missions.”

She didn’t know the answer and she didn’t care. The more time they spent on idle chatter the more space between them and Ahsoka. She switched on the recording again and watched as Ahsoka dodged patrol after patrol expertly and slipped into her ship to pass away into the emptiness of space. Yena took the hint and put her attention on the holo image again but as they both watched the last of the recording, the door to the quarters hissed open. They both turned to see two stormtroopers dragging an orange-skinned twi’lek between them by her arms. They marched the length of the entryway, tossed their prisoner who was bound by her hands and feet to the floor, saluted and then left.

There was a trail of blood where they had dragged the woman. She was lying with her face down, still breathing but probably gathering the strength to look up and face what came next. The chair scraped against the floor as the Inquisitor pulled it to her and sat down. Yena knew what was expected of her and positioned herself in front of the twi’lek who was slowly maneuvering herself unto her knees so that she could see.

“Hello Captain,” she said with a wry smirk creasing her lips. Captain Tikira looked up by the sound of a voice she recognized and when she saw the woman she remembered as Adder, she tried to leap forwards, snarling something in her grim language which the Inquisitor guessed was an insult. She didn’t get far, however, as Yena grabbed a lekku and pulled hard. The Captain screamed half in anger and half in agony. Her auburn red eyes were on fire and the Inquisitor didn’t need the force to tell her that hatred was all this woman had left in her now. She tried to fight back by flailing her bound hands, but Yena simply took a hold of them and pushed them back into Tikira’s face with twice the force. It didn’t quell the rebel’s ferocity but it did make her swings sloppier. It wasn’t until she’d taken so many hits to her orange cheeks that they were completely battered and swollen darkly that she gave up fighting back.

Yena had been calm as a surgeon up until that point but then, she laughed. A cold-hearted, malicious chuckle that the Inquisitor knew had been derived from years of suffering and taking pleasure in the suffering of others.

“Is that really all?” Yena said mockingly, making certain Captain Tikira saw her exaggerated expression of disappointment. “I’ve killed twi’lek children who had more fight in them than you.”

When Captain Tikira drew in a ragged shot of breath, the Inquisitor started laughing too.

This is what I need, she told herself with a promise of more. The dark side hang heavy and sweet around them like a drug that presented itself and it was far too tempting to deny it. She could already feel Barriss presence repressed again.

“Why are you crying?” Yena asked with fake concern in her voice. “Is it because your family is dead?”

The Inquisitor leaned closer and offered no such illusions of compassion.

“You’re a coward,” she said without diminishing her smirk. “You always have been. From the day we met I could see right through you and I saw what you were always worried people would figure out.”

The twi’lek Captain had canals of tears streaming down her face yet she didn’t make a sound. She was staring at the Inquisitor but she knew that the Captain wasn’t seeing her.

“You turned them in.”

“It’s a lie!” she howled, attempting to assault the Inquisitor again but ending up only falling forwards on her chest.

“It’s a lie…” she cried into the floor, her body shaking. “It’s not true.”

“Deceive yourself as much as you want but you can’t deceive me,” the Inquisitor went on. “I can have my Sister here torture you until there’s nothing but an empty shell left of you. I can put you through those memories you’re so afraid of over and over until you lose your sanity. I could even do a combination of the two, but I won’t have to will I? You’re too much of a coward to suffer for the rebels you claim to be loyal to. You’ll tell me everything I want to know, won’t you?”

The Captain was beyond trying to save herself some dignity. She stayed on the floor and couldn’t get a word over her lips so the Inquisitor rephrased.

“I know Fulcrum left you to die, but where would she go? Did she tell you anything?”

The pathetic, shuddering husk at her feet gave her no answer and she grew impatient.

“Where is she?” she said and jabbed at the twi’lek with her boot to no avail.

Pain it is then, she decided, but before she could ignite her lightsaber to kick things up a notch, the coms device by her belt activated and she heard the nervous voice of the Lieutenant who had stepped up earlier.

“Inquisitor, I – I think you should come here at once.”

She grabbed the device and spoke into it with little patience for diversions.

“What is it, Lieutenant?”

“It’s better if you come see for yourself.”

She was about to hand him a hasty threat but then she reconsidered and put down the coms. She looked to Yena and the younger Inquisitor nodded her understanding.

So that’s what it’s like, she though, smiling inwardly. She could get used to it but there was no time to linger. She clipped the lightsaber to her belt and headed out without another word. She was pleased to be accompanied by Tikira’s screams on the short walk from the Captain’s quarters to the turbolift. From there, it was a brief descent followed by another walk until she got to the bridge.

“This has better be important Lieutenant,” she sneered dangerously and the man who came to greet her took a step backwards. He cleared his throat and stood as much at ease as he could. She couldn’t see his eyes underneath his cap and she suspected he had done that intentionally.

“Inquisitor we’ve detected a number of unknown vessels approaching us at sublight speed,” he explained and follow her as she walked the length of the bridge to the transparisteel web of windows at the fore. She noticed that the technicians and specialists in the pits on either side were absorbed by their work. “Our scanners have found matches for eight of them and identified them as rebel corvettes of different types, but there are a lot of smaller vessels following them which we cannot get a proper read on. They’re flying too low.”

She narrowed her eyes, focusing on the distance. The atmosphere of the planet gave it a violet shimmer and it was difficult to see the aforementioned ships. She reached out in the force instead and found what she could not see.

“The rebels are returning,” she told him. “What are they up to? Even with a fleet of those ships they’re no match for us.”

“I don’t know, Inquisitor. They will be within range in about thirty seconds, shall we open fire then?”

“Do it,” she ordered and he started giving out orders to his officers. She watched as the corvettes became more and more visible against the captivating background. Something wasn’t right. Why would they attempt a suicidal assault like this? Did they have larger ships incoming that could make this a fair fight? It would have to be something the size of a frigate at the very least to pose a threat to the Exactoris, but the chances that they had something like that at their disposal was minimal. They had to have some other ace up their sleeve and her first thoughts went to the moon. Did they have a hidden reserve of ships waiting down there to outflank them and attack? She decided it was better to be on the safe side.

“Lieutenant, launch all fighters too,” she added and he did as he was told though she knew it would take some time to deploy them all. She just hoped she hadn’t been too late.

“Rebel ships within range now Sir,” a battery leader called.

“You may fire at will Lieutenant,” was the reply and she focused on the line of corvettes and the small specks around them that must have been their fighters, expecting one of them to go up in a blaze.

Instead, nothing happened.

“Why aren’t we firing?” the Lieutenant asked quickly, still too inexperienced to hide his anxiety.

“The- … We have lost main power to the batteries, Sir!”

She felt a chill run down her spine as if there had been a gust of cold wind and her back went tense.

Not a flanking maneuver, she deduced. Sabotage.

Thinking quickly, she pulled up a mental chart of the ship’s basic layout and played out Ahsoka’s path through it again to the best of her capabilities. She hadn’t been moving as she should have, she had taken so many detours it was difficult to make out just where she could have been but she distinctly remembered Ahsoka entering the dorsal landing bay from the same side of the ship as the two flux conductors from the power core towards the frontal laser and ion batteries.

“Switch on the auxiliary, now!” the Lieutenant ordered.

That the main power to the batteries had been lost meant that she had tampered with the main flux conductor, but that in itself was no issue. The only hazard was if both conductors were switched on at the same time -  then the extra power would overload the batteries and –

She made the conclusion just in time to watch it happen before her eyes. Along the entire front of the stardestroyer, the power lines which led to each battery erupted into flames, ejecting molten metal, wreckage and unfortunate crew into space. For the first few seconds, there wasn’t a single sound as destruction on a mad scale tore through the reinforced fuselage of the massive ship. When the shockwaves reached her, they rocked the bridge so harshly that she had to cling to the railing to remain standing. The bridge was in a chaos of orders being shouted about and alarms going off, but she was too astonished to look away from the sight outside. The corvettes above unleashed all of their fighters and they tore into the reinforced fuselage with everything they had. Proton torpedoes, proton bombs, red lasers – all of it adding to the destruction of the Exactoris. When the TIE-fighters finally managed to engage the enemy, it was already too late. It didn’t make any difference if they could fight off the dissidents, the Exactoris was lost.

She let go of the railing and put her hands together behind her back. She was aware that most of the bridge looked to her in despair where once they had looked to their Captain, but she paid them no mind.

She covered the length of the bridge in calm, measured steps and left them to their demise.