Barriss Offee: Fallen Traitor

Disclaimer: Star Wars owned by Lucasfilm.

AU. The last Season 5 arc of Star Wars: The Clone Wars is simply beyond anything imaginable. It's sublime and stunning. It is my impression that Barriss Offee is most likely the masked opponent that fought Ahsoka Tano in the nanodroid munitions factory. This fic is based off that notion. Enjoy!

"The Sith rely on their passion for their strength. They think inward, only about themselves."

-Anakin Skywalker

"And the Jedi don't?" -Chancellor Palpatine

Thinking Inward

These days, Barriss Offee had few friends and fewer confidants. She didn't concern herself

with that with any significant frequency. She tried being like any other Jedi, but it became a great strain to keep pretending. Some Jedi even gave her strange stares. Those who stare are nothing more than unworthy unwashed grunts.

"I'm actually one of the few Jedi who is a healer you know!? What was that about?"

"All this undue irritation from the illegitimate is knocking my healing skills. I'll have to stay off healing duty for the war injured and the kriffin Force imbeciles- but I repeat myself."

"Sigh... poodoo."

Barriss stood up to pace and thought to change the subject from healing.

"Why can't they (those Jedi that Barriss believes to be 'bad') just be expelled from the Order already?"

Barriss wondered.

"Would Master Windu kick out some of the yappers who clearly do not value the peace in the Jedi Temple? I would beam ecstatically if he did. There's conversation then there's yapping. The difference is clear."

Barriss Offee is a thinker. She thinks, wonders, and ponders about as much as others breathe. Some of her best thinking was on the move, so Barriss left her tidy, orderly room and wandered the whole Temple- the common areas open to everyone. The sparring areas and the Room of a Thousand Fountains were good areas. Barriss loathed the "war" areas, especially the main hangar full of ships. The mirialan tended to avoid that section as much as possible. Barriss came alive at the slightest thought of the Jedi Library. To call that sanctum of knowledge her favorite part of the Temple was an understatement.

"It's my second room; that place where all my holobooks and encyclopedias are kept!"

Sure, it's her one attachment, however few in the order could match her intellect. If Madam Jocasta Nu passes on, Barriss has a fair shot at becoming the next librarian, if not an assistant- that much closer to the goal.

Mirialan were not known to be the most gregarious humanoids. Barriss is smart and introverted; like her master Luminara Unduli. Unlike her former master, after being Knighted, Barriss dared to debate and question the Jedi rules and maxims in her head. Unlike certain Jedi who bend the rules as a lifestyle, Barriss just wanted to know why and how about everything. There were never any answers, only more questions and impossible conclusions. Her close friend Padawan Ahsoka Tano would enjoy someone like her sticking it to the rules as well. However, Ahsoka Tano epitomized everything she wasn't. Ahsoka was perky, cheerful, outgoing, silly, charming, motivated, determined. Barriss didn't find joy in any of those qualities. Barriss sighed again. She admitted to herself that they had their silly moments together, but during wartime and maturing over the years such silliness seemed out of place. Ahsoka isn't a youngling anymore- she should knock it off. She did find some other Ahsoka qualities quite amusing, like her ditziness and her ineptness.

Those traits humbled her old friend and did make Barriss laugh. It felt good to console Ahsoka after her mishaps and mistakes because they were her failures, more than green skinned twenty-year old cared to admit at the time.

Barriss disagreed with the rules against love and attachment, merely as a logical conclusion of the rule being a fallacy. Ahsoka asked her about the rule, and Barriss was pleased to have this conversation with her. Later, it dawned on Barriss that Ahsoka was interested in a boy, or boys. After waiting and wondering, Ahsoka gave her a name: Lux Bonteri. Barriss remembered yawning at the time and wondered if someone else was worthy of compassion, or thought.

"Why bend the rules with someone who is so different from me?" Barriss wondered. "Why act like someone who is my complete opposite?"

"There is always a why and a reason for everything- only a fool would say and believe otherwise." Barriss finally said aloud to herself. She felt better after saying that obvious self-evident phrase.

Ahsoka had outlasted the hunts conducted by Trandoshan scum on one of their moons. Barriss remembered her early happy reaction to the togruta's return. Later, she feared that Ahsoka had become stronger and "better", a fear that became realized as Tano grew in power. Barriss not only enjoyed being the intellectual, but also the skilled, competent one. It was almost a race to keep pace with Tano's growing skill.

"I have a working knowledge of Soresu and a decent handle on Djem So. Ahsoka is ignorant if not terrible with both styles, so I'll have the upper hand in friendly lightsaber duels for some time."

Barriss had a good, honest laugh thinking about Ahsoka and her green sabers.

"Her Shien is laughable. General Grievous must've been too slow or too dull-witted in those duels. Ahsoka is easily overpowered and kept off balance."

Barriss usually enjoyed Ahsoka's company. Not anymore; she usually chafed and resented her and Skywalker when the three of them were together. Also Skywalker and Luminara were almost polar opposites, but that didn't concern Barriss much these days. Her old friend Ahsoka would seem fit to be Knighted at any moment, many years younger than she was. Did she deserve it? The Mirialan concluded yes and no. Skill isn't everything. Anakin's padawan broke the rules more than most Jedi. The togruta should be held back from Knighthood. It would be nice if Ahsoka dialed it down, turned into Ahsoka Lite. That wouldn't happen. The so-called Chosen One- the one and only legend in his own mind- trained one of the wildest padawans in the Order. Ahsoka was becoming more and more like Anakin- insufferable and smug bordering on arrogant. That unnerved Offee to no end since she never, ever liked Skywalker, not even for a moment. Barriss remembers hearing about Master Windu and his constant attempts to keep Skywalker in line and keep him out of the heights of selfish glory. Barriss thought that some of her best days were being there in person when Windu chastised Skywalker. Most of the time it was for not; little to nothing was done against Anakin. Obi-Wan, Ki-Adi-Mundi and others on occasion defended Anakin with zeal.

"Why not put a crown on his head, proclaim him the Chosen One, and call it a day?"

Barriss felt a disturbance in her stomach. She walked to the dining halls, and hoped to get done eating to get to the library at a decent time. Offee had a free day, and neglected the library so far. That had to be remedied.

"What is causing all of this negative energy? The War. Like I had to ask myself that. Everyone's to blame, except for me, the librarian, and possibly Master Unduli. Everyone else is a kriffing warmonger lightsaber swinger. Oh and find ways to blame things on Ahsoka Tano and Anakin Skywalker. Force! Gods know they deserve it."