Author's Note:

Hello, well this is as far as I we go before a bit of a pause in releases, the next few chapters need some serious work to say the least. Once again please rate, review, comment and tell your friends if you like this.

Aayla Secura regained consciousness gradually, over a period of minutes as the quiet beeping of machines slowly reached her ears and then permeated her sleep fogged mind. She had difficulty concentrating, even as the realization she was waking up began to settle over her, a blinding headache making matters even worse.

She lay still, not sensing danger, but not certain where she was for some time before her memories and her senses finally started returning. Judging by the dull hum of engines in the distance, and the general lack of guards or restraints she had to assume she was aboard Ahsoka Tano's ship. A promising start she supposed. It could after all have been so much worse.

She rolled carefully upright, hanging her feet over the side of her bed and looked around, blinking away the sleep from her eyes. She was in a small medical bay of some sort, the other bed across from her occupied by the still unconscious form of Barriss Offee.

She noted that unlike herself Barris was restrained by her cuffs to the edge of the bed. This was certainly a less promising state of affairs. She shook her head and stood just as the door to the room hummed open, admitting a clone into the room.

She relaxed as she recognized him as the ARC trooper who had assisted in her escape, Fives. He nodded to her as he paced into the room carrying a tray. "Ah, hello ma'am, the machines said you'd be up soon. I brought you some chow in case you are hungry."

She was about to reply, when they both gave a start at a groan emanating from the other bed. "It's generally not advisable to eat much when coming off sedation…" The woman muttered, her eyes blinked open and she licked her lips apparently trying clear the taste in her mouth. She tried to raise a hand to shield her eyes from the glare of the overhead lights but her hands caught on the restraints. "What happened?"

Fives set down the tray on one of the tables by the door before thumbing one of the controls dimming the lights somewhat over her bed, Barriss nodded weakly. "Thank you,"

Aayla turned her attention to the clone. "Who sedated her?"

Fives offered a rueful smile. "Sorry ma'am. That'd be HK-51, he's part of the ship's crew. Battle droid of some kind."

"I feel…" Barriss coughed then groaned again. "I feel like someone used my head for a drum. I remember the vision started and then…pain?"

Fives nodded. "That was your shock cuffs I expect?"

She snorted, "Oh right, them."

Aayla gave the clone a reproachful look. "Is there a reason she was sedated on top of what the stun cuffs did to her?"

Her shrugged. "You'd have to ask the droid ma'am. I get the impression he's not exactly normal…and it's not my ship."

"Then I can release her from the bed?" She interrupted pointedly and got a reluctant nod in reply. She padded across the distance between the beds and worked at disconnecting the cuffs from the bed frame. However when she grasped Barriss' arm in order to disconnect the first of the pair she was surprised to find it connected to something under the woman's sleeve.

Shifting the sleeve up a bit she found that the cuff itself was hooked into an apparatus around the forearm. "An external power source?" She asked surprised. Usually such devices were self-sufficient.

Barris nodded tiredly rubbing at her eyes with her freed hand. "Yes, but the harness also functions as suppression unit unto itself entirely separate from the cuffs."

Aayla freed the other hand, but not before she noticed the skin around the harness and cuff had darkened where they rubbed. "It looks quite uncomfortable."

Barriss shrugged stoically. "It is. It makes it hard to sleep too."

She felt her brow furrow. "You have to wear it at night too?"

"Yes. I haven't had it taken off since it was put on back at Coruscant…" Barris agreed sitting up.

Aayla shook her head. "I'm surprised the council insisted on so much security. I was under the impression the latest assessments from the mind healers were reasonably positive?"

The chuckle from the young Mirialan was anything but a happy sound. "It wasn't the Council who insisted. The Chancellor's offices are the ones who decided I had to be outfitted with this getup before I could be permitted back in the field."

The Twi'lek Jedi Master shook her head in disgust as she reflected on how it was thanks to the Chancellor so many Jedi were dead. "Somehow I'm not surprised that's the case. Do you want help taking it off?"

Barriss froze and her eyes flicked to her own. "You don't have to do that, I know I'm not exactly someone you trust anymore…"

Aayla shook her head. "Barriss, you aren't to blame for our current situation and I've seen what kind of work you've put into making up for your past mistakes…and considering our current crisis, I feel it would be inexcusable to leave you in this condition."

Barriss considered that then offered a small smile. "You have the authorization codes for the cuffs correct?"

The Master nodded then cocked her head. "Of course."

The younger woman sighed, sagging in relief. "Good, you'll need that to get me out of this thing." She shifted so her legs were hanging over the edge of the bed.

Aayla glanced to Fives who was standing watchfully. "ARC Trooper would you mind leaving us for a bit?"

He inclined his head. "Of course Ma'am, I'll just be outside if you need me."

Aayla locked the door behind him and waved to Barriss indicating she could begin undressing. She shucked her robe onto the bed and started unbuttoning her dark shirt before Aayla turned away in the hopes of offering her privacy.

"You're going to see it all anyways if you're going to help me with this." Barriss noted tiredly and Master Secura turned back to her feeling a touch foolish. Barriss was pulling off her pants and Aayla's eyes widened in shock as she realized just what she was seeing. The "Harness" was far more extensive than she'd realized from the glimpses she'd caught of it before. It wrapped around the thin woman's frame, following the bone structure in many places, clamping tightly to the girl's pale green flash.

As if that wasn't enough of an indignity, the harness clearly wasn't designed to allow for underclothes, Barriss had likely been required to stand naked before the technicians who had secured the harness for Force knew how long.

The harness was more like an armour exoskeleton than anything else, although it didn't appear to be designed with any intent of enhancing strength or mobility, judging by it's relatively low profile form.

She shook her head, she was a warrior not a technician, she had no idea where to begin and she said so. Barriss turned so her back was facing her and gestured with a thumb hooked behind her back to a hub which hugged the curve of her spine about three quarters of the way up. "Press the central panel on the primary assembly. A holo pad should appear…"

Aayla nodded and gently reached out, steadying the unfortunately exposed girl with a delicate hand on her ribs, she used the other to wake the interface. "Insert the password," Barris instructed enunciating clearly. "Go slowly please, if you get it wrong the failsafe will activate and I'll get another shock."

Aayla grimaced and did as instructed typing in the password carefully. The display flashed green before once again disappearing, only to be replaced by a new display a moment later. Disengage Prisoner Suppression Harness? (Y/N)

She hit the yes button and there was a pneumatic hiss, small vents opening on the sides of the assembly and releasing a small plume of steam, before the display disappeared.

Barriss nodded, shifting uncomfortably, the steam had mildly scalded the flesh near it. "Okay, now you have to extract the neural interface probes…"

This brought the elder Jedi up short. "What?"

Barriss considered standing stalk still. "You should see a few holographic circles at various locations around my body, each of them located around a small raised circle of metal?"

Aayla looked the girl over and then nodded, voicing her agreement. Six were located at each corner of the assembly on Barriss' back, several more were over every other vertebrae up to her skull and down to her tailbone. Two more at her hips, five each for her legs, eight on her arms, and close to twenty spread across her chest and abdomen seemingly unattached to the rest of the apparatus. There was also a smaller assembly only a few inches wide nestled into her hair at the base of her skull. Aayla blew out frustrated breath.

"Where should I start?"

"The cuffs, then the arms I think." Barriss decided.

Aayla grasped the woman's right wrist and raised it slightly from her side so she could view it better. She tapped the holographic circle above the small neural link on her right wrist just in front of where the cuffs usually resided before she had removed them a minute before. A tiny circle of metal, perhaps half a centimetre at most in diameter, separated from the rest of the armature clamped around Barriss' arm. "Just pull on it." The girl in question instructed firmly.

Aayla did just that and pulled until it met resistance, she moved to do the next one but Barriss stopped her. "No, no. You need to keep pulling on it until it's completely out, I can still feel the probe."

She grasped the probe again and pulled, and once clearing the resistance more and more flexible-needle pulled from the device. It was because of this that she finally realized that the device actually pierced the Mirialan's skin and meshed with a nerve bundle. Finally it all came out entirely and she went in search of a surgical tray on which to deposit the probe.

Over the next twenty or so minutes she laboured, with Barriss' occasional instruction, to extract all the probes from the younger woman's arms and legs. Finally unclasping them allowing the harness to hang these sections loosely at the young woman's sides.

There were angry red circles everywhere the harness linked to Barris's body. But she couldn't dwell on that now as she had to undo the girl from the rest of the contraption. First was extracting the remote probes from Barriss' chest and abdomen. These bled profusely compared to the other sites and she had to find some swabs to clean up the mess.

Next were the probes at her tailbone working their way up to the primary assembly. Those in particular came loose with a pop hiss as the assembly unsealed itself from her flesh, allowing Barriss to roll her shoulders freely for the first time in months. She then handled the next few up her spine to the cranial hub. Here Barriss stopped her. "You'll need to go slower with extracting the probe on this part. First the one on the left side of the implant, then the one on the right. Then the bottom middle, finishing with the top. Those last two are accessed by the central control interface."

Aayla delicately pulled at the first probe as instructed and immediately noticed the short needle was more rigid than the others had been while still being hollow. She even noted this to Barriss who just shrugged. "Yes, the right injector contains a powerful sedative should the shock assembly fail to subdue me. The left carries a potent neuro-toxin, that is for if the sedative fails…"

Aayla placed a comforting hand on the girls shoulder and bowed her head shaking it gently from side to side for a moment. Barriss had effectively had a gun to her head all these months and had never said anything to her about it. Finally after an encouraging squeeze of the girl's shoulder she extracted the right needle.

Then after placing that with the others she tapped the central icon. There was a hiss and two final probes, larger than the others, popped slightly so she could grasp them. "Slowly please, these will hurt quite a bit…" Barriss murmured.

Aayla looked up at her concerned. "Do you need any pain medication?"

The girl shook her head. "No. I—I just want this over with, I can handle the discomfort. I did without when they installed it too. Remember bottom first, then top. The bottom will need to be extracted as follows. Pull until it stops, do not yank on it after that, turn it gently counter clockwise until it clicks, then pull again. Repeat this twice more first clockwise, then counter for the final turn, only then do you pull it all the way out."

Aayla nodded, and pulled gently out to the first turn, Barriss gasped a hissing breath and twitched uncontrollably for a moment before stilling. Aayla turned it again as instructed then pulled it out to the next point, again Barriss gasped. She then made the final turn and began to pull the needles coming into view, a large cluster of metallic spikes all of which had been inserted into the young woman's brainstem. They finally cleared her skull, the last and mosts central easily three inches long. Here Barriess sighed and her knees buckled, causing her to slam down onto them with a thump against the deck plating. She barely managed to keep from going over completely.

There was….a great deal of blood dripping from the socket and Aayla rushed to secure a swab over it until they could get the assembly off completely.

Aayla grasping her about the shoulders and helping to keep the slight woman upright. before gripping the final probe. This one, as she pulled it out gradually, made her sick to her stomach, it was like a small sea creature had been implanted into the Mirialan's skull, dozens of small filament like probes that came slowly away from her skull covered in viscous slime. "Um—Barriss, there's…" She was at a loss to explain it.

"Bio-mimic gel, it allows for greater interfaces capacity with my brains neural…" She paused hissing, and Aayla stopped, worried.

"What?"

"Nothing they didn't warn me of when they instructed me in how to remove this, I just—lost my sight for a bit there. It'll be back soon, I'm sure…."

Aayla sighed once again shaking her head, feeling sorry for the young woman. Barris cleared her throat. "Um. Stop here. You feel that resistance? You should see a final blue indicator has lit up on the cranial assembly now. Toggle it to off please?" The Jedi Master did so and Barriss nodded ever so slightly. "You may finish extracting the probes."

Aayla continued to pull until the cables fully withdrew from the socket, each capped with a grey cylinder. "Huh, these are different from the others…" She noted curiously.

Barriss chuckled darkly. "Hit the toggle again, make sure you're not holding a cylinder."

She did so, examining the now disembodied probes, only to flinch when the cylinders suddenly bristled with dozens or micro needles. "Barriss…" She breathed in disbelief. "This is—this device, it's barbaric!"

Barriss sagged on her knees. "Nothing more than I deserve…" She murmured.

Aayla glanced up from the devices sharply as she deposited them on the tray with the rest. "Barriss…Even the worst prisoner deserves humane treatment. You didn't deserve this, I can't Imagine—" She protested weakly.

"Apparently the Chancellor's office disagreed, I was in pain for days until I finally got used to the sensations." Barriss noted bitterly. "Nothing was done to help me, by them or the Jedi."

Aayla dropped to her knees and shifted around the girl's front, and was startled to see small rivulets of blood coming from her tear ducts. Barriss coughed, her hand coming away from her mouth speckled with crimson. She grabbed swabs and dabbed at the blood until it was cleared away before drawing the young woman into an embrace. Barriss had made a mistake, had committed serious crimes, there was no question of that. But Aayla had watched her for months, felt her regret, and her sincere desire to make up for what she had done. She knew that in all likelihood the consequences of Barriss' sins would haunt her and others for the rest of their lives. But this…what she had been subjected to in the name of security was unconscionable. Poisons, shock cuffs, sedatives, and a harness which had been implanted directly into her without anesthetic…

"Well, considering the Chancellor is the one who ordered the murder of countless Jedi I'd say his opinion, nor that of his office doesn't count for much!" She declared firmly releasing the girl and holding her at arms length.

"Thank you. I—We need to remove the secondary assembly now. Then were all done." Barriss agreed, and Aayla could swear she saw tears in her eyes before she turned to allow her access to the device. It came away with a sucking sound and she noticed with disgust that the skin where it was installed had been stripped away to allow it to adhere directly to the tissue beneath. She spent the next ten minutes bandaging, packing and putting pressers on various wounds.

Eventually Barriss spoke up. Chuckling weakly, "Well. Seeing as the two clones on this ship aren't trying to kill us, and I've got this thing off, I'd say things are finally looking up?"

Aayla nodded. "Yes, though that's because Rex had his chip removed, and Fives has an unusually strong will.

Barriss froze, then swore. "So, that's what the chip does."

She nodded agreement. "It would appear so."

"How bad? How many did we lose?" Barriss asked eventually. "I lost consciousness before I saw much."

Aayla shook her head, "I don't know." Barriss sagged, clearly exhausted, and she patted her on the shoulder. "Rest Barriss, you're tired."

The Mirialan shook her head. "No. I need to do something! Maybe I can remove that chip from Fives…"

"Barriss…" Aayla sighed exasperated.

"No. I need to do something, anything to keep my mind on other things." Barris argued trying to get to her feet.

"Very well, let me help you."

She helped the young woman get dressed, it was…sad, just how happy Barriss seemed to be, simply receiving some basic undergarments. It took some time to get her into them though. She was clearly sore from the probe extraction and probably more than a little from the shocks accompanying the visions. It was hard not to notice just how thin the woman was, with how loosely her previously well fit robes hung on her body.

Aayla noted bitterly to herself, that Palpatine's insistence they subject someone, even a prisoner with Barriss' crimes on their conscience, to what was in essence vile torture should perhaps have clued them in to just what kind of person he really was.

—

Ahsoka was not usually one for just lying in bed. But after the nightmare of a vision she'd just been subject to, just about anyone would have been laid up for a good long while afterwards. She came to slowly over a period of about half an hour, a pounding headache being the primary culprit for keeping her buried in the sheets. She just lay back and stared at the ceiling, wishing the headache away but knowing it wouldn't abate so long as her memories continued to plague her. She knew that getting up would likely help accelerate the process of excising these memories, but she just couldn't seem to compel herself to do so.

She was trying not to think about what the vision had shown her, what it was still showing her through her memories. But she knew what had happened could not be denied, and trying to do so was a futile gesture. It is a quirk of the sentient mind, that telling oneself not to think about something is a surefire way to guarantee that what you are trying to avoid becomes forever etched into ones memory.

The vision had started while she had been showing Barriss where to stow her bags, studiously trying to avoid talking about the suppression cuffs secured about the woman's wrists. Apparently under orders from General Secura, the clones watching her had switched the cuffs to stun her if she drew on the force instead of at the command of her watchers of the moment. This allowed them to in reasonably good conscience hand over their ward to the civilian captain on the General's say so.

The vision had come on gradually at first a sort of gnawing feeling of unease that even Barriss seemed to notice, the suddenly it had exploded into full force, knocking the breath from their lungs.

Ahsoka had no idea what Barriss had seen, not only because the suppression cuffs had detected her increased mental activity in key sectors of her brain and had promptly electrocuted the girl into unconsciousness. But also because she'd been eyeball deep in her own vision at the time. Agen Kolar, Zabrak member of the Jedi Council cut down by a flash of red, the Saesee Tiin a few moments later, Kit Fisto soon followed with an anguished cry before he joined the Force. Then worse, Mace Windu, one of the most powerful Jedi on the Council, perhaps second only to Yoda, a Master of the Lightsaber form known as Vaapad. His arms severed, a feeling of intense betrayal echoing through the force, and then falling, through the endless night of Coruscant.

At this point the strength had fled her limbs and she fell to her knees. Master Obi-Wan, kind, true and fair falling through space, stunned by an explosion. Ki-Adi-Mundi, confusion and betrayal, as he stood in storm of snow and ash before azure light drowned him, his clones, the loyal soldiers of the Galactic Marines firing upon him.

Then Yoda, pain and confusion, soon drowned out by Plo-Koon, dear friend, the master who had introduced her to the Jedi Order, confused for but a moment before it was washed away by flame, joining the force almost instantaneously. Stass Allie, a bolt of red light impaling her and then another consuming her speeder bike from behind. Yoda again, blade drawn fleeing through a forest city, a team of Wookiee Warriors around him clones hot on their heels.

Quinlan Vos, the renegade, Aayla Secura's former master running hard, foliage flashing past, desperate calls echoing behind him, a blue blaster bolt streaking past. Shaak Ti, wounded and alone, hiding in the sub level of the Kaminoan city she'd so recently returned to. Luminara Unduli, the former master of the traitor, nothing but a blur of confusion as the tide of death rises.

Ahsoka's tenuous grip on consciousness began to fade rapidly then in the face of the rising pain of loss. More Jedi than she'd ever known existed being cut down in the blink of an eye, hundreds battling in the halls of the Jedi Temple. And finally, an Azure Blade, carving it's way through a cluster of terrified younglings. At this the agony that permeated the force became too much and she had known no more.

She knew now that Aayla Secura, her friend had at least made it through, she could sense her, not far away, but muted by sorrow. She could sense others distant and indistinct now that she focused her mind to the task. She could not tell where they were, but a few, Yoda, Obi-Wan, Quinlan Vos and Shaak Ti yet lived.

The comfort this brought was slight at best however, her distress once again grew as she lay in bed when she realized she could not sense anything of her former master. He had not been among those she had witnessed die as she lost consciousness. But she had suffered a troubling dream while she slept. Anakin, limbs severed and wreathed in fire. Mechanical arm reaching out as if beseechingly, then fading to nothingness in pain, waves of hatred, darkness and a final feeling of betrayal.

The thought that Sky Guy, her master might be among the fallen was excruciating, and she felt tears begin to run down her cheeks.

She was saved from wallowing in her grief however by a clatter, the movement of someone passing down the passage outside her door, and now that her thoughts shifted from what she'd seen she could feel and hear the hum of the ship's engines. The strange not quite real feeling of the artificial gravity giving away that they were in space.

She then began to wonder about more practical concerns, if they were in space clearly time had passed, that and the state of her digestive systems told her it had been some time. It was this question which prompted her to wiped the tears away and sit up. Pausing when she heard a familiar voice, the cadence and tone suggesting it to be Rex, at least so it seemed to her, she could swear he was having a conversation with himself. Another Clone?

The fact that he and this other clone had not attempted to kill her was a promising start and allowed her to clear her head somewhat of the fear that fogged it. She rolled out of bed and stumbled into the cabins refresher, emerging a couple minutes later. The chrono built into the glass above the sink telling her it was late evening. She half stumbled, half shuffled her way into the hallway, and off in search of the voices which echoed about the ship.

Her journey soon brought her to the kitchen, full of people. Aayla Secura, looking tired and careworn leaning against the counter, arms crossed over her chest. HK standing stiffly as always in the corner, fiddling with a stripped down blaster rifle. Rex, sitting behind the table murmuring to a second clone.

It took her a moment to recognize the clone sitting across from Rex, stripped down to his bodysuit as he was and holding bloody compress to his forehead just above the temple. It was only when he shifted his hand and a small tattoo came into view there that she realized it was Fives.

Barriss was there too, her cloak folded on a chair beside her, her thin form even more apparent without the excess fabric. She was working with something Ahsoka couldn't see with her back to her, murmuring to the Clones, a small pile of medical equipment on the table between them. R2-K9 was nowhere to be seen but it was likely he was manning his post in the cockpit.

It was only as Barriss turned depositing a small specimen jar on the table that Ahsoka's presence was first noticed. A murmured word from the gaunt Mirialan alerting the others.

Rex grinned tiredly at her from his seat at the table. "Hey kid, look who's finally up!"

Aayla pushed herself off the counter and padded over to her, "You were beginning to worry us Ahsoka" She noted smiling slightly, though it didn't quite meet her haunted eyes.

Ahsoka nodded understanding and glanced about. "What is happening?" She asked.

Rex tried for some levity, "Are you referring to the surgery going on on the kitchen table?" He asked dryly.

It hadn't been, but she was willing to take what relief she could get right then from more painful topics. "I must admit I didn't expect to see a clone getting carved up like a life days roast on my kitchen table"

Rex snorted appreciatively as Barriss pressed the specimen jar into her hand, allowing her to examine the fleshy object within. Barriss apparently had no patience for levity given the circumstance and responded in a clipped tone. "ARC Trooper Fives thought it best that I get rid of his "Inhibitor chip" considering it kept making him want to murder us."

Aayla made a reproachful noise in her throat and cut her off sharply. "Barriss,"

Barriss, despite her gratitude to the Jedi Master, wasn't in the mood to be curtailed right then however. She rubbed irritably at some angry red marks around her wrists before waving to the world around her. "What? That's what that damned piece of meat does isn't it? No point in denying it, no point in hiding from it! We all saw it!" She barked. "Only reason dear old Commander Bly didn't kill you too was Rex and Fives were able to talk him around."

Ahsoka couldn't bring herself to judge Barriss too harshly considering the circumstances, "It really happened then, didn't it? I was pretty sure already that it must have, but somehow it feels more real now."

Barriss nodded sharply taking back the specimen and glaring at it like it personally had somehow mortally offended her. Which in a way perhaps it had.

Ahsoka glanced to Aayla "How many made it? Do either of you know if anyone made it for certain?"

Aayla shook her head, clearly worried, and Barriss scowled a little harder, her shoulders tense. "I can feel something, or someone, Yoda I think…" The Mirialan offered before shaking her head in disgust.

Aayla tried to sound encouraging. "Someone has to still be alive out there. Whoever they are they altered the rallying call the Temple was broadcasting, to warn us away until someone caught on and shut it off." She pointed out then looked expectantly to Ahsoka.

It was strange to be embarrassed to have heard more good news than her compatriots. She nodded, "Yoda and Obi-Wan," She focused, "Together I think, wherever they are…Quinlan Vos, I still sense motion like I did before….Shaak Ti, she's in pain but still alive, I can't tell you where any of them are though."

She opened her eyes, Aayla couldn't help but look somewhat relieved to her Vos had made it thus far. Barriss was looking worried. She was looking at her hands, fiddling with a small sanitary wipe "And Master Unduli?" She asked. In the privacy of her own head she couldn't help but wonder if the last form of communication she'd have with her former master would be a rejected comm call.

Ahsoka felt regretful. "I don't know, I'm sorry, I sensed confusion and panic before I passed out, but I can't hear anything now." She paused wondering how to proceed, whether or not to face her own fears and worries like Barriss had. "Master Skywalker?" She asked.

The change was sudden, uncomfortable silence descending like a powerless speeder from the sky. She looked suddenly panicked to those around her. "What? Have you heard something?" She asked urgently. Still the other's hesitated, the clones in particular having trouble looking at her. "What is it, tell me!"

Aayla sighed and sank into the nearest chair, her eyes flicking to her own. "Remember that rally signal someone altered to warn us away from the temple?" She asked, Ahsoka nodded, a sinking feeling forming in the pit of her stomach.

Aayla fiddled with the controls for the tables holo projector, and an image sprang to life. Anakin, as that was clearly who it was, face twisted in a snarl, his lightsaber blade buried in a Temple Guardsman's body, a padawan already dead at his feet. Ahsoka shook her head in denial. "No, that can't be! I saw him injured, he was burned he couldn't have done this!" She said trying to convince herself, to deny the evidence in front of her.

Aayla felt nothing but sympathy for the younger woman, she knew how she had felt when Vos had suffered a similar fate. The difference was Vos had been redeemed, Anakin was clearly beyond that now. It was Rex who spoke next. "Guess that explains who the new player standing next to our new dictator was in today's broadcast," He noted bitterly. He had always looked up to and respected Anakin before this.

Ahsoka looked to him, a pleading look in her eyes. Barriss turned away grimacing as Fives played with the controls on the table, a video this time playing. The video was silenced but it was clear the hooded figure sitting atop the throne was giving a speech. But it was not him who drew her eyes. It was the armoured sentinel at his shoulder, a lightsaber at his belt. A dark featureless and remorseless helmeted visage stared out of the projection at her.

Aayla explained, pausing the image. "Emperor Palpatine and his new right hand, Darth Vader." She explained, disgust tinging her words.

Ahsoka tried to digest that, "Emperor…Darth? Darth Vader? That's a Sith title, are you telling me it was Palpatine all along? The Sith Lord we've been looking for all this time, it was him?" She asked her voice rising in anger.

Aayla remained calm, at least externally, "It certainly appears so, if that is indeed the case he had set us up from the very beginning."

Ahsoka sank into a seat Rex pushed towards her with a foot. "Emperor?" She murmured sounding pensive. "How can the Republic be led by an Emperor?"

Fives shook his head in disgust, pulling away the compress to stare gloomily at the dried blood on it. "It can because the Republic no longer exists. It's now call the Galactic Empire." He growled, he looked like he wanted to spit.

Ahsoka and the others sat in silence for a time, contemplating what they now knew to be true. The Republic was dead, now what did they do about it?

—-

They spent some time in silence, heating a small meal for everyone present. It was only as they were sorting away the detritus of the meal, that Ahsoka broke the silence and asked the question that was on everyone's mind. "So where do we go from here?" Predictably every head in the room turned to the Jedi Master.

Aayla just shook her head though. "I do not know, I can't sense the others like Ahsoka can, this isn't my ship, this isn't my crew, and I don't have any plan for going forward." She admitted helplessly.

Ahsoka rested her head in her hands for a moment, trying to purge the frustration. Eventually a question occurred to her. "Where are we exactly?"

Rex was the one who answered, "Interstellar space, somewhere just about a parsec off the Hydian Way." Ahsoka considered that, galactically speaking they were almost literally in the middle of nowhere. Which had the advantage of making it hard for them to be found, but had the distinct disadvantage of lacking anything at all that they truly needed. Food, fuel, air and other supplies for example.

"How are we doing for supplies?" She asked.

HK came forward. "Recitation: We currently have enough food aboard for one months consumption factoring in a crew of this size. We have two months of water, five of air and enough fuel to get us to any number of ports in this quadrant of the galaxy. Warning: However due to the currently shifting political conditions a number of these ports are no longer viable ports of call. Our most pressing need given our current situation is for armaments and a supply of credits not tied to a known account or wanted individual."

"It would likely be wise to get ourselves and our funds off the grid first," Rex noted.

Ahsoka nodded agreement, Aayla's, Barriss', the Rogue Clone's and her own funds would likely be under surveillance. It was also likely that the ship's registration and identification beacon were being tracked as well.

"What about a permanent shelter of some sort? And where can we get what we need?" She asked the room at large.

HK assumed a scolding attitude. "Chiding Remark: Mistress almost all the things we seek are illegal given our current circumstances. Given that there is only one suitable location outside of Imperial space to obtain such things covertly. Nar Shaddaa."

Aayla was already shaking her head, Ahsoka couldn't blame her. Nar Shaddaa was possibly the worst criminal cesspool in the galaxy. Run by the Hutt Cartel and a variety of other crime syndicates. "I don't like it, that moon is crawling with criminals and bounty hunters, either would gladly turn us in for the credits and it's bound to have Imperial agents present, it is the logical destination for rogue elements." She pointed out.

Barriss spoke up again. "It would require careful planning, but I believe we could manage it. We could set a team to protect the ship while those withdrawing funds from the banks proceed together, perhaps disguised to the banks? Between three Jedi and a pair of Clone Troopers we should be able to manage it fairly quickly and cleanly. I'm more worried about afterwards." She noted. "First getting off planet without being detained, second what if pirates or someone else have contacts at the banks? They could be waiting for us in space."

Unsurprisingly the expert voice in regards to pirates and miscreants of all stripes was the former assassin droid. "Statement: Pirates and other such low-lifes who might target us would need to rely on intercepting us at known navigation points or in orbit around a destination. Solution: Filing a false flight plan and jumping to non-standard navigation points would mitigate this risk. Choose further destinations from there, only then altering the ships onboard registration and identification beacon. Thus when next we show up on someones database, we would not be who we were when we left."

It was truly disturbing how readily available HK's knowledge of such things were, the fact that he already had contingency plans in place was equally worrisome. Rex had to credit the droid though, the plan was workable. "Okay, that sounds like it might work, with a few adjustments as needed." He agreed.

Ahsoka had another problem though. "What then? Let's say we get all that done, we need somewhere safe from which to operate, this ship is in itself a safe haven, but that lasts only so long as we're not recognized. And keeping her flying relies on a constant flow of reliable work." She pointed out.

Aayla followed her thinking. "And working with underworld elements is risky right now, we have to assume that sooner or later all of us will have bounties on our heads. People will be on the look out for Jedi, and possibly for a crew matching our descriptions."

Barriss who always had been a planner, for better or worse, spoke next. "We need to decide what we intend. Do we merely intend to survive? Or do we intend to meet up with organized resistance movements and other Jedi?" She asked.

"Is there an organized resistance?" Fives interjected. "The separatists basically evaporated the moment Palpatine crowned himself emperor as near as I can tell. All I've heard about on the holonet is a couple of brushfire rebellions on occupied former confederate worlds."

Rex was nodding agreement. "We don't know where the other surviving Jedi are, or if they'll ever risk showing their faces again.

Ahsoka sighed in resignation. "At this point I think the best we can do is focus on dropping off the Empire's scopes." She said pursing her lips.

Barriss shot her a scathing look. "So what? We just find a dark hole somewhere to hide in, and let the Galaxy go down in flames?" She snapped.

Ahsoka didn't like the Mirialan's tone and her own patience was running thin. "Should have guessed you'd be the one to want to play revolutionary. What, so eager to bloody your hands again? As I recall, last time you were blaming the wrong people for the war though. You blew up a our friends and allies, when you were just as fooled as the rest of us." She bit out.

Barriss looked ready to fire back but Aayla cut in before it could get out of control. "Enough! Both of you, we will not get embroiled in old arguments. We have more pressing issues which demand our attention." She growled, her tone firm.

Ahsoka was quiet for a time. stifling her temper. "I wasn't saying we just sit it out and let the Galaxy go it's own way. I was saying we hole up until we hear something concrete we can move on."

Fives nodded agreement. "We go in blind and try to go head to head with the Empire all we'll get is squashed."

Ahsoka pointed to him bobbing her head in agreement. Then looked to the others. "Surely some of the Senate is protesting the formation of the Empire?"

Barriss still looked mutinous after that last barb, but she just shook her head. "No, any official resistance was overruled immediately, and Senator Amidala's funeral was held yesterday on Naboo. Supposedly she died of complications connected with childbirth." She didn't need to tell any of those present how uncommon such things were in the modern age.

For her part Ahsoka felt sick to hear of Padme's death. The woman had been her friend. A bright young woman with the kind of charisma which had routinely shaken the senate out of it's foolhardiness during the war. With People like Palpatine and Vader on top, and good people like Padme dead, the Republic was truly dead and gone. A cynical segment of her mind spoke up The Republic is dead, long live the Empire.

"Where can we hide that people won't think to look for us?" Ahsoka asked those assembled around the small table. "It'd have to be somewhere out of the way but with enough back doors that we can get away if the time comes."

"Kessel?" Suggested Rex. "Can't get much more out of the way than that."

This suggestion wasn't met with much enthusiasm. Kessel sat near the edge of a cluster of black holes called the Maw. It was also a popular destination with slavers.

"Kamino?" Suggested Barriss sarcastically. She didn't like the idea of hiding at all, so suggested the heart of the Imperial troop production industry. Kamino also held the distinction of being one of the furthest inhabited planets from the core without being in one of the companion galaxies. Everyone ignored the jibe out of hand.

"Tatooine?" that was Aayla. This was voted down immediately. Nobody wanted to spend the next few years burning their backsides off in a Hutt owned, and raider infested desert.

Fives threw out the next couple ideas "What about somewhere in Wildspace, or the uncharted regions?"

"Plenty of space to get lost in out there, pretty uncivilized and almost completely unmapped aside from the Chiss Ascendancy…" Ahsoka noted. The Chiss were not known for their friendly and welcoming attitudes. Oh there were other settled regions in that area of space. Some had been explored for a time and mapped. But the records were so old as to be useless.

"While we're suggesting force forsaken corners of the universe why don't we just go to the Rishi Maze." Barriss grumbled.

Something about this sparked off some ideas. "Kamino's out that way, so theoretically Shaak Ti is in that area…" Ahsoka.

Barriss waved that off irritably. "Yes, yes, and so are a couple million Imperial troops and a quarter of the Navy."

Ahsoka ignored her tone for now, following the thread of thought, seeing where it led. "We wouldn't necessarily have to go to Kamino though." She pointed out. "Just close enough to see if she's in that neighbourhood."

Fives remembered his time in that corner of the Galaxy, "Rishi is pretty out of the way, the planet I mean, not the companion…." he noted. He'd spent time the first couple months of his service at a listening post on Rishi's moon.

Rex nodded, he'd been to that listening post, and had been involved in the skirmish there. "Not much there it's true, they rebuilt the listening post but as far as I know there isn't any further Imperial presence in that system. Rishi itself only has one or two small ports that service explorers trying to make it to the maze or smaller craft headed for Kamino."

Ahsoka recalled a lesson with Sky Guy. That whole region, was a mess of hyperspace distortions, it got worse and worse the farther out you got until finally you could basically go no further. Attempting to traverse such phenomena safely was a risky bet at best.

"Out of the way, minimal Imperial presence, in difficult space, but not so isolated that you need to travel far out of your way to get anywhere.…Might actually work well for our purposes." Ahsoka noted.

Aayla was warming to the idea as well. "And if we can find Master Ti, we'd have four Jedi instead of three. At the very least it'll give us somewhere to rest and regroup." She looked to the others and saw grudging approval even from Barriss. She thumped a palm on the table, letting out a relieved sigh. "So that's the plan then. Collect what funds we can and go off the grid at Nar Shaddaa, jump to a secondary nav point and reconfigure our beacon and registration. From there we jump out to Rishi and see if we can find Master Ti?" She asked.

The other's voiced agreement and Ahsoka rolled to her feet, eager to have something to do, heading for the cockpit. "I'll get our course laid in," She worked her way forward and set about preparing them for the first leg of their journey. She worked out the navigational calculations the old fashioned way, getting R2-K9 to check them over when she was finished. It was a good way to purge her mind of troubled thoughts. As she took the Open Skies into hyperspace her thoughts were more relaxed. The Republic may be dead, but we're not. Not if I have anything to say about it.

—-

Barriss was in a somewhat more troubled state of mind than her former friend. All things considered this wasn't a great surprise. When the visions had begun, the section of her brain associated with using the force had lit up like a life day tree. Her cuffs and the attached harness, the ones secured to her by the clone killing machines back on Felucia, had predictably detected the activity and hit her with enough electricity to leave her twitching for the next week. Add to that the horrifying content of those visions, she was not in a terribly stable frame of mind. Her argument with Ahsoka had resulted in her being thoroughly chastened with accusations regarding her former conduct. Worse to her was that these accusations were not entirely without merit.

She sat for a time in silence until the rest of the ship's motley crew had wandered out before sliding out of her chair and stiffly leaving for her quarters. She spent a goodly portion of that distance clenching and unclenching her fists in an effort to excise her aggressive feelings.

She thumped the door control a little harder than necessary and the door slid open. She ached all over, the suppression harness had been less than gentle when it detected that level of connection to the force and had. When Master Secura had assisted her in removing the contraption, she'd had electrical burns from the many contact points the unit had to her body.

The problem then became that once inside the privacy of her quarters she had no idea what she was to do. Eventually her eyes landed on her small duffle shoved up against the baseplate of her bunk. She stalked over and snapped open the bag before settling with the Holocron at the small desk against the wall.

She had a few choice words in mind for the little Holographic Master within when he appeared, that she was still in the habit of suppressing her emotions to spare herself the stun cuffs, meant she had trouble focusing enough to activate the device and ensured she was feeling fairly snappish when the Hologram resolved into existence.

"You failed to tell me that my "Galaxy Shaking Discovery" would turn out to be entirely meaningless, considering it was far too late to do anything about it!" She accused leaning on the edge of her desk and staring at the little man.

The Holocron didn't bother simulating offence, "That is because I did not and do not know the significance of the discovery, nor what precisely you were supposed to do with it. I merely knew that you discovering what you did, and making contact with your former friend, led to a more positive chain of events than those which you would have experienced otherwise." He noted and got a derisive snort in response.

"Positive? Positive!" She snarled, she waved her hands to the world around her "Do you know what has happened? It's over, we've lost, the Jedi are gone, all but wiped out in a space of less than half an hour."

The little projection sagged as though weary. "No I did not know that, though I suppose it should not surprise me that my vision was connected with just such an event. One comes to recognize patterns when one knows the force as I have come to." He admitted.

She paused her pacing in front of the desk, her eyes flashing to the device. "Explain, Master Ur. Now!"

He just frowned, "I would remind you to watch your tone Miss Offee, I may not be alive in any real sense of the term, but this device can still determine when you are in a decidedly uncooperative mood. Barking at me will only serve to make me questions whether or not I should bother trying to explain myself at all." He chastised, and waited for her to make an apology, once she did he nodded. "Good, As for what I meant. The Force is not a set of polar opposite energy fields. Light and Dark, are arbitrary labels assigned by mortals to what is essentially an enormous, possibly intergalactic energy based life form we just happen to draw upon and mould with our actions. The Force itself is not inherently light or dark just as no sentient being is inherently light or dark. It is instead a creature of balances, just like we are." He paused to see if she was following so far "Think of us like a virus or bacterium swimming through the lives blood of a creature infinitely our greater. We alter the balances of it's existence with our actions. We twist the energy of it's existence to our purposes, light, dark or anything in between." He explained, dropping into a lecturing tone. "Now picture the Sith and the Jedi as two particularly virulent but opposite and competing sets of microbial lifeforms within the body? The Sith twist portions of the body's energies towards darkness, the Jedi towards the Light. Now you being a healer know what happens to a life form when viruses and bacterium run amok with their interior balances?" He asked.

She nodded shortly, "You're saying we make the Force sick?" She asked intrigued, and worried by the concept.

He nodded reluctantly. "It's a very rough metaphor, but in essence yes. Now then, what does a body do when it becomes sick in this fashion?"

"It either releases antibodies to destroy the infection or it creates a fever to burn it out." She replied promptly.

"Precisely, and what happens when one or both of these competing life forms is wiped out or nearly so? The other grows stronger in it's place. The Body then attempts to wiped out that infection too, to restore balance and the cycle begins again, and repeats itself until balance is permanently achieved as the force would prefer, deriving life as it does from us and all other living things within it. Or by eradicating both infections entirely and permanently. Add into this the intentional machinations of force users to manipulate this ebb and flow and the cycle become more chaotic and violent all the time." He concluded. "This is merely the result of an effort by the Force's natural processes to reestablish balance, were you not telling me Skywalker was to play some role in the balancing of the force?" He asked referring to an old conversation.

She snorted angrily. "Yes, and apparently this came in the form of him turning Sith and wiping out the Jedi in service to Palpatine. Turns out that greasy politician was the Dark Lord all along. He's crowned himself Emperor of the new Galactic Empire."

He nodded sagely. "The greatest Lords of the Sith always did like that title. Arrogant lot for the most part." He agreed waving idly.

"You encountered Sith in your time?" She asked curious.

"Yes, many of them, more than I could ever possibly count. I lived and died during the rise of the Sith Empire under the the Dark Lord known as Vitiate." He agreed. "Arrogant ponce had me killed for daring to preach a different path for the Sith than the one he laid out for them. Had me entombed in a Temple with all his other rivals. I was gratified to hear that one of your Jedi, a Hero of Tython had offed the madman. Unfortunate it didn't stick, somebody had to come along and do it all over again to make sure he stayed down…What?" He said finally noticing her expression.

"You—You? You, were a Sith?" She asked horrified.

He gave her a quelling look. "Yes, didn't I just make that clear? I was killed for trying to teach a force neutral doctrine to other Sith and ended up gutted, paraded around the capitol and then stuffed in a tomb somewhere on Dromund Kaas. Had to rely on that monkey Lord Helketh to secret my Holocron where someone worthy might find it." He grumbled, though not like he was actually upset.

She started pacing again, faster than ever. "You've just told me that the Force has essentially allowed…NO, supported the Jedi's destruction! And now I learn that you, the one I've been listening to for guidance the last year, are—were, a Sith. That the Force guided you to me. How do I know you aren't leading me astray, how do I know that you aren't being used as an agent of this destruction?" She asked running a shaking hand through her hair.

He was silent for a time then spoke in a soft voice. "As to whether or not our meeting is included in this process of destruction I do not know. I do not believe it to be the case of course, as the force gave the impression you and those you traveled with were intended to be a force for good. As for whether or not I'm leading you astray. Do you recall your favourite quote of mine, the lesson you had me repeat time and again in our first months together?" He asked.

She nodded and quoted verbatim. "It's a lie. Fear is a lie. Passion, a lie. Fears gives only temporary powers, and passion is easily manipulated. Real strength in the Force comes when one is no longer afraid."

He nodded stoutly. "This is not a Sith teaching, the Sith Code is far different, far darker. Where the Jedi preach denial of emotion the Sith preach feeding off of it." he took on a different tone. "Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power. Through power, I gain victory. Through victory, my chains are Force shall set me Free." He intoned sadly. "I do not teach this self destructive dogma, just as I do not teach the Jedi Code, which in it's own way sets up people for destruction. I teach balance, I teach what I hope will one day stop the cycle of destruction and endless death. To accept your emotions within you, but to override them and continue to live good an honourable lives despite their more negative flavours. Tell me do you think I am evil? That I am an agent of destruction?"

She paused considering, then hung her head. "I do not know, I do not think you are leading me astray, I believe you are trying to teach me balance, but…so much is no longer simple, especially if what you say is true…Nothing is certain, perhaps not even the Force." She trailed off.

She eventually sat on the edge of the bed, and held her aching head in her hands. She did not hear his parting comment. "Perhaps especially not the Force Miss Offee."

She sat for a time, she was so conflicted, she could no longer think clearly, there were too many conflicting, thoughts and emotions. She needed to meditate but such activities had not worked as well as they once had…Then again, she had not been able to meditate as she had been taught in sometime. Perhaps it was time to return to basics? She needed to go through a full purging ritual, to clear her mind and body. To make herself an open vessel for the force.

She started with preparing herself tea, a herbal concoction she'd always favoured and thus carried with her. Then she stretched pulling the tension from her muscles and releasing toxins from within her tissues to be purged.

Then Barriss got up, stripping bare once again and pacing into the refresher, she used the facilities. Then went to the shower, she washed her hair and her skin, she scrubbed until her skin darkened, ignoring the pain. She had to pause here to spit out some blood which had been dribbling into her mouth from somewhere. She breathed that out too, accepting then purging the emotions that accompanied her so that she was once again empty. Then she scrubbed again, cleaning herself in her entirety before drying off and pacing naked to her bed, she assumed the position Master Unduli had taught her, legs folded, back straight, hands resting open on her knees. And she breathed deep, and to her gratification, for the first time in a long time the force flooded her as she breathed it in alongside the air. It was time, time to think, and time to see what the Force itself told her was true.