After an hour of meditation in orbit around the planet Commenor Jori finally pinpoints the region from which the force tremor had emerged. She opens her eyes to bare on the subtle brown and blue tones of Commenor's surface. She takes a moment to relax and marvel at the view then initiates the sublight engines and brings the scout ship into the atmosphere. She lands the ship on the planet's largest populated area called Chasin City.
As she steps off the ship she feels the presence of the unknown Jedi somewhere among Commenor's restaurant row. She casually makes her way from the landing grid to the point of interest and is led by the Force to an establishment called Sampo's, one of Commenor's most well known eateries. She expects to see a rabble of patrons as she experienced in the spaceport bar on Dantooine. However she's surprised when she finds the place is not only uniquely designed but the environment is quiet and welcoming.
"This is more like it." She says to herself.
Unsure whether the Jedi is Kam or another survivor from Order 66 she decides to take a seat and order a meal from the extravagant restaurant. This allows her the time required to pinpoint the Force sensitive and not draw unnecessary attention to herself. She orders from a waiter droid then quickly scans through the patrons with her eyes. Aside from a few patrons located at the bar she notices there are very few that are seemingly alone. She keeps her senses outward as her dinner is brought to her, halfway through her meal she locates the Force sensitive. However she's still unable to determine their identity as their back is to her and their head is covered by a cloak. Jori quickly finishes her dinner as she watches the person stand up, pay the waiter droid and leave the establishment. Jori leaves some credits at her table as she follows the cloaked person down the street.
Based off the person's height and the heightened shape of the hood she realizes almost immediately that this cannot be young Solusar. While disappointed by that fact she continues to follow the cloaked figure through the streets. She remains a fair distance away while following them when she senses that the unknown Force sensitive has sensed her own presence. The cloaked figures turns their head slightly spotting Jori as she stops dead in her tracks.
"Don't run." Jori whispers hoping the mysterious figure doesn't perceive her as a threat.
Before she knows it the cloaked figures bolts down an alley behind a row of restaurants using the Force to augment her speed. Jori takes pursuit and follows down the alley, she turns the corner just as the mysterious figure darts down another passageway. Jori boosts her speed via the Force and continues the pursuit following the unknown Force sensitive through several passageways. After the sixth turn onto a new street she wonders if the figure has lost her then suddenly she spots a green lightsaber being swung towards her head!
With microseconds to spare Jori pushes out with the Force deflecting the blade as she somersaults over it; igniting her own blade as she lands.
"I don't want to . . ." Jori is cut off as the cloaked figure redirects her attack igniting a smaller second green blade.
Jori blocks the assault then Force jumps backwards as the attacker slices the green blade back and forth following Jori's retreat. Jori halts and meets the blade surprising the cloaked figure, she delivers a side kick to her opponent's midsection then Force pushes outwards. The blow sends the attacker backwards causing them to lose their grip on the smaller lightsaber; Jori quickly levitates it to her via the force and slices it in half! Seeing this the attacker bull rushes Jori but misses as Jori Force jumps up to the roof of the nearest structure. The attacker re-ignites her primary weapon and meets Jori on the top of the building. As the duel continues Jori is able to get a glimpse of the attacker's angered red face and wonders if she'd inadvertently found a darksider by mistake. Unwilling to strike them down without identifying them first Jori remains mostly on the defensive. With her attention diverted for a split second Jori receives a Force push which sends her to the ground. The red faced assailant runs towards the main city street and hops on an unoccupied speeder bike, Jori picks herself up and pursues. She levitates a Sullustan speeder pilot off his bike and advises him she needs to borrow the vehicle. She sets him down safely as she fires up the swoop bike and speeds off after the Force sensitive.
She follows the unknown figure through the city streets suddenly realizing they're heading for the spaceport, Jori fires to the starboard side of the attacker's speeder as a warning. She increases the fire grazing the rear of the speeder as they change course away from the spaceport. Racing around the city for another fifteen minutes Jori becomes fed up with the chase and fires directly on the speeder. The hit throws the attacker from the bike into the air as Jori uses the Force to bring them to the ground. Hoping the attacker will cease Jori is disappointed when they dart down the next street on foot.
"I've had enough of this." She says as she turns her speeder around flying over the fleeing attacker.
Jori Force jumps off the bike landing in front of the cloaked figure's path. The green and yellow sabers clash as Jori tries to tell her attacker she means them no harm. While she senses a touch of anger from within them she can tell now this is not an agent of the dark side. The two Force jump on top of the next building, with the cloaked figure right on her heels Jori takes a different approach. As soon as she plants her feet on the roof she turns and tackles the assailant in mid air. They land with a thud on the ground as the attacker's hood is thrown off.
"Get off me!" states the red face of a Togrutan girl.
"Just stop, I'm a Jedi. I don't want to hurt you." Jori says getting up keeping her lightsaber deactivated as a sign of good faith. The Togrutan stands up shaking the dirt off her blue and white head-tails.
"I'm sorry, I wasn't able to read you so I wasn't sure who you were. Thought maybe you were a darksider, I'm Ahsoka Tano." the Togrutan says extending her hand.
Jori slides her lightsaber into the holster as she accepts the gesture of friendship. "I was starting to think the same about you, sorry if I scared you."
"No worries but you know you owe me a shoto right?" Ahsoka adds.
Jori smiles just as she hears a siren wailing around the alley. "That's probably local police, we better find somewhere where it's safe to talk." Jori states as the duo leaves the area for safer ground.
They walk back out into the street as Ahsoka states she knows a good place. "We can talk in my ship, c'mon." Ahsoka says as they both don their hoods.
As she follows the Togrutan Jori notices for the first time how young she is. At least a few years older than Ahsoka, Jori figures that during the last years of the Clone Wars the council probably sped up the knighting process on several occasions and promoted many Padawans out of sheer necessity.
As Ahsoka leads the way to the landing grid Jori notices the ship to which she had referred to. An old Correllian G12 outrigger freighter.
"That's your ship?" Jori asks.
"Yup, I was really hoping to find a G9 series, that's the model my master and I used to fly during the war" Ahsoka replies as the loading ramp lowers for boarding. "But this was the closest I could find, his ship was called the Twilight, however I named mine the Skylux."
The girls board the ship closing the ramp behind them. Ahsoka shows Jori the way to the cockpit where she takes the pilot's seat. She removes her cloak revealing her velvet red tunic with grey tights and matching velvet red boots and wrist guards.
"So, I'm glad to see I'm not the only Jedi who survived." Ahsoka states. "What's your name?"
Jori introduces herself as she takes a seat next to her. "Jori Kai, how long have you been on Commenor?"
"A few days, forgive me but I don't seem to recognize you from my temple days, are you still in your Knighthood or are you a Master?"
A little embarrassed Jori informs her that technically she's still a Padawan.
"How is that possible, you're . . . . well . . . older than I am." Ahsoka says trying not to insult her.
Jori explains that she was marooned on Rhen Var with her master early on in the war. "We were there for over two years with no information of what had been going on with the war."
"So how did you finally get off the planet?" Ahsoka asks.
"We were attacked by a sweeper team of clones, they were scouring the outer rim checking all known Jedi sanctuaries or ancient temples." Jori states. "The Empire is obsessed with ensuring that every last Jedi is exterminated. Anyway that's why I said I'm technically still a Padawan. Of course Master Ryaan told me after our first year of solitude that if we had not been stranded that I would have been knighted by then."
"I bet, I had no idea you were on to me until I sensed you reaching deeper into my subconscious. And you sure surprised me with that mid-air tackle!" Ahsoka replies.
Jori smiles then informs her about the Jedi holobooks she and Ryaan had found and studied during their solitude.
"No wonder you were able to keep me from identifying you." Ahsoka adds.
"What about you, how did you survive the purge?"
Ahsoka is about to begin her recount of the Jedi Purge as she notices more security droids coming towards the ship. "Uh I'd love to tell you the story but right now I think we need to get out of here."
Jori notices the droids and suggests they take off.
"Did you bring a ship here as well?" Ahsoka asks as she fires up the engines.
Realizing that her scout ship is relatively safe in dock and paid up through a whole week she advises Ahsoka to go ahead and take off.
Ahsoka lifts the ship off the deck and plots a course away from Chasin City. She heads for Munto Valley where after a short half hour flight she sets the Skylux down in a field on the outskirts of town.
"This should give us sufficient time to talk." Ahsoka says powering down the ship.
"So you were about to tell me how you escaped the clones during the purge." Jori reminds her.
"Actually I wasn't with any clones when I heard about the so called . . ." Ahsoka uses her hands to form quotations, "Jedi insurgency."
"How's that possible?"
"To be honest, I wasn't part of the Jedi Order when it happened." Ahsoka explains. "I left the Order several months prior, that was almost a year now."
Jori remains silent waiting to hear her story.
Ahsoka starts by telling Jori about the bombing at the Jedi Temple. Had she not already learned and seen firsthand the devastation left by the attack on the Temple by the clones Jori might be shocked. However she remains quiet listening to Ahsoka's tale.
Ahsoka continues informing her that she and her master were recalled from Cato Neimoidia to lead the investigation on the attack. They traced the bomber to one of the civilian temple workers and his wife. Then while in custody the wife was mysteriously killed and Ahsoka was framed for her murder.
"I went on the run, tried to prove my innocence. I was even forced to hook up with an old rival to try and find some evidence that I had been framed."
"What happened?"
"The clones captured me and I was banished by the council. I felt so betrayed, no one on the council stood up for me; although Master Yoda did say the decision wasn't unanimous." As Ahsoka continues Jori can see the still fresh pain in her eyes. "I still couldn't believe it, anyway that's when my trial began. Thankfully my Master still believed I was setup, so while my trial was in progress he was looking for proof. Luckily he found it and at the last minute too. You'd think I'd be happy that I was exonerated, until I realized it was my best friend Barriss who'd set me up."
It takes a moment for the name to register in Jori's mind. "Wait, Barriss Offee!? Master Unduli's Padawan?"
Ahsoka simply nods explaining that in the previous year of the war public confidence in the Jedi began to wane. More troubling was that Barriss was not the only Jedi who had become disillusioned with the Order and turned on them.
"Who else betrayed the Order?" Jori asks.
"Pong Krell and Sora Bulq." Ahsoka replies.
With Ahsoka being the first Jedi she has encountered who had served through most of the war Jori began to feel disheartened at the apparent steady decline of the Jedi.
"In the end the council apologized to me and welcomed me back to the Order. They even more or less offered to Knight me but I realized then how much things had truly changed." Ahsoka says remembering that day like it was yesterday. "Although I would never hurt the Jedi Barriss wasn't completely wrong. We had let the war drag on, we weren't willing to take the necessary steps to stop it, we brought ourselves to near extinction."
"No Ahsoka, that was Palpatine! He's the Sith Lord." Jori says.
"I know."
"How?" Jori asks.
"I figured as much when I saw his address to the Senate to change the Republic into the Empire." Ahsoka replies. "Plus many months spent in meditation."
"Then you know our entire downfall was the result of decades of planning, waiting for opportunities to demoralize us bit by bit until just the right time to strike." Jori explains. "The Jedi were put in a tight spot with no way out, we weren't ever meant to be soldiers."
Several moments of silence passes as they both just absorb what cannot be undone. Jori soon realized even after already having several opportunities to do so it never got easier.
Finally Ahsoka breaks the silence, "Anyway I couldn't go back, so I left not having a clue where I would go."
"Where did you go, eventually?" Jori asks.
After I said my goodbyes to my master I walked off the steps of the Jedi Temple and just kept walking . . ."