After Ahsoka had dropped Rey off at the Senate Building, she quickly made her way back to the Jedi Temple to go check on her Master and see how he was doing. Yet, just as she was about to round the corner and head into the Halls of Healing, she suddenly found herself face to face with Barriss Offee, who she quite honestly hadn't really seen since a mission a few weeks ago.

Butterflies fluttered in Ahsoka's stomach, happy to see Barriss again.

"Ahsoka!" Her... friend greeted her in her pretty Coruscanti accent, as a kind light filled her blue gaze, "It's so nice to see you again."

"Barriss, hi," Ahsoka greeted in turn, before shooting her friend a curious look, "why were you in the Halls of Healing?"

The Mirial Padawan frowned, "my Master was recently injured in a battle," a brief flicker of unease swam through her friend's gaze, before disappearing entirely, "but she'll be fine again soon enough."

Ahsoka eyed her friend with a worry-filled gaze. She didn't like to see her hurting in such a way, "I'm sorry, Barriss," she apologized and then paused for a moment before continuing, "I was just going to check on my own Master, since he overexerted himself yesterday, but I guess, I can just go visit him later, instead. I doubt he'll mind anyway, since Master Kenobi's bound to go check up on him soon, anyways. Would you want to go do something?" Ahsoka knew how stressful and painful it could be to see your Master get injured on the battlefield, since after all, she was Anakin Skywalker's apprentice, which meant that that happened a lot, so she decided that it'd be best to help get Barriss's mind off of the whole thing.

Barriss seemed to think it over, before giving a small nod of her head, "that sounds lovely, Ahsoka," she then paused, as she seemed to deliberate over what they could go do, "I suppose we could go to a Meditation Garden, if you'd like," she finally decided.

Ahsoka smiled, "sounds great."

Upon arriving at the Senate Building, Palpatine had been quick to greet Rey with a grandfatherly smile that made her incredibly uncomfortable, given the circumstances, before diving into a long discussion with her about the Opera they'd seen the previous night.

Rey did her best to nod along to what he said, along with verbally agreeing with what Palpatine said whenever it was appropriate.

Still, her mind was elsewhere. Rey could not stop thinking about that dream… or vision… or… or... quite honestly, Rey wasn't quite sure exactly what to call it, but she just couldn't stop thinking about all the things that Master Jinn had said.

She was stuck here with Ben, with nothing but a jumble of words to guide them on their path.

To have been blind is to see everything and to see the balance is the only way to restore what was lost.

What was that even supposed to mean?

Rey had no clue.

Then, there was the whole impossible decision that she and Ben would now have to make, what with the whole timeline thing. For if they completed their mission successfully, they'd apparently now be given the choice of either staying here in a galaxy, where her friends from her original timeline had a fairly high likelihood of being erased from existence entirely and even if she ever did get to see Finn and Poe again, she'd be old and gray. An elder in their eyes. Plus, the Finn and Poe of her own timeline would probably think that she'd died on Exegol with not even a body left to recover for a funeral. Still, if they stayed here, Ben would be exonerated from his past crimes and they could live out peaceful lives on some nice planet, maybe Chandrila. She remembered Ben had once mentioned that that was his homeworld. If not there, then maybe Naboo or Alderan… she'd heard it was beautiful there, before it was blown to smithereens by the Imperials. Maybe they could even build their own family. The thought made her smile. However, if they decided to go back to their original timeline, while Rey would be able to see Finn, Poe and everyone else again, Ben would most likely be processed for his crimes and maybe even sentenced to death.

So, Ben or everyone else.

That was the choice that had to be made.

Rey wanted to scream at the unfairness of it all. Why couldn't she just have both?

Noticing that the Chancellor's mouth was still moving, as he continued to talk about the Opera, Rey did her best to refocus on the conversation, so that Palpatine didn't get the wrong idea and think that she was boring him, when she was just starting to get so close to him.

"...fascinating. Sattia loses everything, all because the system surrounding her was far too relaxed and weak. That's the thing that you truly have to realize, my dear Rey. For in having no real military or even strengthened borders, it was easy for the society to succumb to corruption," he smiled warmly, almost making her shiver, "and that's why we have people like you protecting the peace and doing what is necessary, in order to preserve it, because after all you can't have peace without the proper guidelines set in place."

"Of course, Chancellor," Rey nodded, although unease churned in her gut, as she was able to give a pretty solid guess about what Palpatine was truly talking about when he said that he wished to "preserve the peace."

The Dark Lord of the Sith sighed, "still, I'd assume that it must be hard to be a Jedi, my dear Rey, what with always having to be so selfless and constantly repressing your emotions," he paused, before laughing, "I doubt I could ever do it."

I know.

However, instead of voicing that thought, Rey simply shook her head in protest, "I'm sure you'd do wonderfully, Chancellor."

Again, Rey found herself wondering why he was being so upfront with her. Constantly, he seemed to be trying to poke subtle holes in the Jedi Order, while simultaneously working to find some kind of common ground with her.

Perhaps he was… no , the sudden thought filled Rey with a deep dread that took almost all of her strength to block out Palpatine from. Rey did her best to push the dark thought away, but still, it stubbornly persisted, because it quite honestly made total sense. After Palpatine had seen her power, felt it, when she'd healed Ventress, he must've developed an interest in her. It all made sense, what with him only inviting her to the Opera, complementing her and telling her that she could always confide in him.

She didn't know how she hadn't seen it sooner.

Palpatine wanted her to be his apprentice.

Ventress stared defiantly into Mace Windu's guarded eyes.

For the past couple of hours, he'd been working to get information out of her and yet, so far she'd said nothing, not even uttering a single sound.

The Jedi were cruel, merciless beings, no matter what they told themselves at night.

It was their fault, after all, that her first Master had been left to rot on Rattatak for about a decade, which had eventually led to his death, when that sniper struck him down. Ventress still remembered the look on that sniper's face, when she'd enacted her rightful revenge. The face he'd made, of sheer terror and fear, was one that she hoped to see on all of the faces of the Jedi one day.

They'd taken everything from her and yet, then there was that girl. The girl who had saved her from death's cruel grasp.

Quite honestly, Ventress still didn't really understand why the girl had chosen to do what she did. For she was a Jedi and yet still, she had given Ventress, a dark side user, life.

It left her in a whirlpool of conflict, as a small piece of her wondered if it was possible that her ideals and outlook on the world could be wrong, in part. That perhaps at least not all the Jedi were uncaring

Of course, she refrained from letting Master Windu catch her in such a troubled state.

"Why were you after the Chancellor?" The Jedi Master seemed to ask her for the millionth time. Still, Ventress remained silent and dead still, with only the smallest of smirks pulling at her lips.

Her eyes flickered over the Jedi Master, as she absently wondered if he too had ever had any doubts about everything that he stood for.

She doubted it. He looked pretty set in his ways.

Still, looks could be deceiving.

That was one of her biggest problems with the Jedi. They were stubborn and seemed to be forever stuck in the ways of old. That's where she knew, for a fact, that the Sith were better, because while pretty much every single Jedi seemed to be stuck in the past, the Sith were flexible, constantly evolving and willing to do what was necessary rather than just stick to the original cookie-cutter plan of ancient ways.

The Sith knew how to survive and never gave up no matter what it took.

Yet, as once more, the image of the woman entered her mind, she found herself walking a tightrope, about to fall and yet, unsure as to which side she would land.

Amusedly, she watched as Master Windu continued to question her without even really listening anymore. Yet, after several more minutes of his annoyingly superior sounding Jedi voice filling her ears, she finally decided to put an end to it all and instead, work to get something for herself.

Clarity.

"Mace darling, while I would love to chat. I'm afraid I'll only talk to that girl with the white lightsabers. Bring her to me and then, maybe I'll tell you what you want to know."

Distrust and a flicker of unease swam through Master Mace Windu's eyes, but still, he acquiesced to her request, upon probably realizing that it was really the only way to possibly even get close to the information that he wanted.

Despite her conflictions, due to the mysterious girl, Ventress once again found herself amazed at just how predictable and easy to manipulate all the Jedi seemed to be.

They'd be so much more effective, if only they just threw a little more torture and fear into their interrogations.

It was late when Rey got back to the Temple.

Ahsoka had brought her friend Barriss along, who seemed nice enough and while the two had chatted, Rey had mostly just found herself lost in her thoughts, as she thought back on everything that had changed and furthermore, the grand implications that such changes now probably had in store for the galaxy itself.

The fact that Palpatine wanted her as an apprentice chilled her to her very bones and yet, at the same time that meant that now, if things continued to go the way that they were, there'd be no Darth Vader. So that was definitely a plus. Anyways, Palpatine's attention was something that they'd wanted all along, in order to take him down with evidence and now, they were just one step closer to obtaining that.

Yet, never in a million years had Rey ever expected that Darth Sidious wanting her as his next apprentice was probably going to be the reason that they were able to get close enough to him to get incriminating information.

After bidding Ahsoka and Barriss goodnight, Rey turned towards the Halls of Healing with the intention of talking to Ben about everything that had happened, when suddenly an unknown Jedi with perfect posture and serious brown eyes, stalked over to her.

"Master Rey, I presume?" He guessed in a no-nonsense tone of voice, while eyeing her with that touch of suspicion that she'd grown used to seeing in the eyes of many of the Jedi in the Temple.

She nodded, acknowledging that she was indeed who he was implying, yet found herself at a loss, as to why he would choose to seek her out.

"I'm Master Mace Windu, now please, come with me," he ordered, before disappearing down a lonely hallway, leaving Rey to scramble after him, while wondering where exactly he was taking her.