Returning to Lady Pellaeon and Andrew Joshua Talon's ideas for her-with two debuts that had been long awaited on Spacebattles.
by lord Martiya

Year 16 of the Empire: The truth about Baarriss Offee, part 1

Gilad Pellaeon had never regretted working for Tarkin, not even after being informed about his real role-he had joined the Judicials and remained in the Navy to enforce the law and protect the weak from oppression, and now he could see the truth about the Empire. That had been why he had not hesitated to accept his invitation to dinner, ostensibly because the Grand Moff's niece had befriended his eldest son Mynar and he wanted to know him and the family, and had ignored the reputation of the third member of the Grand Moff's household-or how his wife, who had met her early in the Clone Wars, had flinched and started reciting the Jedi Code upon finding out about her presence.

"And then the assassin had the gall to try and seduce my husband, but he resisted her wiles and Dooku's evil plan and kept the sector in the Republic." lady Thalassa Tarkin continued, regaling them with the fourth tale about her husband's triumphs in a row while Pellaeon and Mynar looked at her in growing horror, the two other Tarkins and the Mon Cala majordomo (former military, by how the Tarkins called him "commander", and likely enslaved with the Grand Moff taking him in to keep him from a worse fate) kept noticeably strained smiles, and his wife continued mentally reciting the Code.

"Oh! Look at the time!" Rivoche Tarkin said after noting the large antique clock in the room. "I need to show Mynar a few things. About Tatooine and the new cocoa plantation. And the slugthrowers."

"No problem, dear." the Grand Moff said, allowing his niece to grab Mynar and escape the torture with him.

"Wilhuff, dear, I'll better keep an eye on them. They're still teenagers, after all." lady Tarkin said before following the younger people-with Ahsoka Tano coming out from a secret room and the majordomo pressing a button as soon as she was out.

"Room soundproofed." he announced.

"Your reputation suggests you would have killed her long ago." Pellaeon deadpanned as soon as he knew the nag couldn't hear him anymore.

"If I were to do that imperfectly, millions would follow her." Tarkin admitted. "But worry not, as soon as I find a way I'll kill her-after claiming to her face I was cheating on her with Even Piell."

"Eeeeeew!" the former Jedi said. Pellaeon understood-he had seen a holo of the Lannik Jedi, and the image Tarkin had just planted in their minds wasn't nice. "Still, even if she calmed down, why did you subject us to the broad?!"

"I've been in contact with Master Nu, and she recently remembered some interesting facts about your birth family."

"Master Unduli said I was an orphan born on a starliner, and she couldn't find them outside the Temple."

"What is it about Jedi and points of view? I suppose it's true. After all, your parents lived in the Temple."

"Look, if you don't take this seriously I'm out."

The commander put a holoprojector on the table and started projecting Barriss Offee's personal files in the Jedi Temple Archive-only with a difference from what she had remembered: at the voice "family" there wasn't the familiar "unknown", but the names of Qui-Gon Jinn and Luminara Unduli listed as her parents.

"Apparently, Anakin Skywalker wasn't the only married Jedi." Tarkin said after she expressed her shock. "Your late master and Qui-Gon Jinn had married and had you, and were actually able to hide it for much longer. I believe it played a part both in the High Council offering him a place, an early recognition they were becoming atrophied and hoped his "eccentric" views could shake them out of it, and him refusing the offer. They knew for sure by the time of Jinn's death, however. But that's not the big surprise. Please, read the voice "grandfather"."

She did just that-and recoiled in shock and horror, as the name there was "Dooku of Serenno".

"But-what-WHAT!"

"That was actually public knowledge, I'm told. Or at least it wasn't secret." Tarkin continued. "One of the provisions Countess Anya demanded as she led the Jedi to her son was that he would have at least one child and heir to continue the line, and Qui-Gon Jinn was the firstborn, taken in by the Jedi as a Force sensitive. His second child was not, and thus taken in by House Serenno-though Count Gora was not keen to having the son of a Jedi as a heir."

"Makes sense." Pellaeon admitted. Then he realized what Tarkin was going for: "Wait, you want her to take over the planet?!"

"To command the loyalty of House Serenno's loyalists." his wife corrected him. "They've been scattered ever since the Imperial invasion... But if a heir appeared, they could rally and form a more effective resistance."

"That would be the idea." Tarkin admitted. "Though we would first have to deal with the other heiress of House Serenno, an Imperial loyalist. And make sure you can indeed take the role."

"That's why I'm here." Ahsoka said. "There is... Something you must know first. The reason you weren't tried during the War."

"The reason commander Ackbar has been preparing to drop a universal energy cage on you the whole time. We didn't know what to do with you then, but we know what to do with you now."

"Please... Read here."

Ahsoka was pointing up in the holographic files, at the very beginning. At something that made the Pellaeon family recoil in shock and surprise as the table started trembling

"Emotion, yet peace. Ignorance, yet knowledge. Passion, yet serenity. Chaos, yet harmony. Death, yet the Force." lady Pellaeon started reciting again. And again and again, until she calmed down. "I-I beat it. I'm safe. I'm safe... Mynar, Lumen and Sohka helped me fighting it. But... What about her?"

"We'll find her." Ahsoka said. "And, well..."

"I'll deal with her myself. I... I owe her that, at least."